CHAPTER VIII.

YELLOW.

WELD. OLD FUSTIC. TURMERIC. QUERCITRON. DYER'S BROOM. HEATHER, AND OTHER YELLOW DYES.

"There are ten species of drugs for dyeing yellow, but we find from experience that of these ten there are only five fit to be used for the good dye--viz. Weld, savory, green wood, yellow wood and fenugrec". "Weld or wold yields the truest yellow, and is generally preferred to all the others. Savory and green wood, being naturally greenish, are the best for the preparation of wool to be dyed green: the two others yield different shades yellow".--Hellot.

_WELD_

Weld, _Reseda luteola_, an annual plant growing in waste sandy places. The whole plant is used for dyeing except the root. It is the best and fastest of the yellow natural dyes.

Hellot's directions for dyeing with weld are the following:--"Allow 5 or 6 lbs. of weld to every pound of stuff: some enclose the weld in a clean woollen bag, to prevent it from mixing in the stuff; and to keep the bag down in the copper, they put on it a cross of heavy wood. Others hold it in the liquor till it has communicated all its colour, and till it falls to the bottom: the stuff is then suspended in a net, which falls into the liquor, but others, when it has boiled, take out the weld with a rake and throw it away."

The plant is gathered in June and July, it is then carefully dried in the shade and tied up into bundles. When needed for dyeing it is broken up into pieces or chopped finely, the roots being discarded and a decoction is made by boiling it up in water for about ¾ hour. It gives a bright yellow with alum and tartar as mordant. With chrome it yields an old gold shade; with tin it produces more orange coloured yellows; with copper and iron, olive shades. The quantity of weld used must be determined by the depth of colour required. The dye bath is prepared just before dyeing, the chopped weld being put into weighted bags and boiled in soft water for ½ to 1 hour. 2% of Stannous chloride added to the mordant gives brilliancy and fastness to the colour. Bright and fast orange yellows are got by mordanting with 8% Stannous chloride instead of alum. With 6% copper sulphate and 8% chalk, weld gives a good orange yellow. Wool mordanted with 4% of ferrous sulphate and 10% tartar and dyed in a separate bath with weld with 8% chalk, takes a good olive yellow. 8% of alum is often used for mordant for weld. The dye bath should not be above 90°C. It is good to add a little chalk to the dye bath as it makes the colour more intense, while common salt makes the colour richer and deeper.

"Woollen dyers frequently add a little stale urine or lime and potash to the water in which it is boiled. They commonly employ 3 or 4 oz. of alum and one of tartar for each pound of the wool. Tartar is supposed to render the yellow colour a little more clear and lively."--Bancroft.

Weld is of greater antiquity than most, if not all other natural yellow dyes. It is cultivated for dyeing in France, Germany and Italy. It is important for the silk dyer, as it dyes silk with a fast colour. The silk is mordanted in the usual way with alum, washed and dyed in a separate bath of 20 to 40% weld, with a small quantity of soap added. After dyeing, the colour is brightened by working the silk for 10 minutes in a fresh soap bath with a little weld added to it. Wring out without washing.

RECIPES FOR DYEING WITH WELD.

1). YELLOW FOR SILK.

Scour the silk in the proportion of 20 lbs. soap to 100 lbs. of silk. Afterwards alum and wash. A bath is made of 2 parts weld for 1 of silk, and after ¼ hour's boiling, it is filtered through a cloth into another bath. When this bath is cooled a little, the silk is immersed and turned about till dyed. The weld is in the meantime boiled up again with a little pearl ash, and after being strained, it is added to the first bath (part of the first bath having been thrown away) until the desired colour is got. The bath must not be too hot. If more golden yellows are wanted, add some annotto to the second bath.

2). YELLOW FOR COTTON.

Scour the cotton in a lixivium of wood ashes, wash and dry. It is alumed with ¼ of its weight of alum. After 24 hours it is taken out of the bath and dried without washing. A weld bath is prepared with 1¼ parts weld to 1 of cotton, and the cotton dipped in till the shade is got. It is then worked in a bath of sulphate of copper (¼ copper to 1 of cotton) for 1½ hours. It is next thrown, without washing, into a boiling solution of white soap (¼ soap to 1 cotton). It is boiled for 1 hour, then washed and dried.

3). DEEP YELLOW FOR COTTON OR LINEN.

2½ parts of weld for 1 of cotton, with a little copper sulphate added to the bath. The cotton is well worked in this till the cotton has the desired colour. It is then taken out and a little soda ley is poured in. It is returned and worked in this for ¼ hour, then washed and dried.

4). OLD GOLD FOR WOOL.

Mordant with 2% chrome and dye with 60% of weld in a separate bath. 3% of chalk adds to the intensity of colour.

5). YELLOW FOR WOOL.

Boil wool with 4% of alum for 1 to 2 hours, and dye in a separate bath of 50 to 100% weld for 20 minutes to an hour at 90°C.

6). YELLOW FOR WOOL.

Mordant with alum and tartar, and dye with 5 or 6 lbs. of weld for every lb. of wool. Common salt deepens the colour. If alum is added to the dye bath, the colour becomes paler and more lively. Sulphate of iron inclines it to brown.

7). WELD YELLOW FOR SILK.

Work the silk (1 lb.) for an hour in a solution of alum, 1 lb. to the gallon, wring out and wash in warm water. Boil 2 lbs. weld for ½ hour; strain and work the silk in this for ½ hour. Add 1 pint alum solution to the weld bath and return the silk; work ten minutes, wring out and dry.

_OLD FUSTIC._

Fustic is the wood of _Morus tinctoria_, a tree of Central America. It is used principally for wool. It does not produce a fast dye for cotton. With Bichromate of Potash as mordant, Old Fustic gives old gold colour. With alum it gives yellow, inclining to lemon yellow. The brightest yellows are got from it by mordanting with Tin. With copper sulphate it yields olive colours. (4 to 5% copper sulphate and 3 to 4% tartar). With ferrous sulphate, darker olives are obtained (8% ferrous sulphate). For silk it does not produce as bright yellows as weld, but can be used for various shades of green and olive. Prolonged dyeing should always be avoided, as the yellows are apt to become brownish and dull. The chips should be tied up in a bag and boiled for ½ hour before using. It is still better to soak the wood over-night, or boil up in a small vessel and strain into the dye bath. The proportion of Fustic to be used for a good yellow is 5 to 6 parts to 16 parts of wool.

RECIPES FOR DYEING WITH OLD FUSTIC.

1). OLD GOLD FOR WOOL. Boil the wool with 3 to 4% Chrome for 1 to 1½ hours. Wash, and dye in a separate bath for 1 to 1½ hours at 100°C. with 20 to 80% of Old Fustic.

2). LIGHT YELLOW FOR SILK. Work the silk for ¼ to ½ hour at 50° to 60°C. in a bath containing 16% alum and a decoction of 8 to 16% of old Fustic. For dark yellow the silk is mordanted with alum, washed and dyed for about an hour at 50°C., with 50 to 100% of Fustic. The colour can be made faster and brighter by working the silk in a cold solution of nitro-muriate of Tin for an hour.

3). BRIGHT YELLOW FOR WOOL. Mordant wool with 8% of stannous chloride for 1 to 1½ hours, and 8% of tartar. Wash, and dye with 20 to 40% of Fustic at 80° to 100°C. for 30 to 40 minutes.

4). OLD GOLD FOR WOOL. Mordant 6¼ lbs. (100 oz.) wool with 3 oz. chrome, for ¾ hour and wash. Dye with 24 oz. Fustic & 4 oz. madder for 45 minutes.

5). YELLOW FOR WOOL. Mordant 6¼ lbs. wool with 3 oz. chrome, for ¾ hour and wash. Dye with 6 oz. Fustic, 2 drachms logwood. Boil ¾ hour.

6). BRIGHT YELLOW FOR WOOL. (Single bath method). Fill the dye bath ½ full of water, add 2% oxalic acid, 8% stannous chloride, 4% tartar and 40 per cent. of Fustic. Boil up for 5 or 10 minutes, then fill the bath with cold water. Put in the wool & heat up the bath to boiling in the course of ¾ to 1 hour, & boil for ½ hour.

7). YELLOW FOR WOOL. (Single bath). 4% stannous chloride, 4% oxalic acid and 50% Fustic.

8). YELLOW FOR SILK. (5 lbs.) Work the silk through an alum solution of 1 lb. to a gallon of water. Wash in warm water. Boil 2 lbs. Fustic for ½ hour in water and in this work the silk for ½ hour. Lift and add 1 pint of the alum solution. Work 10 minutes longer, then wash and dry.

9). FUSTIC YELLOW FOR SILK. (5 lbs.) Alum the silk. Boil up 3 lbs. Fustic and work silk in it while hot for ½ hour. Lift, add 2 oz. red spirits. Work for 15 minutes. Wash out in cold water. Work 10 minutes in a soap solution. Wring out and dry.

10). BUFF COLOUR ON WOOL. (45 lbs.) Boil 4½ lbs. Fustic and 1½ lbs. madder. Add 7 lbs. alum and boil up together. Allow to cool a little, enter wool and boil for ½ hour.

11). YELLOW FOR WOOL. Mordant with alum and tartar. Solution of tin increases the colour; salt makes it deeper. 5 or 6 oz. Fustic for every pound of wool.

_TURMERIC_

Turmeric is a powder obtained from the ground up tubers of _Curcuma tinctoria_, a plant found in India and other Eastern countries. It gives a brilliant orange yellow, but it has little permanence. It is one of the substantive colours and does not need any mordant. Cotton has a strong attraction for it, and is simply dyed by working in a solution of Turmeric at 60°C. for about ½ hour. With silk and wool it gives a brighter colour if mordanted with alum or tin. Boiling should be avoided. It is used sometimes for deepening the colour of Fustic or Weld, but its use is not recommended as although it gives very beautiful colours, it is a fugitive dye. As Berthollet says "The shade arising from the Turmeric is not long of disappearing in the air."

_QUERCITRON._

Quercitron is the inner bark of the _Quercus nigra_ or _Q. tinctoria_, a species of oak growing in the United States and Central America. It was first introduced into England by Bancroft in 1775 as a cheap substitute for weld. He says, "The wool should be boiled for the space of 1 or 1¼ hours with one sixth or one eighth of its weight of alum; then without being rinsed, it should be put into a dyeing vessel with clean water and also as many pounds of powdered bark (tied up in a bag) as there were used of alum to prepare the wool, which is to be then turned in the boiling liquor until the colour appears to have taken sufficiently: and then about 1 lb. clean powdered chalk for every 100 lbs. of wool may be mixed with the dyeing liquor and the operation continued 8 or 10 minutes longer, when the yellow will have become both lighter and brighter by this addition of chalk."

QUERCITRON FOR SILK. _Bancroft._

1 to 2 lbs. of bark to every 12 lbs. silk according to shade required. The bark, tied up in a bag, should be put into the dyeing vessel whilst the water is cold, as soon as it gets warm the silk, previously alumed, should also be put in and dyed as usual. A little chalk should be added towards the end of the operation. A little murio sulphate of tin is used where more lively shades of yellow are wanted.

Boil at the rate of 4 lbs. bark to every 3 lbs. of alum & 2 lbs. murio sulphate of tin with a suitable quantity of water, for 10 to 15 minutes. Reduce the heat so that the hand can bear it, put in the silk and dye till it has acquired the shade. By adding suitable proportions of sulphate of indigo to this yellow liquor and keeping it well stirred, various and beautiful shades of Saxon green may be dyed.

By dissolving different proportions of copperas or copperas and alum in the warm decoction of bark, silk may in the same way be dyed of all the different shades of olive and drab colours\.

FOR COTTON AND LINEN. Soak the yarn in a liquor made by dissolving ¼ of its weight of alum in the necessary water, to which it will be highly advantageous to add at the rate of 1 lb. potash or 10 oz. chalk for every 6 or 7 lbs. alum. The yarn is taken out and dried well: being afterwards rinsed, it is to be dyed in cold liquor made by boiling 1¼ lbs. of the plant for each lb. of yarn, which, after having received a sufficient body of colour, is to be taken out of the dyeing liquor and soaked for an hour and more in a solution of sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) containing at the rate of 3 or 4 oz. for every pound of yarn: it is then removed without being washed, put into a boiling solution of hard soap, containing 3 or 4 oz. soap for each pound of yarn. Stir well and boil for about ¾ hour or more. Then wash and dry.

And again, take a sufficient quantity of acetate of alumina. This is made by dissolving 3 lbs. alum in a gallon of hot water, then adding 1 lb. sugar of lead, stirring well for 2 or 3 days, afterwards adding about 2 oz. potash and 2 oz. powdered chalk, (carbonate of lime), mix with warm water and soak linen or cotton well in this for 2 hours, keeping warm; squeeze out, dry; soak again in mordant, squeeze; dry; soak in lime water, dry; this mordanting and liming can be repeated if a fast yellow is required: it should then be well washed. 12 to 18 lbs. of Quercitron bark, for every 100 lbs. cotton or linen, is tied up in a bag and put in cold water, and slightly heated. The cotton is put in, stirring for an hour to an hour and a half while the water gets warm: then the liquor is heated to boiling point and the cotton boiled a few minutes only. Slow raising to boiling point gives the best colour. Instead of using acetate of alumina, the cotton can be impregnated with some astringent such as galls or myrobalans (1 lb. in 2 or 3 gallons of water with a little soda). Macerate the cotton an hour or two in this and dry, then a solution of alum (8 lbs. alum, 1 lb. chalk, in 6 gallons of water) soak cotton 2 hours, and dry, then soak in lime water and dry. Second time in alum and dry. Then wash and dye slowly in the Quercitron. This is a lasting yellow for cotton or linen.

_OTHER YELLOW DYES._

"Root of the dock, bark of the Ash tree, leaves of the almond, peach and pear trees, all give good yellow dyes, more or less fine according to the time they are boiled and in proportion to the Tartar and alum used. A proper quantity of alum brings these yellows to the beautiful yellows of the weld. If the Tartar is in greater quantity, these yellows will border on the orange, if too much boiled they take brown shades." From a dyeing book, 1778.

_BARBERRY._ The roots and bark of _Berberis Vulgaris_, used principally for silk dyeing, without a mordant. The silk is worked at 50° to 60°C. in a solution of the dye wood slightly acidified with sulphuric, acetic or tartaric acid. For dark shades, mordant with stannous chloride.

_DYERS BROOM._ _Genista tinctoria._ The plant grows on waste ground. It should be picked in June or July & dried. It can be used with an alum and tartar mordant and gives a good bright yellow. It is called greening weed and used to be much used for greening blue wool.

_PRIVET LEAVES_, _Ligustrum vulgare_, dye a good fast yellow with alum and tartar.

_HEATHER._ Most of the heathers make a yellow dye, but the one chiefly used is the Ling, _Calluna vulgaris_. The tips are gathered just before flowering. They are boiled in water for about half an hour. The wool, previously mordanted with alum, is put into the dye bath with the liquor, which has been strained. It is then covered up closely and left till the morning. Or the wool can be boiled in the heather liquor till the desired colour is obtained\.

RECIPES:--1). YELLOW FOR WOOL. For 6¼ lbs. mordant with 5 oz. alum for 1 hour and wash. Boil up 8 oz. heather twigs, leaves and flowers. Enter the wool and boil for 1 hour. Wash in cold water & dry.

2). GOLDEN YELLOW FOR WOOL. For 6¼ lbs. mordant with 3 oz. bichromate of potash for ¾ hour. Wash in cold water. Dye with 50 oz. heather and boil for 45 minutes.