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=                               Black                                =
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                             Introduction                             
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Black is the darkest color, the result of the absence or complete
absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, a color
without hue, like white and gray. It is often used symbolically or
figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have often been
used to describe opposites such as good and evil, the Dark Ages versus
Age of Enlightenment, and night versus day. Since the Middle Ages,
black has been the symbolic color of solemnity and authority, and for
this reason is still commonly worn by judges and magistrates.

Black was one of the first colors used by artists in neolithic cave
paintings. It was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as the color of the
underworld. In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and
over the centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil,
witches and magic. In the 14th century, it was worn by royalty,
clergy, judges and government officials in much of Europe. Black was
the color of the industrial revolution, largely fueled by coal, and
later by oil. It became the color worn by English romantic poets,
businessmen and statesmen in the 19th century, and a high fashion
color in the 20th century.  According to surveys in Europe and North
America, it is the color most commonly associated with mourning, the
end, secrets, magic, force, violence, evil, and elegance.

Black ink is the most common color used for printing books, newspapers
and documents, as it provides the highest contrast with white paper
and thus the easiest color to read. Similarly, black text on a white
screen is the most common format used on computer screens. As of
September 2019, the darkest material is made by MIT engineers from
vertically aligned carbon nanotubes.


                              Etymology                               
======================================================================
The word 'black' comes from Old English 'blæc' ("black, dark", 'also',
"ink"), from Proto-Germanic *'blakkaz' ("burned"), from
Proto-Indo-European *'bhleg-' ("to burn, gleam, shine, flash"), from
base *'bhel-' ("to shine"), related to Old Saxon 'blak' ("ink"), Old
High German 'blach' ("black"), Old Norse 'blakkr' ("dark"), Dutch
'blaken' ("to burn"), and Swedish 'bläck' ("ink"). More distant
cognates include Latin 'flagrare' ("to blaze, glow, burn"), and
Ancient Greek 'phlegein' ("to burn, scorch").

The Ancient Greeks sometimes used the same word to name different
colors, if they had the same intensity.  'Kuanos could mean both dark
blue and black.

The Ancient Romans had two words for black:  'ater' was a flat, dull
black, while 'niger' was a brilliant, saturated black. 'Ater' has
vanished from the vocabulary, but 'niger' was the source of the
country name 'Nigeria,' the English word 'Negro', and the word for
"black" in most modern Romance languages (French: 'noir'; Spanish and
Portuguese: 'negro'; Italian: 'nero'; Romanian: 'negru').

Old High German also had two words for black: 'swartz' for dull black
and 'blach' for a luminous black.  These are parallelled in Middle
English by the terms 'swart' for dull black and 'blaek' for luminous
black. 'Swart' still survives as the word 'swarthy', while 'blaek'
became the modern English 'black'. The former is cognate with the
words used for black in most modern Germanic languages aside from
English (German: 'schwarz', Dutch: 'zwart', Swedish: 'svart', Danish:
'sort', Icelandic: 'svartr').

In heraldry, the word used for the black color is sable, named for the
black fur of the sable, an animal.


 Prehistoric 
=============
Black was one of the first colors used in art. The Lascaux Cave in
France contains drawings of bulls and other animals drawn by
paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. They began by
using charcoal, and later achieved darker pigments by burning bones or
grinding a powder of manganese oxide.


 Ancient 
=========
For the ancient Egyptians, black had positive associations; being the
color of fertility and the rich black soil flooded by the Nile. It was
the color of Anubis, the god of the underworld, who took the form of a
black jackal, and offered protection against evil to the dead.

To ancient Greeks black represented the underworld, separated from the
world of the living by the river Acheron, whose water was black. Those
who had committed the worst sins were sent to Tartarus, the deepest
and darkest level. In the center was the palace of Hades, the king of
the underworld, where he was seated upon a black ebony throne. Black
was one of the most important colors used by ancient Greek artists. In
the 6th century BC, they began making black-figure pottery and later
red figure pottery, using a highly original technique. In black-figure
pottery, the artist would paint figures with a glossy clay slip on a
red clay pot. When the pot was fired, the figures painted with the
slip would turn black, against a red background. Later they reversed
the process, painting the spaces between the figures with slip. This
created magnificent red figures against a glossy black background.

In the social hierarchy of ancient Rome, purple was the color reserved
for the Emperor; red was the color worn by soldiers (red cloaks for
the officers, red tunics for the soldiers); white the color worn by
the priests, and black was worn by craftsmen and artisans. The black
they wore was not deep and rich; the vegetable dyes used to make black
were not solid or lasting, so the blacks often turned out faded gray
or brown.

In Latin, the word for black, 'ater' and to darken, 'atere',  were
associated with cruelty, brutality and evil. They were the root of the
English words "atrocious" and "atrocity". Black was also the Roman
color of death and mourning. In the 2nd century BC Roman magistrates
began to wear a dark toga, called a 'toga pulla', to funeral
ceremonies. Later, under the Empire, the family of the deceased also
wore dark colors for a long period; then, after a banquet to mark the
end of mourning, exchanged the black for a white toga. In Roman
poetry, death was called the 'hora nigra', the black hour.

The German and Scandinavian peoples worshipped their own goddess of
the night, Nótt, who crossed the sky in a chariot drawn by a black
horse. They also feared Hel, the goddess of the kingdom of the dead,
whose skin was black on one side and red on the other. They also held
sacred the raven. They believed that Odin, the king of the Nordic
pantheon, had two black ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who served as his
agents, traveling the world for him, watching and listening.

File:Lascaux painting.jpg|Neolithic paintings of bulls in the Lascaux
Cave, more than 17,000 years old
File:Tutanhkamun jackal.jpg|Statue of Anubis, guardian of the
underworld, from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
File:Akhilleus Aias MGEt 16757.jpg|Greek black-figure pottery. Ajax
and Achilles playing a game, about 540-530 BC. (Vatican Museums).
File:Pyxis Peleus Thetis Louvre L55 by Wedding Painter.jpg|Red-figure
pottery with black background. Portrait of Thetis, about 470-480 BC.
(The Louvre)


 Postclassical 
===============
In the early Middle Ages, black was commonly associated with darkness
and evil. In Medieval paintings, the devil was usually depicted as
having human form, but with wings and black skin or hair.


 12th and 13th centuries 
=========================
In fashion, black did not have the prestige of red, the color of the
nobility. It was worn by Benedictine monks as a sign of humility and
penitence. In the 12th century a famous theological dispute broke out
between the Cistercian monks, who wore white, and the Benedictines,
who wore black. A Benedictine abbot, Pierre the Venerable, accused the
Cistercians of excessive pride in wearing white instead of black.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercians responded
that black was the color of the devil, hell, "of death and sin," while
white represented "purity, innocence and all the virtues".

Black symbolized both power and secrecy in the medieval world. The
emblem of the Holy Roman Empire of Germany was a black eagle. The
black knight in the poetry of the Middle Ages was an enigmatic figure,
hiding his identity, usually wrapped in secrecy.

Black ink, invented in China, was traditionally used in the Middle
Ages for writing, for the simple reason that black was the darkest
color and therefore provided the greatest contrast with white paper or
parchment, making it the easiest color to read.  It became even more
important in the 15th century, with the invention of printing.    A
new kind of ink, printer's ink, was created out of soot, turpentine
and walnut oil. The new ink made it possible to spread ideas to a mass
audience through printed books, and to popularize art through black
and white engravings and prints.  Because of its contrast and clarity,
black ink on white paper continued to be the standard for printing
books, newspapers and documents; and for the same reason black text on
a white background is the most common format used on computer screens.


File:Duccio - The Temptation on the Mount.jpg|The Italian painter
Duccio di Buoninsegna showed Christ expelling the Devil, shown covered
with bristly black hair (1308-11).
File:Fra Angelico 010.jpg|The 15th-century painting of the 'Last
Judgement' by Fra Angelico (1395-1455) depicted hell with a vivid
black devil devouring sinners.
File:Portretbenedykty324skiegomnich.jpg|Portrait of a monk of the
Benedictine Order  (1484)
File:Le Livre du cœur d'amour épris1.jpg|The black knight in a
miniature painting of a medieval romance,'Le Livre du cœur d'amour
épris' (about 1460)
File:Gutenberg bible Old Testament Epistle of St Jerome.jpg|Gutenberg
Bible (1451-1452). Black ink was used for printing books, because it
provided the greatest contrast with the white paper and was the
clearest and easiest color to read.


 14th and 15th centuries 
=========================
In the early Middle Ages, princes, nobles and the wealthy usually wore
bright colors, particularly scarlet cloaks from Italy. Black was
rarely part of the wardrobe of a noble family. The one exception was
the fur of the sable. This glossy black fur, from an animal of the
marten family, was the finest and most expensive fur in Europe.  It
was imported from Russia and Poland and used to trim the robes and
gowns of royalty.

In the 14th century, the status of black began to change. First,
high-quality black dyes began to arrive on the market, allowing
garments of a deep, rich black. Magistrates and government officials
began to wear black robes, as a sign of the importance and seriousness
of their positions. A third reason was the passage of sumptuary laws
in some parts of Europe which prohibited the wearing of costly clothes
and certain colors by anyone except members of the nobility. The
famous bright scarlet cloaks from Venice and the peacock blue fabrics
from Florence were restricted to the nobility. The wealthy bankers and
merchants of northern Italy responded by changing to black robes and
gowns, made with the most expensive fabrics.

The change to the more austere but elegant black was quickly picked up
by the kings and nobility. It began in northern Italy, where the Duke
of Milan and the Count of Savoy and the rulers of Mantua, Ferrara,
Rimini and Urbino began to dress in black. It then spread to France,
led by Louis I, Duke of Orleans, younger brother of King Charles VI of
France. It moved to England at the end of the reign of King Richard II
(1377-1399), where all the court began to wear black. In 1419-20,
black became the color of the powerful Duke of Burgundy, Philip the
Good. It moved to Spain, where it became the color of the Spanish
Habsburgs, of Charles V and of his son, Philip II of Spain
(1527-1598). European rulers saw it as the color of power, dignity,
humility and temperance. By the end of the 16th century, it was the
color worn by almost all the monarchs of Europe and their courts.

File:Philip the good.jpg|Philip the Good in about 1450, by Rogier van
der Weyden
File:Petrus Christus - Portrait of a Young Woman - Google Art
Project.jpg|'Portrait of a Young Woman' by Petrus Christus (about
1470)
File:Titian - Portrait of Charles V Seated - WGA22964.jpg|Charles V,
Holy Roman Emperor (1500-1558), by Titian
File:Portrait of Philip II of Spain by Sofonisba Anguissola -
002b.jpg|Portrait of Philip II of Spain (1527-1598)


 16th and 17th centuries 
=========================
While black was the color worn by the Catholic rulers of Europe, it
was also the emblematic color of the Protestant Reformation in Europe
and the Puritans in England and America. John Calvin, Philip
Melanchthon and other Protestant theologians denounced the richly
colored and decorated interiors of Roman Catholic churches. They saw
the color red, worn by the Pope and his Cardinals, as the color of
luxury, sin, and human folly. In some northern European cities, mobs
attacked churches and cathedrals, smashed the stained glass windows
and defaced the statues and decoration. In Protestant doctrine,
clothing was required to be sober, simple and discreet. Bright colors
were banished and replaced by blacks, browns and grays; women and
children were recommended to wear white.

In the Protestant Netherlands, Rembrandt used this sober new palette
of blacks and browns to create portraits whose faces emerged from the
shadows expressing the deepest human emotions. The Catholic painters
of the Counter-Reformation, like Rubens, went in the opposite
direction; they filled their paintings with bright and rich colors.
The new Baroque churches of the Counter-Reformation were usually
shining white inside and filled with statues, frescoes, marble, gold
and colorful paintings, to appeal to the public. But European
Catholics of all classes, like Protestants, eventually adopted a sober
wardrobe that was mostly black, brown and gray.

File:John Calvin 11.jpg|Swiss theologian John Calvin denounced the
bright colors worn by Roman Catholic priests, and colorful decoration
of churches.
File:Increase Mather.jpg|Increase Mather, an American Puritan
clergyman (1688).
File:George-Henry-Boughton-Pilgrims-Going-To-Church.jpg|American
Pilgrims in New England going to church (painting by George Henry
Boughton, 1867)
File:Rembrandt van Rijn - Self-Portrait - Google Art
Project.jpg|Rembrandt, 'Self-portrait' (1659)
File:Infantry Armor MET DP277181.jpg|Black painted suit of German
armor crafted circa 1600. As with many outfits, black in the piece is
used to contrast against lighter colors.


In the second part of the 17th century, Europe and America experienced
an epidemic of fear of witchcraft.  People widely believed that the
devil appeared at midnight in a ceremony called a Black Mass or black
sabbath, usually in the form of a black animal, often a goat, a dog, a
wolf, a bear, a deer or a rooster, accompanied by their familiar
spirits, black cats, serpents and other black creatures. This was the
origin of the widespread superstition about black cats and other black
animals. In medieval Flanders, in a ceremony called 'Kattenstoet,'
black cats were thrown from the belfry of the Cloth Hall of Ypres to
ward off witchcraft.

Witch trials were common in both Europe and America during this
period. During the notorious Salem witch trials in New England in
1692-93, one of those on trial was accused of being able turn into a
"black thing with a blue cap,"  and others of having familiars in the
form of a black dog, a black cat and a black bird. Nineteen women and
men were hanged as witches.

File:Matthewhopkins.png|An English manual on witch-hunting (1647),
showing a witch with her familiar spirits
File:Black cat eyes.jpg|Black cats have been accused for centuries of
being the familiar spirits of witches or of bringing bad luck.


 18th and 19th centuries 
=========================
In the 18th century, during the European Age of Enlightenment, black
receded as a fashion color. Paris became the fashion capital, and
pastels, blues, greens, yellow and white became the colors of the
nobility and upper classes. But after the French Revolution, black
again became the dominant color.

Black was the color of the industrial revolution, largely fueled by
coal, and later by oil. Thanks to coal smoke, the buildings of the
large cities of Europe and America gradually turned black.  By 1846
the industrial area of the West Midlands of England was "commonly
called 'the Black Country'”.  Charles Dickens and other writers
described the dark streets and smoky skies of London, and they were
vividly illustrated in the engravings of French artist Gustave Doré.

A different kind of black was an important part of the romantic
movement in literature. Black was the color of melancholy, the
dominant theme of romanticism. The novels of the period were filled
with castles, ruins, dungeons, storms, and meetings at midnight. The
leading poets of the movement were usually portrayed dressed in black,
usually with a white shirt and open collar, and a scarf carelessly
over their shoulder, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron helped create
the enduring stereotype of the romantic poet.

The invention of new, inexpensive synthetic black dyes and the
industrialization of the textile industry meant that high-quality
black clothes were available for the first time to the general
population. In the 19th century black gradually became the most
popular color of business dress of the upper and middle classes in
England, the Continent, and America.

Black dominated literature and fashion in the 19th century, and played
a large role in painting. James McNeil Whistler made the color the
subject of is most famous painting, 'Arrangement in grey and black
number one'  (1871), better known as 'Whistler's Mother'.

Some 19th-century French painters had a low opinion of black: "Reject
black," Paul Gauguin said, "and that mix of black and white they call
gray. Nothing is black, nothing is gray." But Édouard Manet used
blacks for their strength and dramatic effect. Manet's portrait of
painter Berthe Morisot was a study in black which perfectly captured
her spirit of independence. The black gave the painting power and
immediacy;  he even changed her eyes, which were green, to black to
strengthen the effect. Henri Matisse quoted the French impressionist
Pissarro telling him, "Manet is stronger than us all - he made light
with black."

Pierre-Auguste Renoir used luminous blacks, especially in his
portraits. When someone told him that black was not a color, Renoir
replied: "What makes you think that? Black is the queen of colors. I
always detested Prussian blue. I tried to replace black with a mixture
of red and blue, I tried using cobalt blue or ultramarine, but I
always came back to ivory black."

Vincent van Gogh used black lines to outline many of the objects in
his paintings, such as the bed in the famous painting of his bedroom.
making them stand apart. His painting of black crows over a cornfield,
painted shortly before he died, was particularly agitated and
haunting. In the late 19th century, black also became the color of
anarchism. (See the section political movements.)


File:Whistlers Mother high res.jpg|'Arrangement in Grey and Black
Number 1' (1871) by James McNeil Whistler better known as 'Whistler's
Mother'.
File:Edouard Manet - Berthe Morisot With a Bouquet of Violets - Google
Art Project.jpg|'Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets', by Édouard
Manet (1872).
File:Edouard Manet 093.jpg|'Le Bal de l'Opera' (1873) by Édouard
Manet, shows the dominance of black in Parisian evening dress.
File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir 023.jpg|'The Theater Box' (1874) by
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, captured the luminosity of black fabric in the
light.
File:Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) - Wheat Field with Crows (1890).jpg|
'Wheat Field with Crows' (1890), one of the last paintings of Vincent
van Gogh, captures his agitated state of mind.


 20th and 21st centuries 
=========================
In the 20th century, black was the color of Italian and German
fascism.  (See the section political movements.)

In art, black regained some of the territory that it had lost during
the 19th century. The Russian painter Kasimir Malevich, a member of
the Suprematist movement, created the 'Black Square' in 1915, is
widely considered the first purely abstract painting. He wrote, "The
painted work is no longer simply the imitation of reality, but is this
very reality ... It is not a demonstration of ability, but the
materialization of an idea."

Black was also appreciated by Henri Matisse. "When I didn't know what
color to put down, I put down black," he said in 1945. "Black is a
force: I used black as ballast to simplify the construction ... Since
the impressionists it seems to have made continuous progress, taking a
more and more important part in color orchestration, comparable to
that of the double bass as a solo instrument."

In the 1950s, black came to be a symbol of individuality and
intellectual and social rebellion, the color of those who didn't
accept established norms and values. In Paris, it was worn by
Left-Bank intellectuals and performers such as Juliette Gréco, and by
some members of the Beat Movement in New York and San Francisco. Black
leather jackets were worn by motorcycle gangs such as the Hells Angels
and street gangs on the fringes of society in the United States. Black
as a color of rebellion was celebrated in such films as 'The Wild
One', with Marlon Brando. By the end of the 20th century, black was
the emblematic color of the punk subculture punk fashion, and the goth
subculture. Goth fashion, which emerged in England in the 1980s, was
inspired by Victorian era mourning dress.

In men's fashion, black gradually ceded its dominance to navy blue,
particularly in business suits. Black evening dress and formal dress
in general were worn less and less. In 1960, John F. Kennedy was the
last American President to be inaugurated wearing formal dress;
President Lyndon Johnson and all his successors were inaugurated
wearing business suits.

Women's fashion was revolutionized and simplified in 1926 by the
French designer Coco Chanel, who published a drawing of a simple black
dress in 'Vogue' magazine. She famously said, "A woman needs just
three things; a black dress, a black sweater, and, on her arm, a man
she loves."  French designer Jean Patou also followed suit by creating
a black collection in 1929. Other designers contributed to the trend
of the little black dress. The Italian designer Gianni Versace said,
"Black is the quintessence of simplicity and elegance," and French
designer Yves Saint Laurent said, "black is the liaison which connects
art and fashion. One of the most famous black dresses of the century
was designed by Hubert de Givenchy and was worn by Audrey Hepburn in
the 1961 film 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'.

The American civil rights movement in the 1950s was a struggle for the
political equality of African Americans. It developed into the Black
Power movement in the late 1960s and 1970s, and popularized the slogan
"Black is Beautiful".

In the 1990s, the Black Standard became the banner of several Islamic
extremist, jihadist groups. (See the section political movements.)


File:Malevich.black-square.jpg|The 'Black Square' (1915) by Kazimir
Malevich is considered the first purely abstract painting (Tretyakov
Gallery, Moscow).
File:Lady Amaranth.jpg|The goth fashion model Lady Amaranth. Goth
fashion was inspired by British Victorian mourning costumes.
File:Flag of Jihad.svg|Variants of the Black Standard flag are used by
many militant Islamist groups that have adopted militant
interpretations of jihad. it is said to be the banner carried by
Muhammad and his soldiers.


 Physics 
=========
In the visible spectrum, black is the absorption of all colors. Black
can be defined as the visual impression experienced when no visible
light reaches the eye. Pigments or dyes that absorb light rather than
reflect it back to the eye "look black". A black pigment can, however,
result from a 'combination' of several pigments that collectively
absorb all colors. If appropriate proportions of three primary
pigments are mixed, the result reflects so little light as to be
called "black". This provides two superficially opposite but actually
complementary descriptions of black. Black is the absorption of all
colors of light, or an exhaustive combination of multiple colors of
pigment.

In physics, a black body is a perfect absorber of light, but, by a
thermodynamic rule, it is also the best emitter. Thus, the best
radiative cooling, out of sunlight, is by using black paint, though it
is important that it be black (a nearly perfect absorber) in the
infrared as well. In elementary science, far ultraviolet light is
called "black light" because, while itself unseen, it causes many
minerals and other substances to fluoresce.

Absorption of light is contrasted by transmission, reflection and
diffusion, where the light is only redirected, causing objects to
appear transparent, reflective or white respectively. A material is
said to be black if most incoming light is absorbed equally in the
material. Light (electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectrum)
interacts with the atoms and molecules, which causes the energy of the
light to be converted into other forms of energy, usually heat. This
means that black surfaces can act as thermal collectors, absorbing
light and generating heat (see Solar thermal collector).

As of September 2019, the darkest material is made from vertically
aligned carbon nanotubes. The material was grew by MIT engineers and
was reported to have a 99.995% absorption rate of any incoming light.
This surpasses any former darkest materials including Vantablack,
which has an peak absorption rate of 99.965% in the visible spectrum.


 Pigments 
==========
The earliest pigments used by Neolithic man were charcoal, red ocher
and yellow ocher. The black lines of cave art were drawn with the tips
of burnt torches made of a wood with resin. Different charcoal
pigments were made by burning different woods and animal products,
each of which produced a different tone. The charcoal would be ground
and then mixed with animal fat to make the pigment.

of grapevines. It could also be produced by burning the remains of the
crushed grapes, which were collected and dried in an oven. According
to the historian Vitruvius, the deepness and richness of the black
produced corresponded to the quality of the wine. The finest wines
produced a black with a bluish tinge the color of indigo.

The 15th-century painter Cennino Cennini described how this pigment
was made during the Renaissance in his famous handbook for artists:
"...there is a black which is made from the tendrils of vines. And
these tendrils need to be burned. And when they have been burned,
throw some water onto them and put them out and then mull them in the
same way as the other black. And this is a lean and black pigment and
is one of the perfect pigments that we use."

Cennini also noted that "There is another black which is made from
burnt almond shells or peaches and this is a perfect, fine black."
Similar fine blacks were made by burning the pits of the peach, cherry
or apricot. The powdered charcoal was then mixed with gum arabic or
the yellow of an egg to make a paint.

Different civilizations burned different plants to produce their
charcoal pigments. The Inuit of Alaska used wood charcoal mixed with
the blood of seals to paint masks and wooden objects. The Polynesians
burned coconuts to produce their pigment.

dye for fabrics, and in some societies for making tattoos.  The 15th
century Florentine painter Cennino Cennini described how it was made
during the Renaissance:  "... take a lamp full of linseed oil and fill
the lamp with the oil and light the lamp. Then place it, lit, under a
thoroughly clean pan and make sure that the flame from the lamp is two
or three fingers from the bottom of the pan. The smoke that comes off
the flame will hit the bottom of the pan and gather, becoming thick.
Wait a bit. take the pan and brush this pigment (that is, this smoke)
onto paper or into a pot with something. And it is not necessary to
mull or grind it because it is a very fine pigment. Re-fill the lamp
with the oil and put it under the pan like this several times and, in
this way, make as much of it as is necessary." This same pigment was
used by Indian artists to paint the Ajanta Caves, and as dye in
ancient Japan.

burning ivory and mixing the resulting charcoal powder with oil. The
color is still made today, but ordinary animal bones are substituted
for ivory.

commonly used in water-colors and oil painting. It takes its name from
Mars, the god of war and patron of iron.


 Dyes 
======
Good-quality black dyes were not known until the middle of the 14th
century. The most common early dyes were made from bark, roots or
fruits of different trees;  usually walnuts, chestnuts, or certain oak
trees. The blacks produced were often more gray, brown or bluish. The
cloth had to be dyed several times to darken the color. One solution
used by dyers was add to the dye some iron filings, rich in iron
oxide, which gave a deeper black. Another was to first dye the fabric
dark blue, and then to dye it black.

A much richer and deeper black dye was eventually found made from the
oak apple or "gall-nut".  The gall-nut is a small round tumor which
grows on oak and other varieties of trees. They range in size from 2-5
cm, and are caused by chemicals injected by the larva of certain kinds
of gall wasp in the family Cynipidae. The dye was very expensive;  a
great quantity of gall-nuts were needed for a very small amount of
dye.  The gall-nuts which made the best dye came from Poland, eastern
Europe, the near east and North Africa.  Beginning in about the 14th
century, dye from gall-nuts was used for clothes of the kings and
princes of Europe.

Another important source of natural black dyes from the 17th century
onwards was the logwood tree, or Haematoxylum campechianum, which also
produced reddish and bluish dyes. It is a species of flowering tree in
the legume family, Fabaceae, that is native to southern Mexico and
northern Central America. The modern nation of Belize grew from 17th
century English logwood logging camps.

Since the mid-19th century, synthetic black dyes have largely replaced
natural dyes. One of the important synthetic blacks is Nigrosin, a
mixture of synthetic black dyes (CI 50415, Solvent black 5) made by
heating a mixture of nitrobenzene, aniline and aniline hydrochloride
in the presence of a copper or iron catalyst. Its main industrial uses
are as a colorant for lacquers and varnishes and in marker-pen inks.


 Inks 
======
The first known inks were made by the Chinese, and date back to the
23rd century B.C. They used natural plant dyes and minerals such as
graphite ground with water and applied with an ink brush. Early
Chinese inks similar to the modern inkstick have been found dating to
about 256 BC at the end of the Warring States period. They were
produced from soot, usually produced by burning pine wood, mixed with
animal glue. To make ink from an inkstick, the stick is continuously
ground against an inkstone with a small quantity of water to produce a
dark liquid which is then applied with an ink brush. Artists and
calligraphists could vary the thickness of the resulting ink by
reducing or increasing the intensity and time of ink grinding. These
inks produced the delicate shading and subtle or dramatic effects of
Chinese brush painting.

India ink (or "Indian ink" in British English) is a black ink once
widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for
drawing, especially when inking comic books and comic strips. The
technique of making it probably came from China. India ink has been in
use in India since at least the 4th century BC, where it was called
'masi'. In India, the black color of the ink came from bone char, tar,
pitch and other substances.

The ancient Romans had a black writing ink they called 'atramentum
librarium'.William Smith (editor) Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Antiquities, 1870
[http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-dgra/index.html (text).] Its name
came from the Latin word 'atrare', which meant to make something
black. (This was the same root as the English word 'atrocious'.) It
was usually made, like India ink, from soot, although one variety,
called 'atramentum elephantinum', was made by burning the ivory of
elephants.

Gall-nuts were also used for making fine black writing ink. Iron gall
ink (also known as iron gall nut ink or oak gall ink) was a
purple-black or brown-black ink made from iron salts and tannic acids
from gall nut. It was the standard writing and drawing ink in Europe,
from about the 12th century to the 19th century, and remained in use
well into the 20th century.


File:Charcoal sticks 051907.jpg|Sticks of vine charcoal and compressed
charcoal. Charcoal, along with red and yellow ochre, was one of the
first pigments used by Paleolithic man.
File:Inkstick.jpg|A Chinese inkstick, in the form of lotus flowers and
blossoms. Inksticks are used in Chinese calligraphy and brush
painting.
File:Živočišné uhlí (Carbocit).jpg|Ivory black or bone char, a natural
black pigment made by burning animal bones.
File:Oak apple.jpg|The oak apple or gall-nut, a tumor growing on oak
trees, was the main source of black dye and black writing ink from the
14th century until the 19th century.
File:Noir de fumee.jpg|The industrial production of lamp black, made
by producing, collecting and refining soot,  in 1906.


 Astronomy 
===========

anything, including light, from escaping. The theory of general
relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform
spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a
mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that marks the
point of no return. It is called "black" because it absorbs all the
light that hits the horizon, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect
black body in thermodynamics. Black holes of stellar mass are expected
to form when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life
cycle. After a black hole has formed it can continue to grow by
absorbing mass from its surroundings. By absorbing other stars and
merging with other black holes, supermassive black holes of millions
of solar masses may form. There is general consensus that supermassive
black holes exist in the centers of most galaxies. Although a black
hole itself is black, infalling material forms an accretion disk,
which is one of brightest types of object in the universe.

given temperature where all incoming energy (light) is converted to
heat.

Earth's atmosphere.


File:NGC 406 Hubble WikiSky.jpg|Image of the NGC 406 galaxy from the
Hubble Space Telescope
File:Spirit Rover-Mars Night Sky.jpg|The night sky seen from Mars,
with the two moons of Mars visible, taken by the NASA Spirit Rover.
File:Top of Atmosphere.jpg|Outside Earth's atmosphere, the sky is
black day and night.
File:Olber's Paradox - All Points.gif|An illustration of Olbers'
paradox (see below)
File:BH LMC.png|Simulated view of a black hole in front of the Large
Magellanic Cloud.


 Why the night sky and space are black – Olbers' paradox 
=========================================================
The fact that outer space is black is sometimes called Olbers'
paradox. In theory, because the universe is full of stars, and is
believed to be infinitely large, it would be expected that the light
of an infinite number of stars would be enough to brilliantly light
the whole universe all the time. However, the background color of
outer space is black. This contradiction was first noted in 1823 by
German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers, who posed the
question of why the night sky was black.

The current accepted answer is that, although the universe may be
infinitely large, it is not infinitely old. It is thought to be about
13.8 billion years old, so we can only see objects as far away as the
distance light can travel in 13.8 billion years. Light from stars
farther away has not reached Earth, and cannot contribute to making
the sky bright. Furthermore, as the universe is expanding, many stars
are moving away from Earth. As they move, the wavelength of their
light becomes longer, through the Doppler effect, and shifts toward
red, or even becomes invisible. As a result of these two phenomena,
there is not enough starlight to make space anything but black.

The daytime sky on Earth is blue because light from the Sun strikes
molecules in Earth's atmosphere scattering light in all directions.
Blue light is scattered more than other colors, and reaches the eye in
greater quantities, making the daytime sky appear blue. This is known
as Rayleigh scattering.

The nighttime sky on Earth is black because the part of Earth
experiencing night is facing away from the Sun, the light of the Sun
is blocked by Earth itself, and there is no other bright nighttime
source of light in the vicinity. Thus, there is not enough light to
undergo Rayleigh scattering and make the sky blue. On the Moon, on the
other hand, because there is virtually no atmosphere to scatter the
light, the sky is black both day and night. This phenomenon also holds
true for other locations without an atmosphere, such as Mercury.


 Biology 
=========
File:Corvus brachyrhynchos 30196.JPG|The American crow is one of the
most intelligent of all animals.
File:01 Schwarzbär.jpg|American black bear (Ursus americanus) near
Riding Mountain Park, Manitoba, Canada
File:Dendroaspis polylepis by Bill Love.jpg|The black mamba of Africa
is one of the most venomous snakes, as well as the fastest-moving
snake in the world.
File:Black Widow 11-06.jpg |The black widow spider, or latrodectus,
The females frequently eat their male partners after mating. The
female's venom is at least three times more potent than that of the
males, making a male's self-defense bite ineffective.
File:Blackleopard.JPG|A black panther is actually a melanistic leopard
or jaguar, the result of an excess of melanin in their skin caused by
a recessive gene.


                               Culture                                
======================================================================
In China, the color black is associated with water, one of the five
fundamental elements believed to compose all things;  and with winter,
cold, and the direction north, usually symbolized by a black tortoise.
It is also associated with disorder, including the positive disorder
which leads to change and new life. When the first Emperor of China
Qin Shi Huang seized power from the Zhou Dynasty, he changed the
Imperial color from red to black, saying that black extinguished red.
Only when the Han Dynasty appeared in 206 BC was red restored as the
imperial color.

In Japan, black is associated with mystery, the night, the unknown,
the supernatural, the invisible and death.  Combined with white, it
can symbolize intuition. In 10th and 11th century Japan, it was
believed that wearing black could bring misfortune.  It was worn at
court by those who wanted to set themselves apart from the established
powers or who had renounced material possessions.

In Japan black can also symbolize experience, as opposed to white,
which symbolizes naiveté. The black belt in martial arts symbolizes
experience, while a white belt is worn by novices. Japanese men
traditionally wear a black kimono with some white decoration on their
wedding day.

In Indonesia black is associated with depth, the subterranean world,
demons, disaster, and the left hand.  When black is combined with
white, however, it symbolizes harmony and equilibrium.


 Political movements 
=====================
Anarchism is a political philosophy, most popular in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, which holds that governments and capitalism are
harmful and undesirable. The symbols of anarchism was usually either a
black flag or a black letter A. More recently it is usually
represented with a bisected red and black flag, to emphasise the
movement's socialist roots in the First International. Anarchism was
most popular in Spain, France, Italy, Ukraine and Argentina. There
were also small but influential movements in the United States and
Russia. In the latter, the movement initially allied itself with the
Bolsheviks.

The Black Army was a collection of anarchist military units which
fought in the Russian Civil War,  sometimes on the side of the
Bolshevik Red Army, and sometimes for the opposing White Army. It was
officially known as the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine,
and it was under the command of the famous anarchist Nestor Makhno.

Fascism. The Blackshirts () were Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy
during the period immediately following World War I and until the end
of World War II. The Blackshirts were officially known as the
Voluntary Militia for National Security ('Milizia Volontaria per la
Sicurezza Nazionale', or MVSN).

Inspired by the black uniforms of the Arditi, Italy's elite storm
troops of World War I, the Fascist Blackshirts were organized by
Benito Mussolini as the military tool of his political movement. They
used violence and intimidation against Mussolini's opponents. The
emblem of the Italian fascists was a black flag with fasces, an axe in
a bundle of sticks, an ancient Roman symbol of authority. Mussolini
came to power in 1922 through his March on Rome with the blackshirts.

Black was also adopted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany. Red,
white and black were the colors of the flag of the German Empire from
1870 to 1918. In 'Mein Kampf', Hitler explained that they were
"revered colors expressive of our homage to the glorious past." Hitler
also wrote that "the new flag ... should prove effective as a large
poster" because "in hundreds of thousands of cases a really striking
emblem may be the first cause of awakening interest in a movement."
The black swastika was meant to symbolize the Aryan race, which,
according to the Nazis, "was always anti-Semitic and will always be
anti-Semitic." Several designs by a number of different authors were
considered, but the one adopted in the end was Hitler's personal
design. Black became the color of the uniform of the SS, the
'Schutzstaffel' or "defense corps", the paramilitary wing of the Nazi
Party, and was worn by SS officers from 1932 until the end of World
War II.

The Nazis used a black triangle to symbolize anti-social elements. The
symbol originates from Nazi concentration camps, where every prisoner
had to wear one of the Nazi concentration camp badges on their jacket,
the color of which categorized them according to "their kind." Many
Black Triangle prisoners were either mentally disabled or mentally
ill. The homeless were also included, as were alcoholics, the Romani
people, the habitually "work-shy," prostitutes, draft dodgers and
pacifists. More recently the black triangle has been adopted as a
symbol in lesbian culture and by disabled activists.

Black shirts were also worn by the British Union of Fascists before
World War II, and members of fascist movements in the Netherlands.

Patriotic resistance. The Lützow Free Corps, composed of volunteer
German students and academics fighting against Napoleon in 1813, could
not afford to make special uniforms and therefore adopted black, as
the only color that could be used to dye their civilian clothing
without the original color showing.  In 1815 the students began to
carry a red, black and gold flag, which they believed (incorrectly)
had been the colors of the Holy Roman Empire (the imperial flag had
actually been gold and black). In 1848, this banner became the flag of
the German confederation. In 1866, Prussia unified Germany under its
rule, and imposed the red, white and black of its own flag, which
remained the colors of the German flag until the end of the Second
World War. In 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany returned to the
original flag and colors of the students and professors of 1815, which
is the flag of Germany today.

Islamism. The Black Standard ( , also known as   "banner of the eagle"
or simply as   "the banner") is the historical flag flown by Muhammad
in Islamic tradition, an eschatological symbol in Shi'a Islam
(heralding the advent of the Mahdi), and a symbol used in Islamism and
Jihadism.


File:Махновское_знамя.svg|A flag used by the anarchist Black Army
during the Russian Civil War. It says, "Power begets parasites. Long
live Anarchy!"
File:March on Rome.jpg|Benito Mussolini and his blackshirt followers
during his March on Rome in 1922.
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R99621, Heinrich Himmler.jpg|Black uniform
of Heinrich Himmler,  head of the SS,  the military wing of the Nazi
Party (1938).
File:AQMI_Flag_asymmetric.svg|The flag used by ISIL (also called
ISIS), Boko Haram, and other groups. Similar Black Standards are used
by Islamists and Jihadists across the Muslim world.


 Military 
==========
Black has been a traditional color of cavalry and armoured or
mechanized troops. German armoured troops (Panzerwaffe) traditionally
wore black uniforms, and even in others, a black beret is common. In
Finland, black is the symbolic color for both armoured troops and
combat engineers, and military units of these specialities have black
flags and unit insignia.

The black beret and the color black is also a symbol of special forces
in many countries. Soviet and Russian OMON special police and Russian
naval infantry wear a black beret. A black beret is also worn by
military police in the Canadian, Czech, Croatian, Portuguese, Spanish
and Serbian armies.

The silver-on-black skull and crossbones symbol or Totenkopf and a
black uniform were used by Hussars and Black Brunswickers, the German
Panzerwaffe and the Nazi Schutzstaffel, and U.S. 400th Missile
Squadron (crossed missiles), and continues in use with the Estonian
Kuperjanov Battalion.


 Religion 
==========
In Christian theology, black was the color of the universe before God
created light. In many religious cultures, from Mesoamerica to Oceania
to India and Japan, the world was created out of a primordial
darkness. In the Bible the light of faith and Christianity is often
contrasted with the darkness of ignorance and paganism.

In Christianity, the devil is often called the "prince of darkness."
The term was used in John Milton's poem 'Paradise Lost', published in
1667, referring to Satan, who is viewed as the embodiment of evil. It
is an English translation of the Latin phrase 'princeps tenebrarum',
which occurs in the 'Acts of Pilate', written in the fourth century,
in the 11th-century hymn 'Rhythmus de die mortis' by Pietro Damiani,
and in a sermon by Bernard of Clairvaux from the 12th century. The
phrase also occurs in 'King Lear' by William Shakespeare (c. 1606),
Act III, Scene IV, l. 14:
'The prince of darkness is a gentleman."

Priests and pastors of the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and
Protestant churches commonly wear black, as do monks of the
Benedictine Order, who consider it the color of humility and
penitence.

It is the color of the Black Standard, the banner that is said to have
been carried by the soldiers of Muhammad. It is also used as a symbol
in Shi'a Islam (heralding the advent of the Mahdi), and the flag of
followers of Islamism and Jihadism.

portrayed with black or dark blue skin. wearing a necklace adorned
with severed heads and hands. Her name means "The black one". She
destroys anger and passion according to Hindu mythology and her
devotees are supposed to abstain from meat or intoxication. Kali does
not eat meat, but it is the śāstra's injunction that those who are
unable to give up meat-eating, they may sacrifice one goat, not cow,
one small animal before the goddess Kali, on amāvāsya (new moon) day,
night, not day, and they can eat it.


 Sports 
========

Blacks', in reference to their black outfits, and the color is also
shared by other New Zealand national teams such as the Black Caps
(cricket) and the Kiwis (rugby league).

uniforms, however nowadays other uniform colors may also be worn.

area around the center-field bleachers, painted black to give hitters
a decent background for pitched balls.

colors—many feeling the color sometimes imparts a psychological
advantage in its wearers. Black is used by numerous professional and
collegiate sports teams


 Idioms and expressions 
========================

Day, the fourth Thursday in November) is traditionally the busiest
shopping day of the year. Many Americans are on holiday because of
Thanksgiving, and many retailers open earlier and close later than
normal, and offer special prices. The day's name originated in
Philadelphia sometime before 1961, and originally was used to describe
the heavy and disruptive downtown pedestrian and vehicle traffic which
would occur on that day. Later an alternative explanation began to be
offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point in the year that
retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black", because of
the large volume of sales on that day.

ink in ledgers to indicate profit, and red ink to indicate a loss.

financial markets. The first Black Friday (1869), September 24, 1869,
was caused by the efforts of two speculators, Jay Gould and James
Fisk, to corner the gold market on the New York Gold Exchange.

placed on the list is to be "blacklisted").

topics. The expression is similar to black humor or black humour.

done.

depression, which he called "my black dog").

alternatively the illegal trade of otherwise legal items at
considerably higher prices, e.g. to evade rationing.

masquerades in propaganda to confuse an opponent.

would hurt them in some way, such as by revealing sensitive
information about them, in order to force the threatened party to
fulfill certain demands. Ordinarily, such a threat is illegal.

out of play, the player loses.

such institution. In the traditional English gentlemen's club, members
vote on the admission of a candidate by secretly placing a white or
black ball in a hat. If upon the completion of voting, there was even
one black ball amongst the white, the candidate would be denied
membership, and he would never know who had "blackballed" him.

Chinese and culturally influenced languages (紅 茶, Mandarin Chinese
'hóngchá'; Japanese 'kōcha'; Korean 'hongcha').

area on a wildfire capable of acting as a safety zone.



 Mourning 
==========
In Europe and America, black is commonly associated with mourning and
bereavement, and usually worn at funerals and memorial services. In
some traditional societies, for example in Greece and Italy, some
widows wear black for the rest of their lives. In contrast, across
much of Africa and parts of Asia like Vietnam, white is a color of
mourning.

In Victorian England, the colors and fabrics of mourning were
specified in an unofficial dress code:  "non-reflective black
paramatta and crape for the first year of deepest mourning, followed
by nine months of dullish black silk, heavily trimmed with crape, and
then three months when crape was discarded.  Paramatta was a fabric of
combined silk and wool or cotton; crape was a harsh black silk fabric
with a crimped appearance produced by heat.  Widows were allowed to
change into the colors of half-mourning, such as gray and lavender,
black and white, for the final six months."

A "black day" (or week or month) usually refers to tragic date. The
Romans marked 'fasti' days with white stones and 'nefasti' days with
black. The term is often used to remember massacres. Black months
include the Black September in Jordan, when large numbers of
Palestinians were killed, and Black July in Sri Lanka, the killing of
members of the Tamil population by the Sinhalese government.

In the financial world, the term often refers to a dramatic drop in
the stock market. For example, the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the
stock market crash on October 29, 1929, which marked the start of the
Great Depression, is nicknamed Black Tuesday, and was preceded by
Black Thursday, a downturn on October 24 the previous week.

File:The Dowager Electress Palatine in mourning.jpg|The dowager
Electress of Palatine in mourning (1717)
File:Pedro II of Brazil and his sisters.jpg|Emperor Pedro II of Brazil
and his sisters wearing mourning clothes due to their father's death
(1834)
File:Queen Victoria by Heinrich von Angeli.jpg|Queen Victoria wore
black in mourning for her husband Prince Albert (1899)


 Darkness and evil 
===================
In western popular culture, black has long been associated with evil
and darkness. It is the traditional color of witchcraft and black
magic.

In the Book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament of the
Bible, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are supposed to announce
the Apocalypse before the Last Judgment. The horseman representing
famine rides a black horse. The vampire of literature and films, such
as Count Dracula of the Bram Stoker novel,  dressed in black, and
could only move at night. The Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939
film 'The Wizard of Oz' became the archetype of witches for
generations of children.  Whereas witches and sorcerers inspired real
fear in the 17th century, in the 21st century children and adults
dressed as witches for Halloween parties and parades.


File:Apocalypse vasnetsov.jpg|The biblical Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse, including famine riding a black horse (painting by Viktor
Vasnetsov, 1887)
File:The Goblins' Christmas, 28.JPG|Drawing of a witch from the
illustrated book 'The Goblins' Christmas' by Elizabeth Anderson (1908)
File:Bela lugosi dracula.jpg|Count Dracula as portrayed by Bela Lugosi
in the 1931 film version

File:NOLAHalloween2007CtinaWitchClarinet.jpg|Clarinet-playing witch in
a New Orleans Halloween parade


 Power, authority and solemnity 
================================
Black is frequently used as a color of power, law and authority. In
many countries judges and magistrates wear black robes. That custom
began in Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. Jurists, magistrates
and certain other court officials in France began to wear long black
robes during the reign of Philip IV of France (1285-1314), and in
England from the time of Edward I (1271-1307). The custom spread to
the cities of Italy at about the same time, between 1300 and 1320. The
robes of judges resembled those worn by the clergy, and represented
the law and authority of the King, while those of the clergy
represented the law of God and authority of the church.

Until the 20th century most police uniforms were black, until they
were largely replaced by a less menacing blue in France, the U.S. and
other countries. In the United States, police cars are frequently
Black and white. The riot control units of the Basque Autonomous
Police in Spain are known as 'beltzak' ("blacks") after their uniform.

Black today is the most common color for limousines and the official
cars of government officials.

Black formal attire is still worn at many solemn occasions or
ceremonies, from graduations to formal balls.  Graduation gowns are
copied from the gowns worn by university professors in the Middle
Ages, which in turn were copied from the robes worn by judges and
priests, who often taught at the early universities. The mortarboard
hat worn by graduates is adapted from a square cap called a biretta
worn by Medieval professors and clerics.

File:Supreme Court US 2009.jpg|The United States Supreme Court (2009)
File:ICJ-CJI hearing 1.jpg|Judges at the International Court of
Justice in the Hague
File:LAPD Police Car.jpg|A police car of the Los Angeles Police
Department
File:Jacob1207b.JPG|American academic dress for a bachelor's degree


 Functionality 
===============
In the 19th and 20th centuries, many machines and devices, large and
small, were painted black, to stress their functionality. These
included telephones, sewing machines, steamships, railroad
locomotives, and automobiles. The Ford Model T, the first
mass-produced car, was available only in black from 1914 to 1926. Of
means of transportation, only airplanes were rarely ever painted
black.

File:Alt Telefon.jpg|Olivetti telephone from the 1940s
File:1920 Ford Model T Centerdoor Sedan 2.jpg|A 1920 Ford Model T
File:Collection of old phones and PDA-BlackBerry.jpg|The first model
BlackBerry (2000)


Black house paint is becoming more popular with Sherwin-Williams
reporting that the color, Tricorn Black, was the 6th most popular
exterior house paint color in Canada and the 12th most popular paint
in the United States in 2018.


 Ethnography 
=============

skin is darker. In the United States, it is particularly used to
describe African Americans. The terms for African Americans have
changed over the years, as shown by the categories in the United
States Census, taken every ten years.

used: Free White males, Free White females, other free persons, and
slaves.

black, while an M indicated "mulatto."

mulatto, quadroon (a person one-quarter black); octoroon (a person
one-eighth black), Chinese, Japanese, or American Indian.

listed as "Negro."

first time.

African-American" was used, defined as "a person having their origin
in any of the racial groups in Africa." In the 2012 Census 12.1
percent of Americans identified themselves as Black or
African-American.

Black is also commonly used as a racial description in the United
Kingdom, since ethnicity was first measured in the 2001 census.  The
2011 British census asked residents to describe themselves, and
categories offered included Black, African, Caribbean, or Black
British.  Other possible categories were African British, African
Scottish, Caribbean British and Caribbean Scottish. Of the total UK
population in 2001, 1.0 percent identified themselves as Black
Caribbean, 0.8 percent as Black African, and 0.2 percent as Black
(others).

In Canada, census respondents can identify themselves as Black. In the
2006 census, 2.5 percent of the population identified themselves as
black.

In Australia, the term black is not used in the census.  In the 2006
census, 2.3 percent of Australians identified themselves as Aboriginal
and/or Torres Strait Islanders.

In Brazil, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE)
asks people to identify themselves as 'branco' (white), 'pardo'
(brown), 'preto' (black), or 'amarelo' (yellow). In 2008 6.8 percent
of the population identified themselves as "preto".


 Opposite of white 
===================

particularly light and darkness and good and evil. In Medieval
literature, the white knight usually represented virtue, the black
knight something mysterious and sinister. In American westerns, the
hero often wore a white hat, the villain a black hat.

colors of the two sides were varied; a 12th-century Iranian chess set
in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, has red and green pieces.
But when the game was imported into Europe, the colors, corresponding
to European culture, usually became black and white.

has more authority with readers than any other color of printing.

black-and-white, meaning that the issue at hand is dichotomized
(having two clear, opposing sides with no middle ground).

File:Lone ranger silver 1965.JPG|Heroes in American westerns, like the
Lone Ranger, traditionally wore a white hat, while the villains wore
black hats.


 Conspiracy 
============
Black is commonly associated with secrecy.

opened and read diplomatic mail and broke codes. Queen Elizabeth I had
such an office, headed by her Secretary, Sir Francis Walsingham, which
successfully broke the Spanish codes and broke up several plots
against the Queen. In France a 'cabinet noir' was established inside
the French post office by Louis XIII to open diplomatic mail. It was
closed during the French Revolution but re-opened under Napoleon I.
The Habsburg Empire and Dutch Republic had similar black chambers.

the Cipher Bureau, in 1919. It was funded by the State Department and
Army and disguised as a commercial company in New York. It
successfully broke a number of diplomatic codes, including the code of
the Japanese government. It was closed down in 1929 after the State
Department withdrew funding, when the new Secretary of State, Henry
Stimson, stated that "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail." The
Cipher Bureau was the ancestor of the U.S. National Security Agency.

Decryption during World War II, or a secret counter-narcotics or
police sting operation.

government agency or military.

classified or other secret operations of a nation. The black budget is
an account expenses and spending related to military research and
covert operations. The black budget is mostly classified due to
security reasons.


 Elegant fashion 
=================
Black is the color most commonly associated with elegance in Europe
and the United States, followed by silver, gold, and white.

Black first became a fashionable color for men in Europe in the 17th
century, in the courts of Italy and Spain. (See history above.) In the
19th century, it was the fashion for men both in business and for
evening wear, in the form of a black coat whose tails came down the
knees. In the evening it was the custom of the men to leave the women
after dinner to go to a special smoking room to enjoy cigars or
cigarettes. This meant that their tailcoats eventually smelled of
tobacco. According to the legend, in 1865 Edward VII, then the Prince
of Wales, had his tailor make a special short smoking jacket.  The
smoking jacket then evolved into the dinner jacket. Again according to
legend, the first Americans to wear the jacket were members of the
Tuxedo Club in New York State. Thereafter the jacket became known as a
tuxedo in the U.S. The term "smoking" is still used today in Russia
and other countries.
Stefano Zuffi, 'Color in Art', p. 308.
The tuxedo was always black until the 1930s, when the Duke of Windsor
began to wear a tuxedo that was a very dark midnight blue. He did so
because a black tuxedo looked greenish in artificial light, while a
dark blue tuxedo looked blacker than black itself.

For women's fashion, the defining moment was the invention of the
simple black dress by Coco Chanel in 1926. (See history.) Thereafter,
a long black gown was used for formal occasions, while the simple
black dress could be used for everything else. The designer Karl
Lagerfeld, explaining why black was so popular, said:  "Black is the
color that goes with everything. If you're wearing black, you're on
sure ground." Skirts have gone up and down and fashions have changed,
but the black dress has not lost its position as the essential element
of a woman's wardrobe. The fashion designer Christian Dior said,
"elegance is a combination of distinction, naturalness, care and
simplicity," and black exemplified elegance.

The expression  "X is the new black" is a reference to the latest
trend or fad that is considered a wardrobe basic for the duration of
the trend, on the basis that black is always fashionable. The phrase
has taken on a life of its own and has become a cliché.

Many performers of both popular and European classical music,
including French singers Edith Piaf and Juliette Gréco, and violinist
Joshua Bell have traditionally worn black on stage during
performances. A black costume was usually chosen as part of their
image or stage persona, or because it did not distract from the music,
or sometimes for a political reason. Country-western singer Johnny
Cash always wore black on stage. In 1971, Cash wrote the song "Man in
Black" to explain why he dressed in that color: "We're doing mighty
fine I do suppose / In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes
/ But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back / Up front
there ought to be a man in black."

File:Anneke Grönloh 1964 Eurovision dress.jpg|A little black dress
from 1964
File:The Duke of Windsor (1970).jpg|The Duke of Windsor was the first
to wear midnight blue rather than black evening dress, which looked
blacker than black in artificial light.
File:Edith Piaf zingt in ons land, Bestanddeelnr 914-6438.jpg|French
singer Edith Piaf always wore black on stage.
File:Johnny-Cash 1972.jpg|Country-western singer Johnny Cash called
himself "the man in black." Image of his performance in Bremen,
Northern Germany, in September 1972.
File:Joshua Bell Indiana University cropped.jpg|American violinist
Joshua Bell wears black on stage.
File:Fabiana Semprebom1.jpg|Model Fabiana Semprebom at New York
Fashion Week, 2006


                               See also                               
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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black


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