PRINTING STUFFS OF WOOL AND SILK, AND STUFFS WITH COTTON WARPS.

This branch of our subject is directly allied to the one last considered, the application of the compounds of sulphur and indigo; for indigo is applied to printing wool and silk principally in the form of indigo carmines. These applications are less numerous than they were formerly, since they have been replaced by Prussian blue, and more recently by the aniline blues, which are now generally used. When the carmines are used, it is for making sky blues, and they enter into the composition of some greens and browns. The salts of alumina and vegetable acids are used to fix the indigo carmine upon tissues of wool and silk. Some receipts recommended by M. de Kæppelin, himself a practical printer, are given in a note. [7]

In printing tissues of wool with cotton warp, the carmines are not used alone. They are combined in certain proportions with cyanites of iron and potash, to obtain upon the cotton a blue color of equal intensity with that produced by the carmines upon wool. It is also necessary to previously mordant the fabrics by means of a solution of oxide of tin or caustic soda which is precipitated on the fibres by passing through a bath of water, to which sulphuric acid has been added.


[ [7]

BLUE NO. 1.
Indigo carmine400grammes.
Alum100
Oxalic acid150
Boiling waterlitre
Gum water prepared in proportion of 1 kilogram to the litrelitre
GREEN NO. 1.
Gum water as above12litres.
Cuba lac12
Alum1kilogram,500grammes.
Oxalic acid2
Indigo carmine4
BOUILLON FOR THE GREENS AND BLUES.
Boiling water12litres.
Alum600grammes
Oxalic acid750
Gum water12
SKY BLUE FOR WOOLLEN STUFF WITH COTTON WARP.
First solution.—Boiling water4litres.
Cyanuret of iron and potash800grammes.
Second solution.—Boiling water2
Tartaric acid300
Third solution.—Cold water 3
Sulphuric acid300
Pour in the first solution, then the second and third, agitating thecolor with a spatula after each new addition.
The following mixture is afterwards applied to the stuff:—
Gum water12litres.
Water6
Blue No. 1 for wool3