Blue Shades on Wool.
There are a very large number of blue artificial dyes of every class, but only a few natural ones, indigo and logwood, and with these every imaginable tint and shade of blue from the palest sky tints to the darkest navy blue or blue black can be produced.
While some of the blue colouring matters possess no great powers of resistance to light, air, washing, etc., the great majority are remarkable for their fastness to those destructive agencies.
There are but two natural dye-stuffs, indigo and logwood, from which blue tints can be dyed. With the former, a great variety of shades can be dyed of a satisfactory character as regards fastness; with the latter, only dark blues can be dyed, these are fairly fast to milling, but only moderately so to light.
The artificial blues derived from coal tar are very numerous, and representatives of all classes, direct, basic, acid and mordant of dye-stuffs may be found among them. The direct blue dyes do not work very well on wool. They are apt to dye very red, and somewhat dull shades, which are, however, fairly fast to washing and light. The basic blue dyes are fairly numerous, and may be used to dye from pale sky to deep navy tints. They are apt to work somewhat unevenly on to wool, owing to their great affinity for the fibre. They give shades possessing some degree of resistance to light, but which are not very fast to washing and milling, although, in this respect, there are very great differences among them. The acid dyeing blues are fairly numerous, but they dye a great variety of tints, usually fairly fast to washing, milling and light. The mordant blues are pretty numerous and of great value for dyeing wool, as they give shades which are remarkable for their fastness to light, acids and milling, hence they are most extensively used, especially for dyeing fabrics that are subject to very hard wear.
Indigo Dyeing.--It will be most convenient to begin the description of the methods of dyeing blues by showing how, and in what manner, indigo is applied in wool dyeing.
The dyeing of indigo on wool is effected in two ways, either in the usual way with acid baths, as with acid scarlets, when the so-called indigo extract is used, or in vats, when indigo itself forms the dye-stuff.
Indigo is, as all dyers know, or should know, a natural dye-stuff, prepared from the leaves and twigs of the indigo plant by a species of fermentation which produces the indigo in a soluble form from the indigo substance in the plant, followed by oxidation which results in the separation of the indigo from this solution.
It comes into this country in the form of lumps, which have a dark blue to bronze blue colour. The dye-stuff is insoluble in water, cold alcohol, alkalies or weak acids. When heated with strong and fuming sulphuric acid it dissolves, forming a blue liquor from which the colouring matter may be obtained on addition of soda in the form of a paste, which is used in wool and silk dyeing under the name of indigo extract. But dissolving in sulphuric acid materially affects the properties of indigo as a dye-stuff, as will be seen later on.
By the action of reducing agents the insoluble blue indigo is converted into a soluble white indigo. This body is rather unstable, and on exposure to the air it rapidly becomes oxidised and converted back again into the blue indigo. Upon this principle is based the application of indigo in dyeing by means of the vat.