origins of Reflex Blue

[pixel_pusher]

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place for this thread, so I apologize if it isn't.

A couple years ago, I saw the name Reflex Blue, a name I had seen hundreds of times before, and I started wondering where the name came from. Ever since then, once or twice a month, I will go about trying to find the answer to that question. It has been surprisingly hard to find. I was wondering if anyone here knows why the color Ultramarine/Alkali Blue/Blue Pigment 61 are called by the trade name "Reflex" Blue? There's gotta be a reason, and at this point, my very sanity depends on knowing that reason.

I have seen references to the name dating back to the early 20th century, but all they do is mention the trade name of reflex blue. I have contacted Pantone, called pressmen, posted on other message boards, done countless google searches, perused trade publications at used bookstores related to pigments and ink manufacture, got in touch with a company in Canada that makes printing ink, and nobody has an answer.

 

[ddarlak]

ask rubine red....

 

[bob]

Reflex blue is called reflex blue for the same reason hormone cerise is called hormone cerise or someone called Alexander is called Alexander. These things are called what they're called because that's their name. It has no meaning other than being a mechanism for telling one thing from another.

 

[John Butto]

the real ReflexBlue

Famous gunfighter in the Texas wild west. Called him that because all you saw was the blue steel of his .45.

 

[astro8]

In its early years, Ault & Wiborg capitalized on two innovations - the use of coal-tar dyes to produce brightly colored inks and the development of lithography. Both developments helped to
expand the ink business beyond the simple black product that had been produced for centuries. Around 1890 the company hired its first chemist, a German named Rose, and then Robert
Hochstetter, an American who had studied in Germany. Hochstetter saw the possibilities of lithol reds as ink pigments. They were inexpensive, nonbleeding, fast and bright and became widely
used under the name "U.S. Reds." The firm also introduced "Reflex Blues" and many other special colors. It pioneered in lithography, rotogravure, steel die and mimeograph printing, carbon
papers, and typewriter ribbons.

http://www.colorantshistory.org/AultWiborg.html

Interesting...same company produced the attached Reflex Red

 

[Pat Whatley]

Reflex was the brand name of the ink. Blue, red, etc. were colors in that ink line.

 

[Marlene]

good job Pat! it makes sense. it would be like someday asking why the tissues we blow our noses on is called kleenx. the brand may not survive but the name sticks.

 

[phototec]

The Ault & Wiborg Company, a manufacturer of printing inks and dry color dyes and pigments, was established in 1878 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Levi Addison Ault was born in Ontario in November 1851, one of seven children of a French-Canadian cloth manufacturer whose family lived in the village of Mille Roches on the St. Lawrence River. (1)

In his late teens, he left home with an older brother, settling in Wisconsin, where he worked for a railroad and as a bookkeeper for several companies. After his brother moved to Cincinnati, Ault joined him here in 1876 to take a job with a dealer in lampblack, pitch and rosins. During his two years there, he became the company's top salesman. What he learned about the lampblack
operation gave him an idea for a business that he hoped to start - ink manufacturing - provided he could find an investor.

Frank Bestow Wiborg, had been born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1855, the son of Henry P. Wiborg, a Norwegian immigrant. He left home to seek his fortune and found his way to Cincinnati, where he was admitted to the Chickering Institute, a select college preparatory academy emphasizing the classics and sciences. Wiborg graduated in 1874, paying his way by peddling newspapers, and got work as a salesman for Levi Ault, impressing him with his abilities.

Wiborg was willing to put up $10,000 capital as an equal partner with Ault, so Ault launched the Ault & Wiborg Co. in July 1878 and boldly told friends he was to become the top producer and distributor of inks and lithograph supplies in America, perhaps the world. The first plant was a small building on New Street in Cincinnati. After five years the business did so well that Ault took
his wife on a delayed honeymoon trip to Europe, the first of many worldwide voyages. These travels led Ault to establish sales offices in Toronto, London, Buenos Aires, Shanghai, and Manila.

The company motto was "Hic et Ubique", meaning Here and Everywhere. (2)

In its early years, Ault & Wiborg capitalized on two innovations - the use of coal-tar dyes to produce brightly colored inks and the development of lithography. Both developments helped to expand the ink business beyond the simple black product that had been produced for centuries. Around 1890 the company hired its first chemist, a German named Rose, and then Robert
Hochstetter, an American who had studied in Germany. Hochstetter saw the possibilities of lithol reds as ink pigments. They were inexpensive, nonbleeding, fast and bright and became widely used under the name "U.S. Reds." The firm also introduced "Reflex Blues" and many other special colors.

It pioneered in lithography, rotogravure, steel die and mimeograph printing, carbon papers, and typewriter ribbons.


http://www.colorantshistory.org/AultWiborg.html

 

[Fbomb]

ask rubine red....

bwahahahaha...Is she friends with Kelly Green?


Poor Pantone Blue 072...Gets no love.