The Dyer's Guide / Being a compendium of the art of dyeing linen, cotton, silk, wool, muslin, dresses, furniture, &c. &c.; with the method of scouring wool, bleaching cotton, &c., and directions for ungumming silk, and for whitening and sulphuring silk and wool; and also an introductory epitome of the leading facts in chemistry, as connected with the art of dyeing

by Thomas Packer

To dye skein silk BLACK for velvets, Genoa process, (from Macquer.)

The silk should be ungummed by boiling it four hours with a quarter of its weight of white soap, and afterwards to be well cleared from the soap.

Take, for every hundred pounds of silk, twenty pounds of galls in powder, and boiled one hour; two pounds of sulphate of iron; twelve pounds of iron filings; and twenty pounds of gum arabic or senegal.

This process is very simple: here are the gallic acid and tannin of the galls, and the iron of the sulphate and the filings. But we must proceed to a more modern process.