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.