Imagine you are a housewife living in the early 20th century and today is washing day. In some days, you quite enjoy washing day - the routine and spending time in the sun hanging clothes up to dry is quite pleasant. On the other hand though, it is such a chore with so many things to be done. Today, you almost forgot the all important Reckitt’s Blue - your laundry would have had to be done again if you had!
When I showed the children this little packet of Reckitt’s Blue, they were completely flummoxed by it. They had never seen bluing agents before as most modern detergents for washing clothes have brighteners built in - bluing agents are no longer needed. They were intrigued to think about how important such an item once would have been though.
Today, when we do our laundry, we have a very easy time of it. With washing machines and modern detergents, the job is relatively quick and straightforward. Before modern detergents and their inbuilt optical brighteners were available though, an addition - a blue bag - had to be made to the final rinse water. This little bag contained a bluing agent, like Reckitt’s Blue, which I showed the children, which was used to whiten clothes. Before commercially available bluing agents were available, people used recipes for things like stone blue or thumb blue. Like the commercial bluing agents, they disguised yellowing of clothing and made whites bright and clean.
Yet these earlier bluing agents were made of very finely ground blue glass, which contained cobalt. The commercially available bluing agents which came on the market later (with Reckitt’s being produced in the 1850s and on) were made using the chemical ultramarine, and ground glass was no longer necessary. Commercial bluing agents soon became the most popular in use, with Reckitt’s Blue being the most popular of all. It was an international brand which had a few, lesser rivals, such as Dolly Blue, many of which Reckitt’s purchased as time went by. Even before creating Reckitt’s Blue using imported French ultramarine, Reckitt’s were in the business of making starch and more basic bluing products. Today, few people still use laundry bluing, as it is simply not needed by most, but Reckitt’s Blue can still be purchased none the less. Many today use it for growing crystals