Lac, Bleached. Syn. White lac; Lacca alba, L. By dissolving lac in a boiling lye of pearlash or caustic potassa, filtering and passing chlorine through the solution until all the lac is precipitated; this is collected, well washed and pulled in hot water, and, finally, twisted into sticks, and thrown into cold water to harden. Used to make pale varnishes and the more delicate coloured sealing-wax.
LAC DYE. Syn. Lac, Lac-lake, Indian cochineal. A colouring substance used to dye scarlet, imported from India.
Prep. By dissolving out the colour of ground stick-lac by means of a weak alkaline solution, and then precipitating it along with alumina by adding a solution of alum.
Obs. To prepare the lac for dyeing, it is ground and mixed with diluted ‘lac spirit,’ and the whole allowed to stand for about a week. The ‘cloth’ is first mordanted with a mixture of tartar and ‘lac spirit,’ and afterwards kept near the boil for three quarters of an hour, in a bath formed by adding a proportion of the prepared lac dye to the mixture used for mordanting. Lac dye is only applicable to woollen and silk. The colours it yields are similar to those obtained from cochineal, but less brilliant.
LAC SPIRIT. See Tin mordants.
LACE. This decorative fabric is made by interweaving threads of linen, cotton, or silk, into various patterns and designs. Although in some instances lace is made by hand, the greater part is now manufactured by machinery worked by steam or water. The hand-made lace was called bone, pillow, or bobbin lace, these two latter names having been given it from its having been woven upon a pillow or cushion by means of a bobbin. The manufactured article is bobbin net. Lace and the machinery by which it is produced is of so complex a nature that Dr Ure says of one particular form of it “it is as much beyond the most curious chronometer in the multiplicity of mechanical device as that is beyond a common roasting jack.”
Owing to the improvements in machinery introduced of late years, it may be mentioned that a piece of lace which twenty years since could only be produced at a cost of 3s. 6d. for labour, may now be turned out for 1d., and a quantity of the fabric which sold for £17, now realizes only 7s. A pair of curtains, each four yards long, may be made in one frame in two hours.
The following statistics relating to the British lace industry are of interest:—“In 1843 there were 3200 twist net and 800 warp frames, returning £2,740,000 that year; in 1851, 3200 bobbin net and 800 warp, giving a return of £3,846,000; and in 1866, 3552 bobbin and 400 warp, returning £5,130,000.
There has since been no actual census, but about the same number is now at work, and the returns and profits are greatly increased by improved quality and patterns of goods produced. The returns of 1872 were certainly £6,000,000 at least; and from advancing wages and demand for Lever’s laces, must still rapidly increase. Men are now earning by making them from £4 to £6 for 56 hours’ weekly labour.”[12]
[12] ‘British Manufacturing Industries.’ Stanford.