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

We may add here, that an iron liquor called tar-iron liquor, prepared from the acid obtained from tar, (the acetic acid we presume) is now well known in commerce, but we have not room, nor does it appear necessary, to describe the method of making it; it is much used in preparing mordants for black and other colours by the dyers and printers of silk. This iron liquor may be obtained of Blake, North Street, Back Church Lane, St. George's in the East, London. See M'Kernan.

To dye cotton VIOLET.

Pass the skeins through the black vat and dry them, then pass them through a decoction of galls and dry them again, then through a decoction of logwood, then of alum and verdigris, washed off, and dried.

Or thus: by the black vat liquor, that is, the liquor of old iron and alder bark in some cases. Let the vat liquor be prepared from the iron hoops, vinegar, rye, or coarse bran, described in page 108. By this liquor it is easy to procure all the violet shades from the pansy flower up to the lilac and violet.

The goods must be first blue-vatted and dried, then galled and dried, then passed through the iron liquor, then maddered, then washed off, and dried; the liquor must always be kept much below a boiling heat, as this heat makes the colour obtained from madder brown: whatever drugs require boiling must be prepared by a decoction previously made.

For some shades sulphate of copper is used; for others verdigris, saltpetre, and alum.

To dye to the pattern the preparations should be always of one given strength, and all solutions of mordants the same. The time of working the goods in the dye must be regulated by the fulness or lightness of the pattern; and the quantities of the various drugs, &c. used much or little accordingly, reserving patterns of processes, with the particulars of such processes noted down. In proportion to the number of these upon record, and with strict attention to the subject, a good pattern dyer is formed. Time and practice are, however, absolutely necessary, with a delight in the business: for without a pleasure in dyeing no one can become a good or an eminent dyer. In many of the branches of this art there are, it is true, labour and pains in abundance; but there is also a portion, and that not a small one, of pleasure in others, which will counterbalance the care, anxiety, labour, and fatigue inseparable from this useful and important occupation, and which so strikingly exhibits the science and ingenuity of man.

To dye cotton RED.

If the cotton skein has not been cleansed since it was spun it must be cleansed by being boiled in a solution of potash, one ounce of which, if good, to a pail of water may be enough, or more than enough. The cotton must be put into bags when boiled, then washed off and passed through clean water, scoured with a little sulphuric acid, and then washed off again; then galled, washed off, and dried. The galls should be white galls: for twenty pounds of cotton five pounds of bruised galls are boiled in about one hundred and twenty quarts of water for two hours.