Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Dübner, Johann Friedrich" to "Dyeing" / Volume 8, Slice 8

by Various

Fig. 3.—Dye-jigger.

Pieces.—Plain shades are usually dyed in the piece, this being the most economical and at the same time the most expeditious means of obtaining the desired effect. The dyeing of piece goods may be effected by running them through the dye liquor either at full breadth or in rope form. The machine in most common use for the first method is the Lancashire "jigger," which is simple in principle and is shown in section in fig. 3. It consists essentially of a dye-vessel constructed of wood or cast iron and containing loose guide rollers, r and r, at the top and bottom. By coupling up the roller B with the driving gear the pieces which are batched on A are drawn through the dye liquor and rolled on to B. A band brake (not shown in the figure) applied to the axis of A gives the pieces the required amount of tension in passing through the dye-bath. As soon as the whole of the pieces have passed through in this way from A to B, the machine is reversed, and roller A draws them back again through the bath in a similar way on to roller A. This alternating process goes on until the dyeing is finished, when the goods are washed off, squeezed and dried. The jigger is especially useful in cotton piece dyeing, one great advantage being that it is suited for what is known as a "short bath," i.e. a bath containing a minimum amount of dye liquor, this being of great importance in the application of dyestuffs which do not exhaust well, like the direct colours and the sulphide colours. The padding machine is similar in principle to the jigger, the pieces running over loose guide rollers through the mordant or dye solution contained in a trough of suitable shape and size, but on leaving the machine they pass through a pair of squeezing rollers which uniformly express the excess of liquor and cause it to be returned to the bath. The padding machine is used more for preparing (mordanting, &c.) than for dyeing.

Fig. 4.—Dye-vat for Piece Goods.

For the dyeing of pieces in rope form a so-called "dye-beck" is used, which is a machine of larger dimensions than the jigger. Across the dye-bath is attached a winch W (see fig. 4), by means of which the pieces, sewn together at the ends so as to form an endless band, are caused to circulate through the machine, being drawn up on the front side of the machine and allowed to drop back into the dye liquor on the other. This form of machine is particularly suited for the mordanting and dyeing of heavy goods. Washing off may be done in the same machine.

The drying of piece goods is done on steam-heated cylinders like those used for the drying of bleached goods (see [Bleaching]).

The operations which precede dyeing vary according to the material to be dyed and the effects which it is desired to produce. Loose wool, woollen and worsted yarn and piece goods of the same material are almost invariably scoured (see [Bleaching]) before dyeing in order to remove the oily or greasy impurities which would otherwise interfere with the penetration of the dye solution. Silk is subjected to the process of discharging or boiling off (see [Bleaching]) in order to remove the silk gum or sericine. Cotton which is to be dyed in dark shades does not require any preparatory treatment, but for light or very bright shades it is bleached before dyeing. Wool and silk are seldom bleached before dyeing. Cotton, wool and union (cotton warp and worsted weft) fabrics are frequently singed (see [Bleaching]) before dyeing. Worsted yarn, especially two-fold yarn, is very liable to curl and become entangled when scoured, and in order to avoid this it is necessary to stretch and "set" it. To this end it is stretched tight on a specially constructed frame, placed in boiling water, and then cooled. Similarly, union fabrics are liable to "cockle" when wetted, and although this defect may be put right in finishing, spots of water or raindrops will give an uneven appearance of a permanent character to the goods. To avoid this, the pieces are subjected previous to dyeing to the so-called "crabbing" process, in which they are drawn under great tension through boiling water and wound on to perforated hollow cylinders. Steam is then blown through the goods and they are allowed to cool.

With respect to the question of colour, we meet with two kinds of substances in nature, those which possess colour and those which do not. Why this difference? The physicist says the former are bodies which reflect all the coloured Theory of dyeing. rays of the spectrum composing white light—if opaque, they appear white; if transparent, they are colourless. The latter are bodies which absorb some of the spectrum rays only, reflecting the remainder, and these together produce the impression of colour. A black substance is one which absorbs all the spectrum rays. The fundamental reason, however, of this difference of action on the part of substances towards light remains still unknown. All substances which possess colour are not necessarily dyestuffs, and the question may be again asked, Why? It is a remarkable circumstance that most of the dyestuffs at present employed occur among the so-called aromatic or benzene compounds derived from coal-tar, and a careful study of these has furnished a general explanation of the point in question, which briefly is, that the dyeing property of a substance depends upon its chemical constitution. Speaking generally, those colouring matters which have the simplest constitution are yellow, and as the molecular weight increases their colour passes into orange, red, violet and blue. In recent years chemists have begun to regard the constitution of nearly all dyestuffs as similar to that of Quinone, and some even believe that all coloured organic compounds have a quinonoid structure. According to O.N. Witt, a colourless hydrocarbon, e.g. benzene, becomes coloured by the introduction of one or more special groups of atoms, which he terms the colour-bearing or chromophorous groups, e.g. NO2, — N : N —, &c. Benzene, for example, is colourless, whereas nitro-benzene and azo-benzene are yellow. Such compounds containing chromophorous groups are termed chromogens, because, although not dyestuffs themselves, they are capable of generating such by the further introduction of salt-forming atomic groups, e.g. OH, NH2. These Witt terms auxochromous groups. In this way the chromogen tri-nitro-benzene, C6H3(NO2)3, becomes the dyestuff tri-nitro-phenol (picric acid), C6H2(NO2)3(OH), and the chromogen azo-benzene, C6H5·N : N·C6H5, is changed into the dyestuff amido-azo-benzene (Fast Yellow), C6H5·N : N·C6H4(NH2). These two dyestuffs are typical of a large number which possess either an acid or a basic character according as they contain hydroxyl (OH) or amido (NH2) groups, and correspond to the Acid Colours and Basic Colours to which reference has already been made. Other important atomic groups which frequently occur, in addition to the above, are the carboxyl (COOH) and the sulphonic acid (HSO3) groups; these either increase the solubility of the colouring matter or assist in causing it to be attracted by the fibre, &c. In many cases the free colour-acid or free colour-base has little colour, this being only developed in the salt. The free base rosaniline, for example, is colourless, whereas the salt magenta (rosaniline hydrochloride) has a deep crimson colour in solution. The free acid Alizarin is orange, while its alumina-salt is bright red. It may be here stated that the scientific classification of colouring matters into Nitro-colours, Azo-colours, &c., already alluded to, is based on their chemical constitution, or the chromophorous groups they contain, whereas the classification according to their mode of application is dependent upon the character and arrangement of the auxochromous groups. The question of the mordant-dyeing property of certain colouring matters containing (OH) and (COOH) groups has already been explained under the head of Artificial Mordant Colours.

The peculiar property characteristic of dyestuffs, as distinguished from mere colouring matters, namely, that of being readily attracted by the textile fibres, notably the animal fibres, appears then to be due to their more or less marked acid or basic character. Intimately connected with this is the fact that these fibres also exhibit partly basic and partly acid characters, due to the presence of carboxyl and amido groups. The behaviour of magenta is typical of the Basic Colours. As already indicated, rosaniline, the base of magenta, is colourless, and only becomes coloured by its union with an acid, and yet wool and silk can be as readily dyed with the colourless rosaniline (base) as with the magenta (salt). The explanation is that the base rosaniline has united with the fibre, which here plays the part of an acid, to form a coloured salt. It has also been proved that in dyeing the animal fibres with magenta (rosaniline hydrochloride), the fibre unites with the rosaniline only, and liberates the hydrochloric acid. Further, magenta will not dye cotton unless the fibre is previously prepared, e.g. with the mordant tannic acid, with which the base rosaniline unites to form an insoluble salt. In dyeing wool it is the fibre itself which acts as the mordant. In the case of the Acid Colours the explanation is similar. In many of these the free colour-acid has quite a different colour from that of the alkali-salt, and yet on dyeing wool or silk with the free colour-acid, the fibre exhibits the colour of the alkali-salt and not of the colour-acid. In this case the fibre evidently plays the part of a base. Another fact in favour of the view that the union between fibre and colouring matter is of a chemical nature, is that by altering the chemical constitution of the fibre its dyeing properties are also altered; oxycellulose and nitrocellulose, for example, have a greater attraction for Basic Colours than cellulose. Such facts and considerations as these have helped to establish the view that in the case of dyeing animal fibres with many colouring matters the operation is a chemical process, and not merely a mechanical absorption of the dyestuff. A similar explanation does not suffice, however, in the case of dyeing cotton with the Direct Colours. These are attracted by cotton from their solutions as alkali salts, apparently without decomposition. The affinity existing between the fibre and colouring matter is somewhat feeble, for the latter can be removed from the dyed fibre by merely boiling with water. The depth of colour obtained in dyeing varies with the concentration of the colour solution, or with the amount of some neutral salt, e.g. sodium chloride, added as an assistant to the dye-bath; moreover, the dye-bath is not exhausted. The colouring matter is submitted to the action of two forces, the solvent power of the water and the affinity of the fibre, and divides itself between the fibre and the water. After dyeing for some time, a state of equilibrium is attained in which the colouring matter is divided between the fibre and the water in a given ratio, and prolonged dyeing does not intensify the dyed colour.

Some investigators hold the view that in some cases the fibres exert a purely physical attraction towards colouring matters, and that the latter are held in an unchanged state by the fibre. The phenomenon is regarded as one of purely mechanical surface-attraction, and is compared with that exercised by animal charcoal when employed in decolourizing a solution of some colouring matter. Some consider such direct dyeing as mere diffusion of the colouring matter into the fibre, and others that the colouring matter is in a state of "solid solution" in the fibre, similar to the solution of a metallic oxide in coloured glass. According to this latter view, the cause of the dyeing of textile fibres is similar to the attraction or solvent action exerted by ether when it withdraws colouring matter from an aqueous solution by agitation. Latterly the view has been advanced that dyeing is due to precipitation of the colloid dyestuffs by the colloid substance of the fibre.

In the case of colours which are dyed on mordants, the question is merely transferred to the nature of the attraction which exists between the fibre and the mordant, for it has been conclusively established that the union between the colouring matter and the mordant is essentially chemical in character.