Recipes like these can be picked up in country districts all over the land to this day, and where no other coloring agents can be obtained, they may still be of some use. They are to be compared, however, to the somewhat similar recipes of the herb or “yarb” doctor, now almost extinct, who concocted various brews and teas and messes from roots and leaves, and administered them as valuable remedies.
Useful these brews undoubtedly were in their day, when it was impossible to get better medicines at any price, and the available drugs, even in large cities, were few and costly and but little understood. But who of us would now prefer to treat a serious illness with herb tea when within reach of even a third-class drug store?
And so to-day, when modern dyestuffs, even if not of the very best varieties, can be bought in packages at the nearest grocery or druggist, who has time to waste upon the laborious processes and messy, uncertain formulæ of former and unscientific ages?
MINERAL DYES
Tribes and nations in different parts of the world seem, at a comparatively early date, to have found out the art of coloring and staining textiles with mineral compounds. Iron springs, containing iron salts in solution, are found in many countries; and such springs are always noteworthy from the taste of the waters, and the color of the sediments left when the water stands exposed to the air.
Therefore discovery of the fact that those waters would impart a permanent and quite pleasing orange or reddish-brown color to textiles was perfectly natural.
Iron Buff.—Accordingly, in different parts of the world, people learned to dip cloths in these springs and then expose them to the air, thus dyeing them this iron rust color, commonly called by dyers “iron buff.” When iron became a common metal, it was found that any soluble salt of iron would act as a dyeing solution, just as well as a natural iron spring; and hence we find use made, in widely separated countries, of iron salts for dyeing.
This iron buff is used to this day, though of course it has lost the importance it had in the past. The red sails of the fishermen in the Mediterranean show this color; and it is a useful and interesting dye for weavers of hand-made rugs, curtains, and the like, because of its pleasing tone and great permanence. On the other hand, it is very likely to rub; and it fills the fibre of the cloth with mineral matter, thereby making the material stiff and hard to sew or cut.
Preparation.—Our colonial ancestors made this color cheaply enough. They carefully saved all the scraps of iron and steel that they could find—old horseshoes, broken knife blades, etc., etc.—and placed them in a barrel half filled with vinegar and water. Little by little the iron dissolved in the acid and, when it was strong enough, the housewife would soak her homespun cloth, or other material, in the solution, warming and stirring it, and making it absorb as much of the liquor as possible. Then she would take it out, wring it thoroughly, rinse it slightly, and dip it for a minute or two in another barrel half filled with a water extract of wood ashes.
