Published by E.L. Carey and A. Hart, Philadelphia, 1831.
Transcribed by Drea Leed.
Note from Transcriber: This book is particularly useful for the home dyer, as it focuses on small batches. The recipes are geared towards dyeing a coat, jacket or stockings, rather than dyeing entire lengths of fabric.
Although the date of the publication is 1831, this is the third printing of the book (as mentioned in the Preface). It mentions spensers quite frequently, which were out of fashion by the 1830s. Therefore, I would say the majority of these recipes are usable back to 1800.
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
The different recipes given in this work are the results of practical experience; the processes may therefore be depended on. There are many other methods of dyeing various colours, which would only perplex persons not regularly bred to the business. But the object of the author being to make the art of cleaning and dyeing apparel easy to every one, so that it may appear as new, at a trifling expense, he has omitted every thing superfluous.
Clothes, in a dirty state, are frequently thrown by as useless; which by being dyed, or cleaned, may be worn much longer. Besides the saving connected with the methods here recommended, ladies and gentlemen, fond of chemical processes, will find the art of dyeing a pleasing, as well as a useful employment. And as every house affords the necessary apparatus, and every town the drugs, and other materials, by following the simple methods laid down in these pages it is impossible to fail in attaining the object proposed.
The author presumes that this work ought justly to claim the preference to any other, hitherto published on the art of dyeing, as not only the mode of operation, but the quantity of drugs required for each garment, &c. is exactly specified.
Among the many important recipes which it contains, he begs leave to call the attention of the ladies to the preparation of carthamus, bastard saffron, or safflower which he has described, and the manner of using it for dyeing pinks, bright reds, and rose colour, on silks, cottons, and feathers. This dye, when once prepared, is as easy to be used as the pink saucer, and produces a much better effect, at one twentieth part of the expense.
The making of liquid blue is also another object well worth the housewife's attention. The method of doing this is particularly described in its proper place.
The author has already met with many families who are their own dyers, even without instruction; he therefore hopes that his work will essentially contribute towards bringing the art to greater perfection. This art is so useful, and the practice of it is at the same time so entertaining, that he ventures to say, when once a lady has perfected one colour, she will not rest satisfied till she has acquired a further knowledge of colours in general. As a proof of these assertions, he also observes, that the dyeing of one fifth of all the goods brought to him to dye, in the course of his practice, had been previously attempted. Persons of slender income, and others residing at considerable distances from great towns, where only proficient dyers are in general to be found, must inevitably be benefited by this work.
The author not pretending to any knowledge, beyond the extent of his own practice, these recipes and instructions such as they are, he presents to an impartial Public. This method of exposing what have been commonly termed the secrets of trade, has been objected to; and it has been said that not every man of business would, like the author, expose his trade to the hazard of its ruin. He answers, that he is not of the number of those who entertain this contracted opinion. The world can not long be kept in darkness, and if there be any business or profession, affording larger profits than those of tradesmen in general, this, like every thing else, will eventually find its level.
It is undeniable that few persons would dye their things at home, unless the savings were considerable. And if the dyeing business has already found, or is rapidly finding its level, this work can not possibly do it any injury. He presumes, indeed, that much benefit would result from the public encouragement of the art of dyeing. No genius for any speculation or improvement in this art is wanting, but a stimulus.
The present edition is considerably improved; many additional hints and observations are added: the whole has been most carefully revised throughout. The articles which were added to the second Edition, in an APPENDIX, are now incorporated with the body of the work, under the appropriate heads; and the general observations will be found in the INTRODUCTION, their most proper place.
The Doll, or Maid, represented in the wood cut, is used for beating blankets, counterpanes, &c. in the tub, in order to clean them. For purchasing this Doll or getting it made, it is necessary to observe that the upper part, or the shoulders, should measure a circumference of twenty one inches.
* By handling over is meant passing the goods through the hand from end to end, to make the colour communicate equally through the piece. The four feet are made square; each foot measures seven inches round. The Doll is twenty inches long from the fork to the extremity of the feet; from the fork to the top is sixteen inches, making the height of it altogether three feet.
The Tub is two feet and a half in height; the diameter of the top about two feet, and that of the bottom fourteen inches; it has also a false bottom, in order that the under part of the Tub may be level with the floor on which it stands, this being more solid to beat on; for if it were not so, the bottom would soon be beaten out.
A. The wall in which the peg is put.
B. The Tub.
C. The Doll.
D. The Blanket being wrung.
E. The short Stick by which the blanket is wrung.
It may be useful to observe that the five chief colours are blue, yellow, red, black, and brown. Blues and blacks, on woollens, are scoured with bullock's gall and water, and sometimes with chamberlye; all other colours should be scoured with soap, either solid or in solution. In cleaning silks of various colours, the water must be barely hot enough to extract the filth; and it is preferable to give the silk a second or a third liquor rather than to use the water too hot; the soap should be kept dissolved, and added in a state of solution: soft soap is generally used for colouring silks, mazarine, gartee, navy blues and buffs excepted.
Red, yellow, brown, and fawn coloured silks, are also cleaned with soft soap, as it is not so powerful in its action and contains less alkali. For purples, blues &c. alkalies are necessary; consequently not only hard soap is used, but pearl ash, which tends to brighten and restore these colours, when used in moderate quantities. Red, yellow, pink, and various shades from them, are cleaned with soft soap, and finished by being immersed in acid liquids, which have an affinity to the dye with which they are already saturated: all alkalies have the property of saddening reds, yellows, pinks, scarlets, &c., while acids injure blues, purples, violets, pansies, and every shade of these colours. Red archil is made from purple archil, by adding a small quantity of oil of vitriol and tartar to redden it.
I have said little of drab colours, because they depend so much on the judgment of the person dyeing them that no precise rules can be given for any particular shade: for, independently of the various shades which by different persons are called by different names, even were patterns affixed, these would fade in time, and become precarious and uncertain. Sufficient however has been said to inform persons of the meanest capacity, how to clean every article of dress, and to dye many colours to a great degree of perfection.
Drab colours are generally given by immersing the stuffs, first in a strong preparing liquor, then by giving a slight body in a stuffing liquor or ground colour; and lastly, the shade, whatever it may be, must be ascertained. Supposing it to be a dull red cast, madder root and walnut root are to be put into a bag and boiled until they give to the liquor the degree of shade supposed requisite. The goods are then put into the liquor and boiled to the colour required. An olive drab requires a strong preparation, and a stuff of sumach and fustic. It is dyed or turned off by adding a strong decoction of logwood and fustic. If for a gray olive, pearl ash and copperas are used; but if the shade is to be very delicate, no stuffing is required, but a full body of colour is given of dyeing materials, and then turned off with acids; a strong dyeing mordant having been previously given.
Archil, bear wood, green copperas (sulphate of iron), blue vitriol, and chemic blue, are seldom used for drabs; logwood is, however, one of the chief; it is changed bluer by alkalies, and saddened by acids. Sumach is also sometimes used, but its colour is somewhat too full; it tends rather to dye shades of brown than drab. Galls are more frequently used; they may be said to be a mordant for copperas to run on; almost any clear colouring body, particularly archil, will turn their colour. Those observations on drabs, may serve as hints to the dyer, but they will help him to no certain rule. The mordants generally used are alum and tartar; the last, sometimes the white and sometimes the red: those do well for yellows, reds, and shades from them.
Blue vitriol (sulphate of copper), is used for blues and their shades; green copperas for blacks, grays, and their shades. Sometimes different mordants are used together, at other times separately; but tartar is never used alone, except for dividing the red particles in drabs; and then either in hot or boiling water; and in altering crimson, scarlet, &c. Alum is used either for saddening scarlet even down to a crimson, or as a preparation for dyeing crimson. The effect, however, of all these different articles, can only be completely obtained by practice: theory may afford a general idea of the ingredients necessary to be used, but the various ways of performance can not be fully explained by any recipes, as the variation in the quality of the ingredients, will often make an alteration in some colours. It is necessary for a young artist to consult the compound colours in mixture, and then the effects of salts and acids on these different colours. A little piece of cloth as a pattern should be tried, in a small saucepan: first give it the preparation as described in this work; pour this away, and boil your dye stuff, according to the different recipes. By these means great practical experience may be gained, and which is more easy than people generally imagine. To an inquisitive mind this art will prove extremely entertaining, although the most persevering will be convinced that much remains still unknown.
We shall conclude this introduction with a few Remarks on Dyes in general. When a copper is made up, that is, when the dyeing materials have yielded their colour to the water, whethePersons wholly ignorant of chemistry, will be surprised to find that sometimes, by means of a small quantity of lime water, oil of vitriol, the muriatic or nitric acid, or alum, in an instant the colour of the dyeing liquor will be entirely changed. When this change has been effected by means of an alkali, by adding to the same liquor a sufficient quantity of acid to combine with, and neutralize the salt, the colour may be again restored. These changes may be effected several times.
The effects of mordants, whether of an alkaline, of an acid, or of a neutral quality, are to be particularly noted in dyeing blacks. Authors have assigned various reasons for this; but practice tells us, that if a black is rusty when dry, it must be from its not having had a colouring body sufficient to cover the stuffing or ground colour; and from there not being a sufficient quantity of the alkali, say pearl ash, or the salt of urine, to give that blue lustre a force, which these salts usually impart. The argol, I think, acts upon the iron of the copperas, and prevents it from producing rust, which it does on exposure to air. Blue vitriol is also used in dyeing black; it is a great acquisition in the working, and it gives the dyed article a blue cast. Some eminent dyers of wool actually use grease with their other dyeing materials for black; but my readers must not follow such a method: it is not dictated by reason. In dyeing both blacks and browns, I advise that copperas should be used very sparingly.
Reds are dyed with various ingredients, almost the whole of which are acted upon by means of acids. Lac lake, and Lac dye, have latterly been much used for dyeing scarlet.
Yellows are acted upon by means of acids to clear them, as is likewise some dissolved metal, especially tin: in many experiments I have found it to add a brightness to the colour, given either by fustic, weld, or quercitron bark. Annatto, turmeric, and such mucilaginous drugs, are acted upon by alkalies, which render them quite soluble. Alkalies tend also to clear and brighten the colours in the copper. Realgar and chromate of lead have also been lately introduced as dyeing articles of some promise.
Browns are acted upon by means of acids, and brightened by the neutral salts, such as lime, chalk, &c. Argol, cream of tartar, &c. are used to divide the more gross particles and atoms of the brown dyeing materials, and have a powerful effect on copperas
Most blue dyeing materials are acted upon by alkalies; the indigoes particularly are saddened by them; so are logwood, woad, &c. In fact, all vegetables affording a blue colour are acted upon by various salts; and various proportions make various shades.
The chemic, or liquid blue, is one of the most useful dyes; as, by merely adding a proportionate quantity of it to either cold spring or river water, it will do its office. After silks are passed through warm water, a process always necessary to make goods take the dye regularly, you have then nothing to do but dip your silk or satin, until it has taken the desired shade, adding more liquid blue as you require the colour to be deeper. It also dyes gray, with the addition of logwood, brazil, or archil, even as deep as a mazarine blue, and from the pale blue azure to the deepest blue; but it will not bear hot water, except for dyeing green. It is useful, also, in many other colours. It, however, dyes blues of all shades, on silks, woollens, and feathers; and in bleaching counterpanes, gives them that beautiful light transparent look, which they always have, if care be taken at first to clean them properly from the dirt, which naturally adheres to the texture of the substance, and remains even in the pores of the cotton.
It is needless to make any observations on the compound colours, such as green, purple, and the like. Their single effects are explained under the various heads.
The finishing of cloths and cottons must also he noticed. The first of these, the most difficult, is done by the people called hot pressers: without this finish, woollens would have a very disagreeable appearance. However, persons who live at an inconvenient distance from such tradesmen, may remedy the evil by heating two or three flat irons, such as clothes are ironed with; then, putting the cloth between two thick press papers, move the irons backward and forward, so that the impression of the weight and heat may be regular and equal over the surface of the cloth. The irons should not be too hot, nor be suffered to remain too long in one place; but one single trial of this process will afford more instruction than it is possible to obtain without it.
For cottons, a calender, or mangle, will do; or simply ironing of them will answer the purpose, care being taken that the iron is not too hot.
In washing muslin, linen, or calico, the first water should not be used too hot; but the last should be used as hot as possible; and also with it, a sufficient quantity of pearl, or pot ash; of the latter, a very small portion does to mix with, and to extract the oil or grease, remaining in the texture of the cotton: by these means, its colour will be preserved and improved.
In concluding this Introduction, I would observe that, in dying, it is indispensably necessary, that every article should be cleaned, before it is submitted to the dyeing process. On this subject the article Cleaning of Silks, may be advantageously consulted.
I will only add a word or two more, relative to the choice and purchase of your dyeing materials. Let it be an invariable rule, never to purchase any of the dyeing woods, roots, &c. in powder, if you can avoid it; for, in this state, they are too commonly, nay, I fear always, most shamefully adulterated. Roots, such as turmeric, should be obtained whole as they are imported, and when you use them, unless otherwise directed, they should be coarsely powdered. Logwood, fustic, &c. should be purchased in chips; cream of tartar should also be bought in the state of crystals; the powder is not to be trusted. For want of attention to the quality of the material, there is no doubt that many dyeing processes fail; and from this cause alone.
To clean Black Lace Veils.
These are cleaned by passing them through a warm liquor of bullock's gall and water: after which they must be rinsed in cold water; then cleaned for stiffening, and finished as follows: Take a small piece of glue, about the size of a bean, pour boiling water upon it, which will dissolve it, and when dissolved pass the veil through it, then clap it between your hands and frame it as described in the preceding receipt.
A Method of cleaning White Satin, Silks, &c.
Make a solution of the finest hard white soap, and when at a hand heat, handle your silks through this, drawing them through the hand if they are such as will bear it. If any particular spots appear, which may easily be discerned by holding the satin up to the light, such spots must be dipped in the liquor, and gently rubbed between the hand. Sometimes two or three liquors are required in this way. The things must then be rinsed in lukewarm water, then dried and finished by being pinned out, and the flossy or bright side well brushed with a clean clothes brush, the way of the nap. The more it is brushed, the more beautiful it will appear. if you are near a calenderer, your articles may be calendered; if not, you may finish them by dipping a sponge into a little size, made by boiling isinglass in water, and rubbing the wrong side. Your things must then be pinned out a second time, and again brushed and dried near a fire, or in a warm room. Silks are done the same way, but not brushed. If the silks are for dyeing, instead of passing them through a solution of soap and water, they must be boiled off; but if the silks are very stout, the water must only be of heat sufficient to extract the filth. Being then rinsed in warm water, they are in a proper state to receive the dye.
Another Method for cleaning White Satins.
French chalk must be strewed over them, and then well brushed off with a hard brush. Should the satin not be sufficiently cleaned by the first dusting, it may be done a second time, and it will both clean and beautify the satin. The more it is brushed the better.
To clean Orange Colour on Silk, Cotton, and Woollen.
If it is a silk garment, it must be cleaned with a solution of soap, no matter what sort, and in the second liquor pearl ash must be used to stay the colour. The water must be used much under a hand heat for silks. If requiring more to scarlet, or redder, then the pearl-ash must he omitted, and a little vinegar used in the rinsing water. See the mode of cleaning of coloured woollens in the following pages, recollecting that acids heighten the red colour, and alkalies make it more upon the buff
For cleaning coloured Silks of all kinds, supposing an Article of this hind to be a common sized Shawl.
Put one pennyworth of soft soap into a vessel of convenient size to wash a shawl or scarf in, add to it a sufficient quantity of boiling water, keep beating and stirring it till it be dissolved, and till a strong lather rises on the top of the water; when at a hand heat put in your shawl; then, if the texture is strong enough to bear it, it may be rubbed as easily as one would wash a linen garment; rinse it out in luke warm water, and if it is a false colour it will be easily seen, by the colour discharging into the suds. Care therefore must be taken to go through the process quickly, having ready in another pan what the dyer's journeymen call "a drop of sharp," which is a small quantity of oil of vitriol, sufficient to give the water a slight acidulous or sour taste: but it must not be too strong, just a sufficient quantity to deaden what salt may be in the water; hard spring water therefore is best; this does for all bright yellows, crimsons, maroon and scarlets; but for orange colours, fawns, browns, or shades from these colours, it will not be necessary to use any acid.
If you are cleaning a bright scarlet, and the colour should sadden or grow deeper or duller, it will be necessary instead of oil of vitriol to use the solution of tin. If the garment should be very dirty, a second or even a third liquor is required, unless it should discharge or come out too much in the liquor; but, whether the colours be false or permanent, this process should be gone through quickly. As most bright colours, such as reds, yellows, pinks, and the shades from them, are furnished by spirits of a strong acidulous quality, therefore, though of all soaps the soft soap is least impregnated with salts, yet it contains a sufficient quantity to deaden and partly to destroy the acid. The process being too long, it therefore causes the salts to enter the pores of the substance, and attacks the dye which is within the pores, by which means the colour often fades, and sometimes is wholly discharged. To prevent this evil, as soon as the silk comes from the acidulated water, it should be gently squeezed (not wrung) and a coarse sheet should be spread on a table, and the shawl should be put upon it, and rolled in the sheet and wrung, which will prevent the colours from running; this is what the dyers call sheeting silks. The shawl, &c. is then taken from the sheet, and hung up in a warm room to dry, and is finished by being calendered or mangled without any further trouble. Some dyers press them, which is done in a cold press, or one whos irons are not hot. All kinds of silk shawls, fancy and painted, and foreign made silks are done this way. But when you have proof of the solidity of the colour, which may be known, besides the forementioned proofs, by its having worn well, if any spots of a yellow or black cast should happen to be on maroon, red or crimson, this method of cleaning will either extract or cover it. As for pinks, rose colours, and shades from them, such as flesh colours, &c. instead of oil of vitriol or solution of tin, a small quantity of lemon juice, or solution of white tartar, or even vinegar, should be added to the finishing liquor.
For cleaning and restoring Blues, Purples, and Shades from them, such as Mazarine, Prince's Garter, Royal and Navy Blues.
These should be cleaned by dissolving hard white soap, as before described, adding to it a small quantity of the best American pearl ash; and if the colours are faded almost to a red, this will restore them. You must add more or less pearl ash as the colour may require. Wash the silks in this liquor as you would a linen garment, then, instead of wringing, gently squeeze and sheet them. When dry, finish them with fine gum water, or isinglass, dissolved by boiling. A sponge must be dipped in this, and squeezed almost dry, and then rubbed regularly all over the wrong side; and lastly, they should either be framed or pinned out. A small bit of pearl ash should be added to the isinglass or gum water, which will preserve its brightness.
N. B. These blues of all shades are dyed with archil, and afterwards dipped in a vat; therefore cleaning with pearl ash restores the colour. There are some blues on silk, of a very light shade, that are dyed with chemic blue, which will not clean. These may be distinguished by their not being of a red cast.
Olive Green. There is a kind of dirty looking green that may be cleaned much in the same manner, only no acid must be used; or great care must be taken to use no more than a sufficiency of it to harden the water. But if the water used is of a hard nature, no acid will be wanted: a small quantity of verdigris dissolved in water, or a drop or two of what is termed a solution of copper, mixed with water, will revive the colour again.
Of cleaning Black Silk.
If this is a slip, unpick the seams; take one piece at a time and put it on a table, then take a pennyworth of bullock's gall, and boiling water sufficient to make it pretty warm, dip a clean sponge in the gall liquor, and, washing your sponge in a pan of warm water, after dipping it into the liquor, rub the silk well on both sides, squeeze it well out, and proceed as before. Then hang up this piece of silk, and clean the others in the like manner. When the whole are done, immerse them altogether in a pan of spring water, to wash off the dirt which the gall has brought upon the surface of the silk; change your rinsing water till they are perfectly clean, and, after washing, dry your silks in the air, and pin them out on a table &c. first dipping a sponge in glue water, and rubbing it on the wrong side of the silk. Dry it near the fire, and it will be as new.
For dipping Black Silks when they appear Rusty, or the Colour looks faded.
For a silk dress your own discretion must be used, whether the silk can be roused, or whether it requires to be redyed. Should it require redyeing, this is done as follows; for a gown, boil two ounces of logwood; when boiled half an hour put in your silk, and simmer it half an hour, then take it out, and add a piece of blue vitriol as big as a pea, and a piece of green copperas, as big as the half of a horse bean; when these are dissolved, cool down the copper with cold water, and put in your silk, and simmer half an hour, handling it over with a stick; wash and dry in
the air, and finish as above, if only wanting to be roused, pass it through spring water, in which is half a tea spoonful of oil of vitriol. Handle in this five minutes, then rinse in cold water, and finish as above.
Of Silks stained by corrosive or sharp Liquors.
We often find that lemon juice, vinegar, oil of vitriol, and other sharp corrosives, stain dyed garments. Sometimes by adding a little pearl ash to a soap lather, and passing the silks through these, the faded colour will be restored. Pearl ash and warm water will sometimes do alone, but it is the most efficacious method to use the soap lather and pearl ash together.
To clean Silk Stockings.
Wash them in soap and water; and then either into a tin or copper boiler, cut an ounce of white soap into thin slices, and, putting the stockings in, boil them gently ten minutes; then take them out and rinse them in cold water. If they are to be of the blue cast, take one drop of liquid flue, put it into a pan of cold spring water, run the stockings through this a minute or two, and dry them in the air. if they are to be of a pink cast, drop one or two drops of the saturated pink dye into a pan of cold water, and run them through this instead of the chemic blue. If they are designed to have a flesh colour, a little rose pink is used in a thin soap liquor. All silk stockings, black excepted, are to be rubbed with a clean flannel, and sent to be calendered or mangled.
The Mode of extracting Grease Spots from Silk, coloured Muslin, &c.
Take French chalk, finely scraped, and put it on the grease spot, holding it near the fire, or over a warm iron reversed, or on a water plate in which is boiling water. This will cause the grease to melt, and the French chalk will absorb it, and it may then be brushed or rubbed off. If any grease remains, proceed as before, until it is all extracted. The French chalk is a fine soluble powder, and of a dry absorbent quality, acting upon silks as Fuller's earth does upon woollen.
Method of taking out the Spots of Paint, or other solid substances from Cloth, Silks, &c.
Supposing a small quantity of paint had dropped on a coat, a pen should be dipped in spirit of turpentine, and its contents should be dropped on the paint spot, in a quantity sufficient to discharge the oil and gluten that is mixed with the paint. Then let it rest several hours, that it may penetrate and suck up the oil; and when it has done this, take the cloth between your hands, and rub it; the paint spot will then crumble away like dried earth. The turpentine will by no means injure the cloth or the colour. If however the spots be numerous, the best way is to apply the spirit of turpentine over the silk, &c. with a sponge, as soon as possible after the oil or paint, &c. has been spilt upon, and before it is become dry; by these means it may in general be completely washed off.
To prevent Scarlet Cloth from being stained Black
As all corrosive, vitriolic, or salt liquors stain this colour, as the dirt of the streets, the droppings of
houses, &c. and as these generally contain a vitriolic property, especially in large cities, when any spots of this nature appear upon your return home, wash them out in a little hard spring water, in which a dust of tartar has been thrown, and it will extract the filth, and leave no manner of stain.
A Method of cleaning Chintz Bed and Window Furniture, so as to preserve the Gloss and Beauty.
This will generally answer where the cloth is not in a very dirty state: Take two pounds of rice, boil it in two gallons of water till soft; put the whole into a tub; and when your liquor is at a hand heat, put in your chintz, and use the rice as you would soap. Then take the same quantity of rice and water, but when boiled, strain the rice from the water. Wash the chintz in this till it is quite clean; afterwards rinse it in the water in which the rice was boiled, smooth it out with the hands, and hang it up to dry; then rub it with a sleeking stone, or glaze it, and it is finished.
The Method practised by Dyers is as follows:
Clean the chintz by washing it, or rather beating it with the doll in a tub of warm soap lather, at a hand heat; and, at last, either take flour or starch, and make it of the consistence of oil; the article is then beaten up in this; let it be opened well, that it may be smooth; dry in the air, and glaze it. Should the colour fade in washing, (that is the red and green), it will be necessary to give the goods a drop or two of oil of vitriol in cold water after rinsing: this stays the colours.
For scouring thick Cotton; as Counterpanes, Quilts, &c.
Cut a pound of mottled soap into thin slices; put it into a pan with a quarter of an ounce of pot ash, and one ounce of pearl ash; then pour a pail of boiling water on it; let it stand till it is quite dissolved; then pour hot and cold water into your scouring tub, with a bowl of your solution of soap. Put it in your counterpane, and beat it well out with a doll, often turning the counterpane over in the tub. When this is done, wring it across a gallows or a hook, which is done by turning the two opposite ends round each other, and putting a small clean stick between them. By this method you may wring it as dry as possible, the harder without injuring it the better. Having given it this first liquor, you may put in some 01(1 cottons or woollens, that the liquor may not be thrown away, and then give your counterpane a second liquor as before. Wring it out again, and rinse in clean cold water; then pour a sufficient quantity of boiling water into your tub, with a small quantity of the solution of soap, so that you will reduce it to a very thin lather. Put three tea spoonfuls of liquid blue into the tub, whence your goods were taken, and the acid of the liquid blue and the alkali of the pearl ash and the soap lye will cause a slight fermentation or effervescence: stir this thin blue liquor with a stick, and put in your counterpane; beat it out with the doll about five minutes, which will colour th counterpane of a fine azure blue, of the lightest shade; but as it dries in the wind, the blue mostly goes off, and leaves a brilliant white.
N. B. In some cases where the cottons are very brown and bad, it is necessary, instead of the last of these three liquors being poured into the tub, that it should be thrown into the copper, and the cottons put in and boiled an hour. When taken out, return them into the tub with some cold water, and add the before mentioned quantity of chemic blue; and dry the articles in the air.
For cleaning thin Cottons, as Gowns.
Instead of rubbing the soap on the cotton as is the custom with laundresses, make a solution of soap, and put in your goods; then wash them as a washerwoman would. The benefit resulting from this difference of procedure is; that the cottons are cleaned all over in an equal degree, which is not the case when the soap is rubbed on the body of the cotton; for then we often find much soap in the pores of the cotton, which prevents such parts from receiving the dye, or appearing clear; whereas the solution if made as described for quilts, &c. will extract all impurities, and do it evenly. It often happens in coloured cottons, where greens, reds, &c. are used, that the colour will run; in such case some acid, as lemon juice, vinegar, oil of vitriol, or any other, should be infused into the rinsing water, to preserve the colours, especially in Scotch plaids.
For cleaning Scarlet Cloth.
Ladies' pelisses, mantles, habits, &c. of this colour should be taken to pieces, that they may be pressed; and so should all garments that require finishing, except gentlemen's clothes; and even these should be taken to pieces when they are worn, that they may be turned.
There are various modes of cleaning scarlet, each dyer considering his own the best way; but the way in which I have best succeeded is the only one in which a dirty scarlet cloth can be cleaned. For a woman's mantle, dissolve half a pound of the best white soap; but as the quantity of soap depends on the state of the garment, two ounces will frequently do. I have used a whole pound for such a sized garment. if any black looking spots appear, rub your dry soap on them; in the mean while have your other soap sliced and dissolving. When the mantle is spotted all over with the soap, take hot water and a brush, and brush it off. If it is very filthy, some part of the stains will still remain: in that case you must immerse the whole garment into your solution at rather under a hand heat, and rub lustily such parts as are most stained. Have then ready prepared a second solution of white soap, as at first, only somewhat hotter; wring it strongly from the first soap liquor, and you will find, soon after you get it in this second liquor, that the colour will begin to fly: that is, it will spend itself in the liquor. This must be your signal to dispatch it hastily; if this second liquor does not effectually cleanse your article, you will know that the garment has been too hard worn, and requires what is called dipping, or redyeing; as soon, however, as the colour begins to give, wring it out, and immerse it in a pan or pail of warm water, to extract what soap remains in it: wring it out of this, and immerse it in a pan of cold spring water, in which a table spoonful of solution of tin has been previously mixed. This solution generally turns the water of a milky white. Let your garment remain in it, now and then handling it, ten minutes; hang it to dry in the shade, which is best, or a warm room, if tie colour is much worn; if not, hang it any where, and let it be cold pressed.
I have cleansed some hundreds of these mantles, &c. and many of them looked equal to new, and some, which had been overloaded with the dye, looked better than when new.
Another Method.
When these things are not much soiled, which generally happens if worn in country places; or if the colour incline to what is termed a fire coloured scarlet, which is more tenacious, having less body of cochineal, and more spirits, and is often falsified with young fustic, turmeric, &c. the goods will require milder means to extract the dirt, without prejudice to the colour; then as follows:
Take a quarter of a peck of wheaten bran, pour boiling water on it in a hair sieve; when the bran water comes down to a hand heat, immerse your cloth; and rub it well now and then; and holding it up to the light, look to it, to see where the spots are. In the mean while prepare a second liquor like the former, adding to it nearly a quarter of an ounce of white or crude tartar. Wring out from the first bran liquor, and put in this; and if the colour be not saddened, which may be known by wringing one end of it tight, and blowing strongly on it, which will show the colour it will be of when dry, it is finished; but should it be saddened, or darkened, a clean liquor must be made of cold spring water, to which add a drop or two of the solution of tin; let it remain in this liquor ten minutes, then wring it, and hang it to dry.
The Method of dipping Scarlet Cloth.
The mode of dipping scarlet cloth, after it has been thoroughly cleaned with soap, and rinsed in warm water, is as follows:
When the spring water in your copper (or boiler, or tin kettle, or whatever your convenience may be) boils, put in a quarter of a pound of young fustic, or what is known better by the name of zant, and a drachm of pounded and sifted cochineal, and an equal quantity of cream of tartar and cochineal, then, when these have boiled five or six minutes, cool down your copper by adding a pint or two of cold spring water, and a table spoonful of the solution of tin; then stir the mixture, put in your cloth, and boil it for ten minutes; when dry, send it to be cold pressed.
A cheaper Method, But not so good as the foregoing, which I never knew to fail, is as follows: heat your copper to a hand heat; add two ounces of the best crop madder, and a like quantity of turmeric, if required; but for a deep red, turmeric must be omitted. When these have simmered ten minutes, and the madder begins to give out its dye, then put in your goods, and simmer them ten minutes, or longer, if required. The Irish dyers, instead of the solution of tin, use a few drops of the oil of vitriol, so as to make the liquor taste tart; handle the goods through this for two or three minutes, then take them out, rinse them in cold spring water, and hang them up to dry. Care must be taken, when madder is used for reds, not to let the water boil, as this drug, as well as the carthamus affords two colours, the one red, the other brown: madder, on being boiled, gives out the brown. This method will not answer for fire coloured scarlet, but will do for bright coloured reds, when the colour requires to be saddened.
To raise the Nap on Cloth.
When woollens are worn threadbare, as is generally the case in the elbows, cuffs, sleeves, &c. of men's coats, the coat, &c. must be soaked in cold water for half an hour, then taken out of the water and put on a board, and the threadbare parts of the cloth rubbed with a half worn hatter's card, filled with flocks, or with a prickly thistle, until a sufficient nap is raised. When this is done, hang your coat, &c. up to dry, and with a hard brush lay the nap the right way. This is the method which is pursued by the dealers in old clothes.
To revive the faded colour of Black Cloth.
If a coat, clean it well, as described in scouring blues, blacks, browns, &c. then boil from two to four ounces of logwood in your copper or boiler half an hour; dip your coat in warm water, and squeeze it as dry as you can, and put it into the copper, and boil half an hour. Take it out and add a piece of green copperas about the size of a horse bean; boil it another half hour, then draw it, and hang it in the air for an hour or two; take it down, rinse it in two or three cold waters, dry it, and let it be well brushed with a soft brush, over which a drop or two of oil of olives has been rubbed: stroke your coat regularly over. The whole expense of this process (the firing excepted) will not exceed three halfpence. If any part of the coat, &c. should be worn threadbare, the nap must be raised with a prickly thistle, &c. and the coat will look as new. Some dyers use old black liquor, instead of logwood and copperas.
To dry clean Clothes of any Colour.
First, examining where the spots of grease are, dip your brush in warm gall, and strike over the greasy places, when the grease will immediately disappear; rinse it off in cold water; dry by the fire, then take sand, such as is bought at the oil shops, and laying your coat flat on a table, strew this sand over it, and knocking your brush on it, beat the sand into the cloth: the sand should be a little damp; then brush it out with a hard brush, and it will bring out all the filth with it. This does also for coach linings and gentlemen's clothes, &c. In the summer time, when the dust gets into clothes, &c. after they have been well shaken and brushed again, pour a drop or two of the oil of olives into the palm of your hand, rub this over your soft brush, strike your coat over with it, and this will brighten the colour if either blue, black, or green.
For Sulphuring Wool, Silks, Straw Bonnets, c.
Put into a chaffing dish some lighted charcoal; put this chaffing dish into a small close room, without a chimney, or into a closet or large box; then pound an ounce or two of brimstone, and strew it on the hot coals. Hang up the articles you would have bleached, make your door fast, and let them hang three hours, or all night, if you have time. This is what is called dry bleaching woollens; all fine coloured woollens should be sulphured in this way previously to their being dyed. Straw bonnets are likewise bleached in the same manner.
Remarks on Scouring Woollens.
It often happens that woollens are dyed with a false dye, which is generally more brilliant than a fast or good dye. When this happens to be the case, especially in very fine colours, as purples, greens, maroons, &c. instead of spotting the cloths with soap in the solid state, other means must be used. A thin solution of soap should be made, and the brush dipped in, and then applied to the dirty places; and in case it is a false green, after it has been treated the same as all light colours, a pan should be filled half full of spring water, and the coat, &c. having been previously well rinsed in two waters at least, a tea spoonful or rather more of the best oil of vitriol should be poured into this vessel of spring water, and the coat put in and handled a minute or two, which will revive the colours, if a chemic green, and if not, it will not hurt any fast green.
On scouring undyed Woollens, such as Blankets, Flannels, &c.
This process, as practised by dyers, is so simple, that any housewife may go through it. Supposing the article to be scoured is one of the largest sized blankets, in a very dirty state; cut into thin slices half a pound of the best yellow soap, then pour such a quantity of boiling river water on it as will effectually dissolve the soap, and make it of the consistence of oil: this is called solution of soap. Enough of this being made to scour what flannels you may have to clean, you then proceed to pour into your scouring tub a sufficient quantity of hot and cold water to cover your goods about two inches: the heat must be such as you can bear your hand in. Having previously put a lump of the best American pearlashes into your tub, as big as a small walnut, and some solution of soap, about a third of the quantity prepared, put in your goods, and, with your doll, beat them out, until no head or lather rises on the top of the water; you must then take the blanket by one corner, and hang it up, letting the two ends or sides meet when hung down together. Then turn those two ends in round each other; put a short stick between them, and by these means you can wring it quite tight: if you have more than one to do, you may add a little more pearl ash to the water, and add more hot water, beating them in like manner. This will tend to soften the dirt in them, and prevent any of the ingredients from being lost. The dirty water is now to be thrown away, and a second liquor prepared as the former; but if the blanket is pretty well cleaned of its filth, you need add no pearl ash in this second liquor, only let the water be hotter than the first, and then proceed as before. The second liquor being spent, put it into the tub with the rest of your dirty goods. A third and finishing liquor is prepared by adding the remainder of your solution of soap, and a small bit of pearl ash and boiling water, then put your blanket into the liquor, give it a quick beat out in this thin liquor, and immediately wring it very tight; hang it out to dry, and it will be as white as wool can be made.
For scouring Black, Blue, and dark Brown Woollens, such as broad and narrow Cloths, Gentlemen's Coats, Ladies' Pelisses, &c.
Supposing the article to be cleaned is a man's coat, first dry about two ounces of fullers' earth by the fire, pour a sufficient quantity of boiling water in it to dissolve it to the consistence of treacle; take a sufficient quantity of this on the top of your three fingers, and plaster thinly over such spots of grease as may be on the coat, particularly those on the cuffs, collar, the pocket holes, and under the arms, &c. This done, if you have time, dry it by the fire or in the sun; prepare a penny worth of bullock's gall, and mix with it half a pint of stale urine; add to this, if required, a little boiling water, to make the quantity of alkaline liquor sufficient for your purpose, such as chamber lye, pot ash liquor, or bullock's gall. You must take care not to weaken this too much with water: but instead of it, add as much as you like of the chamber lye. Dip your hard brush in this liquor, and brushing the spotted places in your coat, you will find it produce a white froth, like soap lather. After this you must dip the coat in a bucket of cold water, spring water is best, to wash off the filth and bad smell. Then take a walking stick, and put through the two arm holes, and putting a string round the middle of the stick, hang the coat to dry. When it is nearly dry, take your brush and lay the nap the right way of the cloth, and when quite dry, pour a small drop of oil of olives in your hand, and pass it over the brush, with which strike your coat; and, if too much oil is not used, it will give it the appearance of new.
For scouring Gray, Drab Colours, Fawns, Maroons, and all other coloured Woollens, such as Ladies' Pelisses, Mantles, Coats, &c.
Supposing the garment to be a coat, take some of the best yellow soap, and cutting it into thin slices, pour upon it a sufficient quantity of water just to moisten it. Then roll it into a bail, and rub all the greasy and dirty spots of the coat with it. Let it dry a little, and then taking warm water, dip your brush in it, and stroke off the soap; if not quite clean, proceed as before, and use your water a little hotter, rinse, at least three times, in two or three buckets or pans of water; the first of these should be blood warm, or even hotter. Hang to dry, as before directed.
For scouring party coloured Woollen, as Carpets, Hearth rugs, &c.
It is customary with the scouring trade in this metropolis to have a large scouring board; the narrowest part of the carpet is first pulled on the table, and, according to the colours that are in the carpet, either gall or soap must be used, and sometimes both. Carpets are generally drawn across a table, or scouring board, and a piece of soap is rubbed on every spot of grease or dirt. if the soap is very hard, it is customary to have a bowl of hot water by your side to dip into. The carpet must first be well beaten before it is brought to the scouring board; after all the spots have been soaped, lay the part which was first soaped, upon or across the table, then take a hard brush dipped in boiling water, and holding the brush by the middle, with the arm extended in front of the body, so as to have your full strength, rub the spots until the dirt is extracted. This is to be continued all over the carpet till the dirt is out. If the carpet should be very dirty, a solution of soap, as for blankets, must be put into your scouring tub, with hot water; then put in your carpet, and beat it out with the doll; afterwards rinse it in as many different clean waters as it may require. In the last rinsing water put a table spoonful of oil of vitriol; it will brighten the colours and make the carpet look clear, especially where reds and greens are in it.
From blue, red, and yellow, the red olives, and greenish grays are made. From blue, red, and brown, olives are made from the lightest to the darkest shades; and by giving a greater shade of red, the slated and lavender grays are made. From blue, red, and black, grays of all shades are made, such as sage, pigeon, slate, and lead grays. The king's or prince's colour is duller than usual. This mixture produces a variety of hues or colours almost to infinity. From yellow, blue, and brown, are made the goose dung, and olives of all kinds. From brown, blue, and black, are produced the brown olives, and their shades. From the red, yellow, and brown, are derived the orange, the gold colour, feuille moit, or faded leaf, dead carnations, cinnamon, fawn, and tobacco, by using three, or two of the colours as required. From yellow, red, and black, browns of every shade are made. From blue and yellow, greens of all shades. From red and blue, purples of all kinds are formed.
The names of the principal Dyeing Drugs
From this an accurate idea may be formed as to the expense of dyeing each garment, which will not exceed one eighth of the charge made by a dyer. Thus it will be seen that eight garments may be dyed and redyed at the expense charged by the trade for a single one. The names of the principal dyeing materials are alum, argol, or tartar, green copperas, verdigris, blue vitriol, roch alum, quercitron, and oak bark, fenugreek, logwood, old and young fustic, Brazil wood, braziletto, camwood, barwood, and other red woods, peach wood, sumach, galls, weld, madder of three or four sorts, safflower, savory, green wood, annatto, turmeric, archil, cudbear, cochineal, lac dye, and indigo.
If woollens are boiled in weak pearl ash and water, the greater part of the colour is destroyed. A solution of soap discharges part of the colour, and leaves the remaining more beautiful.
Volatile alkalies heighten the red colour of the madder, but they make the dye fugitive.
Remarks on Logwood Dye.
Volatile alkaline salts or acids incline this to purple; the vegetable and nitrous acids render it pale; the vitriolic and marine acids deepen it.
Lime Water.
Lime water in dyeing browns or black, especially browns, is found to be a good corrective, as also an alterative, when the goods are not come to the shade required; but practice alone can show its utility; it answers for either woollens, silks, or cottons.
Of Black.
Blacks require no preparation; but it is necessary to body them; that is, to fill up the pores of the wool, silk, or any other substance; on being put into hot water it is dilated, and the astringent qualities of the dyeing materials adhere to it, and fill up the little cavities in its pores. The articles that are generally used for this purpose are galls, sandal, sumach, fustic, alder bark, oak sawdust, &c. When the cloth, or other thing, is filled with these substances, it is then in a prepared state to take the staining or dye liquor which is generally logwood and green copperas, with alder bark, or sumach, and sometimes blue vitriol. The copperas or vitriol, joined with the vegetable astringents, form a mastic that withstands both sun and rain, which are the natural proofs of dyes; but will not stand the strong acids, these totally changing the colour from a black to a red brown.
Of Blue.
Blue is also reckoned a fast colour, when dyed either by indigo or woad in a prepared vat, this vat containing the necessary properties to seize and cement the colouring atoms. The blue, with oil of vitriol alone, never can be ranked among the fast dyes; but blues, obtained from logwood, may be made sufficiently holding to be adopted almost for general use; though in the method now practised of simply boiling the logwood with blue vitriol, the colour is easily acted upon by wind, rain, and sun. Goods for blue require no other preparation but dipping them in warm water previous to their being dipped in a vat. The reason this colour requires no preparation, is because the whole liquor of the vat, of whatever kind it may be, is impregnated with those salts that are of a proper nature to seize on the cloth, and fix itself in the pores of the substances, drawing at the same time the colouring atoms along with it; and then, on its being exposed to the air, they are consolidated together; and as the dye and the preparing salts enter at one and the same time, it follows that the colour is not only holding but regular. The same thing happens with black and other shades from this colour.
To make Chemic Blue and Green.
Chemic for light blues and greens, on silk, cotton, or woollen, and for cleaning and whitening cottons, is made by the following process: Take one pound of the best oil of vitriol, which pour upon one ounce of the best Spanish flora indigo, well pounded and sifted; add to this, after it has been well stirred, a small lump of common pearl ash as big as a pea, or from that to the size of two peas, this will immediately raise a great fermentation, and cause the indigo to dissolve in minuter and finer particles than otherwise. As soon as this fermentation ceases, put it into a bottle tightly corked, and it may be used the next day. Observe, if more than the quantity prescribed of pearl ash should be used, it will deaden and sully the colour.
Chemic for green, as above for blue, is made by only adding one fourth more of the oil of vitriol.
If the chemic is to be used for woollen, East India indigo will answer the purpose even better than Spanish indigo, and at a less price; but the oil of vitriol is good for both.
To make the Solution of Tin in Aqua Regia.
Take eight ounces of clearly filtered river water, and eight ounces of the best double aqua fortis, mix these two liquids together; then add half an ounce of sal ammoniac by degrees, taking care that one piece dissolves before you add a second, and lastly, two drachms of saltpetre; whilst this is dissolving take one ounce of refined block tin: it is to be had in small bars about the size of your little finger; put this ounce of tin into a fire pan or any iron crock, set it over the fire, and when it is melted, hold it four or five feet above your vessel, and drop it into a pan or tub of water, by which means it will fall to pieces.
Take this granulated tin, and put a small piece at a time, into the aqua regia nde as above, and when that which you put in last disappears, add more, and so continue till the whole is dissolved keep it always tightly corked for use. When finished it will be of a beautiful yellow, though if it should be white, like water, it will not be the worse for use; keep it in a cool place, as heat turns it milky and spoils it.
To make Muriatic or Bleaching Acid.
Take of sea salt8 parts
Of sulphuric acid, (Oil of Vitriol) 5 ditto
Black oxide of manganese . 3 ditto
Water 4 ditto
The muriatic acid may be had at any druggist's This acid extracts writing from paper, ink spots, iron moulds, &c. from cotton.
To make Muriate of Tin.
Take eight ounces of muriatic acid, and dissolve in it, by slow degrees, half an ounce of granulated tin; when this is done pour off the clear liquid into the bottle you mean to keep it in for use, weakening it, if required, with pure filtered river water.
Cold Indigo Vat for Silks, Woollens, &c, (French Method.)
Take four pounds of East India indigo, well pounded and sifted, put them into one gallon of vinegar, which must be set over a slow, fire, twenty four hours, to dissolve. At the expiration of this time, if the indigo is not sufficiently dissolved, pound it in a mortar with the liquor, adding now and then a little urine; afterwards put into it half a pound of the best madder. Mix these well, and pour them into a deal cask, containing sixty gallons of urine; mix well again and stir them well morning and evening for eight days, till the liquor is green, and when stirred, produces froth like other vats. It may then be worked immediately, always stirring it beforehand. This vat remains good till the dyeing matter is entirely exhausted, and will dye silks blue by dipping them in warm water, and then putting them in the vat for a longer or shorter time as the colour may be required. Deep purples and mazarine blues must first be passed through archil and hot water; then in the vat, and then in the archil, and so proceed till you have obtained the desired colour.
A vat is generally made of half a wine cask, cleanly planed out, and well washed in clean soap suds.
To prepare the sour Water used in dyeing Scarlet and Reds of all Kinds on Silks, Cottons, and Woollens.
To make fifteen gallons of sour water, boil the same quantity of clear river water, and pour it into a tub upon a peck of wheaten bran. Let the liquor rest that night, but stir it next morning, and so continue to do four or five times a day. The tub should be put in the sun, if it be in the summer, as the water will then turn quicker.
Lime water is often used: a lump of lime should be immersed in water. When it cracks or falls to pieces, it should be taken out and put it into a boiler and boiled half an hour; keep this lime liquor for use.
An Indigo Blue Vat, after the English Method.
Take from three to four pounds of the East India indigo, from two to three pounds of pearl ash, and from five to six ounces of the best crop madder; mix the pearl ash and madder together, and boil them in three fourths of the water of the vat, for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. This liquor must remain in the copper, and the fire be damped; previously to this the indigo must be cleaned and pounded in a mortar, with a bucket of hot water, with about half a pound of pearl ash. When this has stood to settle, the clear is to be poured into the vat. Then proceed as before with a like quantity of pearl ash, and so a third time if required. Then pour grounds and all into the vat. A pound or two of bran, well cleared from the flour, should be put in the bottom of the vat, and the solution of indigo poured upon it; the vat must be then stirred, observing no heat must be applied to it till it comes to a hand heat, when a little heat must be added to keep this degree of heat up. It is continued in this state until it turns green; when this appears stir it, and a coppery scum will rise on the top of the vat; this should be blown off; and if it again forms, the vat is come to work, and a pattern may be dipped in; if it strikes, make a fresh liquor with a pound of pearlashes, and two ounces of madder; pour this in, rake it well, and in two or three hours it will be fit to work.
To make an alum Tub.
It is here proper to enumerate the colours necessary to be alumed, which are, all yellows, and reds, and shades from these colours, as crimsons, maroons, bright reds, yellows, gold colours, &c. &c. Small dyers have a small tub in which three or four pounds of alum are dissolved; and in this way, a tea kettle full of boiling water is poured on the alum after it has been beaten small. When this is properly dissolved it is to be poured into a tub of cold water containing about fifteen gallons. This tub must be made narrow at the bottom, and gradually wider and wider towards the top, so that, when garments are put into it, they may be more easily opened, and spread out to receive the alum regularly. A few small sticks are to be put across the top of this tub, and a pin. But a fish hook is also to be tied to a piece of string and let down just under the surface of the alum liquor, then fastened round these sticks; if a garment is wanted to be put into this preparation liquor, it is to be raised up and down two or three times in order to wet it thoroughly. Then the widest end is hooked on to the pins, and the other end is let down into the water. If it is to remain in this liquor two hours, then, in one hour, change ends with it, so that it may receive the alum regularly. This precaution is absolutely necessary, because, f any part of the garment should receive more alum than the other parts, the dye would be uneven. For full yellows and reds, it is customary to let the silks remain in the alum tub all night; but for delicate reds two hours more or less, are enough. In cold weather it is necessary to heat this alum liquor, by adding warm water to it; and even in summer, where a quick strong aluming is required, it may be given hot, only the colour is not so bright.
N. B. All silks must be handled through warm water previously to their being put in the alum tub; this is what is called wetting out. This alum tub will keep till the acid salts of the alum are spent.
Description of various Waters, with their component Parts and Effects on different Colours.
Snow water contains a little muriate of lime, and some slight traces of nitrate of lime; rain water has the same salts in a larger quantity, and also carbonic acid; spring water most frequently contains carbonate of lime, muriate of lime, muriate of soda, or carbonate of soda. River water has the same substances, but in less abundance. Well water contains sulphate of lime or nitrate of pot ash, besides the above named salts. This information is of the most essential benefit to the art of dyeing, as from this, a judgment may be pretty accurately formed of the causes of the frequent failures in producing fine colours with certain waters; and the difference of colours, which we frequently find arising even from the same ingredients, water excepted. But any inconvenience arising from the properties of the water may be obviated by attending to these distinctions. Should the water contain a salt, or a mineral acid, in the first Instance, an acid will be requisite to neutralize it, and in the second, an alkali. Thus waters of any quality may be saturated by their opposites and rendered neutral.
A striking proof of the effects of different waters on various drugs may be seen in the instance of Brazil wood, which must be prepared with the hardest spring water, as this contains the greatest quantity of carbonate of lime, and muriate and carbonate and soda. In fact this water, which by its hardness is the most unfit for other purposes of ordinary life, is the best for Brazil wood, which will not give out the purest of its dye to any other.
For discharging Colours.
The dyers generally put all coloured silks which are to be discharged, into a copper in which half a pound or a pound of white soap has been dissolved. They are then to be boiled off. The copper beginning to be too full of colour, the silks are taken out and rinsed in warm water. In the interim a fresh solution of soap is to be added to the copper, and then proceed as before till all the colour is discharged. But for those colours that are wanted to be effectually discharged, such as grays, cinnamon, &c. when soap does not do, tartar must be used. But for slate colours, greenish drabs, olive drabs, &c. oil of vitriol in warm water must be used; if other colours, roch alum must be boiled in your copper, then cooled down and your silks entered and boiled off, recollecting to rinse them before they are again dyed. A small quantity of muriatic acid, diluted in warm water, must be used to discharge some fast colours; the goods must be afterwards well rinsed in warm and cold water to prevent any injury to the silk.
How to discharge Cinnamons, Grays, c. when dyed too full.
Take some tartar, pounded in a mortar, sift it into a bucket, then pour over it some boiling water. The silks, &c. may then be run through the clearest of this liquor, which will discharge the colour; but if the dye does not take on again evenly more tartar may be added, and the goods run through as before.
Directions for redyeing or changing the Colours of Garments, Sc. already dyed.
Upon this and other proceedings in the art, precise rules can not well be given, as the change of colour depends upon the ingredients with which the garments have been dyed. Sometimes when these have been well cleaned, more dyeing stuff must be added, which will afford the colour intended; and sometimes the colour already on the cloth must be discharged and the article redyed.
Every colour in nature will dye black, whether blue, yellow, red or brown, and black will always dye black again. All colours will take the same colour again which they already possess; and blues can be made green or black; green may be made brown, and brown green, and every colour will take a darker than it at first has. Yellows, browns, and blues are not easily discharged; maroons, reds, of some kinds, olives, &c. may be discharged. For maroons a small quantity of roch alum may be boiled in a copper, and when it is dissolved, put in your goods, keep them boiling, and probably, in a few minutes, enough of it will be discharged to take the colour intended. Olives, grays, &c. are discharged by putting in two or three table spoonfuls, more or less, of oil of vitriol; then put in your garment, &c. and boil, and it will become white. If chemic green, either alum, pearl ash, or soap, will discharge it off to the yellow; his yellow may be boiled off with soap, if it has received a preparation for taking the chemic blue.
Muriatic acid used at a hand heat will discharge most colours. A black may be dyed maroon; claret, green, or a dark brown; and it often happens that black is dyed claret, green, or dark brown; but green is the principal colour into which black is changed.
On dyeing Silks in the Small, or False
This is the mode practised by the rag dyers; though among various recipes in this work, there are many for holding colours. As to garments whose colours are changed every year, if the colour preserves its full brightness during the season, it is as much as can be required. Without enumerating the whole, I shall now describe those colours that are most easily made, and most worn in spencers, shawls, pelisses, scarfs, bonnets, gowns, &c., beginning with light blue.
Light Blue Silk.
Your silk being boiled off in white soap and water, and made quite white, must be rinsed in lukewarm water. Then, take a vessel of a sufficient size to wash your goods in; as, for instance, for a small article a wash hand bason. Pour into this a quantity of cold water sufficient to cover your goods to the depth of two or three inches. Then drop from your chemic blue bottle, one or two drops; if the shade is to be azure blue, or pale blue, these will be sufficient; but if for a darker shade more must be used. Put in your goods, and handle them from five minutes to half an hour, according to the shade required; lift up now and then with your hand, some of the dye, and letting it fall again, look through it as it falls, to see if the blue is expended; and then, according to the colour of the dye water, will be that of your silk.
Green Silks.
Greens of all shades are procured from yellow and blue. Supposing the garment to be a lady's silk spencer, and intended to be dyed a full grass green inclining to laurel, take a quarter of a pound of the best ground ebony wood, and put it in a small pan; pour a tea kettle full of boiling water on it; then stir it, and afterwards cover it with a cloth for a minute or two: strain it off; then put in your spencer, and let it remain half an hour; take it out and rinse it in its own liquor from the bits of ebony wood which may be sticking to it. Have ready at hand a small pan of cold spring water, and pour into this a table spoonful or more of chemic blue, according to the depth of colour required; rinse it in spring water, and dry in a warm room.
Some persons, to save trouble in dyeing these greens, boil the silks for five minutes in a copper kettle with about a quarter of a pound of ebony wood in a small bag; they then take out the silks and the ebony, check the boiling of the kettle with a glass of cold water, and pour in a table spoonful or more of chemic blue. The silks are then to be put in, and kept on the simmer from ten minutes to half an hour, till they come to the colour required. This is a very good method. Some put a bit of alum nearly as big as a hazel nut in with the ebony; this will make the yellow dye holding; but as it does not act on the blue, it is better omitted, that both colours may fade together. Green dyed with chemic blue is not holding; but, it is what is most commonly used for ladies' articles of dress, both silks and woollens. The green colour is much more solid, when the blue and yellow are done together in hot liquor, with a bit of alum. But the first recipe is the brightest.
False Violet, Pansy, and Colours bordering on Purple.
Purples are made by giving them a ground, or first colour, in a vat, more or less full, as you would have the shade to be. Into blood warm water, pour a sufficient quantity of archil, from half a pint to a pint and a half; and when this liquor is at a hand heat, or almost scalding hot, put in your goods, and handle them well; and, by simmering them an hour or thereabouts, you will have a pretty fine violet, or pansy, more or less full, according to the quantity of archil used; but if the colour requires to be darkened, add barilla, alkaline lye, pot ash, which will sadden it.
To make a bright Red with the same Ingredients.
Instead of adding pearl ash to your liquor, take out your goods, and put in half a wine glass of the solution of tin; stir it, put your goods in again, and boil them half an hour; take them out again, and add half a pint more of archil, and as much more of the solution of tin: put in your goods again, and boil them from ten to fifteen minutes; then take them out, and rinse in cold water. This last process will give them a fuller body. You will have a beautiful red somewhat more lasting than any other false dye. This is well calculated for ladies who can afford to change the colour of their habilaments often. A spencer or a mantle may be dyed every month throughout the year, at a trifling expense.
For dyeing Pearl Gray, on Silk.
First boil off your silk in white soap and water, and then, when clear and pure, rinse it in warm water. Supposing the article to be dyed is a silk spencer, cut rather more than a quarter of an ounce of white soap into thin slices; pour boiling water on it, and then stir and beat it well for five minutes, by which time the soap liquor will be at a hand heat; then put a small tea spoonful of chemic blue into the thin soap liquor; stir it, and put in your spencer; handle it over a quarter of an hour in this liquor, and it will be dyed.
Of Gray Silk.
Some dyers use, for such an article as a silk spencer a very trifling decoction of logwood, added to a pan of warm water; running the goods through this; and when they are deep enough of the red of the logwood, they are taken out, and passed through chemic blue in cold water; they are afterwards slightly rinsed, and dried in a warm room.
For a fast Gray, on Silk
Suppose this to be a silk spencer, pound one or two galls very fine, and pour boiling water on them; then handle your silk through this for twenty minutes, or half an hour; and, in another pan, dissolve a piece of green copperas as big as a pea, or two peas; handle your silk through this, then it will be a gray more or less full, according as the quantity of ingredients and the dyeing drugs are increased to deepen the colour. To make them of a slate colour, take another pan of warm water, and about a table spoonful of a decoction of logwood, made by boiling one or two ounces of logwood for half an hour, in a quarter of a pint of water, and a piece of pearl ash as big as a pea : run your silk through this, which finishes it.
N. B. Recollect that only a small part of the decoction of logwood must be added to the pan of water, or the colour will be too full. Wash in two or three clean waters, and dry in the air, as this is a fast colour, and will stand all manner of proof.
A little fustic added to this recipe makes an olive gray: it is sometimes necessary to use pearl ash in the saddening, or to darken it.
For a Stone coloured Silk.
Bruise one or two blue galls, and boil them for five minutes; then cool your copper down by adding cold water; enter your silk, and simmer it twenty minutes; then take it out, and rinse it in cold water. In the interim, boil a fresh copper of water, and add to it, by degrees, a small quantity of solution of copperas. This will produce a gray; then add a sufficient quantity of purple archil. Sometimes, when the stone colour is required of a red sandy cast, red archil is used.* Simmer your silk in this, a few minutes, then take it out and cool it in the air; rinse it in one or two cold waters; dry in the air, and frame it or pin it out. For stiffening the silk, you may use isinglass dissolved in hot water; and, with a sponge dipped in this, the silk must be rubbed on the wrong side, and dried by the fire.
For Slate coloured Silks.
Innumerable gradations of shades of gray may be made, by varying the quantities of ingredients in the two preceding recipes.
N. B. If the water boil too fast after the goods are put in, it may be apt to injure the silk; it is, therefore, preferable to keep it only on the simmer.
To make another brown, inclining more to a mulberry, for a Silk Pelisse.
Proceed in boiling the dyeing materials as directed above, observing to cool the liquor before you put in the goods, as well as to wet out the silks previously to their being put into the dye. Take two ounces of sumach, or instead of it, one ounce of galls. One ounce of logwood. Two or three ounces of cam wood, or madder. If these should not be sufficiently, on the mulberry, add as much purple archil as may be required.
To make a Brown inclining to a Brick colour for a Silk Pelisse, &c.
Take of Dyer's galls, two ounces. Cam wood, three ounces. Fustic, one ounce. Madder, that has been boiled for two hours, from one to three ounces, as required.
Some add a small portion of powdered argol, if it should be too red. Browns may be diversified into innumerable shades, by boiling them a longer or shorter time, or by adding different ingredients. The principal materials used in dyeing browns, are fustic, madder, red wood, cam wood, sumach, alder bark, sandal wood soot, rind of the walnut tree, walnut tree root, &c.
Fustic and alder bark being simply boiled in water, produce yellows inclining to orange. Madder changes from a red to red brown, according as it is boiled a longer or a shorter time. Red wood produces a brick coloured red, cam wood a red brown; walnut tree root, or rind, or the green rind of the walnut, gives a brown root colour.
Another Root coloured Brown, in which neither Walnut Root nor Rind are used.
Boil for half an hour from four to five or six ounces of sumach, from one ounce to three of fustic, and a quarter of an ounce of madder and a little argol: when these ingredients are boiled enough, cool your copper down, put in your goods, and handle them well twenty minutes; then take out your silk, and add two or three drachms of green copperas, to colour with. then put in your silk again, and boil it half an hour longer: take out, wash, and dry in the air. Whenever I mention boiling in dyeing silks, simmering must be understood, as positively boiling silks injures them.
It should be remembered that this hardens the silks more than any other brown colour, on account of so much sumach being used with copperas, both of which tend to harden the goods.
Another Brown, of a Greenish Yellow Cast.
Proceed as before in the boiling; and add to your copper, when it boils, a quarter of a pound of fustic, three ounces of sumach, and a small quantity of green copperas, or verdigris, and from a quarter of an ounce to half an ounce of logwood. If it be not green enough, add a small piece of blue vitriol: but sometimes the fustic, sumach, and verdigris alone, will be sufficient.
Yellow browns are dyed with fustic, alder bark, old madder liquor, and saddened in old black liquor, or copperas.
Drab colour silks are done the same way as browns, only a smaller quantity of the ingredients is used.
To make Fawn Colour Drabs.
Boil one ounce of fustic, half an ounce of alder bark, and two drachms of archil. Or I frequently make use of old madder liquor that has been used for dyeing reds, when nothing but the brown dregs of the madder remain, the red having been all extracted; but if madder be boiled an hour or two, strongly, it has the same effect. From one to four drachms of the best crop madder must be added to a very small quantity of old black liquor, if at hand, supposing you require it to be darker. If you have no black liquor, a small piece of green copperas will answer the same purpose.
To make another Drab, bordering on a Beaver Colour.
If the article to be dyed is a silk spencer, when your water boils, check its boiling, and put in half an ounce of archil, and two drachms of madder: this may be saddened by taking out your goods, and adding a piece of green copperas as big as a pea; or sadden it with pearl ash, which is preferable. This recipe does for a spencer, of two yards of silk; but, according to the colour required, you may add to or diminish the ingredients.
Another Drab, inclining to a Gray, called a Dove Colour.
Is made by using more archil. When your copper boils, put in a quarter of an ounce of sumach, boil it ten minutes, then add chemic blue and archil, according to the shade required; when your liquor is of the colour you wish, which may be seen by lifting it up, cool down your copper, put in your silks, and boil them to colour. Some dyers use Brazil, logwood, sumach, and green copperas.
The French Way of dyeing Yellow Silk.
First alum your silks, half an hour, in cold alum liquor, then wash them. Pass them through a pan of weld liquor, at a hand heat. If they are to be of a lemon yellow, dissolve a trifling quantity of blue vitriol in your pan to the colour required. If orange colour is wanting, first dye the silk buff, with annatto or turmeric, but annatto is the best; then let it be washed in cold water, and alumed afterwards for twelve hours: run through the weld liquor to the colour required.
Of Yellow Silks and Shades from the same.
There are so many ways of dyeing yellow, that I scarcely know which to begin with; and I would recommend my readers to try the different yellows, upon a small scale, as I shall give directions for so doing, remembering that a larger quantity of ingredients, in proportion, should be used, when any recipe for a larger quantity is to be reduced: for instance, let us suppose three pounds of weld dye three yards of silk, then, if one yard only is to be dyed, a pound and quarter should be used. To produce the various shades of yellow, there are more drugs, barks, leaves, flowers, roots, &c. which afford that colour, than any other; but the principal yellows and their shades, are
weld, fustic, American bark, zant, turmeric, annatto, and the bark of the ash tree. And latterly an artificial realgar or sulphuret of arsenic has been applied to the dyeing of yellow; as also has chromate of lead. There are a great many others, but these specified are most generally used.
I shall now advert to those yellows that are most used. Supposing the article to be dyed, is a silk pelisse, and is at first perfectly white, but that you intend it shall be a full bright yellow; then, at night, hook your pelisse (after it has been taken to pieces and tacked by the ends together with thread) in the alum tub; there suffer it to remain till the middle of the next day, or even till the day after, if you are not in haste; when you intend to dye it, fill your copper full of water; when it boils, put in from a pound and half to two pounds of the best weld; boil for half an hour, then take the weld out, and skim your copper, that no filth may stick to your silk, and pour in a pint or two of cold water to check its boiling; put in your pelisse, and let it remain from half an hour to an hour, taking care that the copper does not boil. When it comes to the fulness required, take it out and wash it in two or three spring waters.
Another Yellow, bordering somewhat on the Blue cast, or Lemon.
Put your silk in warm water to soak; in the meanwhile pour a pail of boiling water on a piece of blue vitriol, about the size of a marble; when this vitriol liquor comes to a hand heat, take the silk out of the warm water, squeezing it gently, and immerse it all at once in this vitriol liquor, and keep handling it over for half an hour at least, which will tinge the silk of a blue cast, though hardly perceptible; then take it out, and squeezing it gently, put it in a bag, or damp cloth, and let it remain a day or two. But if it should have what you may think too much of the blue cast, you may rinse it in lukewarm water for a minute, gently squeeze it, and put it on a plate. In the interim, boil, for half an hour, about a pound and half of weld; pour this dye liquor into a pan, and when at a hand heat put in your silk, and keep handling it well. If you should require it to be more on the green blue, you may dissolve a small piece of blue vitriol in warm water, take out your silk from the dye, and run it through this vitriol liquor, and then back again through the dye liquor, until you have the shade required. Rinse it in two or three waters.
Another Yellow, bordering on a Gold Colour.
This is the same as the first recipe given for yellow silks; only when you take out your weld add a small quantity of powdered turmeric, stirring it well in the copper for ten minutes; this will give it a gold cast: when the article is dyed, it should be slightly rinsed, and dried in doors. Some give it the turmeric first, then rinse it in cold water, and alum it, then give it the weld.
Another Yellow.
This is prepared by dipping the goods in the alum tub, for a longer or shorter time, as the colour is intended for fulness. For a very full yellow, it should remain for a day and a night in the alum tub, and sometimes longer; if for pale yellows, a shorter time.
But supposing the garment to be a gown or pelisse, and to be a full yellow, bordering on the orange, give it a full preparation, and put into your copper a pound and a half of the best weld, two ounces of the best fustic, and a quarter of an ounce of powdered turmeric; these ingredients must be boiled half an hour, then taken out, and the silk rinsed in cold water, and then put into the copper. After first cooling it down with cold water, handle it over at a hand heat, taking care to preserve the copper at this degree of heat. if the colour should not appear full enough, you may increase the heat, but it must not boil above a minute or two, as it will soon turn brown. Take out the goods, and rinse in two or three cold waters, if required. This colour and every other, where turmeric or annatto is used, should not be dried in the sun or wind.
Another orange is prepared as the foregoing, only after the silk has been twenty minutes in the dye liquor, consisting of only weld, a solution of annatto is prepared as follows: add to the liquor about a quarter of an ounce of annatto, and put it into a tea cup, with nearly an equal quantity of pearl ash and boiling water thrown on it, and well rubbed together; when entirely dissolved, take out your silks, and pour in this solution of annatto, &c. When this has boiled up, cool down your copper, put in your goods again, and simmer them for half an hour, or until the colour is even. When the colour will not take on evenly, it will be necessary to add a piece of pearl ash to the liquor in the copper. Rinse it slightly in spring water.
A most beautiful Bright, though a false Yellow.
For a silk spencer, put in a pan, of a convenient size, from one to two ounces of the best turmeric root in coarse powder, and an equal quantity of pearl ash, or the best yellow soap; pour on this a sufficient quantity of boiling river water, to make it of the consistence of treacle, or just as much as will dissolve it thoroughly. In the interim, have a pan full of hot water, in which pour your solution of turmeric and soap; handle it over in this dye liquor for half an hour, till it has taken a full orange or nasturtium colour, when it must be slightly rinsed in cold water. Lastly, having ready another pan, full of hard spring water, add to this water a sufficient quantity of oil of vitriol, enough to give your liquor a slight acidulous taste; stir it well: run your dyed silk quickly through this acidulous water, and so continue to do till the colour is of one uniform shade: that is, of a beautiful bright yellow. Dry it in a warm room.
Another very bright yellow.
A slight preparation is given by the silks remaining from two to six hours in the alum tub, as the shade may be required. In the interim boil a pound and a half of weld for half an hour; take a sufficient quantity of this liquor, and pour it into a pan, and handle your goods through for half an hour, then wash them three times in cold river water. Lastly, dip out of your copper, into your pan, some fresh weld liquor, into which pour half a wine glass full of the solution of tin; put in your silk, and handle it quickly for twenty minutes; wash out in spring water, and dry in the open air.
Another Way newly found out, for Dyeing a bright Yellow.
Take a sufficient quantity of black oak or quercitron bark, and put it into your copper; when it has boiled five or ten minutes you will be able to judge if it will require more bark. Boil this quickly for twenty minutes, then dip out a sufficient quantity to cover your silks in a pan, into which put a small quantity of muriate of tin; pass your silks through warm water, and wring them gently; then put them into this pan of dye water, and handle them with two sticks, till they are nearly cold; when cold, draw out your silks, throw your liquor away, and dip another pan full of bark liquor out of your copper into the pan; handle your silks through this also ten minutes, then add as much more muriate of tin as the colour you intend may require. Rinse out in its own liquor slightly and dry in a warm room.
Turmeric of itself affords a yellow, uno or prepared with sea salt; but it is not much used, on account of its price. Annatto affords also a yellow, bordering on the orange, when dissolved with equal parts of pearl ash, and gives its colour to silks in warm water; but it is not a lasting dye: turmeric also being dissolved with pearl ash, affords its colour in like manner. The ash and alder bark also afford a yellow as well as the root and the leaf of the dock.
Peach and pear tree bark also produce a yellow; and so does every bark and root, which, being chewed, excites an astringent taste in the mouth. Even those that have not this property will give a yellow, though not of the fast dye. Many flowers also afford a yellow dye, but of the fugitive kind. The barks and roots above mentioned are to be prepared and worked exactly in the same manner as fustic or weld. Yellows of all shades are to be dyed according to the recipes given: but must, of course, be varied to produce different shades, by using a greater or lesser quantity of preparation, and more or less dyeing stuff; which is best learned by practice.
The Artificial Realgar, before mentioned, is made thus: Take of the sulphur one part; of the white oxide of arsenic two parts; of pearl ashes five parts; let them be fused in a crucible at a heat a little below redness; a yellow mass is the result, which must be dissolved in water, and filtered. The filtered solution is to be mixed with a weak sulphuric acid, which produces a fine yellow precipitate. When washed it dissolves with great facility in water of ammonia, forming a solution at first yellow, but becoming colourless by the addition of more ammonia. The wool, silk, cotton or linen to be dyed, must be dipped in this solution more or less, according to the colour required, care being taken that no metallic vessels are used. On taking them out, they are at first colourless; but as the ammonia evaporates, they become yellow. They must be exposed to a free access of air on all sides, and then washed and dried. Wool must be left in the liquor until perfectly impregnated with it, and afterwards slightly wrung. Silks, cotton, and flax merely require immersion, and should have the excess of fluid wrung out of them. This gives all shades of yellow, and is very permanent in air; but pot ash and soap injure it; it is most advantageously used for taffeta, velvet, silk, &c.
For dyeing Silks Red of all Shades, Crimsons, &c. of a permanent Colour.
For a scarlet silk shawl; first dissolve two ounces of white soap in boiling water, handle your shawl through this liquor, now and then rubbing such places with your hands as may appear dirty, till it is as clean as this water will make it. A second, or even a third liquor may he used, if required: the shawl must be rinsed out in warm water.
Then take half an ounce of the best Spanish annatto, and dissolve it in hot water; pour this solution into a pan of warm water, and handle your shawl through this for a quarter of an hour, take it. out and rinse it in clean water. In the meanwhile dissolve a piece of alum as big as a horse bean in warm water, and let your shawl remain in this half an hour; take it out and rinse in clear water. In the interim boil a quarter of an ounce of the best cochineal for twenty minutes, then dip it out of your copper into a pan, and let your shawl remain in this from twenty minutes to half an hour, which will make it a full blood red. Then take out your shawl, and add to your liquor in the pan a quart more of that out of your copper, if you have as much remaining, and about half a small wine glass full of the solution of tin, or more if you require your colour to be of the scarlet. But observe that too much solution impoverishes the colour: when cold, rinse it slightly out in spring water.
Another Scarlet, called false Scarlet.
Clean your shawl as described in the last recipe; then dissolve from a quarter of an ounce to half an ounce of annatto in warm water; handle your shawl through this twenty minutes, take out and rinse in cold water. In the interim dissolve a quarter of an ounce of alum in hot water: when this alum liquor is at a hand heat, put in your shawl for twenty minutes; take out and rinse clean in cold water. In the meanwhile boil a quarter of a pound of ground Brazil wood for half an hour: pour this dye liquor into a pan, and handle your shawl through it for half an hour; then take it out, and add half a wine glass full of the solution of tin; put in your shawl, and handle it ten minutes longer. It must be then rinsed slightly in its own liquor, and dried in a warm room.
Some use turmeric instead of annatto; and many do not use any alum, but only a solution of tin. Then after it has had a weak liquor of Brazil, and is strongly impregnated with solution of tin, a second and stronger liquor of Brazil is prepared at a hand heat. The shawl is next immersed in this strong Brazil liquor for twenty minutes; and lastly, more solution of tin is added. In this way the colour is more bright, but less holding.
Maroon Silk.
This must be first well cleaned, then strong annatto is to be put in hot water; then washed out; then alumed, and washed out: then two galls are bruised, and boiling water poured on them. The silk is run through this liquor also. It must then be slightly rinsed through Brazil liquor, at a hand heat, and likewise in its own liquor, and dried in a warm room. This colour may be saddened by passing it through a liquor of warm water, in which a small piece of green copperas has been dissolved; and, on some occasions, the silk is passed through warm water, in which a small quantity of purple archil is mixed.
To dye Silk Crimson.
There are many ways of dyeing silk crimson; the following is a fast colour. Boil off your silk perfectly clean, and rinse it in warm water, then hook it into your alum tub for thirty six hours, take it out, and gently rinse it in cold water. In the interim boil for half an hour, or an hour if for a spencer, from a quarter of an ounce to half an ounce of finely powdered cochineal; dip this liquor boiling hot out of your copper into a pan; then put in your Spencer, and handle it for half an hour, if it is intended for a blood crimson; and, as your liquor gets cold, take fresh from the copper until it is all exhausted. This colour will of itself become a crimson, by only taking it out and rinsing in cold water; but when dried it is very dull, compared with the crimson finished chemically. Whilst your liquor is still hot, dissolve a small piece of sal ammoniac as big as a full sized pea in about halt a pint of boiling water, when this is dissolved throw in two drachms of the best pot ash, stir it quickly; drain your silk from the liquor; and add as much of this prepared alkaline solution as it may require, by first putting one quarter of it to your liquor; then handle your silk in it ten minutes: if not crimson enough, add more; when you find it crimson enough, rinse it in cold water, and hang it to dry, and this will be a crimson of the fast dye. Some dyers let it remain longer in the alum tub, and give the silk two or three hot liquors; others simmer it in the copper. These methods of dyeing are commonly termed in grain.
A false Crimson.
This is used generally in London, and elsewhere, on account of the dearness of cochineal; but some persons, instead of cochineal, use the sylvestre, or cainpessianekermes and gum lac, or the coccus, &c.; but cochineal and Brazil wood answer best, as they are generally known, and simple in their use.
Supposing the article to be a silk gown, and you wish to dye it quickly of a crimson: first, clean it well, and rinse it in a very warm water; then dissolve an ounce of alum, and when the alum water is at a handheat, put in your article, which must remain in that liquor for two hours, now and then handling it over. At the expiration of that time, take it out, and slightly rinse it in cold water. In the interim boil half a pound of ground Brazil wood, for half an hour or an hour; then pour it into your pan, and put in your goods, and handle them half an hour; then take from your copper the remaining part of your Brazil liquor, and put it into your pan, and handle here until you see your gown, &c. will not take a fuller colour. To crimson it to the shade required, add a sufficient quantity of purple archil. It may be rinsed by adding a quart or two of your dye liquor to a pan of warm water; lastly, dry it in doors.
Another Method of dyeing Crimson.
This is done by pouring boiling water on cudbear. After your silks are well cleansed, handle them through this cudbear dye for half an hour, and if not crimsoned enough, they may be saddened or made more of the violet by adding pearl ash, chamberlye, or any other alkaline solution. They must be rinsed slightly.
Another Crimson.
Pour boiling water on a sufficient quantity of purple archil, handle your silks through this for half an hour; then take them out and add such a quantity of oil of vitriol to your archil as shall be sufficient to make them of the desired shade. Some use solution of tin instead of oil of vitriol, and this makes a pretty bright red.
Crimson may also be made with madder and archil, or madder and logwood; the goods being first soaked in alum; but this is seldom used for silks, though very often for stuffs made of silk and woollen, it is also much used for Irish poplins, &c. and must he prepared with alum, and a small quantity of tartar, and then simmered in a copper after the ingredients, viz. the Brazil and madder, have been previously simmered at least for half an hour; care must be taken that they do not boil.
Another Crimson taken from the French Method of Dyeing.
Take two ounces of gum arabic, and for every pound of silk two ounces of cochineal, and the third of an ounce of agaric; and the same quantity of turmeric; mix and put them into your copper, and when they begin to boil, and the gum is dissolved, put your silk in, let it boil two hours, and then it is dyed; wash it slightly, and dry it in the shade.
N. B. The above recipe will produce a most beautiful violet, if it be dipped for a short time in a blue vat of any kind: to finish it, take it from the dye water, and when cold, rinse it in cold water; then pin it out.
To dye a Shawl Crimson.
Take about a table spoonful of cudbear; put it into a small pan, pour boiling water upon it, stir and let it stand a few minutes, then put in your silk, and turn it over a short time, and when the colour is full enough, take it out; but if it should require more violet or crimson, add a spoonful or two of purple archil to some warm water, and dry it within doors. To finish it, it must be mangled or calendered, and may be pressed, if such a convenience is at hand.
Lilacs.
Lilac may be said to be a shade of crimson, as crimson is of purple: these are only the two same colours mixed with purples in greater or lesser quantity. In the purple the blue predominates; in the violet or lilac, the red and blue are nearly alike, but in crimson the red prevails.
To make half Violet or Lilac.
For every pound of silk take one pound and a half of archil, mix it well with the liquor; make it boll a quarter of an hour, dip the silk quickly, then let it cool, and wash it in river water, and you will have a fine half violet, or lilac, more or less full.
How to prepare Safflower.
Supposing you want to prepare two pounds of safflower for your use, it must be picked with the hand, and put into a pail in which small holes have been made. When the safflower is properly divided, it must be put under a stream of running river water, and a man must continue pressing it with his hands or feet, when he will find it gives out a yellow liquor. This method must be persevered in for two or three hours, or till no more yellow can be expressed. It is here to be observed that safflower yields two colouring bodies, a yellow and a bright red, known by the name of pink or rose colour. When done, the safflower is to be taken, and opened as before, put in a pan, and an ounce or two of pearl ash must be mixed with it; when it is thoroughly mixed, let the safflower be put into a colander, a stick or two being put across a pan, and the colander put on these sticks over the pan, which is to receive the liquor that may drop from the safflower. Cold water is then to be sprinkled on the safflower by degrees, and when the latter is thoroughly impregnated with the pearl ash, it will give out a dusky red liquor. More water is then to be added and sprinkled regularly over the safflower, which is, now and then, to be pressed between the hands, to extract the remaining dye. When the safflower has given out all its dye, the liquor in the pan is used to sprinkle it with; but that the liquor may not be too weak, three pounds of good safflower need not yield above half a pail full of deep red dye. When the safflower has yielded the whole of its dye it may be lightly pressed between the hands, and thrown away. As the liquor, in the alkaline state, is useless for dyeing silk, it is customary either to use tartar or lemon juice, or some other thing having the same property, in order to turn this alkaline liquor, therefore care should be taken not to use too much pearlash in extracting the dye from the flower, but to add lemon juice, which is generally used for silk, and tartar for cotton, to this salt liquor. A sufficient portion of either of these must be used to saturate the whole alkaline salt of the dye, and then it is immediately fit for use. This dusky red colour, when saturated or turned with the acid of the tartar, is called saturated, or turned liquor, it is a custom with artificial flower makers, dyers, &c. when they have dyed the articles they want, to dip some cotton in some lemon juice, and soak it there for two or three hours; it is then taken out and gently squeezed and immersed in the remaining saturated pink liquor; in this state it turns from a dusky red to a cherry colour or a pink. The cotton is left here for three or four hours to imbibe its full portion of the dye liquor. This cotton is then hung in a warm room to dry, and is used when required as follows:
If you wish to dye a silk bonnet a light pink, cut off a piece of the dyed cotton as large as a card, which must then be immersed in a pint of warm water, in which a little pearl ash has been dissolved. After the cotton has been in this warm pearl ash water five minutes, being squeezed, it will give out all its dye; then saturate this dye water by adding to it a sufficient quantity of lemon juice. It is then fit to dye with, by adding to it either cold or warm water. Before any silk is put in, it should be well cleaned, rinsed in warm water, and dipped in a weak acid liquor, as for instance, lemon juice; then put it into the dye, and let it remain till it obtain the shade required. If for deep red, it must be held very near the fire, and a larger quantity of dye must be used.
N. B. The deep rose colours are sometimes topped, or made fuller, by passing the silk through an old cochineal liquor.
Different ways of Dyeing Peach Blossom
Clean your silks well, and rinse them in warm water, to extract the soap that may remain, then slightly alum them; next pass them through purple archil in warm water, and this will be of the colour of red violet; the silk should then be taken out, and a sufficient quantity of solution of tin added, which will immediately turn this liquor from a violet to a bright red.
Some dyers, for a silk spencer, &c. pour a quarter of a pint of archil, or less, into a small pan, and dissolve a sufficient quantity of alum, and a little tartar, which they add to this archil dye, to give it that shade of the peach blossom which may be required.
Your silk having been washed in soap and water, and rinsed in warm water, is to be dipped in this liquor till it receives the shade intended. Others do it by preparing the liquor as here directed; and add a trifling quantity of the solution of tin in warm water, passing the silk through this previous to dipping it in the dye. The quantity of solution used should be barely sufficient to acidulate the water. This colour may be done also with cochineal and safflower, and it is then fast. You may proceed as for scarlet, only adding some prepared safflower dye, and a little old cochineal liquor, if you mean to dye very deep.
To make Flesh Colours.
Flesh colours are done with cochineal. In preparing your silk, wet it first in warm water, then in warm water again, in which a small quantity of alum water, and a smaller of tartar have been dissolved. Both these together must hardly make the water taste. Then, if you have been dyeing common red with cochineal, dip a small quantity of this old dye into your pan; but if too strong, add hot water; then put in your goods, and handle them to colour. If you want them deeper, strengthen your liquor and your dye.
To dye thick Silks, Satins, Silk Stockings, &c, of a Flesh Colour.
Wash your stockings clean in soap and water, then rinse them in hot water; if they should not then appear perfectly clear, cut half an ounce of white soap into thin slices, and put it into a saucepan half full of boiling water; when this soap is dissolved cool the water in the pan, then put in the stockings, and boil them twenty minutes; take them out, and rinse in hot water; in the interim pour three table spoonfuls of purple archil into a wash hand bason half full of hot water; put the stockings in this dye water, and when of the shade called half violet or lilac, take them from the dye water and slightly rinse them in cold water; when dry, hang them up in a close room in which sulphur is burnt, [for this process, see page 17]; when they are evenly bleached to the shade required of flesh colour, take them from the sulphuring room, and finish them by rubbing the right side with a clean flannel. Some persons calender them afterwards. Satins and silks are done the same way.
To dye a Buff; inclining to a dull Orange.
This colour has been much worn of late, and is known to the trade by the name of Indian buff. There are several ways of dyeing it; the principal of which may be noted in the three following recipes.
This colour is generally applied upon cotton and silk, either woven together or separate. The first recipe is the most expensive; nor would I recommend it, excepting for a very valuable article, such as an Indian shawl or scarf, and then the dyeing materials should be first boiled; when they have given out their colour to the water, check the boiling, and put in a pattern; in five minutes it will be seen what colour the contents of the copper will afford. If such a colour as is required, put in your shawl, allowing for what alteration the lime will affect in the saddening.
For a common sized Woman's Shawl.
First clean it in soap and water, then rinse in warm water; pour boiling water on half an ounce of turmeric, and stir it well. When this dye liquor is at a hand heat put in the shawl, and handle it over for twenty minutes or half an hour; then take it out, and slightly rinse it in cold water; in the interim dissolve a piece of alum as big as a horse bean in boiling water; when this alum water becomes of a hand heat, put in the shawl, and suffer it to remain half an hour, now and then turning it over, that it may receive the alum regularly; then take it from the alum liquor, and slightly rinse it in cold water; the shawl will now have imbibed the ground colour, and the mordant of preparation. While this is performing, the dye liquor should be prepared by boiling sufficient water to dye the garment in, to which add from half an ounce to an ounce of fustic, and a drachm of powdered and sifted cochineal; when these dyeing materials have boiled ten minutes, cool down the copper or boiler by adding cold water, then put in your shawl, and simmer for half an hour; in the interim add a tea cup full of lime water to a small pan of cold water: take the shawl from the copper, rinse it in cold water till it is cold, then immerse it in this lime water, which will bring it to the shade required; lastly, rinse in cold water, and dry in a warm room; when dry it may be mangled, but calendering is preferable. Some dyers press the shawls done this way.
The cochineal and fustic liquors should not be emptied or thrown away until it is seen how the shawl dries, as this often requires to be put in again, and either more cochineal or more fustic added, as required.
I have seen the colour in the foregoing recipe much more on the brown cast. This is performed, after being dyed as described, by pounding a small gall, and pouring boiling water on it. This liquor must remain half an hour to extract the properties of the gall, when let it be strained off; put in the shawl, and handle it over about twenty minutes; take it out, and add a tea spoonful of copperas water to a pan of cold water, through which pass the 1, will be saddened to the shade required.
A much shorter Method than the last, but the Colour is not so fine or bright.
For a common sized silk shawl, boil, for half an hour, from one to two ounces of weld; take this dye liquor, and put it in a pan, to which add a quarter of an ounce of alum, when dissolved put in the shawl for half an hour; draw it out, and rinse it in cold water; in the mean time dissolve a quarter of an ounce of annatto, with an ounce of pearl ash, in a tea cup of water; add this solution to a small pan of warm water; put in the shawl, and keep handling it for half an hour at least; then take it out and pass it through lime water, then back again through the annatto, and again through the lime water; lastly, rinse it in cold water, which finishes it. Dry in a warm room, and send it to a calenderer's.
This colour will wash well if a small quantity of pearl ash be used with the soap liquor, and it be at last rinsed in pearl ash and water.
For dyeing Indian Buff.
This colour is dyed by giving the silk or cotton a ground colour of fustic, which colour is saddened with lime; a fresh copper is prepared with old madder liquor, into which the silk is to be dipped now and then. It must afterwards be returned into the fustic liquor, and, at last, saddened in lime water. It is somewhat singular that it is necessary that lime should be used to produce the shade of Indian Buff. There are other means of procuring this shade, but those already specified are the principal. The precise quantity of ingredients can not be given, but it must depend on the judgment of the person performing this process.
London Smoke Colour.
There are several ways of dyeing this colour; it is, in fact, a full bodied gray brown. It may however be termed a dingy shade of black, and is of the colour of smoke ascending from chimneys where coals are burnt.
For a silk Spencer, boil in your copper about two ounces of round sumach, and add a very small quantity of archil: then dip out into a pan, and handle your silks after they are well cleaned for about twenty minutes; lastly, add a small portion of old black silk, cotton, or woollen liquor, and handle ten minutes longer; but in the want of black liquor, &c. copperas being dissolved, will answer as well.
On Dyeing Blacks and Brown.
It is immaterial how great the quantity of dyeing materials are, which is used in dyeing either black or brown, so that it is according to proportion. For blacks I would always advise a good body for finishing.
For a Black Silk Gown.
When your copper boils, put in half a pound of alder bark, and a gall, or two, bruised; boil (or simmer) your silks in this for one hour; then take them out and cool them well, by hanging them up in the air. In the interim, add a piece of green copperas, as big as a small horse bean; when this is dissolved, cool down your copper, by adding cold water, and put in your goods, keeping your copper on the spring for half an hour, all the while handling your goods over with a stick: this is what is called bodying, stuffing, or preparing the silks to receive the black dye. Then draw them out again, and cool them and wash them. In the interim, add to your copper six ounces of fustic, half a pound of logwood, and a quarter of a pound of alder bark; put in your goods, and simmer them one hour. After handling them well, draw them out, and add half an ounce of green copperas, and two ounces of logwood; put in your goods again, and simmer for two hours. If the liquor in the copper, on the goods being taken out, does not appear of a jet black, more green copperas must be added, and boiled half an hour, taking care not to boil the liquor with too much copperas. If the silks should be wanted of a blue black, a little more logwood, and a small lump of blue vitriol should be added, and the silk may remain in the copper all night, if the copper is not wanted. Next morning, wash and dry.
N. B. You may add a little more fustic, or rather less logwood, as this recipe specifies.
Should the silks appear rusty, or what is known to the dyers by the name of copper burnt, or foxy, it is customary to pass them through warm water into which about half a tea spoonful or less of oil of vitriol has been thrown; this will leave the silk of a beautiful raven black. If the silk is a soft and thick one, you may make a thin soap lather, and pass it through; but this must not be done when it has been passed through vitriol. And if care be taken to boil the silk in this process, without any of these alternatives, it will be a most beautiful black, and wear a long while. The oftener the silks are taken out and cooled, the blacker they become.
Observe bullock's gall and hot water are preferred; but the silk must be cooled from the dye liquors before it is rinsed in gall water, that the dye may be consolidated.
For Dyeing Silk Stockings Black.
These are dyed like other silks, excepting that they must be steeped a day or two in bark liquor, before they are put into the black silk dye. At first they will look an iron gray; but to finish and black them, they must be put on wooden legs, lain on a table, and rubbed with your oily rubber, or flannel, upon which is oil of olives, and then, the more they are rubbed the better. Each pair of stockings wil require half a table spoonful of oil, at least, and half an hour's rubbing to finish them well. Sweet oil is the best in this process, as it leaves no disagreeable smell.
For Dyeing Straw and Chip Bonnets.
Chip hats being composed of the shavings of wood, are stained black in various ways. First by being boiled in strong logwood liquor three or four hours, they must be often taken out to cool in the air, and now and then a small quantity of green copperas must be added to the liquor, and this continued for several hours. The saucepan or kettle that they are dyed in may remain with the bonnets in it all night; the next morning they must be taken out and dried in the air, and brushed with a soft brush. Lastly, a sponge is dipped in oil, and squeezed almost to dryness; with this the bonnets are rubbed all over, both inside and out, and then sent to the blockers to be blocked.
Others boil them in logwood; and, instead of green copperas, use steel filings steeped in vinegar; after which they are finished as above.
For Dyeing Straw Bonnets Brown.
Take a sufficient quantity of Brazil wood, sumach, bark, madder, and copperas, and sadden according to the shade required. See also the Cotton Dye for Browns.
For Dyeing Straw Bonnets Black.
Wash the bonnet in a little warm chamberlye and water, rinse it in cold water, and take for one bonnet about a quarter of a pound for each, alder bark, and logwood. Boil the bonnet in this liquor one or two hours; then take it out, and add a small piece of blue vitriol, as big as a small tick bean; enter the bonnet, and boil for half an hour longer; then take it out, cool it in the air, and add two ounces of fustic chips; boil these half an hour, then put in the bonnet again, and put in, at the same time, a piece of green copperas, as big as a small bean: boil again for one hour, take the bonnet out, and cool it in the air; and, if the liquor remaining in the boiler or copper be of a jet black, you may put in the bonnet, and let it remain all night; but if the liquor be not quite black, add a handful more of bark, and a little logwood and green copperas. The next morning take out your bonnets and dry them in the air; when dry brush them with a soft brush, and afterwards rub them with an oily cloth (called by the trade an oily rubber); lastly, send them to the blocker's to be blocked. If this recipe he attended to, the bonnet will be a most beautiful raven black. It is customary with some at dyers to steep them in oak saw dust one night previous to their being dyed, which is a good method, and generally esteemed; more copperas may be used than is here specified: it may be used in the copper before the article is dyed.
For Dyeing and Cleaning Feathers.
Feathers, to be dyed, must first be cleaned, by passing them through, or between the hands, in warm soap and water, and by giving them fresh liquors of soap and water, and at last rinsing them in warm water. Previously to their being dyed, it is necessary that they should be soaked in warm water for several hours. The same degree of heat should be kept up, but the water must be but little more than blood warm. If for yellows or reds, they must be alumed in cold alum liquor for a day or two, according to the body of colour you require the feathers to imbibe; then immerse them in your dye liquor.
For some drab colours, it will be necessary to use the alum water at a blood heat: its being too hot would injure the feathers. For dyeing browns, archil, &c. are used instead of woods, barks, &c.; cudbear is also used. After a feather has been dyed any dark brown or other dark colour, its nature is lost, and consequently its texture. It is unprofitable for the wearer to redye them, and difficult even for a dyer to perform. A feather by being beaten across the hand soon dries; by this means feathers are as easily dyed as silk or woollen, and there i a greater certainty of obtaining the desired shade. The only difficulty in dyeing feathers is in compounding the dyeing materials, and making a homogeneous liquor of them, so as to produce the desired shade, after being saddened or made of a dark colour by means of green copperas, which is generally used to darken brown grays, blacks, slate colours, &c. Sumach and fustic, or sumach alone, is the general ground of browns; the red, as 1 have before observed, is obtained by archil; and the black hue by green copperas, in warm water; after the feather has been put into the copperas water, it may be returned again into the dye water, and back again into the copperas; but care should be taken each time that the feather is rinsed from the copperas water, before it is again returned into the dye liquor, otherwise the copperas would spoil it. Care also should be taken not to use too much copperas in saddening colours, as it injures the texture, and prevents the colour from appearing bright; and if the ground colour be not of a sufficient body, the saddening or copperas will make it uneven.
The same preparation as would dye silk of the same colour, will dye feathers; in short, feathers as well as silk, being animal substances, are more alike in nature than any other two bodies, either animal or vegetable. You must remember, that in dyeing silks the water is used hot, or on the simmer, for most colours; but feather must always be dyed in cold liquors, except for black, the dyeing materials being first boiled, and then let to cool; your feathers must then be put in, and when this liquor is exhausted add a fresh one, pouring off the old liquor. For dyeing feathers black, the same liquor as for silk must also be used, but with this difference, that for the feathers, the dyeing materials must be boiled for two hours, and then used as warm as the feathers will bear, heating the liquor four or five times. It often hapIs however obtained by means of the silk blue vat. The feathers should be well cleaned in soap and water, then rinsed in warm water. By these means the feathers will be sufficiently soft; next boil as much water as will serve to dye it, to which add (for one feather) half a tea cup full of purple archil; simmer the feather twenty minutes, until it is of the full violet colour, then take it out of this dye, and immerse it in the vat. According to the shade required, so deep must be the shade of the violet; a full violet, by remaining in the vat long enough, will dye a full blue.
There are various, other ways of dyeing blue on feathers; for instance: clean the feathers as described in the preceding recipe, and, when your water boils, throw in a tea spoonful of tartar, and as much chemic blue as will dye the desired shade of blue. Cool down the copper by means of cold water, and put in the feathers, and keep the water much below a hand heal, and you will have a blue of the brightest dye, morn or less full, but of the false dye.
Another Recipe. Use blue vitriol and logwood, as before described for silk and woollen, at a blood heat; this also is a false colour, but very bright.
Brown Feathers,
Next require our consideration. Neither camwood, barwood, nor the other woods will do; madder, archil, walnut root and rind, and green copperas are used; brown being a shade of black, and such a number of combinations entering into it, must be dyed as black is, only not adding the copperas, till the feathers have been one or two days in the liquor. The copperas, in the brown, serves to blacken them. Galls and sumach are always used for browns. If for red or brown, madder, archil, &c. are mostly used, and saddened by copperas. In fawn colours, bright root colours, &c. fustic is also used; but for chocolate, coffee, &c. yellow is omitted; and consequently fustic, or other yellow dyeing materials are not requisite. If the stem or quill is required to be stained, the feather must remain longer in the dyewater, and a little heat may be applied.
For Orange, Moidore, &c.
These colours are very simple, and are produced by annatto and pearl ash, which dye the feathers of a buff colour; they are reddened or oranged by means of acids, as vinegar, cider, lemon juice, tartar, and bran water.
Oil of vitriol, &c. are also used, and especially vinegar, being the most simple; green copperas is also applied as a corrective: thus annatto arid turmeric are used in dyeing bright reds and scarlet, as they redden by means of the acid liquor, and, at the same time add beauty and fulness to the colour.
Chocolate and full rich Browns.
These are produced by archil), logwood, and sumach, boiled together, and the liquors heated at different times. The feather must be dipped as hot as it will bear, without injuring its texture. Fustic is also used when for chocolate brown, and copperas and, sometimes, pearl ash in the saddening.
To clean Black Feathers.
Pour a pennyworth of bullock's gall into a wash-hand basin; pour warm water on this, and run your feathers through it; rinse in cold water, and finish them as you would other feathers.
To clean Brown, Fawn Colour, and White Feathers.
All these colours are cleaned after the same method. Suppose a plume of three feathers is to be done, take a large sized wash hand basin, cut two ounces of pure white soap into thin slices, and pour boiling river water upon it; add to these a piece of pearl ash, as big as a pea: when this soap water comes to a hand heat, keep passing your feathers through it, and draw them gently between the hand. When this liquor is spent, a second must be made of half the quantity of soap, but of an equal quantity of ashes; as at first, you must run your feathers through this liquor, and, a last, rns them in cold water, and beat them across the left hand, holding the feathers in your right; and thus, by continuing this ten minutes, the feathers will be nearly dry: then, with a fruit knife, or any other round edged knife, take oner two of the fibres at a time, and scrape them with a knife, turning them round as you want the curl to be; Then, if wanted flat, put in a large book to press.
For Cleaning Copper or Brass Utensils used for Dyeing.
After you have been dyeing any colour in your copper or brass boiler, it is frequently tinged with the dye used; it is therefore customary to clean these utensils out with a small quantity of oil of vitriol and water, a little fine sand, or ashes, and a coarse flannel cloth; it must afterwards be rubbed quite dry.
How to take the Stain of the dye from the Hands.
Take a small quantity of the oil of vitriol and pour it into some cold water, in a wash hand basin, and wash your hands in it without soap; the dye will then come off. You may afterwards cleanse them completely in hot soap and water, taking care that all the acid is washed away before the soap is applied.
To take of the Stains of Light Colours, Reds, Greens, Blues, &c. from the hands.
Wash your hands in soap and water, in which some pearl ash is dissolved.
N. B. if the vitriol water is not made very strong, it will not injure the most delicate hand, nor leave any red or coarse appearance.
There are several ways of preparing a copperas vat. The following is the best.
Dissolve twelve ounces of the best Spanish indigo in three quarters of a pint or a pint of soap boiler's lye; this will be a day and a half dissolving, and should be effected over a slow fire in an earthen pot. In another vessel put two ounces of slacked and sifted lime, with three pints of water; boil this a quarter of an hour, and dissolve in the clear lime water, twelve ounces of green copperas; let these two solutions remain till next day: then put into a deal cask, with one of the heads knocked out, eighteen or twenty gallons of clear river water, blood warm. In the meanwhile add your solution of indigo, lime and copperas together; stir them well.
Before you pour your water into the cask, a double handful of bran should be thrown in, and the whole of the warm water thrown upon it. Then add your three solutions, well stirring them for a quarter of an hour; let the mixture rest, and, in the summer season, it will be fit for use in three or four hours.
Be cautious in seeing that the soap boiler's lye dissolves the indigo perfectly before you mix it in the vat: for, if it is not in perfect solution, it will neither rise nor work. It may be known to be in a state of perfect solution by its raising and thickening the lye, by its remaining suspended in it, and by making it of the thickness of oil. This vat may always be worked the next day; and when the ingredients are all spent with continual working, it may be replenished by adding a small quantity of copperas dissolved in lime water, and the same of indigo dissolved in an alkaline liquor, made with soda, pot ash, &c. &c. &c. This vat may be made of any size by including more ingredients, such as lime, copperas, pearlash, and indigo; and may also be decreased in size to the bigness of a quart, only observing to proportion your ingredients as you decrease it in size.
Some dyers add to this vat a quart or two of water of old iron, put into some vinegar and water to rust.
They also boil or simmer for five minutes two or three ounces of madder in three pints of water, and, when at about a hand heat, they throw this clear madder dye into the vat, and rake it; after this, it is fit to be used. Upon the whole, these additions are to be preferred.
N. B. It is impossible to fail in making this vat, provided you take care to dissolve your indigo thoroughly. It will then turn on the green cast. Some dyers put an equal quantity of potash, lime, and copperas, regularly incorporated together, and then pound and sift the indigo over the vat; you must stir it well, and let the vat rest a day or two, then stir it again; some think the indigo is better mixed and divided this way.
For Bleaching Cottons.
Cottons are bleached and made white by running them through muriatic acid and water; the dyeing of them is somewhat similar to silk. It would be impossible to give recipes for every shade, as this would fill a large volume; but the reader is reminded, that from the chief colours already described, every hue and shade may be produced. The recipes which follow, are for the colours most commonly wanted.
To dye Blue on Cotton and Muslin.
The theory of this is described in the directions for giving the azure to counterpanes. You must first wet out your cottons in warm water, and hang them in your vat; this is done by having a stick put across it. Having strings pinned to the articles, hang them on the sticks, and let them down an inch or two below the surface of the liquor: your cottons are to remain in it a longer or shorter time, as required, now and then taking them out and changing ends, that the dye may take on evenly. When your article is dyed, take it out and rinse it in cold water.
As it may not be convenient for housekeepers in general, to erect a blue vat for the purpose of dyeing their muslins and cottons, the following is a method of dyeing those substances with chemic blue; the recipe for making which, will be found at page 27. This blue is not a fast colour, but answers for many purposes.
Take some chemic blue, put it into a pan of convenient size, but large enough to hold twice as much as you intend to use, in order that there may be room to stir it; add some pot ash, or other alkali by degrees, till, after several trials, you find it does not taste sour, or until the acid is entirely saturated or neutralized. Take of this neutralized liquor enough to dye what goods you require, and put it into a tub of water, about blood warm, and by dipping a small piece of cotton into it, you may judge of the depth of the colour.
To dye with this Chemic Vat, for so it is called, first wet out your goods in warm water, then immerse them in dye water, and handle them to the shade required.
Blue, when dyed this way, should be dried in a warm room; if book muslins, they must be pinned out; if cotton furniture, it must be made stiff with starch or flour, and afterwards be glazed, sleeked, mangled, or calendered.
Remarks on this Dye. .If the acid of the vitriol is not overcome by the pearl or pot ash, the goods worked in this dye will be rotten; the liquor should rather have a salt than an acid taste, and then you will be sure of its working well; but the nearer you can bring it to neutralization the better will be the effect.
To dye a Puce Colour on Cotton.
Boil the cotton in archil to a full violet, then handle it quickly through your blue vat; it must then be taken from the vat, rinsed, and passed through weak sumach water, and saddened in copperas.
For a Red Puce. Soak your gown, &c. in hot water with half a pound of sumach all night. Take it out next morning, and rinse it in cold water; then pour half a pailful of boiling water on a pound of purple archil; handle your goods through this for half an hour. If it be too blue for the shade required, dissolve about a quarter of an ounce of alum in water; run your goods through this to the shade required. If it should now be too red, have a pan with warm water in which a small hit of pearl ash has been dissolved, and it will blue again to colour.
For Slate coloured Cotton.
First wash your cotton clean in soap and water, and rinse in warm water; then put a half pound of sumach in a sieve, and pour boiling water over it, and let it drain into a pan; put in your article, and let it steep for two hours, now and then handling it, that it may take the colour evenly; then take it out and immerse it for five minutes in a pan of warm water, in which a quarter or half an ounce of green copperas has been dissolved. It will then be a lead gray, more or less full. But, to turn it on the blue slate, draw your gown from that liquor, and run it through a decoction of weak logwood liquor, made by boiling an ounce of logwood chips, in a quart of water, with a small bit of pearl ash, and throwing it into a pan of warm water; handle the gown in this till it comes to the shade required; wash and dry it in the air.
To make the above a lavender shade, put a small quantity of Brazil wood in with the logwood.
Another Gray, called Pearl or Silver Gray.
Fill your copper or boiler half full of river water; when it boils take out half a pailful, and strain it through a quarter of a pound of sumach; put in your gown to steep in this liquor for half an hour. In the mean time throw a handful of wheaten bran into the copper, and boil it five minutes, then put two drachrns of powdered alum into your copper. This will throw up all the scum, which must be taken off carefully with a bowl; take out your goods from the sumach liquor, wash them clean in cold water, put them again into the copper, and let them simmer ten minutes, having previously boiled two or three ounces of logwood for half an hour with a quarter of an ounce of pearl ash. This decoction should be boiled some time before it is used, and kept in ajar. A small quantity of it is to be added to the bran water in the copper; cool down your copper, put in your goods, and let them simmer, handling them well, and adding the decoction to the colour required; lastly, take them out, and let them be rinsed slightly, and dried in a warm room.
Every gradation in the shades of slates or grays is made as in the foregoing recipes, by adding a larger or smaller quantity of dyeing materials.
For an Olive Green.
Let the article be first washed in soap and water, then wetted out in warm water; then boil two ounces of chipped logwood, and three ounces of chipped fustic together for half an hour; dip out your dye liquor, and put it into a pan with hot water; put in your goods; dissolve two drachms of verdigris in a teacupful of warm water, which put into a pan of cold water; take your gown from the dye, and run it through the verdigris water, well handling it for ten minutes; take it out and wash it in clean water, then through the dye liquor, and again in the verdigris water, and so continue this process till you obtain the colour required, only taking care to wash it out of the verdigris water before you put it into dye liquor: dry it in the shade.
For Yellow Cottons.
To make a lemon yellow, first wash your article well in soap and water, then rinse it in warm water. For every yard of stout cotton, dissolve a piece of blue vitriol as large as a horse bean, in boiling water; and, when the water is at a hand heat, put the cotton in, and handle it well for half an hour. In the interim take a quarter of a pound of weld for every yard of cotton, and boil it well for half an hour; dip the liquor out in a pan, and handle your cotton through this till it comes to the fulness required; take it out to cool, and when cold, wash it out and dry in the air.
For a full Yellow.
Wash your goods well in soap and water, and rinse in warm water; then dissolve from a quarter to half an ounce of alum in a pan of boiling water; when at a hand heat, put in your goods, and let them remain for two hours, handling them now and then; boil a sufficient quantity of weld, and dip the liquor out in a pan; take your goods from the alum water, and put them into the dye, and handle them well for one hour, or till they come to the shade required; wash and dry in the air.
Another Yellow, supposed to stand all Manner of Proof.
First wash the articles in soap and water, then rinse in warm water, and boil together equal parts of sugar of lead and alum, say a quarter of an ounce of each to a yard of cotton; handle your goods well through this, then take out and wring every part alike. If care be not taken to make the cotton to receive the preparation evenly, the dye will be much fuller in one place than in another. Next put into your copper one pound of weld, and boil it strongly for one hour; dip your weld liquor out in a pan, and handle your goods well through it, at a hand heat, till they come to the colour required: wash and dry in the air.
N.B. Handle your cottons through this liquor for half an hour at least.
For a Gold Colour.
The articles must be washed, as above, with soap and water, and you may use, or not use, a small quantity of sugar of lead with your alum; after preparing, boil with weld, to every yard of cotton, a quarter of an ounce of turmeric; pour liquor into your pan, and handle your goods as directed: wash and dry in the air.
For an Orange Colour.
The process in this is the same as above, only instead of turmeric, put in the same quantity of Spanish annatto dissolved in pearl ash and warm water; when this is done, throw it into your copper, then dip it into a pan, and proceed at a hand heat, as for yellows. Dry in a warm room. Some dyers run it through weld for half an hour before they add the solution of annatto.
Nasturtium.
This is the same as orange, only not so strong of weld liquor, but rather more so of annatto and pearlash.
For Red Cottons.
Let your gown, or other article be washed in soap and water, and rinsed in warm water; then take a quarter of a pound of sumach and run some boiling water through it into a pan; steep your gown in this for two hours; dissolve two ounces of alum in a pan of hot water; take your gown and wash it clean out of the sumach and put it into the alum water, and let it remain in it two hours at a hand heat, handling it often; put in your copper one pound and a half of peach wood, and a little Brazil wood; boil these well for half an hour; strain your liquor through a sieve into a pan; take your gown out of the alum, and give it a slight rinse in cold water; put it into the pan of dye liquor, and handle it at a hand heat for half an hour or an hour, still adding fresh liquor out of your copper, till it comes to the fulness required; wash it in the clear of the dye liquor, and dry it in a warm room.
For another Red, inclining to Crimson.
Wash well in soap and water as before, then clear in warm water, and afterwards in sumach liquor for two hours, or, if for a crimson, all night. Now add to your copper, one pound and a half of peach wood, and let it boil half an hour, till the colour is extracted; then add a sufficient quantity of logwood decoction to the pan in which you have drawn off your liquor from the copper to the colour required; put in your gown, and handle it well for half an hour, at a hand heat, and you will find it a good colour. But to make it a full crimson, add more of the logwood decoction, with a small piece of pearl ash, and dry in a warm room.
N. B. Logwood decoction is made by boiling half a pound of logwood in two quarts of water, and a small quantity of pearl ash.
To make a bright Red, inclining to Scarlet, for a Gown, &c.
Wash the article well in soap, and clear it in warm water; then take two or three ounces of sumach, and pour boiling water on it in a pan; let the article steep for two hours in this liquor, well handling and squeezing it with your hand; take it out and wash it well with cold water; next put it into strong alum water for two hours, again well handling and squeezing it with your hands, so as to make it strongly imbibe the alum all over. In the mean time have your copper three parts full of hard spring water, in which put three drams of tartar; when the water becomes hot put in a quarter of a pound of ground Brazil, and let it boil well for half an hour; strain off the liquor in a pan; when it comes to a hand heat, put in the article and handle it well for half an hour; then take it out, and add to the liquor in the part the half of a wine glass frill of solution of tin in aqua regia, stirring it well, and it will instantly become a bright red, bordering on scarlet. Put in your article again for ten minutes; rinse in its own liquor, and dry in a warm room.
N. B. Some dyers put in tartar or bran water to harden it. When this is first put into the copper, as the Brazil will not give out its colour but to hard water, you may put a small quantity of purple archil into your pan before you use the solution of tin. Some dyers think that archil gives it a richer colour.
For a Madder Red.
Some dyers use the best madder for red cottons, and put in the pan, at a hand heat, some Brazil liquor.
For a Red Shawl, inclining to Crimson.
First wash your shawl in hot soap and water, and rinse in warm water. Into this put two or three ounces of sumach at a hand heat, for twenty minutes. In the interim, boil two ounces of madder for about twenty minutes, or simmer for half an hour. Next put your shawl in a liquor, consisting of two ounces of alum dissolved in boiling water, and handle it now and then. After keeping it in for one or two hours, drain it, and let it cool; then rinse it slightly in cold water, and draw your madder liquor from the copper into a pan; put in your shawl, and handle it for twenty minutes, or longer. If it require to be fuller coloured, dip out of your Brazil tub half a pint or less of fermented Brazil liquor, and add to your madder liquor in the pan. When dyed enough, take it out, rinse it in cold spring water, and hang to dry.
To dye Cotton Scarlet two Ways, and on a Plan that has not long been generally known.
For a shawl, rinse in soap and water, and wash it out in warm water; then boil two ounces of sumach, four or five minutes in water, and pour the liquor into a pan. When at a hand heat, handle your shawl through it for ten minutes; take out your shawl, and when cold rinse it well in cold spring water. In the mean while clean your copper or boiler, and put in a sufficient quantity of spring water, and a very small quantity of white tartar; boil for five minutes, and cool down your copper, having previously passed your shawl through a solution of turmeric in hot water, and having again rinsed it in cold water, put it into the copper, when at a hand heat, and immerse it five minutes; take out your shawl, which will be somewhat impregnated with the acid of the tartar; then put of the saturated (or turned) liquor of the safflower, 'as much as you may require into a pan; if the pearl .ash should not be sufficiently overcome by the tartar or lemon juice, a little more tartar may be added to the pan; then put in your shawl and handle to the colour required: some use acids to rouse it, if necessary.
Lac lake and lac dye, afford also scarlets on cotton as well as on silk and woollen. See forward on Dyeing Woollen Scarlet.
A Plum coloured Cotton.
The article for this must be boiled in purple archil, and passed through the vat to the shade required: then through archil; and when cold, rinsed in cold water. If this should be too blue, it may be rectified by passing it, to the colour required., through warm water, in which a drop or two of oil of vitriol has been added: sometimes, as for reds, sumach is first given. if for very light blues, put into a pan half full of warm water, a sufficiency of the liquor of the vat, and the cotton may be dipped herein to colour.
False Purple, Plum Colour, &c. on Cotton.
This is done by passing the goods through strong alum liquor for about two hours; then put into your copper about a quarter of a pound of logwood; boil them half an hour; cool down your copper, put in your article, and simmer it for half an hour; then add pearl ash, which will sadden it to the depth of colour required. All gradations of shades may be made this way, from the violet, the pansy, &c. to the darkest purple.
Another Method.
Put archil and pearl ash in your copper, and this, kept at a hand heat, dyes nearly the same colours.
N.B. No blues, purples, plums, &e. are half so fine as those dyed in a vat.
Brown Cottons.
Wash your cottons well in soap and water, then rinse them in warm water; pass them at a hand heat, through sumach in a pan for an hour; take them out and rinse, and pass them through alum water for twenty minutes. In the meanwhile boil braziletto in your copper for half an hour; cool it down, put in your goods, and keep the liquor at a hand heat till it has taken the desired redness; then take out the goods and handle them through a pan of warm water, in which a little green copperas has been dissolved. In the meanwhile add madder, cam wood, or red wood to your copper, with more sumach, if required, for half an hour; then cool down your copper, and keep it at a hand heat; lastly put in your cottons, and boil it to colour.
Another Brown.
Supposing the article a gown, you must wash it and rinse it in warm water. Then boil a quarter of a pound of sumach, one ounce of madder, and three ounces of fustic, saddened by green copperas. When dissolved and thorougly mixed with the liquor, cool down your copper and put in your gown; keep the copper at a hand heat. Some use a great body of archil in dyeing these browns: by these different ingredients the shades may be varied without end.
Walnut root, and the green rind of walnuts, &c. are used for dyeing cottons brown; so are logwood and sumach in dyeing chocolate, &c. which are saddened by copperas. When the browns are too red and dull, it is customary to add a very small quantity of red tartar, which clears them.
To dye a Cotton Gown Black.
The recipe that follows, I consider the best for black cotton; but I have dyed black various ways. the first method I followed for a considerable time; but oak dust gives the greatest body.
For a gown, take half a pint of ground sumach, put it into a sieve, and place it in a pan; then pour boiling water on it, and let the sumach water run into the pan; put in your gown, and let it steep for six hours; dissolve two ounces of green copperas in another pan of cold water, into which put the gown; handle it well, and let it remain for two hours; then take it out, and slightly rinse it; next take about three or four ounces of good slacked lime; put this in a pan of cold water, and let it stand for a quarter of an hour; pour off the clear, into which put your gown, and handle it well for ten minutes; take it out and wash it; prepare your copper with half a pound of chipped logwood, and one pound of fustic; boil these half an hour; then cool your copper, and put in your gown for half an hour; take it out and add an ounce or more of copperas; put in the gown again for half an hour; take it out, cool it, put it in again for twenty minutes, taking care to handle it well all the time; then take it out, wash it, and dry it. If it should not dry so black as you wish, leave your liquor in the copper, and add a little more copperas and chipped logwood, and boil it again for an hour, handling it well all the time: if it should not appear to have body enough, add an ounce or two of sumach and a little copperas; should the gown when dry have too much purple, put a small quantity of alder bark, and simmer again for one hour, and add a small quantity of copperas, if necessary.
Observe, more copperas may be added; but if once the dye is poisoned with using too much copperas, not only the texture of the cotton will be injured, but the woods will not give their colour, and a good black can never be made.
For another Black.
First clean your cotton well with bullock's gall and warm water, then rinse in warm water. In the interim take two ounces of chalk or whiting, put them into your copper with half a peck of oak sawdust, and eight or ten gallons of river water; boil these together half an hour; then draw off the clear liquor into a pan, into which put your gown, and let it remain for twenty four hours, if you have time; if not, let it remain a night, handling it now and then; then take it out. In the mean time dissolve from one to two ounces of green copperas; run your gown through this for half an hour, then rinse it clean in cold water; next boil together in your copper half an ounce of sumach, three quarters of a pound of fustic, and half a pound of logwood, for half an hour; cool down the copper, and put in your gown; let it simmer for half an hour, taking care to handle it well; take it out and add half an ounce of copperas; let it boil five minutes; cool down your copper, put in your goods and let them simmer for an hour; then take them out, wash and dry them, and let the dye liquor remain in the copper till you see whether your gown dries black enough; if not, put it in again, add one ounce or two more of logwood, a pinch of sumach, and a very little copperas; simmer these for an hour, or longer, as you may see occasion. Be sure to keep your goods well stirred in the copper, turning them over with your clothes stick. Your copper must always be cooled down before you put in either your cottons or silks, and not be kept boiling, but only in the spring, or ready to boil.
To dye Linen, Cotton, and Thread, black, after the French Method.
First steep them in galls or sumach six hours; then alum them strongly, dip them in a weld liquor, and make a strong decoction of logwood in your copper, to which add a quarter of a pound of blue vitriol for every pound weight of the substances to be dyed. Your goods must be well washed in cold water, but not wrung hard. They must be afterwards dyed in madder, using half a pound of this dye for every pound weight of goods to be dyed. The articles must then be dipped in a boiling soap liquor, handled ten minutes, and dried in the air.
Cotton velvets are dyed as plain cottons are, and silk velvets as plain silks; both are finished by being pinned out, and then well brushed backwards and forwards before or near a fire, or in a warm room. Crapes are finished by being passed through a little gum, or red leather cuttings; size them well, beat them between the hands, and let them be pinned out as on a frame.
To finish Cotton and Silk Velvets.
This is done by brushing them almost dry, near a fire; and, if pinned out on a table, (for want of a frame), rub them with a hard brush to and from you, till the nap or plush is raised upright, and every hair appears to stand in its place. Velvets are seldom stiffened; when they are, a small portion of gum or isinglass must be dissolved in water, and lightly rubbed on the wrong side of the velvets, with a sponge wrung almost dry.
Of The Garden Woad, or pastil Vat.
A copper set to work as near as possible to the vat, must be filled with water that has stood some time; Or, if such water is not at hand, a handful of dyer's woad, or hay, is added to the water, with eight pounds of crust of fat madder; but, if the old liquor from a vat, that has been used in dyeing from madder, can be procured, it will save the madder, and have a better effect.
The copper being filled about three O'clock in the morning, it must boil an hour and a quarter. The liquor is then conveyed by a spout into a woad vat, in which a peck of wheaten bran has been previously put. Whilst the boiling liquor is emptying into the vat, the balls of woad must also he put in, one after the other, that they may be more easily broken, raked, and stirred. This is to be continued till all the hot liquor from the copper has run into the vat; which, when a little more than half full, must be covered with cloths somewhat larger than its circumference, so that it may be covered as close as possible, and left in this state four hours; then it must be aired, that is, uncovered to be raked, and fresh air let into it; and to each ball of woad a large handful of ware, as it is called, or slaked lime must be thrown in. The lime being scattered in, and the vat well raked, it must be again covered, leaving open a little space, about four fingers, to let in air. Four hours after, it must be raked again, without serving it with lime; the cover is then put on as before, leaving an opening for the air. In this manner it must be let to stand two or three hours, and then be well raked again. If the vat is not yet come to work, that is, if it does not cast blue upon the surface, (or if it still works or ferments, which may be known by raking, and plunging with the flat of the rake in the vat;) then, being well raked, it must remain one hour and a half more, carefully observing if it yet casts blue. It is then to be served with water, the quantity of indigo judged necessary is also now to be put in: it is commonly used in a liquid state, at the rate of a dye house kettle full for each bail, if for a woad vat. The vat being filled within three fingers breadth of the brim, is to be raked, and covered as before; one hour after filling it with water; it must be served with two handfuls of lime for each ball of woad, giving more or less, according to the quality of the woad, and what you may judge it will spend, or take, of lime. There are some kinds of woad more readily prepared than others, so that general and precise rules can not be given; but the lime must not be put into the vat till it is well raked. Your vat being again covered, put in a pattern; after being kept entirely covered for an hour, the pattern is then taken out, to judge if fit to work: if so, the pattern must come out green, and, on being exposed to the air, it will acquire a blue colour. If the vat gives a good green to the pattern, it must be raked, served with one or two handfuls of lime, and covered. Three hours after it must be raked again, and served with what may be judged necessary. It is then to be covered, and an hour and a half after, the vat being then settled, a pattern may be put in, which must remain an hour, to see the effect of the woad.
If the pattern is of a fine green, and turns to a deep blue in the air, another pattern must be dipped in, to see the effect of the vat. If this pattern is deep enough in colour, let the vat be filled up with hot water, or, if at hand, old liquor of madder, and rake it well. Should the vat still want lime, serve it with such a quantity as you may judge by the smell and handling to be sufficient; this done, it must be again covered; and one hour after, put in your stuffs, and make your overture, a term used for the first working of wool in a new vat.
Marks by which you may know how to conduct a Vat regularly.
A vat is fit to work when the sediment is of a green brown- when it changes on its being taken out of the vat, when the flurry, or bladders at the top, are of a fine Turkish; or deep blue; or, when the pattern, which has been dipped in for an hour, comes out a fine deep grass green.
When the vat is fit to work, the bever or liquor has a good appearance, being clear and reddish, and the drops and edges that are formed under the rake in lifting up the bever are brown. The sediment must change colour (as has been already observed) when taken out of the bever, and must turn brown on being exposed to the air. The bever must feel neither too rough nor too greasy, and must not smell of either lime or lee. These are the distinguishing marks of a vat when it is fit to work.
This process of a vat prepared with woad, or even with indigo, it is not very probable that any person except a professed dyer will attempt. The expense of vats, also, is such as families would not be willing to incur; nor is it necessary, as at most large dyehouses, a woad wool vat is kept, and, by sending what woollens you may have for the colour, you may always have them done at a trifling expense. A vat, however, may be made from the size of a pail to that of a hogshead, and it will keep good till the ingredients of which it is prepared are wholly exhausted. Merely by stirring it an hour before it is worked, it will always be in readiness, constantly observing to wet your cottons, crapes, woollens, &c. thoroughly all over, in order that they may take the dye evenly. Thin silks, intended for plums, prunes, dark purples, &c. may also be dyed in this vat, by first passing them through hot purple archil, then through the vat, then through archil again, and so alternately, till they have taken the desired shade. There are other methods of dyeing blues, which will be given hereafter.
I shall now give the method of dyeing olive greens.
They may be said to be a brown green. The following is the method, as used by the small, or rag dyers.
For a Woman's Pelisse.
When your water in the copper boils, add from a quarter to half a pound of fustic, from two ounces to four of sumach, and from two to four ounces of logwood or more, as you require the shade to be; but if it requires to be of a green brown, a larger proportion of fustic and sumach must be used. Then the pelisse is to be taken out, and a little verdigris added: if the verdigris does not green it enough, add logwood chips, as you require the colour to be deeper. Green copperas also will sadden this colour, and lime browns it. It is almost impossible to give the exact quantity for a garment, as the goodness or badness of the drugs would in these colours cause so great an alteration, as not to resemble the colour intended. But a single trial will be sufficient to guide you. The article must he boiled as for brown; but it often does not require above an hour, and may be saddened, or made darker, by copperas; and, if the dyeing liquor does not draw on, or strike fast enough, a little verdigris must be dissolved in water, and added to your boiling water, which will cause it to adhere. For olive green, you may use a little alum with the fustic.
For dyeing of Woollens Green, from the lightest to the darkest shades.
Green is produced by a combination of blue and yellow. There are two sorts of green, the fast and false; but ladies' clothing, as also broad and narrow cloths, are often dyed with the false, known by the name of Saxon green; and, generally, this is much more beautiful than those called fast, or permanent greens. The fast greens are dyed yellow first, or blue, then dipped in the woad vat. Instead, however, of the woad vat, the false chemic, otherwise called Saxon, is used in the false, the making of which has been described.
If the goods to be dyed are required to be somewhat durable, it is customary to boil them first in alum for half an hour; about two pounds of alum for a quarter of a hundred weight of cloth. The way, however, generally practised by the rag dyers is, for instance, for a pelisse or man's coat, of a good full green, when your copper boils, put in from half a pound to a pound of fustic; when this has boiled half an hour, add a bit of alum as big as a small walnut, then put in your goods and boil ten minutes; take them out, and add a small wine glass three parts full of chemic; boil from half an hour to an hour and a half as it may require: they are generally very well and evenly dyed in three quarters of an hour. They may be saddened, if required with copperas; and if to be bluer, more chemic must be added; if to be of yellow green, less chemic, and more fustic; for a pea green, or any light green, it is not necessary to alum the goods first. Put into your copper a little fustic, and a sufficient quantity of chemic barely to colour the liquor; let your fustic boil ten minutes before you add the chemic.
For a chemic Blue on Woollens.
You must observe all through this process not to let the water be much hotter than you may be able to put your hand in, or the colour will be of a green cast. When the water is hot, cast a handful of wheaten bran in a bag, and put it into your copper; and when it has simmer ed a quarter of an hour, take it out, and add a table spoonful of powdered tartar, and a sufficient quantity of chemic to the colour required; afterwards put in your pelisse, &e. and keep handling for half an hour, or thereabout, recollecting that your goods, when dyed, will be of the same blue shade your liquor appears of when lifted up and dropped off the hand. Chemic blue on woollens seldom lasts beyond a season.
A Process of dyeing Blue by Logwood.
This is quite a false colour, and should not be used where the goods are to be exposed much to the air, but is very beautiful in appearance.
When your water boils, add, for a pelisse, two pounds of logwood when this has boiled half an hour,add a lump of blue vitriol, from one to two ounces, or more: when this is dissolved, cool your copper down, and put in your goods, and boil from one hour to an hour and a half, till the colour appears even and regular all over. Sometimes half the time dyes it.
On the dyeing of Yellow on Stuffs and Woollens,
I must begin this recipe by observing that all cloths, previous to being dyed, should be well scoured, and also be run through warm water, before they are put into the copper to be dyed.
This colour is the first I have treated upon which actually requires any preparation, and which without it would not only have a dull appearance, but the colour would neither be even or bright.
Supposing the garment to be dyed weighs two pounds, your copper should be made to boil, and six or seven ounces of alum put in with two ounces of tartar; when this is dissolved, cool down your copper with cold water, and put in your goods, and boil them, if you have time, from an hour and a half to two hours; but it may often be prepared in an hour, if it has been well stirred in the copper; this liquor is then thrown away, and your copper filled and boiled. When it boils, put in about five or six pounds of weld; the French is best. When this has boiled half an hour, more or less, till its virtues are extracted, take it out, put in your goods, and boil to colour. Some. times half an hour's boiling does, or from that to two hours will do; but in this recipe the preparing liquor is very strong, therefore the colour will strike in quickly. Supposing you want lighter shades, as lemon yellow, pale yellow, straw, &c.; half the quantity of alum and tartar will do; when dyed rinse in cold water. This recipe is for a full bright yellow.
To make a very bright and beautiful Yellow on fine Cloth.
This is done by giving it a preparation of half the quantity of the articles mentioned in the preceding recipe; and, in ten minutes, previous to your taking out the goods from rinsing, add a little muriate of tin; put in your goods, and boil them ten minutes. They must be slightly rinsed in spring water.
For gold colour, prepare as for the recipe preceding the last, only adding to the weld powdered turmeric and fustic, according to the shade required.
For orange colour, and the like shades, the same process is to be used as specified in the last recipe, only with the addition of annatto, which must be dissolved, with nearly its weight of pearl ash, made into a perfect solution, and otherwise furnished as the preceding recipe for a full yellow.
If a permanent orange colour be wanted, instead of annatto, a small quantity of best crop madder and fustic must be added to the weld; and these three drugs, viz. weld, fustic, and madder must be worked well together with the same preparation as for common yellow, only do not let them boil in the alum and tartar quite so long as for a full bodied yellow: practice alone can make you a judge of what quantity of madder to use.
Weld produces a full yellow, Fustic an orange yellow, Madder a fire red.
These three colours being used in due proportion, produce orange colour of the brightest dye. I am thus particular, in order that you may vary the shades to your fancy. The proportions of alum and tartar also will vary the simple colour of the yellows. Please to recollect that your garment should receive the yellow of the weld and fustic before the madder is used, except you take care not to boil the madder: for, whenever madder is boiled it turns brown, and consequently will not afford that clear red, which is so necessary for an orange. It must farther be observed, that madder gives a profusion of dye to woollens that have been prepared, therefore but a small quantity must be used for orange. Turmeric also gives a good deal of colour, therefore a small quantity does for gilding the yellows. There are many other things that dye yellow, as the quercitron bark, yellow woad, ash bark, dock, the alder, and several others, but weld is the best. The quercitron bark is used for very bright yellows, and muriate of tin in the finish. Latterly, also, chromate of lead has been applied to the dyeing of stuffs with some success.
With subacetate of lead and neutral chromate of pot ash, an orange colour only is obtained; but if stuffs thus dyed be dipped in acetic or pyroligneous acid, they almost immediately acquire a very fine brilliant yellow lemon colour. On using the neutral acetate of lead in place of the subacetate, a fine gold colour is immediately obtained with the chromate of potash; but acetic acid will not give it the yellow lemon colour. These colours are absolutely unalterable by soap and water when cold; at boiling temperatures, they fade a little, without any change of tint; but vinegar restores their first brilliancy. Ammonia make them of a red orange colour; acetic acid restores them to their primitive state. When chromate of lead is treated with ammonia, it may be made to pass through a great variety of shades, from orange to the red of the finest minium.
Stuffs dyed with chromate of lead have their colours immediately and completely destroyed by the subacetate of soda, and by the muriatic acid even when cold.
Of Reds
This is a colour that requires a preparation of alum and tartar before it is dyed.
The first of these reds is done with madder, and is simple and easy.
Supposing the article to be dyed weighs about two pounds, or thereabouts. When your copper boils, put into your boiling water about six or seven ounces of alum, and about two ounces of red tartar. When dissolved, put in your goods, and boil from one to two hours, handling well every fifteen minutes, and always keeping them under water, when not handling; then take them out and fill the copper with fresh clean water, pouring off the preparing water; when this water gets pretty warm, so that you can bear your hand and arm in it, put in six pounds of the best madder, which must be well stirred and broken in the copper; when the liquor is of a good red dye, which will be within half an hour, put in your goods and handle them well one hour, or thereabouts. This will produce a bright red; but if you want to have a fine red, you should decrease the quantity of madder, and add decoction of ground Brazil wood. If you want them to be of a crimson cast, add purple archil to your pattern. The above is the cheapest red that is dyed.
Reds from Brazil Wood alone.
The water of preparation must, for each pound of wool or woollen stuff;, consist of four ounces of alum and one of red tartar; the hardest well water must be used. The Brazil should be ground or rasped, and boiled at least an hour before the goods are put in; and they should also boil in the preparing liquor, for two hours at least, and then be cooled from the preparing liquor previous to their being put into the copper in which the Brazil has been boiled. They should be rinsed in two waters, and dried in the shade, or in a warm room.
Bright Red, otherwise called Fire coloured Scarlet,
Is the colour of the king's livery, and that of the coats of the officers in the army. It is also much worn by ladies in their pelisses, mantles, scarfs, whittles, &c. I have followed the method of one of the best scarlet dyers in England, and this I have found by experience to produce colours superior to any other. With respect to the quality of the dyeing vessel, I have found it quite immaterial whether it be block tin, brass, or copper, so that the net be let down into the vessel, to prevent its touching the sides of it; and that clean sticks are used in the handling, and a clean woollen cloth thrown across the horse where it is to drain, that it may not spot. A cloth must also be put all round the sides of the copper.
For each pound of cloth put from fifteen to twenty quarts of very clear river water into a small copper, When the water is lukewarm, put in two ounces of cream of tartar, and one drachm and a half of powdered and sifted cochineal; when the liquor is ready to boil, add two ounces of the solution of tin, as made according to my direction. The fire must then be made brisk under the copper, and when it begins to boil, the cloth is put in, after being passed through warm water, that it may receive the dye equally. The cloth is to be handled well in this liquor for an hour and a half; it is then taken out, and slightly washed in clean water. The colour of the liquor is wholly taken up by the goods; this is called preparing it.
To finish it, a fresh water is prepared, in which you must put an ounce and a half of the best starch; and, when the liquor is little more than lukewarm, six drachms and a half of cochineal, finely powdered and sifted, must be thrown in a little before the liquor boils. Two ounces of solution of tin are then poured in, and the liquor changes its colour from a blood red to a bright scarlet. Then make it boil, and having boiled a few minutes, cool your copper down, and put in your goods, and boil for an hour and a half; take them out, and wash them, and the liquor is then in its perfection. If they should be too fiery, take a small bit of alum dissolved in warm water, and handle them, and this will sadden them.
For Crimson in Grain.
This is easily made: your copper being ready to boil, put in for each pound of cloth or stuff two ounces and a half of alum, and an ounce and a half of white tartar; let this boil a minute or two; put in your goods, and boil them for an hour and a half; they are then to be taken out, and cooled in all places alike.
The preparing liquor being emptied away, your copper is to be filled again with fresh water, and, when about lukewarm, put in about an ounce of cochineal, finely powdered; when this boils cool it down with a pint of cold water; put in your goods, and boil an hour or an hour and a half, as you may see occasion. They must be then taken out, washed and hung to dry. If a lighter shade is required, use less cochineal and less alum and tartar. A larger proportion of alum may be used, but not of tartar, as tartar would obscure the red, and leave a brick colour.
Another Crimson.
This is to be made as above, only when you put in the cochineal, add a drachm of red arsenic, and a teaspoonful of burnt wine lees; or, for want of either, a small lump of pearl ash in a table spoonful of purple archil. It is to be noticed that turmeric, or young fustic, is often added in dyeing scarlet, and may be used to the shade required, which is done in the reddening, or second liquor, and is put in as soon as the second liquor boils, so that it may cool ten minutes before the cochineal is put in. You must be cautious not to use too much, as it will give it so much orange as to require much more cochineal to cover it, and will often spoil the colour; if more is used, a little alum or warm water will sadden it. The crimson may be made much darker, by mixing any alkali, as pearl ash, &c. with it, or by using a little more alum in the preparing liquor.
Maroons,
Which are shades of red, are done with Brazil wood and galls. Supposing the thing to be dyed be a pelisse, after the cloth is well scoured, boil it for half an hour in alum and tartar, as for madder red; then, in the second liquor, when you put in your Brazil, as for Brazil red, add two blue galls well pounded, in a bag. After they have boiled a quarter of an hour, take them out before you put in your goods: for if the galls be left in the copper in the bag, they may spot, and cause the dye to be uneven.
Some dyers boil the goods for an hour in galls or sumach, both being of the same nature; then draw them out, and wash in cold water, and afterwards boil them for an hour in alum and tartar, using rather more tartar than for reds. This second preparing liquor is thrown away, and a third liquor is made for dyeing, with about half a pound of Brazil wood, and sometimes more, as the shade is required.
To make a Decoction of Brazil Wood, otherwise called Brazil Juice, or fermented Brazil.
Much Brazil is saved by this means, and it works much better. Fill your copper quite full of hard spring water; then put in three or four pounds of Brazil, for every ten gallons of water; boil them an hour; draw off the clear of this liquor, and put it in a deal cask, or pan, pouring fresh clean water on the Brazil grounds; boil as before an hour or two, and so continue till the Brazil is spent. Keep this fermented Brazil juice any length of time, till it becomes oily, the older the better. In fact, this is the only way Brazil wood will give out its colour.
If a dark maroon be required, it is to be saddened by taking out the goods a quarter of an hour previous to their being dyed enough, and putting into the copper a little dissolved green copperas; from a table spoonful to one and a half.
For a Puce.
The following will produce a very beautiful fast coloured puce, which is, in fact, a purple brown; the red puce may be termed a brown violet, or a gris de lin, and these are much worn.
Supposing the garment to be a pelisse; when your copper boils, add a quarter of a pound of the best cam wood, three ounces of sumach, a quarter of a pound of logwood, and from half a pound to a pound of the best purple archil; if you should want it of a deeper blue, add more archil: a small lump of pearlash or blue vitriol purples it. If required to be of the red cast, some dyers use either a small quantity of oil of vitriol in the copper, or they pass the article through oil of vitriol, in warm water, after it is dyed. But, to prevent any occasion for this, be sparing of your archil, and use no pearl ash. I dyed upwards of seventy pelisses in one season after the above method. You may proportion your ingredients to the colour required. Cam wood, as I have before observed, gives a red brown; sumach a greenish gray brown; archil a blue violet; and logwood nearly the same colour; handle well, and boil one hour and a half; then wash and dry.
Grays of all Shades.
By referring to the former pages of this book, you will see what colour produces such and such shades; for instance, from blue, red, and yellow, are produced the red olives and the greenish grays. Logwood produces both blue and red combined; fustic a yellow; and, by being saddened with green copperas, first drawing your goods from the copper, any shade may be made from the lightest to the darkest; as grays, lead colour, stone colour slate, lavender grays, pigeon gray, and an infinite number of other shades; sometimes if more reds be required, madder is used, which, being boiled, affords a red brown. Cam wood also may be used, if more blue be wanted; blue vitriol, or pearl ash, if more green. Where fustic is used, add a little verdigris.
Grays made with a false dye require no preparation; and, in such a work as this, it is needless to give the method of producing fast colours of this kind. It is sufficient that those colours will stand the washing with soap, but will not bear strong acids. Oil of vitriol will at times wholly discharge logwood and copperas, and a greater part of the sumach, and from these three ingredients slate grays, lead gray, pigeon grays, &c. are made. In colours inclining to green, fustic is used, the blue of the logwood and yellow of the fustic producing a green cast, or hue, in proportion as those colours predominate.
Note. You must not use much fustic, except you want a deep greenish gray.
For Raven Gray.
For a pelisse, about three quarters of an ounce of alum pounded are to be put into the copper when it boils; then put in your garment, and boil for half an hour or more; take it out, and add to your copper about an ounce of green copperas; when this is dissolved, put in the pelisse again, and boil for twenty minutes; then throw away your liquor, let the pelisse cool, wash it, and add from one to two ounces :and a half of logwood chips, which must be boiled in fresh liquor. When boiled about a quarter of an hour, put in the pelisse, and boil again to colour or pattern; lastly, sprinkle a thimbleful of powdered alum into your copper (if occasion require) and immerse the pelisse for five minutes: this tends to clear it. Wash in two or three waters, and dry in the shade.
For a Bright or Pearl Gray.
For a mantle of about a pound weight, boil your water, and then put in about one ounce and a half of logwood. if good logwood, less may do; boil this twenty minutes: add to it three or four drachms of pearl ash; let this boil for five or ten minutes. In the meanwhile, wet your garment in warm water, and wring it; have also another copper or boiler, in which put a small bag with a handful of wheaten bran in it, and two drachms of powdered alum; the alum will throw the scum on the top of the liquor, which take off; then put in your garment for five or ten minutes; take it out, and pour a bowl of the logwood decoction into the vessel containing the bran water; then put in your goods, and boil to colour, adding more logwood when required.
N.B. This process may be conducted in one copper, by making the decoction of logwood first; many dyers do it in this manner.
Another Gray,
Which, being taken from one I had given me, I can not answer for; the expense however, of trying the experiment, will be very trifling. For one pound weight of cloth, take three ounces of alum, and five ounces of fenugreek seeds, and boil them with the goods half an hour; then take the liquor, &e. off, and add seven ounces of pearl ash, and three ounces and a half of Brazil; boil them gently with the goods half an hour; rinse them out, and it is said, that the colour will be very fine.
It will be needless to swell this book with numerous recipes for one colour, the shades of which are only diversified by a larger or smaller quantity of ingredients. The principal of these used by dyers for gray, are sumach, galls, logwood, fustic, and green copperas. If you want a dead coloured gray, fustic must be omitted, and either galls or sumach substituted. By adding copperas, the colour may be run down as dark as black, because gray is a shade of black dyed with the same ingredients, except bark; and even blacks may be dyed without bark, by using mere sumach instead of bark.
Merino window curtains and bed furniture must be dyed the same way as other woollens are; and when so done, should he finished at the pressers, who will water press, or plain press them, as required, and which can not be done well at home.
To dye a Gray Green Drab on Prince's Cord, or Corduroy.
Boil for one hour, half a pound of chipped fustic and a quarter of a pound of sumach; in the interim, pour some boiling water on two ounces of sumach; strain this liquor, and put your goods in it for half an hour, then take them out, and slightly rinse in cold water; after this, dissolve an ounce of alum in hot water; when at a hand heat, put in your goods for twenty minutes, take them out again and cool down your copper with cold water; slightly rinse your goods from the alum liquor, and put them into the copper, (after first taking out the bag containing the sumach and fustic.) The goods must simmer in this liquor for twenty minutes; take them out once more from the copper, and they will be of a yellow brown colour; slightly rinse them in cold water, and add to the liquor in the copper a table spoonful of chemic and a small lump of copperas, something less than a quarter of an ounce; suffer this to boil ten minutes, then cool down your copper, put in your goods, and boil from ten to fifteen minutes; wash them in cold water, and dry in a warm room. The quantities here specified will serve for two pair of pants.
'Whatever is the cause of the solidity of this colour, I can not say; but I have known a pair of pants dyed this way, wear without losing any of their colour for twelve months.
For Browns,
To describe all the shades of brown, from the lightest fawn colour to the darkest brown, would fill a volume. Yet no colour is more easily obtained, and the least practice will prove what I say. I will first give a list of what ingredients are principally used in dyeing brown. The first is walnut root, or the green rind of the walnut, now almost out of use. Fustic, sumach, cam wood, red wood, log wood, bark, madder, and archil are still used. The fustic gives a yellow; the camwood, a brown red; the sumach a colour resembling a green gray brown; the red wood, used without any preparation, as is always the case with browns, gives something near the colour known by the name of brick colour; the walnut root, rind and bark, give of themselves a root colour; and logwood a red blue, inclining to violet; madder, after being boiled strongly half an hour, produces, without any preparation, a red brown; and with fustic, and a little sumach, makes fawn and drab colours, with the addition of a little archil, which tends at all times to brighten browns. Having given a slight sketch of the colour each drug produces, I will proceed to the mixture of them. All browns are saddened, or made to incline towards black, by green copperas. Lime is often used for browns.
A pretty Red Brown, remarkably bright; and the Cost of the Dye not more than Sixpence.
For a middling sized woman's pelisse; when your copper boils, put in the following dyeing materials.
Half a pound of ground cam wood. 2 ounces of sumach (ground). 1 ounce of logwood chips. 1 ounce of alder bark. 2 ounces of chipped fustic.
N. B. A larger quantity of ingredients may be used, but they must be in the same proportion as mentioned in this recipe.
When these ingredients have boiled half an hour cool your copper by throwing in a pint of coldwater; put in your goods, and boil from one hour to an hour and a half; take them out, and add from half an ounce to one ounce of green copperas, according as you wish the colour to be darker. Lastly, adding a tea spoonful of powdered argol, take out your goods, and rinse them in one or two clean waters, and hang in the air to dry; send them to the press to be finished.
A pretty kind of Fawn Brown.
Take a quarter of a pound of fustic, or somewhat less; from one to two ounces of madder; sumach, two or three ounces; a little copperas and archil. But if the shade require it, more ingredients may be added; the quantity of ingredients must also be increased according to the quantity of cloth to be dyed.
There is scarcely a drug used in dyeing generally that may not be used in dyeing brown. You have only to put in what drugs you think proper, boiling them half an hour; then put in your goods, and boil them from one to two hours, as the shade is required.
Browns may he diversified in the copper "ad infinitum," by adding a larger quantity of the ingredient that produces the desired colour. For instance, camwood makes it redder, fustic more yellow, sumach browner, green copperas blacker, archil redder, logwood more of the puce, &c. &c.
To Dye Woollen Stuffs Black.
The process of dyeing black is one of the most tedious, on account of the time it takes, which is at least ten hours.
To Dye a Pelisse Black.
Fill your copper with soft water to the brim, and when it begins to boil, add 4 ounces of logwood. 3 ditto of sumach. 3 ditto of alder bark. When these ingredients have boiled half an hour put in your pelisse, always recollecting to handle it over every ten minutes, which is done with a short stick; when you have done handling it, keep it under the water, and boil it this first time an hour; then take out your pelisse, and hang it across your horse or stick to cool. In the interim, take a bowl of your boiling liquor out, and put therein six ounces of green copperas to dissolve; when dissolved, put almost two thirds of it into your copper, and mix it well with the liquor: then cheek your copper, by throwing in as much water as may have evaporated (or old black liquor, if at hand); put in your pelisse, again, handling as before, with a stick, &c. at a boiling heat, during an hour; then it is to be taken out again, and cooled in all parts alike. In the interim add the remainder of your dissolved copperas; check your copper again with cold water or old liquor, and put in your pelisse again, and boil as before for two hours; then cool it again. While the cooling is carrying on, put into your copper two or three ounces of logwood, two or three ounces of bark, an ounce of green copperas, nearly two ounces of pearl ash, and about half an ounce of pounded argol. These ingredients must be made to boil one hour; when the copper must be checked as before, and the pelisse put in, and made to boil one hour, keeping it handled as before. Instead of the pearl ash in this process, chamberlye may be substituted, if the cloth should not be sufficiently bodied, or should seem not to be black enough, you may add a little more bark, and a little more logwood and copperas; then put it in again, and boil it an hour: afterwards, having cooled your cloth, put it again into the copper, and there let it remain till next day; but if you are in a hurry, there will be no occasion for this. Lastly, rinse your pelisse, &c. in three or four cold waters. If this process be regularly followed, it will produce a most beautiful black.
For Dyeing Black Cloth Dark Green.
Clean your coat well with bullock's gall and water, and rinse in warm water; then make a copper full of river water boiling hot, and take from one pound to one pound and a half of fustic; put it in, and boil it twenty minutes, to which add a lump of alum as big as a walnut; when this is dissolved in your copper, put in your coat and boil it twenty minutes; then take it out, and add a small wine glass, three parts full, of chemic blue, and boil again from half an hour to an hour, and the cloth will be a beautiful dark green; then wash out and dry.