The Dyer's Guide / Being a compendium of the art of dyeing linen, cotton, silk, wool, muslin, dresses, furniture, &c. &c.; with the method of scouring wool, bleaching cotton, &c., and directions for ungumming silk, and for whitening and sulphuring silk and wool; and also an introductory epitome of the leading facts in chemistry, as connected with the art of dyeing

by Thomas Packer

Take a brown stone pan or pipkin, glazed. It must not be the common glazed wares, because these are glazed with lead, and the acids will dissolve the lead; if, therefore, such are used, the lead being dissolved, will be mixed with the dyeing materials, and sometimes totally spoil the dye. Stone-ware, if used with care, will bear the fire: such ware is usually glazed with muriate of soda or common salt.

Having a proper vessel capable of holding from two quarts to a gallon, fill it half-full of strong nitric acid, to which add, in small quantities at a time, either old horse-shoe nails from the farrier, they being the purest iron, or the cuttings of tin-plate from the tin-man's, for this is also very pure iron, although covered with tin; but the small portion of tin in the iron is not inimical to the dye. Be careful not to put too much in at a time, nor to stoop near to it while the solution is going on, as the red fumes arising are very noxious; and if the iron be added in large quantity, so much effervescence would be produced, that a considerable part of the liquor would be thrown over the top of the vessel.

When this solution is prepared in haste the air is greatly contaminated, and therefore it is best to prepare it long before it is wanted, and slowly, by dropping hourly small quantities of the iron into the acid, and then little if any perceptible fumes will arise. Continue this process till, by stirring with a glass rod or tobacco-pipe, you find the iron dissolves more slowly: by keeping a little iron at the bottom, and occasionally adding the acid, you may always have this preparation at hand.

It is to be used thus:—having a copper of hot water ready, put a part of it to some cold in a flat tub till the mixture is as hot as the hand will bear; then, according to the paleness or fulness of your pattern, add some of the solution of iron, and mix it well by stirring: begin with about half a pint for two pieces of twenty-four yards each: it is best to add a smaller quantity than is necessary first, as you can make another addition as you please, but, if you add the solution in excess, to diminish it is by no means so easy. Now, having ready a flat tub with water of as hot a temperature as the hand will bear, put into it a clear solution of pearl-ash, and have also ready another tub of clear cold water to wash off in; then pass the pieces (always taking care to have them well wetted out in one of the tubs of hot water before either the solution of iron or pearl-ash is put into either of them) through the solution of iron six or seven times, edging them over by the selvage to keep them even; next, folding them first even upon a board, wring them out, wash them off and pass them through the solution of pearl-ash; lastly, wash them off again in fresh and clean water: a permanent and bright buff will be found, and as good a colour as can be dyed upon cotton.

We here see what an affinity iron and cotton have for each other when the iron is combined with an acid and the combination in a liquid state. Although the colour is not so beautiful in every instance, yet, be the acid which dissolves the iron what it may, cotton imbibes the iron from it.

What is left of the solutions of iron and the pearl-ash may each be kept in a separate deal tub for use.

To dye cotton PINK.

Take safflower in proportion to its goodness and the quantity of work to be dyed; put it into pure and clear water; tread it in the water till the water becomes fully charged with a kind of extractive yellow colour. It is best to put the safflower into a strong linen bag or sack; a sack containing sixty pounds will take a man two days to wash it clean: if done in a clear running stream the yellow colour will of course run away; if you have a small quantity in a tub it must be let out at a plughole, which every flat tub should have. The safflower must be worked or trod till all the yellow colour is got out of it, or the pink to be obtained from it afterwards will not be bright.

When the safflower is thoroughly washed, take it out of the bag and put it into a deal tub or trough, and add to it pearl-ash in the proportion of six pounds to one hundred pounds of the safflower, which should be weighed before it is wetted. Let the potash be well dissolved in water; pour part of the clear solution off, and mix it thoroughly with the safflower; after having stood for some time strain the liquor through a cloth or sieve into another deal trough. The whole solution of pearl-ash should not be put in at once, but at different times. If there should be reason to believe that the safflower will yield more colouring matter by a farther addition of the solution of pearl-ash, such additional solution may be made. The water for the solution and the solution to the safflower should both be applied cold. Carbonate or mild potash is better than the caustic. By putting the solution of pearl-ash on the safflower at different times it will be readily seen when the fluid passes through the cloth or sieve free from colour.

The colour is of a cherry hue, and is resinous, therefore the water dissolves but little of it; the carbonate of potash is added to dissolve this resin.