Part 49

«Aniline Violet and Purple.»—Acidulate the bath by sulphuric acid, or use sulphate of soda; both these substances render the shade bluish. Dye at 212° F. To give a fair middle shade to 10 pounds of wool, a quantity of solution equal to 1⁠/⁠2 to 3⁠/⁠4 ounces of the solid dye will be required. The color of the dyed fabric is improved by washing in soap and water, and then passing through a bath soured by sulphuric acid.

«Purple.»—For 40 pounds of goods, use {270} alum, 3 pounds; muriate of tin, 4 teacups; pulverized cochineal, 1 pound; cream of tartar, 2 pounds. Boil the alum, tin, and cream of tartar, for 20 minutes, add the cochineal and boil 5 minutes; immerse the goods 2 hours; remove and enter them in a new dye composed of brazil wood, 3 pounds; logwood, 7 pounds; alum, 4 pounds, and muriate of tin, 8 cupfuls, adding a little extract of indigo.

«Purple for Cotton.»—Get up a tub of hot logwood liquor, enter 3 pieces, give them 5 ends, and hedge out. Enter them in a clean alum tub, give them 5 ends, and hedge out. Get up another tub of logwood liquor, enter, give them 5 ends, and hedge out; renew the alum tub, give 5 ends in that, and finish.

«Purple for Silk.»—For 10 pounds of goods, enter the goods in a blue dye bath, and secure a light-blue color, dry, and dip in a warm solution containing alum, 2 1⁠/⁠2 pounds. Should a deeper color be required, add a little extract of indigo.

«Solferino and Magenta for Woolen, Silk, or Cotton.»—For 1 pound of woolen goods, magenta shade, 96 grains, apothecaries’ weight, of aniline red, will be required. Dissolve in a little warm alcohol, using, say, 6 fluidounces, or about 6 gills alcohol per ounce of aniline. Many dyers use wood spirits because of its cheapness. For a solferino shade, use 64 grains aniline red, and dissolve in 4 ounces alcohol, to each 1 pound of goods. Cold water, 1 quart, will dissolve these small quantities of aniline red, but the cleanest and quickest way will be found by using the alcohol, or wood spirits. Clean the cloth and goods by steeping at a gentle heat in weak soapsuds, rinse in several masses of clean water and lay aside moist. The alcoholic solution of aniline is to be added from time to time to the warm or hot dye bath, till the color on the goods is of the desired shade. The goods are to be removed from the dye bath before each addition of the alcoholic solution, and the bath is to be well stirred before the goods are returned. The alcoholic solution should be first dropped into a little water, and well mixed, and the mixture should then be strained into the dye bath. If the color is not dark enough after working from 20 to 30 minutes, repeat the removal of the goods from the bath, and the addition of the solution, and the re-immersion of the goods from 15 to 30 minutes more, or until suited, then remove from the bath and rinse in several masses of clean water, and dry in the shade. Use about 4 gallons water for dye bath for 1 pound of goods; less water for larger quantities.

«Violet for Silk or Wool.»—A good violet dye may be given by passing the goods first through a solution of verdigris, then through a decoction of logwood, and lastly through alum water. A fast violet may be given by dyeing the goods crimson with cochineal, without alum or tartar, and after rinsing passing them through the indigo vat. Linens or cottons are first galled with 18 per cent of gallnuts, next passed through a mordant of alum, iron liquor, and sulphate of copper, working them well, then worked in a madder bath made with an equal weight of root, and lastly brightened with soap or soda.

«Violet for Straw Bonnets.»—Take alum, 4 pounds; tartaric acid, 1 pound; chloride of tin, 1 pound. Dissolve and boil, allowing the hats to remain in the boiling solution 2 hours; then add enough decoction of logwood, carmine, and indigo to induce the desired shade, and rinse finally in water in which some alum has been dissolved.

«Wine Color.»—For 50 pounds of goods, use camwood, 10 pounds, and boil 20 minutes; dip the goods 1⁠/⁠2 hour, boil again, and dip 40 minutes; then darken with blue vitriol, 15 ounces, and 5 pounds of copperas.

«Lilac for Silk.»—For 5 pounds of silk, use archil, 7 1⁠/⁠2 pounds, and mix well with the liquor. Make it boil 1 hour, and dip the silk quickly; then let it cool, and wash in river water. A fine half violet, or lilac, more or less full, will be obtained.

«RED, CRIMSON, AND PINK DYES:»

«Aniline Red.»—Inclose the aniline in a small muslin bag. Have a kettle (tin or brass) filled with moderately hot water and rub the substance out. Then immerse the goods to be colored, and in a short time they are done. It improves the color to wring the goods out of strong soapsuds before putting them in the dye. This is a permanent color on wool or silk.

«Red Madder.»—To 100 pounds of fabric, use 20 pounds of alum, 5 pounds of tartar, and 5 pounds of muriate of tin. When these are dissolved, enter the goods and let them boil for 2 hours, then take out, let cool, and lay overnight. Into fresh water, stir 75 pounds of good {271} madder, and enter the fabric at 120° F. and bring it up to 200° F. in the course of an hour. Handle well to secure evenness, then rinse and dry.

«Red for Wool.»—For 40 pounds of goods, make a tolerably thick paste of lac dye and sulphuric acid, and allow it to stand for a day. Then take tartar, 4 pounds, tin liquor, 2 pounds 8 ounces, and 3 pounds of the paste; make a hot bath with sufficient water, and enter the goods for 3⁠/⁠4 hour; afterwards carefully rinse and dry.

«Crimson for Silk.»—For 1 pound of goods, use alum, 3 ounces; dip at hand heat 1 hour; take out and drain, while making a new dye, by boiling for 10 minutes, cochineal, 3 ounces; bruised nutgalls, 2 ounces; and cream of tartar, 1⁠/⁠2 ounce, in 1 pail of water. When a little cool begin to dip, raising the heat to a boil, continuing to dip 1 hour. Wash and dry.

«Aniline Scarlet.»—For every 40 pounds of goods, dissolve 5 pounds white vitriol (sulphate of zinc) at 180° F., place the goods in this bath for 10 minutes, then add the color, prepared by boiling for a few minutes, 1 pound aniline scarlet in 3 gallons water, stirring the same continually. This solution has to be filtered before being added to the bath. The goods remain in the latter for 15 minutes, when they have become browned and must be boiled for another half hour in the same bath after the solution of sal ammoniac. The more of this is added the deeper will be the shade.

«Scarlet with Cochineal.»—For 50 pounds of wool, yarn, or cloth, use cream of tartar, 1 pound 9 ounces; cochineal, pulverized, 12 1⁠/⁠2 ounces; muriate of tin or scarlet spirit, 8 pounds. After boiling the dye, enter the goods, work them well for 15 minutes, then boil them 1 1⁠/⁠2 hours, slowly agitating the goods while boiling, wash in clean water, and dry out of the sun.

«Scarlet with Lac Dye.»—For 100 pounds of flannel or yarn, take 25 pounds of ground lac dye, 15 pounds of scarlet spirit (made as per directions below), 5 pounds of tartar, 1 pound of flavine, or according to shade, 1 pound of tin crystals, 5 pounds of muriatic acid. Boil all for 15 minutes, then cool the dye to 170° F. Enter the goods, and handle them quickly at first. Let boil 1 hour, and rinse while yet hot, before the gum and impurities harden. This color stands scouring with soap better than cochineal scarlet. A small quantity of sulphuric acid may be added to dissolve the gum.

«Muriate of Tin or Scarlet Spirit.»—Take 16 pounds muriatic acid, 22° Bé.; 1 pound feathered tin, and water, 2 pounds. The acid should be put in a stoneware pot, and the tin added, and allowed to dissolve. The mixture should be kept a few days before using. The tin is feathered or granulated by melting in a suitable vessel, and pouring it from a height of about 5 feet into a pailful of water. This is a most powerful agent in certain colors, such as scarlets, oranges, pinks, etc.

«Pink for Cotton.»—For 40 pounds of goods, use redwood, 20 pounds; muriate of tin, 2 1⁠/⁠2 pounds. Boil the redwood 1 hour, turn off into a large vessel, add the muriate of tin, and put in the goods. Let it stand 5 or 10 minutes, and a good fast pink will be produced.

«Pink for Wool.»—For 60 pounds of goods, take alum, 5 pounds 12 ounces; boil and immerse the goods 50 minutes; then add to the dye cochineal well pulverized, 1 pound, 4 ounces; cream of tartar, 5 pounds; boil and enter the goods while boiling, until the color is satisfactory.

«YELLOW, ORANGE, AND BRONZE DYES:»

«Aniline Yellow.»—This color is slightly soluble in water, and for dyers’ use may be used directly for the preparation of the bath dye, but is best used by dissolving 1 pound of dye in 2 gallons alcohol. Temperature of bath should be under 200° F. The color is much improved and brightened by a trace of sulphuric acid.

«Yellow for Cotton.»—For 40 pounds goods, use sugar of lead, 3 pounds 8 ounces; dip the goods 2 hours. Make a new dye with bichromate of potash, 2 pounds; dip until the color suits, wring out and dry. If not yellow enough repeat the operation.

«Yellow for Silk.»—For 10 pounds of goods, use sugar of lead, ounces; alum, 2 pounds. Enter the goods, and let them remain 12 hours; remove them, drain, and make a new dye with fustic, 10 pounds. Immerse until the color suits.

«Orange.»—I.—For 50 pounds of goods, use argal, 3 pounds; muriate of tin, 1 quart; boil and dip 1 hour; then add to the dye, fustic, 25 pounds; madder, 2 1⁠/⁠2 {272} quarts; and dip again 40 minutes. If preferred, cochineal, 1 pound 4 ounces, may be used instead of the madder, as a better color is induced by it.

II.—For 40 pounds of goods, use sugar of lead, 2 pounds, and boil 15 minutes. When a little cool, enter the goods, and dip for 2 hours, wring them out, make a fresh dye with bichromate of potash, 4 pounds; madder, 1 pound, and immerse until the desired color is secured. The shade may be varied by dipping in limewater.

«Bronze.»—Sulphate or muriate of manganese dissolved in water with a little tartaric acid imparts a beautiful bronze tint. The stuff after being put through the solution must be turned through a weak lye of potash, and afterwards through another of chloride of lime, to brighten and fix it.

Prussiate of copper gives a bronze or yellowish-brown color to silk. The piece well mordanted with blue vitriol may be passed through a solution of prussiate of potash.

«Mulberry for Silk.»—For 5 pounds of silk, use alum, 1 pound 4 ounces; dip 50 minutes, wash out, and make a dye with brazil wood, 5 ounces, and logwood, 1 1⁠/⁠4 ounces, by boiling together. Dip in this 1⁠/⁠2 hour; then add more brazil wood and logwood, equal parts, until the color suits.

«FEATHER DYES.»

I.—Cut some white curd soap in small pieces, pour boiling water on them, and add a little pearlash. When the soap is quite dissolved, and the mixture cool enough for the hand to bear, plunge the feathers into it, and draw them through the hand till the dirt appears squeezed out of them; pass them through a clean lather with some blue in it; then rinse them in cold water with blue to give them a good color. Beat them against the hand to shake off the water, and dry by shaking them near a fire. When perfectly dry, coil each fiber separately with a blunt knife or ivory folder.

II.—Black.—Immerse for 2 or 3 days in a bath, at first hot, of logwood, 8 parts, and copperas or acetate of iron, 1 part.

III.—Blue.—Same as II, but with the indigo vat.

IV.—Brown.—By using any of the brown dyes for silk or woolen.

V.—Crimson.—A mordant of alum, followed by a hot bath of brazil wood, afterwards by a weak dye of cudbear.

VI.—Pink or Rose.—With safflower or lemon juice.

VII.—Plum.—With the red dye, followed by an alkaline bath.

VIII.—Red.—A mordant of alum, followed by a bath of brazil wood.

IX.—Yellow.—A mordant of alum, followed by a bath of turmeric or weld.

X.—Green.—Take of verdigris and verditer, of each 1 ounce; gum water, 1 pint; mix them well and dip the feathers, they having been first soaked in hot water, into the said mixture.

XI.—Purple.—Use lake and indigo.

XII.—Carnation.—Vermilion and smalt.

«DYES FOR ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS.»

The French employ velvet, fine cambric, and kid for the petals, and taffeta for the leaves. Very recently thin plates of bleached whalebone have been used for some portions of the artificial flowers.

Colors and Stains.—I.—Blue.—Indigo dissolved in oil of vitriol, and the acid partly neutralized with salt of tartar or whiting.

II.—Green.—A solution of distilled verdigris.

III.—Lilac.—Liquid archil.

IV.—Red.—Carmine dissolved in a solution of salt of tartar, or in spirits of hartshorn.

V.—Violet.—Liquid archil mixed with a little salt of tartar.

VI.—Yellow.—Tincture of turmeric. The colors are generally applied with the fingers.

«DYES FOR FURS:»

I.—Brown.—Use tincture of logwood.

II.—Red.—Use ground brazil wood, 1⁠/⁠2 pound; water, 1 1⁠/⁠2 quarts; cochineal, 1⁠/⁠2 ounce; boil the brazil wood in the water 1 hour; strain and add the cochineal; boil 15 minutes.

III.—Scarlet.—Boil 1⁠/⁠2 ounce saffron in 1⁠/⁠2 pint of water, and pass over the work before applying the red.

IV.—Blue.—Use logwood, 7 ounces; blue vitriol, 1 ounce; water, 22 ounces; boil.

V.—Purple.—Use logwood, 11 ounces; alum, 6 ounces; water, 29 ounces.

VI.—Green.—Use strong vinegar, 1 1⁠/⁠2 pints; best verdigris, 2 ounces, ground fine; sap green, 1⁠/⁠4 ounce; mix all together and boil. {273}

«DYES FOR HATS.»

The hats should be at first strongly galled by boiling a long time in a decoction of galls with a little logwood so that the dye may penetrate into their substance; after which a proper quantity of vitriol and decoction of logwood, with a little verdigris, are added, and the hats kept in this mixture for a considerable time. They are afterwards put into a fresh liquor of logwood, galls, vitriol, and verdigris, and, when the hats are costly, or of a hair which with difficulty takes the dye, the same process is repeated a third time. For obtaining the most perfect color, the hair or wool is dyed blue before it is formed into hats.

The ordinary bath for dyeing hats, employed by London manufacturers, consists, for 12 dozen, of 144 pounds of logwood; 12 pounds of green sulphate of iron or copperas; 7 1⁠/⁠2 pounds verdigris. The logwood having been introduced into the copper and digested for some time, the copperas and verdigris are added in successive quantities, and in the above proportions, along with every successive 2 or 3 dozen of hats suspended upon the dripping machine. Each set of hats, after being exposed to the bath with occasional airings during 40 minutes, is taken off the pegs, and laid out upon the ground to be more completely blackened by the peroxydizement of the iron with the atmospheric oxygen. In 3 or 4 hours the dyeing is completed. When fully dyed, the hats are well washed in running water.

Straw hats or bonnets may be dyed black by boiling them 3 or 4 hours in a strong liquor of logwood, adding a little copperas occasionally. Let the bonnets remain in the liquor all night; then take out to dry in the air. If the black is not satisfactory, dye again after drying. Rub inside and out with a sponge moistened in fine oil; then block.

I.—Red Dye.—Boil ground brazil wood in a lye of potash, and boil your straw hats in it.

II.—Blue Dye.—Take a sufficient quantity of potash lye, 1 pound of litmus or lacmus, ground; make a decoction and then put in the straw, and boil it.

«TO DYE, STIFFEN, AND BLEACH FELT HATS.»

Felt hats are dyed by repeated immersion, drawing and dipping in a hot watery solution of logwood, 38 parts; green vitriol, 3 parts; verdigris, 2 parts; repeat the immersions and drawing with exposure to the air 13 or 14 times, or until the color suits, each step in the process lasting from 10 to 15 minutes. Aniline colors may be advantageously used instead of the above. For a stiffening, dissolve borax, 10 parts; carbonate of potash, 3 parts, in hot water; then add shellac, 50 parts, and boil until all is dissolved; apply with a sponge or a brush, or by immersing the hat when it is cold, and dip at once in very dilute sulphuric or acetic acid to neutralize the alkali and fix the shellac. Felt hats can be bleached by the use of sulphuric acid gas.

«LIQUID DYE COLORS.»

These colors, thickened with a little gum, may be used as inks in writing, or as colors to tint maps, foils, artificial flowers, etc., or to paint on velvet:

I.—Blue.—Dilute Saxon blue or sulphate of indigo with water. If required for delicate work, neutralize with chalk.

II.—Purple.—Add a little alum to a strained decoction of logwood.

III.—Green.—Dissolve sap green in water and add a little alum.

IV.—Yellow.—Dissolve annatto in a weak lye of subcarbonate of soda or potash.

V.—Golden Color.—Steep French berries in hot water, strain, and add a little gum and alum.

VI.—Red.—Dissolve carmine in ammonia, or in weak carbonate of potash water, or infuse powdered cochineal in water, strain, and add a little gum in water.

«UNCLASSIFIED DYERS’ RECIPES:»

«To Cleanse Wool.»—Make a hot bath composed of water, 4 parts; and urine, 1 part; enter the wool, teasing and opening it out to admit the full action of the liquid. After 20 minutes’ immersion, remove from the liquid and allow it to drain; then rinse in clean running water, and spread out to dry. The liquid is good for subsequent operations, only keep up the proportions, and use no soap.

«To Extract Oil Spots from Finished Goods.»—Saturate the spot with benzine; then place two pieces of very soft blotting paper under and two upon it, press well with a hot iron, and the grease will be absorbed.

«New Mordant for Aniline Colors.»—Immerse the goods for some hours in a bath of cold water in which chloride or acetate of zinc has been dissolved until the solution shows 2° Bé. For the wool the {274} mordanting bath should be at a boiling heat, and the goods should also be placed in a warm bath of tannin, 90° F., for half an hour. In dyeing, a hot solution of the color must be used to which should be added, in the case of the cotton, some chloride of zinc, and, in the case of the wool, a certain amount of tannin solution.

«To Render Aniline Colors Soluble in Water.»—A solution of gelatin in acetic acid of almost the consistence of syrups is first made, and the aniline in fine is gradually added, stirring all the time so as to make a homogeneous paste. The mixture is then to be heated over a water bath to the temperature of boiling water and kept at that heat for some time.

«Limewater for Dyers’ Use.»—Put some lime, 1 pound, and strong limewater, 1 1⁠/⁠2 pounds, into a pail of water; rummage well for 7 or 8 minutes. Then let it rest until the lime is precipitated and the water clear; add this quantity to a tubful of clear water.

«To Renew Old Silks.»—Unravel and put them in a tub, cover with cold water, and let them remain 1 hour. Dip them up and down, but do not wring; hang up to drain, and iron while very damp.

«Fuller’s Purifier for Cloths.»—Dry, pulverize, and sift the following ingredients: Fuller’s earth, 6 pounds; French chalk, 4 ounces; pipe clay, 1 pound. Make into a paste with rectified oil of turpentine, 1 ounce; alcohol, 2 ounces; melted oil soap, 1 1⁠/⁠2 pounds. Compound the mixture into cakes of any desired size, keeping them in water, or small wooden boxes.

«To Fix Dyes.»—Dissolve 20 ounces of gelatin in water, and add 3 ounces of bichromate of potash. This is done in a dark room. The coloring matter is then added and the goods submitted thereto, after which they are exposed to the action of light. The pigment thus becomes insoluble in water and the color is fast.

«DYES AND DYESTUFFS.»

Prominent among natural dyestuffs is the coloring matter obtained from logwood and known as “hæmatein.” The color-forming substance (or chromogen), hæmatoxylin, exists in the logwood partly free and partly as a glucoside. When pure, hæmatoxylin forms nearly colorless crystals, but on oxidation, especially in the presence of an alkali, it is converted into the coloring matter hæmatein, which forms colored lakes with metallic bases, yielding violets, blues, and blacks with various mordants. Logwood comes into commerce in the form of logs, chips, and extracts. The chips are moistened with water and exposed in heaps so as to induce fermentation, alkalies and oxidizing agents being added to promote the “curing” or oxidation. When complete and the chips have assumed a deep reddish-brown color, the decoction is made which is employed in dyeing. The extract offers convenience in transportation, storage, and use. It is now usually made from logwood chips that have not been cured. The chips are treated in an extractor, pressure often being used. The extract is sometimes adulterated with chestnut, hemlock, and quercitron extracts, and with glucose or molasses.

Fustic is the heart-wood of certain species of trees indigenous to the West Indies and tropical South America. It is sold as chips and extract, yields a coloring principle which forms lemon-yellow lakes with alumina and is chiefly used in dyeing wool. Young fustic is the heart-wood of a sumac native to the shores of the Mediterranean, which yields an orange-colored lake with alumina and tin salts.

Cutch, or catechu, is obtained from the wood and pods of the _Acacia catechu_, and from the betel nut, both native in India. Cutch appears in commerce in dark-brown lumps, which form a dark-brown solution with water. It contains catechu-tannic acid, as tannin and catechin, and is extensively used in weighting black silks, as a mordant for certain basic coal-tar dyes, as a brown dye on cotton, and for calico printing.

Indigo, which is obtained from the glucoside indican existing in the indigo plant and in woad, is one of the oldest dyestuffs. It is obtained from the plant by a process of fermentation and oxidation. Indigo appears in commerce in dark-blue cubical cakes, varying very much in composition as they often contain indigo red and indigo brown, besides moisture, mineral matters, and glutinous substances. Consequently the color varies. Powdered indigo dissolves in concentrated fuming sulphuric acid, forming monosulphonic and disulphonic acids. On neutralizing these solutions with sodium carbonate and precipitating the indigo carmine with common salt there is obtained the indigo extract, soluble indigo, and indigo carmine of commerce. True indigo carmine is the sodium salt of the disulphonic acid, and when sold dry it is called “indigotine.”

One of the most important of the recent {275} achievements of chemistry is the synthetic production of indigo on a commercial scale.

Artificial dyestuffs assumed preponderating importance with the discovery of the lilac color mauve by Perkin in 1856, and fuchsine or magenta by Verguin in 1895, for with each succeeding year other colors have been discovered, until at the present time there are several thousand artificial organic dyes or colors on the market. Since the first of these were prepared from aniline or its derivatives the colors were known as “aniline dyes,” but as a large number are now prepared from other constituents of coal tar than aniline they are better called “coal-tar dyestuffs.” There are many schemes of classification. Benedikt-Knecht divides them into I, aniline or amine dyes; II, phenol dyes; III, azo dyes; IV, quinoline and acridine derivatives; V, anthracene dyes; and VI, artificial indigo.

Of the anthracene dyes, the alizarine is the most important, since this is the coloring principle of the madder. The synthesis of alizarine from anthracene was effected by Grabe and Liebermann in 1868. This discovery produced a complete revolution in calico printing, turkey-red dyeing, and in the manufacture of madder preparations. Madder finds to-day only a very limited application in the dyeing of wool.