To prevent yarn felting when it is scoured, it should be first steeped in hot water and left to cool. Soft soap is best for long fine wool. Urine for short wools; or urine and soda ash.
Another way of cleansing wool. Make a hot bath of 4 parts water and 1 part urine, enter wool, teasing it and opening it out to admit the full action of the liquid. After 20 minutes immersion, remove and allow to drain. Then rinse in clear running water and allow to dry. Use no soap. The liquid can be used again. The wool often loses one fifth of its weight in the process of washing.
To soften yarn—In a gallon of hot water dissolve half pound of common soda, then add half-pint of sweet oil and stir well. A little of this added to the washing water, for some colours, will soften the yarn.
To bleach wool—The wool is suspended in a closed room on hoops, and under the wool chafing dishes are placed with lighted coals on which powdered sulphur is cast. The room door is afterwards shut so that the smoke may be the longer retained to act on the wool, which is to remain until it is entirely whitened.
ON SILK.—There are two kinds of silk, 1) raw silk (reeled silk, thrown silk, drawn silk), and 2) waste silk or spun silk.
Raw silk is that directly taken from the cocoons. Waste silk is the silk from cocoons that are damaged in some way so that they cannot be reeled off direct. They are therefore carded and spun, like wool or cotton.
Silk in the raw state is covered with a silk gum which must be boiled off before dyeing is begun. It is tied up in canvas bags and boiled up in a strong solution of soap for three or four hours until all the gum is boiled off. If it is yellow gum, the silk is wrought first in a solution of soft soap at a temperature just below boiling point for about an hour, then put into bags and boiled. After boiling, the soap is well washed out.
Generally speaking, the affinity of silk for dyes is similar but weaker in character to that of wool. The general method for dyeing is the same as for wool, except that in most cases lower temperatures are used in the mordanting. In some cases, soaking in a cold concentrated solution of the mordant is sufficient. The dyeing of some colours is also at a low temperature.
Of the preparation of raw silk. For every pound of raw silk, take ¼ lb. of soap; first put the silk into a bag, or so make it up that tangling may be prevented, then let it boil together for 2 hours, after which it must be very well cleansed, and so it is ready to dye all sorts of colours, being first allomed.[1]
How the boiled silk must be allomed. In proportion to every pound of silk, take ¼ lb. of Allom, melt in a little kettle or skillet, and when melted, throw it in to a tub of water, into which put the silk to steep, where let it lie a whole night.[1]