The Practical Ostrich Feather Dyer

by Alexander Paul

The cultivated taste of the present age, requiring a large variety of natural and artificially produced or embellished material for adornment, employs almost any kind of bird's feathers, either in their natural coloring or dyed. None of them, however, are used in the condition as they are plucked from the body of the live or dead bird, but all must undergo a cleaning process, which not only serves to improve their appearance, but is an exceedingly essential requisite for the preservation of the material from decay and the attacks of moth and other insects, and is, above all, the first condition and indispensable preparatory operation for dyeing feathers, whether the costly feather of the ostrich or the common feather of our domestic chicken or pigeon. The cleaning or washing process is the same for all kinds of feathers; the ostrich feather, however, requires drying after every treatment in a bath, and a special operation for the purpose of opening the fine flues, which gives the plumage of the ostrich its characteristic and distinguishing beauty and rich, downy appearance of luxurious softness.

The feathers of the ostrich, which are used for dress-feathers, are taken from the wings and tail of the bird, whose spurred wings, by their peculiar construction render it entirely unfit for flight. The wings seem rather only fit to serve for the purpose of holding the body of the bird in equilibrium while running, and of preventing it from sinking to any depth into the loose sand of the deserts, which are the home of the ostrich. The natural colors of the ostrich feathers are white, black and gray, or rather a dark drab. They are, therefore, sorted according to their natural color, to be bleached white, or dyed in light colors, or to be used for dark shades. Practical men in the general dyeing business, and in garment dyeing or re-dyeing, hold that it is unnecessary to bleach, respectively strip, the material for dyeing dark colors, and garment dyers strip their material only to a certain extent, so as to leave upon it a bottom of color which they can advantageously use for their new dye. This method appears correct, if as "practical" as all that is designated, which results in a saving of expense or labor; but it is evident that a clear color of the highest possible beauty can never be obtained upon a bottom of a different hue; the bottom color will always, more or less, show and impair the purity of the topping color; but compound or mixed colors can be thus produced in an advantageous manner and to good effect, if the color of the bottom enters into their composition. The same is unquestionably the case with ostrich feathers, and the dyer is often compelled and must be prepared to bleach the gray or black and white feathers in order to dye them any light shade. The bleaching of naturally purely black feathers is probably but seldom required, as these are ordinarily left as nature has made them, but merely cleaned to heighten their beauty and gloss.

Owing to the delicate nature of the material, the dyeing of ostrich feathers bears much similarity to that of silk; both being high in price, carelessness and negligence in their treatment is apt to entail heavy losses. The utmost cleanliness of all utensils is an absolute requirement; dyestuffs, drugs and chemicals must never be added to baths in substance, but always in solution, and never while the material is in the bath; but the material must be taken up while the dyestuff or salt, etc., solution is being added to the bath, and only re-entered after stirring well. Solutions, as well as decoctions, must always be filtered, respectively strained, before adding them to the dye bath, even if they have been prepared beforehand, because any undissolved or solid particle of substance deposited upon the feathers would necessarily produce a spot or mark of a darker or lighter shade, as the case may be, according to the character of the undissolved substance. Although alkalies and heat are applied and necessary for washing or scouring, that is, cleaning and ungreasing the feathers, strong alkaline and excessive heat operating together are as fatal for feathers as they are for any other animal fibre,—wool or silk,—and strong heat applied to dry feathers is apt to irretrievably ruin them. The soap with which feathers are to be treated, must, therefore, be as neutral as possible, and if recipes speak of "boiling" the feathers, it must be understood in the sense as in wool-dyeing, that is, to apply a heat near the boiling point, when the baths begin to throw up bubbles, but not actually boil.

That the water used for any purpose in ostrich feather dyeing, for washing, bleaching, dyeing or rinsing, must be perfectly clean, needs hardly to be mentioned.

UTENSILS.

The utensils required for feather dyeing are of a very simple character, few and inexpensive. For small establishments an ordinary stove, a common wash-boiler, to have constantly hot water on hand, an ordinary wash tub, a white china wash-basin for dyeing, a clean board for starching and a few bottles, together with a small tin pan or kettle and funnel, for making solutions and decoctions and filtering them, is all that is necessary besides the work table. More recently, flat, oval upper pans, tinned for special purposes, have been introduced as dye-vessels, which are neatly provided with a moveable perforated false-bottom, and are heated either upon a direct fire, or a gas jet, or by direct steam. In large establishments copper pans are generally used, for the better grades of ostrich feathers especially, and for ordinary goods wooden tubs, both heated by steam. Where wooden tubs are used, several of them are set apart for the color most in demand, such as black, brown, gray, mode, etc.

PREPARATION OF THE FEATHERS.

The bundles received from the dealer being opened, the feathers are sorted according to color and size, and those for white and light colors, to be bleached, are laid from those of dark colors, which are ordinarily not bleached, that is, the black or gray ones. When going to work the feathers are put on strings, that is, they are firmly tied singly, about an inch apart from one another, and about an inch above the end of the quill, 20 or 25 with one string, seldom more, as they would make the bundle too thick and unhandy. The feathers are then ready for the steep, which operation ought always and for any method be the first step of treatment before proceeding to washing, scouring and bleaching proper.

For this purpose a strong solution of soap is made in boiling water; when cooled down to about 150° F., it is well stirred, the feathers entered and left in the bath over night. The temperature may be kept up over night. It is necessary, however, to lay the feathers down in the steep so that the liquid can reach every part of them, and to keep them well immersed in the steep, for which purpose it is advisable to weigh them down by clean sticks of wood or some other means. Instead of soap, soda may be used for the steep; taking about one and one-half ounces of soda crystals to one gallon of water.