Iron Oxide Red

Iron oxide red is a generic name of a ferric oxide pigment of reddish colors. Multiple shades based on both anhydrous and its hydrates were known to painters since prehistory. The pigments were originally obtained from natural sources, since the 20th century they are mostly synthetic. These substances form one of the most commercially important groups of pigments, and their names sometimes reflect the location of a natural source, later transferred to the synthetic analog. Well-known examples include the Persian Gulf Oxide with 75% and 25% silica, Spanish red with 85% of oxide, Tuscan red. Other shades of iron oxides include Venetian Red, English Red, and Kobe.

Properties

The anhydrous pigment has a dark purple-red or maroon color, hydrates' colors vary from dull yellow (yellow ochre) to warm red.

The iron oxide red is extremely stable: it is not affected by light and most chemicals (soluble in hot concentrated acids); heat only affects the hydrated variants (the water is removed, and the color darkens).

Indian red

Indian red is a pigment, a variety of ocher, which gets its colour from ferric oxide, used to be sourced in India, now made artificially. ⁸

Chestnut is a colour similar to but separate and distinct from Indian red.

Etymology

The name ''Indian red'' derives from this pigment being originally imported from India, where red laterite soil is found, composed of naturally occurring iron oxides. The first recorded use of ''Indian red'' as a color term in English was in 1672.

Deep Indian red

Deep Indian red is the colour originally called ''Indian red'' from its formulation in 1903 until 1999, but now called ''chestnut'', in Crayola crayons. This colour was also produced in a special limited edition in which it was called Vermont maple syrup.

At the request of educators worried that children (mistakenly; see Etymology) believed the name represented the skin color of Native Americans, Crayola changed the name of their crayon color ''Indian Red'' to ''Chestnut'' in 1999.

Indian red in culture

Railroads/Railways
* The Talyllyn Railway painted their locomotives ''Talyllyn'' and ''Dolgoch'' Indian Red in honour of the 150th anniversary of the line in 2015.
* The Furness Railway in the UK used ''Indian Red'' for its locomotive livery.
* The Department of Railways New South Wales, Public Transport Commission and the State Rail Authority painted their diesel locos and passengers cars in Indian red.

Venetian red

At right is displayed the colour Venetian red.

''Venetian red'' is a light and warm (somewhat unsaturated) pigment that is a darker shade of scarlet, derived from nearly pure ferric oxide (Fe₂O₃) of the hematite type. Modern versions are frequently made with synthetic red iron oxide.

The first recorded use of ''Venetian red'' as a colour name in English was in 1753.

English red

At right is displayed the colour English red.

This ''red'' is a tone of Indian red, made like Indian red with pigment made from iron oxide.

The first recorded use of ''English red'' as a color name in English was in the 1700s (exact year uncertain). In the ''Encyclopédie'' of Denis Diderot in 1765, alternate names for Indian red included "what one also calls, however improperly, English Red."

Kobe

At right is displayed color kobe.

The color kobe is a dark tone of Indian red, made like Indian red from iron oxide pigment.

The first recorded use of Kobe as a colour name in English was in 1924.

The normalized colour coordinates for Kobe are identical to sienna, first recorded as a color name in English in 1760.Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York:1930 McGraw-Hill p. 204; Color Sample of Sienna: p. 37 Plate 7 Color Sample E12

See also

* Chestnut (color)
* Rust (color)
* List of colors

References

Sources

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{{Color topics

Iron oxide pigments
Shades of red
Shades of brown
Culture of India