Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Supplement/Dyeing

DYEING.—A fine orange-yellow tinge may be imparted to silk or cotton, by grinding anotta on a moistened slab, and boiling it in double its weight of pearl-ash and water: the liquor is then suffered to settle for about half a hour; when it is drawn off, while hot, into a proper vat; and the stuff immersed, till it acquire the requisite shade. In order to heighten and fix the colour, it will be proper to dissolve some cream of tartar in hot water, and to add the solution to the liquor, so as to render it slightly acid: after which, the stuff may be rinsed, and dried in the usual manner.

A beautiful Saxon-blue, for silk and woollen cloths, may be prepared by gradually pouring from five to eight parts of sulphuric acid on one part of finely pulverized indigo. The mixture must be suffered to stand for 24 hours; at the expiration of which, the effervescence will subside: the solution is then to be diluted with water, when it will be fit for dyeing.

Black: A hot decoction of Aleppo galls, in water, is first to be prepared in a proper vessel, in which cotton or silk stuffs, previously soaked in warm water, must be worked for some time. The superfluous liquid is now to be expressed, and the cloths should be immersed in a black dye, made by steeping alder-bark, and iron hoops for several months, in a cask of water; or they may be plunged into a solution of iron in vegetable acids. When the stuffs are thoroughly wetted, they must be wrung out, and afterwards soaked in a decoction of logwood, to which a little verdigrease is added. The last mentioned process ought to be repeated, till the colouring particles be sufficiently imbibed: during the intervals, it will be proper to rinse the cloths in water, and to dry them, in order to fix the colour.