a vat dye vat brown 3 and a reactive dye reactive blue 109 the depth of color was rated on an arbitrary scale of 1 to 5 with the darkest color from each dyeing rate as 5 results following in table 1 show the greater dyeability that resulted from the use of the formaldehyde free agent dihydroxydimethylimidazolidinone in place of the conventional finishing agent table 1______________________________________ depth of color reactiveagent applied direct dyeing vat dyeing dyeing______________________________________none 5 5 5dihydroxydimethyl 5 3 3imidazolidinoneconventional agent 3 1 2______________________________________ cotton printcloth was treated with the formaldehyde free finishing agent 1 1 4 4 tetramethoxybutane this agent is an acetal that can be prepared from 2 5 dimethoxytetrahydrofuran and methanol the fabric is impregnated by padding with a solution containing 10 1 1 4 4 tetramethoxybutane concentrations in the range of 10 20 by weight can be used and 1 6 magnesium chloride hexahydrate concentrations in the range of 1 6 2 8 by weight can be used dried 7 min at 70 u00b0 c cured 3 min at 160 u00b0 c then washed for comparison the same fabric was treated with a 2 solution of the conventional finishing agent dimethylolethyleneurea a compound prepared from 2 imidazolidinone and formaldehyde both fabrics.