Ultramarine (thing)

Ultramarine, a brilliant blue color, in very extensive use by painters, paper stainers, calico printers, and others. The substance previous to the year 1828 was obtained only from lazulite or lapis lazuli, a beautiful and costly mineral substance. The mineral being rare, and much prized for ornamental inlaying, and the color being of unapproachable brilliance and depth, it was an extremely expensive pigment. In consequence, strenuous efforts were made to obtain an equally valuable product by artificial means. In 1824 the French Societe d' Encouragement pour l' Industrie Nationale offered a premium of 6,000 francs for the manufacture of an ultramarine blue, possessing all the qualities of that extracted from lapis lazuli, and in 1828 the prize was awarded to M. Guimet of Lyons, who after four years' investigation succeeded perfectly in producing the valuable substance by a synthetical process.