Part 5

Wash and rinse thoroughly, using soap for washing, and rinse out in hot water about four times; after which prepare a bath of one quarter pound of turmeric to one gallon of boiling water. Enter feathers and let remain in bath about three minutes; take out and rinse. Boil a bath of half pound of logwood to one gallon of water about ten minutes; enter feathers and let remain in bath about four minutes; take out and rinse. Then prepare a bath of half an ounce of bichromate of potash and one gallon of boiling water, and let feathers remain in bath about two minutes, take out and rinse. Next prepare a bath of one quarter pound of turmeric and one-quarter teaspoonful of Victoria green crystals, and add one gallon of boiling water. Enter feathers and let remain in bath about four minutes; take out, cool off a small portion of the bath and add a small handful of starch. Pass feathers through and dry in powdered starch by pressing between the hands; then beat on a board or table until all the starch is removed from the feather.

CHOCOLATE.

Prepare your feathers by washing and rinsing thoroughly; and, if necessary, bleach with permanganate of potash. After doing this, rinse thoroughly in hot water for the purpose of removing all acid from the fibre. Prepare your bath of one gallon of water at boiling temperature; add thereto a teaspoonful of turmeric and a small pinch of copperas about the size of a bean. Enter your feathers and allow them to remain in bath about one minute or longer. Take out your feathers, and add to bath about one tablespoonful of diluted Bismarck Brown and a few drops of diluted violet; re-enter your feathers, and let them remain in bath about three minutes, keeping them meanwhile well under the surface of the bath; after which take them out, cool off a small portion of the bath, and add thereto a small handful of starch; pass your feathers through and dry in the usual way.

If a very dark shade be required, you will add to bath about a tablespoonful of logwood liquor at the same time you add the violet, and allow them to remain in bath a little longer. Should you find your color entirely too dark for your sample to be matched, rinse off starch in cold water; dilute about a half teaspoonful of oxalic acid in a gallon or more of hot water. Pass your feathers through, and rinse off in luke warm water twice; then pass your feathers through a bath of boiling water, for the purpose of effectively removing the acid; after which prepare again as called for in recipe, using a little more care, and the desired result will be obtained.

MOSS COLOR.

Wash your feathers and rinse thoroughly. Prepare your bath of quarter pound of turmeric and a half ounce of copperas diluted in a gallon or more of boiling water. Enter your feathers and let them remain in bath about two minutes; after which take out and rinse twice in cold water. Meantime have a medium strong bath of logwood boiling, and enter your feathers, letting them remain in about one minute, take out and rinse. Then prepare a bath of about two ounces of turmeric and a small pinch of aniline green in a gallon of boiling water. Enter your feathers and allow them to remain in bath about three minutes or longer. Take out and cool off a small quantity of bath with cold water; add a small handful of starch, pass your feathers through and dry.

If your color be found too much on the green for your sample to be matched, add to starch bath a few drops of sulphuric acid; or, instead, rinse off starch and mix a bath of two ounces of turmeric in a gallon of boiling water; pass your feathers through for a minute or so, starch and dry.

If found to be too much on the yellow or olive, add to your bath a few grains of aniline green, and return them to the same for a few seconds, first rinsing off starch in cold water. If found too light, pass for a few seconds through a weak bath of bichromate of potash; and if too dark, dilute a few grains of oxalic acid in hot water, and add to your starch bath a few drops. Pass your feathers through for a few seconds and dry in the usual way.

PLAIN DRAB.

If your feathers are old, dirty whites, wash and rinse them thoroughly. If light colors, remove the same by passing through permanganate of potash process, and use great care in rinsing to remove all the acid before entering in bath. Prepare your bath with one gallon of luke warm water and a small handful of starch; enter your feathers and rub them around well in bath between the hands to expand the fibres. Take out your feathers, and add to bath a small piece of copperas about the size of a bean and about a quarter cupful of logwood liquor; re-enter your feathers, and let them remain in bath a few minutes, meantime adding a small quantity of hot water to increase temperature of bath; then add a couple of drops of diluted safranine to bath, let remain in bath one minute longer, squeeze out and dry as usual.

If wanted more on the shade of felt drab, use, instead of safranine, a few drops of Bismarck brown; and if wanted more on the steel, use a few drops of diluted violet in bath. If a darker shade should be desired, use only a little more logwood liquor, and allow them to remain a short time in bath.

Should you find your color to be altogether too dark for sample to be matched, rinse off starch, and dilute a half teaspoonful of oxalic acid in hot water; pass your feathers through, rinse off a couple of times in luke warm water and lastly through boiling water, for the purpose of removing all acid. Then prepare a fresh bath according to recipe, and pass through until you have obtained the desired shade.

COFFEE COLOR.

Old faded out light colors need only to be thoroughly washed and rinsed to prepare them for this color; and darker colors can be prepared by bleaching with permanganate of potash, taking care to rinse thoroughly in hot water for the purpose of removing all the acid. Prepare your bath of about one teaspoonful of turmeric and copperas about the size of a bean in a gallon of boiling water. Enter your feathers and let remain in bath about two minutes; remove feathers from bath and add a half cupful of logwood liquor and return feathers to bath, letting them remain in about one minute; after which remove feathers and add to your bath about two tablespoonfuls of diluted Bismarck brown and hot water to increase temperature of bath; re-enter feathers and allow them to remain in about two minutes; after which cool off a small quantity of the bath and add a small handful of starch; pass feathers through and dry.

If found to be too light, return to bath, first adding more logwood liquor and Bismarck brown, and let them remain in bath about one minute. If too dark for your sample to be matched, dilute a few grains of oxalic acid in luke warm water; pass feathers through for a few seconds and rinse off three times in luke warm water. Then prepare bath as per recipe, using more care in the preparation.

If found too much on the yellow, a few drops of diluted safranine added to your bath will produce the desired effect. Use clean starch in drying; if a table or board is used, see that it is perfectly clean and free from acid.

PEA GREEN.

Prepare your feathers by washing thoroughly in hot water, and rinse thoroughly to remove any soap that may adhere to the feathers. Then prepare a bath by diluting a handful of starch in a half gallon of hand warm water, and rub feathers around between the hands. Remove feathers and a add a few drops of diluted Victoria green and a couple of drops of diluted picric acid. Enter feathers, letting them remain in bath about two minutes, keeping them well under the surface to insure an even color.

If wanted a shade more on the yellow, add a drop more of picric acid; and if more on the blue, leave the picric acid out entirely. Take out and dry in starch, being careful to beat out on a clean board in the usual way.

OLIVE BROWN.

Wash feathers thoroughly in hot water and soap, and rinse about four times in hot water; after which prepare a bath of half a pound of logwood; first enter feathers in one-quarter pound of turmeric and one gallon of boiling water; let them remain in bath about four minutes. When logwood bath has boiled sufficiently, say ten minutes, rinse feathers out of turmeric in cold water; and enter in logwood, letting them remain in bath about six minutes; take out and rinse. Prepare a bath of half an ounce of bichromate of potash and one gallon of boiling water; enter feathers and let remain in bath about one minute; take out and rinse thoroughly in cold water. Mix a bath of one ounce of turmeric to one ounce of archil and half the old logwood bath; bring to a boil and enter feathers, letting them remain in bath about six minutes; take out and rinse. Then mix a bath of luke warm water and starch, add a couple of drops of sulphuric acid and a couple of drops of picric acid diluted, pass feathers through, squeeze out thoroughly and dry by rubbing in powdered starch between the hands; beat out on a clean board until all the starch is removed from the feathers.

PROCESS OF DEGRADING OR BLEACHING NATURAL GRAY OR BLACK WHITE.

Begin by washing and rinsing your feathers thoroughly; after which soak in a bath of compound of one gallon of ammonia to eight gallons of water for about eight hours; take feathers out and squeeze out the excess of ammonia which is in the flues. Put your feathers in the peroxide of hydrogen with an addition of twelve to sixteen ounces of ammonia to one five gallon can or demijohn, and let it work slowly, stirring feathers from time to time for about six hours; after which lay your feathers on one side of the tub and add to the peroxide of hydrogen bath about four ounces more of ammonia; stir the bath well to insure a thorough mixture of the peroxide of hydrogen with the ammonia.

The peroxide of hydrogen will continue to work for about twelve hours more, until it becomes thoroughly exhausted; after which take out your feathers and rinse a few times in luke warm water. Then proceed to put them in a second bath of peroxide of hydrogen to be prepared as follows: To a half gallon demijohn of peroxide of hydrogen add two and a half gallons of water, and add thereto about eight ounces of ammonia. Then enter your feathers, and allow the bath to work a few hours; again add about two ounces of ammonia by the same process as before, and then let it work a few hours longer, or until the bath becomes exhausted. To ascertain whether total exhaustion has taken place, take a small portion of the bath in a glass and dilute therein a few grains of permanganate of potash; if it be not totally exhausted, bubbles will appear on the surface; if exhausted, none will be noticeable.

After your feathers have been removed from the bath they must be carefully rinsed off in three or four waters, a few degrees more than luke warm. Then prepare a warm soap bath, and allow your feathers to remain in a few minutes; after which rinse off thoroughly in luke warm water; dilute a small handful of starch in a quantity of cold water, pass your feathers through and dry.

All natural color will have entirely disappeared. Whatever portion of the amount of feathers you have just bleached are for whites, before drying them up, prepare a bath as per recipe for white, pass through and dry in the usual way. This process of bleaching is used only when it is desirable to make light colors from gray or natural black feathers, but feathers for navy blue, seal brown, bottle green, etc., will not be improved by bleaching. The shade of color can be evened off in the bath.

HINTS ABOUT THE DYEHOUSE.

In dyehouses where steam is used, it is necessary to boil your bath a longer time than where the bath comes in direct contact with the fire. The accommodations of a dyehouse for the re-dying of ostrich feathers need be very simple and inexpensive; in fact, I have seen a dyehouse where old re-dyed transient work to the amount of fifty dollars per day was accomplished with a small cooking stove, a wash-boiler, a wash-bowl and a tin dipper; costing in all less than six dollars. Of course, in the manufacture of raw stock it is necessary to have larger vessels and much better facilities; for instance, instead of from ten to fifty, or even a hundred feathers, you will of necessity be compelled to dye lots of from five to ten pounds of goods at one time. Two stationary tubs or vats, one for use in washing white and bleaching, and the other for black, with water pipes and steam pipes and connections; a few large porcelain lined or copper basins for dark colors are essential; it is also well to have an outer room or inclosed closet to keep your dyestuffs in, as it is important that they be kept clean. When cans of color are opened for the purpose of diluting a portion or making a color, have the cover replaced and returned to closet when through with it.

Have bench or table whereon rests your basins, while you match shades in making colors, if possible, where a north light will strike it; and if cold weather and the windows closed, keep the glass clean. You will often get various reflections in the dyehouse that cause a great deal of trouble to the dyer; as, for example, if the sun should be shining on a red brick wall and the reflection beating into the dyehouse, it will often lead the dyer astray, and while he thinks he has a perfect match, when the color goes into the office there is a decided difference.

The great majority who are expected to be benefitted by this work are not ostrich feather manufacturers, but the job dyer; and it is my object to simplify the dyehouse as well as the methods of dyeing. A small corner of the dyehouse can be used, and a couple of ordinary wash-bowls, a common wash-boiler and a tin dipper are really all the utensils that are practically necessary to complete the dyehouse for the renovator. A couple of hours in the morning devoted to feather dyeing, and a good practical man can turn out fifty dollars worth at a cost of only his two hours labor, and perhaps fifty cents worth of color. Feathers can be dried in an ordinary hot room or, if warm weather, out in the open air. The dry room where large quantities of feathers are dried should never be too warm, as the feathers are apt to dry up quicker than the boys can beat the starch out of them; and, as a consequence, the flues or fibres are not expanded as they should be, and the feathers are much harder to curl. The board or table used to beat the feathers on must be perfectly smooth, as there is otherwise danger of tearing out the flues.

The drying of feathers is quite an important operation, and if not understood, can result in ruining a great many by drying them improperly, allowing the starch to dry up on the flues without beating it out, and by breaking the quills. The dry room is only used when the weather is too inclement to dry in the open air, or when you have not got outside accommodations. The yard or roof is far preferable to the dry room, and especially so for white and black feathers. After having been washed and the starch thoroughly removed, it will improve them greatly to expose them to the sun for an hour or two. Colors, especially delicate shades, should not be allowed to hang in the sun only during the actual time required for drying a black made by our process; it greatly improves upon exposure to the sunlight, giving it an advantage over all others. Baths of logwood or old garnet baths that you are desirous of saving for future use, it will be well to remove them from the copper or tin basins or pans to wooden buckets or crockery jars, and cover them up for the purpose of excluding all foreign matter.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.

In the re-dying of old feathers the first thing necessary is to enter them in book by whatever system you may think best; after which they are assorted as to color, the blacks, browns, greens, blues, etc. Put in separate lots and then string them and mark your tickets. You will often find when you have selected your colors a number of different shades to be dyed one color; as, for example, when you come to string your browns, you will find a blue, a green, a garnet, a drab, and perhaps a dozen different shades of colors; string them all on at once and enter together, and dye a good medium shade of seal brown and dry; after which you proceed to take them off the string, and place them with their respective tickets. You will now find, perhaps, one a shade too dark for your sample, another perhaps a shade too light. The former you would pass through a weak solution of sulphuric acid in starch bath, and the latter through a weak solution of bichromate of potash. Another one you may find a little too red for sample, or too yellow. These, in turn, you can bring to match your sample as per recipe for brown.

In beginning the days work, it is well to do all your bleaching and cleaning first, while your hand basins and dyehouse are in a clean condition; after which the blacks, as they require logwood good and pure, and the same logwood used for them can be used for all other colors where logwood enters into their composition. Consequently one bath of logwood boiled in the morning will do all the work for the day.

In Chicago I remember, while giving instruction to a gentleman, who had come down from St. Paul, Minn., for the purpose of learning the art, that in one afternoon I taught him how to make every color and shade of color known, and my logwood bath that was used during the whole day's work was boiled in a small sauce-pan that held about two quarts. It had been used in making black, browns, greens and navy blues of all shades, and was still in good enough condition to make any color, excepting perhaps black.

Keep your bath of logwood covered at all times when not in actual use, and, indeed, then, if convenient, to prevent any foreign substance from entering it. It is the custom of a great many ostrich feather dyers to keep a quantity of starch in the dyehouse for the purpose of dipping their feathers into it and partially beating them out prior to removing them from the bath for the purpose of drying the ends up to see if they match sample. This is a very bad practice, for the loose starch flying through the dyehouse will settle on the uncovered colors and cause not a little annoyance and trouble. Keep the starch out of the dyehouse; keep it in the drying-room where it belongs. In drying your feathers out of the baths in starch it is well to have two boxes,--one to be used for colors that contain acid; as, for example, light blues, lemon, etc.,--the other for those colors that contain none; such as drabs, pinks, etc. In dissolving colors use ordinary bottles, and be sure to always use boiling water for the purpose of diluting. Let the proportions be about one teaspoonful of color to one pint of boiling water. Shake gently to thoroughly dilute aniline, and cork or cover bottles to keep out dirt.

Colors that are used in making very delicate shades, such as pinks or light blues, it is well to tie around the top of the bottle in place of a cork a small piece of muslin. It will act as a strainer, and prevent particles of color that may not have been thoroughly dissolved from passing into the bath and spotting your goods. Do not be too careful of the hands and afraid of getting them covered with dyestuffs; use them in the bath instead of sticks at all times, excepting where the liquid is too hot to permit it. The best method of cleaning the hands, no matter how dirty, is to pass them through a solution of soda, about one-quarter ounce in a small quantity of hot water; rinse off in cold water, and take about a teaspoonful of chloride of lime, moisten with water and rub the hands gently with it until all color has entirely disappeared; then wash with soap and hot water.

WASHING RAW STOCK.

First string your feathers, being careful to place the string on the end of quill so as not to get any of the flues under the loop; then slice down according to quantity of feathers to be washed, from one to more pounds of soap in boiling water, and boil down to a liquor; after which fill a clean tub half full of luke warm water, and pour soap into it; then enter your feathers and give them a slight rubbing. Then push them well under the surface of the water, cover them up and allow them to remain over night. In the morning run off dirty water and squeeze out your feathers; enter your feathers in a tub of clean luke warm water and use an ordinary wash board and a soft scrubbing brush. Rub bar soap on feathers, and brush gently, being very careful not to tear out the flues. Soap and brush one string at a time, manipulate them much after the manner of a woman handling a large wash. Be careful to give minute attention to the bottom portion of the feathers, as the flues are always more closely stuck together with the natural grease of the bird, and it often requires an amount of hard labor to remove. Repeat the washing operation and rinse off in about three luke warm waters, starch and dry.

In starching rub the feathers around well between the hands for the purpose of getting all the flues thoroughly expanded, squeeze out of bath and hang on lines to dry. Put no more out at once than the dyers can comfortably handle, as it is well to have them beat out on board at regular intervals of a minute or so; thereby expanding the flues to their utmost. The process of selecting the different grades or qualities follow, and it is necessary for the person performing this work to be familiar with the application of dyestuffs to feathers, to insure the dyer less trouble; as the different qualities all put in the bath together, and going through exactly the same process will come out different shades of color, will cause the dyer a great deal of trouble and labor getting them all an even color. When a batch of feathers are intended for white it will not be necessary to dry them first; simply wash and rinse, and prepare your white bath as per recipe, and pass them through it. It is scarcely necessary to remark here that natural black and gray feathers must not be washed at the same time with whites, as the latter would not be improved.

Strings should not contain more than fifty plumes, for, if they are made much longer, it would be awkward to handle them. Tips, however, are often strung three or four in a bunch, according to size, and an ordinary string may contain two or three hundred. In washing natural black tips it is advisable to use a brush on them during the first rinsing to remove all particles of soap therefrom.

SHADING.