GETTY CENTER LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/familydyerscoureOOtuck THE FAMILY DYER AND SCOURER. BARN Ann AND FARLET, Skinner Street, Louden, THE FAMILY DYER AND SCOURER; BEING A COMPLETE TREATISE ON Clfte art0 of IBpinq mXt itUmim EVERY ARTICLE OF DRESS, BED AND WINDOW FURNITURE, SILKS, BONNETS, FEATHERS, &c. -WHETHER MADE OF FLAX, SILK, COTTON, WOOL, OR HAIR; Also, CARPETS, COUNTERPANES, AND HEARTH-RUGS. ENSURING A SAVING OF EIGHTY PER CENT, BY WILLIAM TUCKER, LATE DYER AND SCOURER IN THE METROPOLIS. SECOND EDITION. Tf* Uontion: PEINTED FOR SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES, PATEKNOSTBR-ROW, 1818. PREFACE. The Author of this Work has been in- duced. to publish it from a conviction, that the high prices charged by those who are proficients in the useful and entertaining art of Dying, prevent many persons who live at a distance from great towns, from having their clothes dyed, as the payment of the carriage, and the dying together, sometimes amount to more than the value of the ar- ticle. The ditFerent recipes given in this Work are the results of practical experi- ence, and the processes recommended in the same may therefore be depended on. There are many other methods of dying various colours, whic h would only perplex persons not ngularly bred to the business. The object of the Author being to make the art of cleaning and dying their ap- pur 1 easy to pvery person, so that they may make tin ■ ^hes appear as new, at iv PREFACE. a trifling expence, he has omitted every thing superfluous. Clothes in a dirty state are frequently thrown by as useless, which, by being dyed or cleaned, may be worn much longer ; but besides the saving connected with the methods here recommended, ladies and gentlemen fond of chemical processes will find the art of Dying a pleasing as well as a most useful emplo\^ment. As every house affords the necessary ap- paratus, and every market town the drugs and spirits, by following the simple me- thods laid down in these pages, it is im- possible to fail in attaining the object pro- posed. The Author presumes that this Work ought justly to claim the preference to any other hitherto published on the Art op Dying, as not only the mode of operation, but also the quantity of drugs required for each garment, &c. are exactly specified. Among the many important recipes which it contains, he begs leave to call the atten- tion of the ladies to the preparation of Carthamus, viz. bastard saff^ron, or saf- flower, which he has described, and the PREFACE. V manner of its use for dying pinks, bright reds, and rose colour, on silks, cottons, and feathers, and which, when once prepared, is as easy to use, as the pink saucer, produc- ing a much better effect at one-twentieth part of the expence. The making of Liquid Blue is another object well worth the housewife^s attention ; this dyes blues of all shades on silks, wool- lens and feathers, and in bleaching coun- terpanes, gives them that beautiful light transparent look which they must have if care is taken at first to clean them properly from the dirt which naturally adheres to the texture of the substance, and remains even in the pores of the cotton. Here, too, I must remind my Readers, that in washing muslin, linen, or calico, they should not use their first water too hot ; but in the last, it is necessary to use it as hot as possible, and also a sufficient quantity of pearl or pot ash ; of the latter a very small portion does to mix with, and to extract the oil or grease remaining in the texture of the cot- ton, and by this means cotton will preserve and improve its colour. a 3 vi PREFACE, This little digression, I hope, will ope- rate as a caution indispensably necessary in recipes for dying and scouring, which caution should also be used in cleaning every thing before it is dyed. For further particulars, see the article " Cleaning Silks/' All the utensils necessary in the art of Dying, are a copper, a frame, a horse, a tub^ and a doll, the latter represented in the wood-cut. The horse is to put your goods upon when they come from the dye, and re- sembles a carpenter^s stool, about four feet long, and four feet high, supported upon four legs. The goods, when taken from the cop- per or boiler, may be thrown across this to drain, though any other contrivance may do as well; and instead of a copper boiler, any tin or brass boiler will do, so as there is but room to stir and handle over the goods*. > Many dyers carry on a large trade in one room, and with only one copper of from * By handling over is meant .passing the goods through the hand from end to end, to make the colour communicate equally through the piece. PREFACE. vii ten to fifteen gallons. Instead of a frame for finishing silks on, they may be pinned out, as a clear starcher pins out muslin, &c., and ribbons are finished by drawing the iron on the wrong side between pressed paper. The chymic, or liquid blue, is one of the most useful dyes in practice; as, by adding a proportionate quantity of it to cold water, either spring or river water, it will do its office. After silks are passed through warm water, a process always necessary to rriake goods take the dye regularly, you have then nothing to do but dip your silk or satin un- til it has taken the desired shade, adding more liquid blue, as you require the colour to be deeper. It also dyes grey, with the addition of logwood, brazil, or archil, even as deep as a mazarine blue, and from the » pale blue azure to the deepest blue; but it will not bear hot water, excepting for dying green. It is useful, also, in many other co- lours. The finishing of cloths and cottons must also be noticed. The first of these, the viii PREFACE. most difficult, is done by the people called hot pressers ; and without this finish, wool- lens would have a very disagreeable appear- ance. However, persons who live at an inconvenient distance from such tradesmen, may remedy the evil by beating two or three flat irons such as clothes are ironed with: then, putting the cloth between two thick press papers, if they can be got, and by moving the irons backward and forward, so that the impression of weight and heat may be regular and equal over the surface of the cloth. The irons should not be too hot, nor be suffered to remain too long in one place; but one single trial of this pro- cess will afford more instruction than it is possible to obtain without it. For cottons, a calender, or a mangle, will do; and if a mangle is not preferred, simply ironing of them will answer the purpose, care being taken that the iron is not too hot. Having described the outline of his prac- tice, the Author presumes that much bene- fit would result from the pubhc encourage- PREFACE. ix ment of the Art of Dying. Already the Oak Bark, the Alder Bark, the Welds, and many other dying wares, as Woad, &c. are cultivated in this country, and are equal to any imported from other nations. Nor is it genius for any speculation or improvement that is wanting in this art, but a stimulus. The Author has already met with many families who are their own Dyers, even without instruction. He therefore hopes that his Work will essentially contribute towards bringing the Art to greater perfec- tion. The utility of dying small Silks, as Gloves, Spencers, Bonnets, Ribbons, &c. cannot be doubted; and the practice is at the same time so entertaining, that the Au- thor ventures to say, when once a hidy has perfected one colour, she will not rest satis- fied till she has acquired a further know- ledge of colours in general. Asa proof of these assertions, he also observes, that the dying of one-fifth of all the goods brought to him to dye in the course of his practice had been previously attempted. Persons of slender income, and others re- X PREFACE. siding at considerable distances from great towns, where proficient dyers are to be found, must inevitably be benefited by this Work : for the basis of the Art being clearly explained, it requires nothing more than the aid of ingenuity to perfect it. The Author, not pretending to any claims beyond the extent of his own practice and ability, these recipes and instructions, such as ttiey are, he presents to an im- partial Public; but, as it may be made an objection, that not every man of business would, like him, expose his trade to the ha- zard of its ruin, he answers, that he is not of the number of those who entertain this contracted opinion. The world cannot long be kept in darkness; and if there be any business or profession atfording larger pro- fits than those of tradesmen in general, this, like every thing else, will eventually find its level. It is undenirible, that few persons would dye their things at home, unless the savings were considerable. And if the dying business has already found, or is ra- pidly finding, its level, this Work cannot PREFACE. xi possibly do it any injury. I now leave the Public to judge oF the whole, and proceed to the Recipes, which are arranged in a me- thod the most easy and perspicuous for their application and useful accomplishment. The Doll, or Maid, represented in the wood-cut, is used for beating blankets, coun- terpanes, &c. in the tub, in order to clean them. For purchasing this Doll, or getting it made, it is necessary to observe that the upper part, or the shoulders, should measure a circumference of twenty-one inches. The four feet are made square, and mea- sure seven inches round each foot; is twen- ty inches long from the fork to the extre- mity of the feet. From the Fork to the top of the Doll is sixteen inches, making the height of the Doll altogether three feet, or thirty-six inches. The Tub is two feet and a half in height, the diameter of the top about two feet, and that of the bottom fourteen inches; it has also a false bottom, in order that the under part of the Tub may be level with the floor on which it stands, this being more vsolid to xii PREFACE. beat on; for, if it was not so, the bottom would soon be beaten out. A. The TVall the Peg is put in. B. The Tub, C. The DolL^ D. The Blanket being wrung* E. The short Stick by which the Blanket is wrung* THE FAMILY DYER AND SCOURER^ CHAP. I. DIRECTIONS FOR CLEANING AND SCOURING LADIES AND GENTLEMENS CLOTHES, LACES, SILKS, COTTONS, AND WOOLLENS ; GOWNS, BED FURNITURE, &c. &c. To clean White Lace Veils. jVXAKE a solution of white soap, in a clean saucepan ; put in your veil, and let it boil gently a quarter of an hour, take it out into a clean bason with some warm water and soap, and keep gently squeezing it till it is thoroughly clean, then rinse it from the soap, and have ready a pan of clean cold water, in which put a drop of chymic or liquid blue, rinse the veil in this liquid, then take a tea spoonful of starch and pour boiling water upon it, run the veil through this, and clear it well by clapping it between the hands^ then B 2 THE FAMILY frame it or pin it out, taking care to keep the edges straight and even. To clenn Black Lace Veils. These are cleaned by passing them through a warm liquor of bullock^s gall and water: they must then be rinsed in cold water ; they must next be cleaned for stiffening, and finished as follows. Take a small piece of glue, about the size of a bean, pour boiling water upon it^ which will dis- solve it, and when dissolved pass the veil through it, then clap it between your hands and frame it as described in the preceding receipt. A Method of cleaning White Satin^ Silks j ^t. Make a solution of the finest hard curd soap, and when at a hand heat, handle your silks through tliis, drawing them through the hand if they are such as will bear it. If any particular spots appear, Avhich may easily be discerned by holding the satin up to the light, such spots must be dipped in the liquor, and gently rubbed be- tween the hand. Sometimes two or three liquors sire required in this way. The things must then be rinsed in lukewarm \rQXer^ then dried and DYER AND SCOUREH. 3 finished by being pinned out, and the flossy or bright side well brushed with a clean clothes brush, the way of the nap. The more it is brushed, the more beautiful it will appear. If you are neara calenderer,your articles may be callendered, if not you may finish them by dipping a sponge into a little size, made by boiling isinglass in water, and rubbing the wrong side. Your things must then be pinned out a second time, and again brushed and dried near a fire, or in a warm room. Silks are done the same way, but not brushed. If the silks are for dying, instead of passing them through a solution of soap and water, they must be boiled off ; but if the silks are very stout, the water must only be of heat sufficient to extract the filth. Being then rinsed in warm water, they are in a proper state for receiving the dye. Another Method for cleaning White Satins. French chalk must be strewed over them, and then well brushed off with a hard brush. Should the satin not be sufficiently cleaned by the first dusting, it may be done a second time, and it will both clean and beautify the satin. The more it is brushed the better. THE FAMILY For cleaning coloured Silks of all Kindsy supposing an Article of this Kind be a common sized ShazoL Take one pennyworth of soft soap, and put into a vessel of a convenient size to wash a shawl or scarf in^ add to it a sufficient quantity of boiling water, keep beating and stirring it till it be dissolved, and till a strong- lather rises on the top of the water, and when at a hand heat, put in your shawl; then if the texture is strong enough to bear it, it may be rubbed as easily as one would wash a linen garment, rinse it out in luke- warm water, and if it is a false colour it will be easily seen, by the colour discharging into the suds. Care therefore must be taken to go through the process quickly, having ready in another pan (what the dyer's journeymen call a drop of sharp") which is a small quantity of oil of vitriol suiBcient to give the water a slight acidulous or sour taste; but it must liot be too strong, just a sufikient quantity to deaden what salts may be in the water, hard spring water therefore is best ; this does for all bright yellows, crimsons, maroon and scarlets, bat for orange colours, fawns, browns, or shade from these colours, it will not be necessary to use any acid. If you are cleaning a bright scarlet and the colour should DYETl AND SCOUKEJl. 5 sftdden or grow deeper or duller, it will be neces- sary instead of vitriol to use the solution of tin. If the garment should be very dirty, a second or even a third liquor is required, unless it should discharge or come out too much in the liquor ; but whether false or permanent colours, this proces& should be gone through quickly. As most bright colours, such as reds, yellows, pinks, and the shades from them, are furnished by spirits of a strong acidulous quality, therefore, though of all soaps the soft soap is least iuipregoated with salts^ yet it contains a sufficient quantity to deaden and partly to destroy the acid. The process being too lon^^, it therefore causes the salt to enter the pores of the substance, and attacks the dye which is within the pores, by which means the colour often fades, and sometimes is wholly discharged. To prevent this evil, as soon as the silk comes from the acidulated water, it should be gently squeezed (not wrung) and a coarse sheet should be spread on a table, and the shawl should be put upon it and rolled in the sheet and wrung, which will prevent the colours from running; and this is what the dyers call sheeting silks. The sliawl, &c. is then taken from the sheet and hung up ia a warm room to dry, and is finished by being callendered or mangled, without any further trouble. Some dyers press them, which is done in a cold press (or one whose irons are not hoi). 6 THE FAMILY " All kinds of silk shawls, fancy and painted, and foreign made silks are done this way." But when you have proof of the solidity of the colour, which may be known, besides the aforementioned proofs, by its having worn well, if any spots of a yellow or black cast should happen to be on maroon, red or crimson, this method of cleaning will either ex- tract or cover it. As for pinks, rose colours, and shades from them, such as flesh colours, &c. in- stead of vitriol or solution of tin, a small quantity of lemon juice, or solution of white tartar, or even vinegar, should be added to the finishing liquor. For cleaning and restoring Blues, Purples^ and Shades from them, such as Mazarine^ Prince's Garter, Royal and Navy Blues. These should be cleaned by dissolving hard white curd soap as before described, adding to it a small quantity of the best American pearl ash; and if the colours are faded almost to a red, this will restore them. You must add more or less pearl ash as the colour may require. Wash the silks in this liquor as you would a linen garment, then, instead of wringing, gently squeeze, and sheet them. When dry, finish them with fine gum water, or isinglass, dissolved by boiling. A sponge must be dipped in this, and squeezed DTER AND SCOUUEH. 7 almost dry, and then rubbed regularly all over the wrong side; and lastly, they should either be framed or pinned out. A small bit of pearl asli should be added to the isinglass or gum water^ which will preserve its brightness. N. B. These blues of all shades are dyed with archil, and afterwards dipped in a vat; therefore cleaning with pearl ash restores the colour. There are some blues on silk, of a very light shade, that are dyed with chymic blue, which will not clean. These may be distinguished by their not being of a red cast. Olive Gi^ecn. — There is a kind of dirty looking green that may be cleaned much in the same manner, only no acid must be used ; or great care must be taken to use no more than a sufficiency of it to harden the water. But if the water used is of a hard nature, no acid will be wanted; and a small quantity of verdigris dissolved in w^ater, or a drop or two of what is termed a solution of copper, mixed with water, will revive the colour again. Of cleaning Black Silk . If this is a slip, unpick the seams; lake one piece at a time and put it on a table, then take a pennyworth of bullock's galls, and boiling water sufficient to make, it pretty warm, dip a clean 8 THE FAMILY sponge in the gall liquor, and washing yotir sponge in a pan of vvarni water, after dipping it into the liquor, rub the siik well on both sides, squeeze it well cut, and proceed as before. Then hang up this piece of silk, and clean the others in the like manner. When the whole are done, im- merse them all together in a pan of spring water,, to wash off the dirt which the gall has brought upon the surface of the silk ; change jour rinsing \vaters till they are perfectly clean, and after washing, dry your silks in the air, and pin them out on a table; &c. first dipping a sponge in glue- water, and rubbing it on the wrong side of the silk. Dry it near the fire, and it will be as new. For dipping Black Sil/iS when iliey appear Ilusii/y or the Colour looks faded^for a Silk Dress, For a silk dre8s,your own discretion must be used, whether the silk can be rouzed, or whether it re- quires to be redipped (redyed). Should it require dipping, this is done as follows ; for a gown, boil two ounces of logwood, when boiled half an hour put In your silk) and simmer it half an hour^ then take it out,andadd a pieceofblue vitriol as big as a pea, and a piece of green copperas as big as the half of a horse bean ; when these are dissolved, cool down the copper w ith cold water, and put in your DYER AND SCOURER. 9 silk, and simmer half an hour, handling tliem over with a stick; wash and drj in the air, and finish as above. If only wanting to be rouzed, pass it through spring water, in which is half a tea spoonful of oil of vitriol. Handle in this five mi- nutes, then rinse in cold water, and fi^iish as above. Of Silks that are stained hy corrosive or sharp Liquors. We often find that lemon juice, vinegar, vitriol,- and other sharp corrosives, stain dyed garments. Sometimes by adding a little pearl ash to a soap lather, and passing the silks through these, the faded colour will be restored. — Pearl ash and warm water will sometimes do alone, but it is the most efficacious method to use the soap lather and pearl ash together. To clean Silk Stockings. Wash them in soap and water ; and then either into a tin or copper boiler cut an ounce of white curd soap into thin slices, and putting the stockings in, boil them gently ten minutes; then take them out and rinse in cold water. If they are to be of the blue cast, take one drop of liquid blue, put it into a pan of cold spring water, run the stockings B 5 10 THE FAMir.T through this a minute or t^vo, and dry them in the air. If they are to be of a pink cast, drop one or two drops of the saturated pink dye into a pan of cold water, and run them through this instead of the chymic. If they are designed to have a Heslj-colour, a little rose pink is used in a thin soap-liquor. All silk stockings, black excepted, are to be rubbed with a clean flannel, and sent to be callendered or mangled. The Mode of extracting Grease Spots from Silk^ coloured Muslin^ Sjc. Take French chalk, finely scraped, and put it on the grease-spot, holding it near the fire, or over a warm iron reversed, or on a water-plate in which is boiling water. This will cause the grease to melt, and the French chalk will absorb it, and it may then be brushed or rubbed off. If any grease remains, proceed as before until it is all extracted. The French chalk is a fine soluble powder, and of a dry absorbent quality acting upon silks as fuller's earth does upon woollen. DYER AND SCOURER. 11 Method of Taking out the Spots of Painty or other Solid Substances^ from Cloth, Silksy Si'e. Supposing a small quantity of paint had dropped on a coat, a pen should be dipped in spirits of tur- pentine, and its contents should I)e dropped on the paint spot, in a quantity sufficient to discharge the oil and gluten that is mixed with the paint. Then let it rest several hours, that it may pene- trate and suck up the oil: and when it has done this, take the cloth between your hands, and rub it; the paint spot will then crumble away like dried earth. The turpentine will by no means in- jure either the cloth or colour. To prevent Scarlet Cloth from being stained Black. As all corrosive, vitriolic, or salt liquors stain this colour, as the dirt of the streets, the drop- pings of houses, &c. and as these generally con- tain a vitriolic property, especially in large cities, when any spots of this nature appear upon your return home, wash them out in a little hard spring water, in which a dust of tartar has been thrown, and it will extract the filth, and leave no manner of stain. THE FAMILY A Method of deariing Chintz Bed ond Window Furniture^ so as to preserve the Gloss and Beauty, This will generally answer where the cloth is not in II very dirty state, — Take two pounds of rice, boil it in two gallons of water till soft; put the wliole into a tub; and when your liquor is at a hand heat, put in your chintz, and use the rice as you would soap. Then take the same quan- tity of rice and water; but when boiled, strain the rice from the water. Wash the chintz in this till it is quite clean: afterwards rinse it in the water the rice was boiled in, smooth it out with the hands, and hang it up to dry; then rub it with a sleeking stone^ or glaze it, and it is finished. The dyers cleaJi chii^tz generally by washing it, or rather beating it with the doll in a tub of warm soap lather, at a hand heat; and at last either take flour or starch, and make it of the consistence of oil; and then they beat their goods up in this, open it well that it may be smooth, dry in the air, and glaz.3 it. — Should the colour fade in washing, (that is, the red and green), it will be necessary to give the goods a drop or two of oil of vitriol in cold vrater after rinsing: this stays the colours. JDYEII AXD SCOURER. 13 For scouring thick Cottoti; as Counterpanes^ QuiltSy Si'C. Cut a pound of mottled soap into thin slices; put it into a pan with a quarter of an ounce of pot ash, and one ounce of pearl ash; then pour a pail of boiling water on it: let it stand till it is quite dissolved; then pour hot and cold water into your scouring tub, with a bowl of your solution of soap. Put in your counterpane, and beat it well out with a doll, often turning the counterpaae over in the tub. When this is done, wring it across a gallows or a hook, which is done by turning the two oppo- site ends round each other, and putting a small clean stick between them. By this method you mtxy wring it as dry as possible, the harder with- out injuring it the better. Having given it this first liquor, you may put in some old cottons or woollens, that the liquor may not be thrown away, and then give your counterpane a second liquor as before. Wring it out again, and rinse in clean cold water; then pour a sufficient quantity of boiling water into your tub, with a small quantity of the solution of soap, so that you will reduce it to a very thin lather. Put three tea spoonfuls of liquid blue into the tub where your goods were tahen from, and the acid of the liquid blue and the J4 THE FAMILY alkali of the pearl ash and the soap lye will cause a sli£;-ht fermentation or efflorescence : stir this thin blue liquor with a stick, and put in your counter- pane: beat it out with the doll about five minutes, which will colour the counterpane of a fine azure blue, of the lighest shade; but as it drys in the wind^ the blue mostly goes off, and leaves a bril- liant white. N. B. In some cases where the cottons are very brown and bad, it is necessary, instead of the last of these three liquors being poured into the tub, that it should be thrown into the copper, and the cottons entered and boiled an hour. When taken out, return them into the tub with some cold water, and add the before mentioned quantity of chymic, otherways called, liquid blue; and dry the articles in the air. For cleaning thin Cottons^ as Gowns^ ^x.. Instead of rubbing the soap on the cotton, as is the custom with laundresses, make a solution of soap, and put in your goods; then wash them as a washerwoman would. The benefit resulting from this difference of procedure is, the cottons are cleaned all over in an equal degree, which we know is not the case when the soap is rubbed on the body of the cotton; as then we often find large DYER AND SCOUUEU. quantities of solid soap in the pores of the cotton, which prevents such parts from receiving the dye, or appearing clear: whereas the solution, if made as described for quilts, &c. will extract all im- purities, and do it evenly. It often happens in coloured cottons, where greens, reds, &c. are used, that the colour will run ; then some acid as lemon juice, vinegar, vitriol, or any other, should be infused into the rinsing water, to preserve the colours, especially in Scotch plaids. For cleaning Scarlet Cloth. It often happens that ladies' pelisses, mantles, habits, &c. are dyed of this colour; therefore they should be taken to pieces, that they may be pressed; and so should all garments that require finishing, (except gentlemen's clothes, and even those should be taken to pieces when they are worn, that they may be turned). There are various modes of cleaning scarlet, each dyer considering his own the best way ; but the way in which I have best succeeded is the only one in which a dirty scarlet cloth can be cleaned. For a woman's mantle, dissolve half a pound of the best white curd soap; but as the quantity of soap depends on the state the garment is in, fre- quently two ounces will do. I have used a whole 16 THE FAMILY pound for such a sized garment. If any blacfc looking^ spots appear, rub your dry soap on them; in the mean while have your other soap sliced and dissolving. When the mantle is spotted all over with the soap, take hot water and a brush, and brush it off If it is very tilthy, some part of the stains will still remain : in that case you must im- merse or dip the whole garment into your solution at rather under a hand heat, and rub lustily such parts as are most stained. Have tlien ready pre- pared a second solution of white soap, as at first, only somewhat hotter; wring it strongly from the first soap liquor, and you will find soon after you get it in this second liquor that the colour will be- gin to fly, that is, it will spend itself in the liquor. This must be your signal to dispatch it hastily; and if this second liquor does not effectually cleanse your article, you will know that the gar- ment has been too hard worn, and requires what is called dipping, or re-dying: as soon, however, as the colour begins to give, wring it out, and im- merse it in a p*in or pail of warm water, to extract what soap remains in it: wring it out of this, and immerse it in a pan of cold spring water, in which a table spoonful of solution of tin has been pre- viously mixed. This solution generally turns th^ water of a milky white. Let your garment re- main in it, now and then handling it, ten minutes, hang it to dry in the shade^ which is best, or a DYER AND SCOURER. 17 warm room, if the colour is much worn; if not^ hang it any where, and let it be cold pressed. I have cleaned some hundreds of these mantles, &c. and many of them looked equal to new, and some which had been overloaded with the dye, looked belter than when new. But if these things are not much soiled, which generally happens if worn in country places, or if the colour incline to what is termed a Jire colour scarlet^ which is more tenacious, having less body of cochineal, and more spirits, and is often falsified with young fustic, turmerick, &c. the goods will require milder means to extract the dirt, without prejudice to the colour, which is done as follows : Take a quarter of a peck of wheaten bran, pour boiling water on it in a hair sieve ; and when this bran water comes down to a hand heat, immerse your cloth, and rub it well now and then; and, holding it up to the light, look through it, to see where the spots are. In the mean while prepare a second liquor like as the former, adding to it nearly a quarter of an ounce of white or crude tartar. Wring out from the first bran liquor, and put in this ; and if the colour is not saddened, which may be known by wringing one end of it tight, and blowing strongly on it, which will shew the colour it will be of when dry ; it is finished ; but should it be saddened, or darkened, a clean liquor must be made of cold spring water, in which add a drop or 18 THE FAMILY two of the solution of tin; let it remain in this^ liquor ten minutes, then wring it, and hang to dry. The mode of dipping scarlet cloth^ after it has been thoroughly cleaned with soap, and rinsed in warm water, is as follows : When the spring water in your copper (or boiler, or tin kettle, or whatever your convenience may be) boils, put in a quarter of a pound of young fustic, or what is known better by the name of zant, and a dram of pounded and sifted cochi- neal, and an equal quantity of white cream of crude tartar and cochineal; then, when this has boiled five or six minutes, cool down your copper by adding a pint or two of cold spring water, and a table spoonful of the solution of tin; then stir it, put in your cloth, and boil it for ten minutes ; when diy, send it to be cold pressed. A cheaper method, but not so good as the foregoiiTg, which I never knew to fail, is as follows: heat your cop- per to a hand, heat; add two ounces of the best crop madder, and a like quantity of turmeric, if required ; but for a deep red, turmeric must be omitted. When these have simmered ten minutes, and the madder begins to give out its dye, then put in your goods, and simmer them ten minutes, or longer, as required. The Irish dyers, instead of the solution of tin, use a few drops of the oil of vitriol, so as to make the liquor taste tart; handle BYER AND SCOURER. 19 the goods through this for two or three minutes, then take them out, rinse them in cold spring water, and hang them up to dry. Care must be taken, when madder is used for reds, not to let the water boil, as this drug, as well as the carthamus, affords two colours, the one red, the other brown, and madder, on being boiled, gives out the brown. This method will not answer for fire-coloured scarlet, but will do for bright coloured reds, when the colour requires to be saddened. To raise the Nap on Cloth, When woollens are worn thread-bare, (gene- rally the case in the elbows, cuffs, sleeves, 8cc. of men's coats), to remedy this the coat, 8cc. must be soaked in cold water for half an hour, then taken out of the water, and put on a board, and the thread-bare parts of ^the cloth rubbed with a half- worn hatters' card, filled with flocks, or with a prickly thistle, until a sufficient nap is raised. When this is done, hang your coat, &c. up to dry, and with a hard brush lay the nap the right way. This is the method which is pursued by the dealers in old clothes. 20 THE FAMILY To revive the faded Coloicr of Black Cloth. If a coat, clean it well as described in scouring^ blues, blacks, browns, &c. then boil from two to four ounces of logwood in your copper or boiler half an hour; then dip your coat in warm water, and squeeze it as dry as you can, and put it into the copper, and boil half an hour. Take it out^ and add a piece of copperas about the size of a horse bean; boil it another half hour, then draw it, and hang it in the air for an hour or two; take it down, rinse it in two or three cold waters, dry it, and let it be well brushed, and with a soft brush, over which a drop or two of oil of olives has been rubbed : stroke your coat regularly over* The whole expence of this process (the firing ex- cepted) will not exceed three halfpence. If any part of the coat, &c. should be worn thread-bare, the nap must be raised Avith a prickly thistle, &c. and the coat will look as new. Some dyers use old black liquor instead of logwood and copperas. For dry cleaning Clothes of any Colour. First examining where the spots of grease are, dip your brush in warm gall and strike over th& DYER AND SCOURER. 21 greasy places, when the grease will immediately disappear, rinse it ofF in cold water; dry by the fire, then take sand, such as is bought at the oil shops, and laying your coat flat on a table, strew this sand over it, and knocking your brush on it, beat the sand into the cloth, the sand should be a little damp. Then brush it out with a hard brush, and it will bring out all the filth with it. This does also for coach linings and gentlemen's clothes, &c. In the summer time when the dust gets into clothes, &c. after they have been well shook and brushed again, pour a drop or two of the oil of olives into the palm of your hand, rub this over your soft brush, strike your coat over with it, and this will brighten the colour if either blue, black, or green. For sulphuring Wooly Silks, Straw Bonnets, S;c. Put iato a chaffing dish some lighted charcoal, put this chaffing dish into a small close room, without a chimney, or into a closet or large box ; then pound an ounce or two of brimstone, and strew it on the hot coals. Hang up the articles you would have bleached, make your door fast, and let them hang three hours or all night, if you have time. This is what is called dry bleach- ing woollens; and all fine coloured woollens 32 THE FAMILY should be sulphured in this way previously to their being dyed. Straw bonnets are likewise bleached in the same manner. Remarks on scouring Woollens. It often happens that woollens are dyed with the false dye, which is generally more brilliant than the fast or good dye. When this happens to be the case, especially in very fine colours, as purples, greens, maroons, &c. other means must be used, as instead of spotting the cloths with soap in the solid, a thin solution of soap should be made, and the brush dipped in and then applied to the dirty places ; and in case it is a false green, after it has been proceeded with, as all light colours are, a pan should be filled half full of spring water, and after the coat has been previously well rinsed in two waters at least, a tea spoonful or rather more of the best oil of vitriol should be poured into this vessel of spring water, and the coat put in and handled a minute or tw®, which will revive the colours if a chymic green ; and if not, it will not hurt any fast green. DYER AND SCOURER. 23 On scouring undyed Woollens* This process, as practised by dyers, is so simple, that any housewise may go through it. Supposing the article to be scoured is one of the largest sized blankets, in a very dirty state ; cut into thin slices half a pound of the best yellow soap, then pour such a quantity of boiling river water on it as will effectually dissolve the soap, and make it of the consistence of oil in thick- ness. This is what is called solution of soap ; enough of this being made to scour what flannels you iiiay have to clean, you then proceed to pour into your scouring tub a sufficient quantity of hot and cold water to cover your goods about two inches ; and the heat must be such as you may bear your band in, previously putting a lump of th.e beat American pearl ashes into your tub, as big as a small walnut, and some solution of soap, about a third of the quantity prepared ; then put in your goods, and with your doll beat them out, until no head or lather raises on the top of t!ie water; you must then take the blanket by one corner, and hang it up, letting the two ends or sides meet when hung down together. Then turn those two ends in round each other ; put a short stick be- tween them, and by tiiis means you can wring it quite tight, (and if you have more than one to do) joa may add a little more pearl ash to the water 5 24 THE FAMILY that the blankets came from, and add more hot water, beating them in like manner. This will tend to soften the dirt in them, and prevent any of the ingredients from being lost. This dirty water is to be emptied away, and a second liquor prepared as the former; but if the blanket is pretty well cleaned of its filth, you need add no pearl ash in this second liquor, but let the water be hotter than the first, and then proceed as be- fore. This second liquor being spent, put it into the tub with the rest of your dirty goods. A third and finishing liquor is prepared by adding the remainder of your solution of soap, and a small bit of pearl ^sh and boiling water, then put your blanket into the liquor, give it a quick beat out in this thin liquor, and immediately wring it very tight, hang it to dry, and it will be as white as wool can be made. For scouring Black, Blue^ and dark Brown Wool'- lens^ as broad and narrow Cloths. Supposing the article to be cleaned is a man's coat, first dry about two ounces of Fuller's earth by the fire, then pour a sufficient quantity of boiling water on it to dissolve it to the con- sistence of molasses or honey ; take a sufficient quantity of this on the top of your three fingers, and plaster thinly over such spots of grease as BYER AND SCOURER. 25 may be on the coat, particularly remarking the cufFs, collar, the pocket holes, and under the arms, &c. This done, if you have time, dry it by the fire or in the sun; prepare a pennyworth of bullock's gall, mix with it half a pint of stale urine ; add to this, if required, a little boiling water, to make the quantity of alkaline liquor sufficient for your purpose, such as chamber lye, pearl ash, pot-ash liquor, or bullock's gall. You must take care not to weaken this too much with water; but instead of it, add as much as you like of the hot chamber lye. Dip your hard brush in this liquor, and brushing the spotted places in your coat, you will find it produce a white froth, like soap lather. After this you must dip the coat in a bucket of cold water, spring water is best, to wash oft' the filth and bad smell. Then take a walking stick, and put through the two arm holes, and putting a string round the middle of the stick, hang the coat to dry. When it is nearly dry, take your brush and lay the nap the right way of the cloth, and when quite dry, pour a small drop of oil of olives, or sweet oil, in your hand, and pass it over the brush, with which strike your coat ; and, if too much oil is not used^ it will give it the appearance of new. C f6 THE FAMILT For scouring Grey^ Drab Colours^ Fawns^ Ma^ roons, and all other coloured Woollens. Supposing the garment to be a coat, take some of the best yellow soap, and cutting it into thin slices, pour upon it a sufficient quantity of water just to moisten it. Then roll it into a ball, and rub all the greasy and dirty spots of the coat with it. Let it dry a little, and then taking warm water, dip your brush in it, and stroke off the soap ; if not quite clean, proceed as before, and use your water a little hotter; rinse at least three times in two or three buckets or pans of water; the first of these blood-warm, or even hotter. Hang to dry as before directed. For scouring party -coloured Woollen^ as Carpets^ Hearth-rugs, 8fc. It is customary with the scouring trade in this metropolis to have a large scouring board; the narrowest part of the carpet is first pulled on the table, and according to the colours that are in the carpet, either gall or soap must be used, and sometimes both. Carpets generally are drawn across a table, or scouring board, and a piece of soap is rubbed on every spot of grease or dirt. If the soap is very hard, it is customary to have a bowl of hot water by your side to dip it into. The carpet must first be well beat DYER AND SCOUREK. before brought to the scouring board ; after all the spots have been soaped, take the part which was first soaped, upon or across the table. Then take a hard brush dipped in boiling water, and holding the brush by the middle, with the arm extended in front of the body, so as to have your full strength, rub the spots until the dirt is ex- tracted. This is to be continued all over the carpet till the dirt is out. If the carpet should be very dirty, a solution of soap, as for blankets, must be put into your scouring tub, with hot water; then enter your carpet, and beat it out with the doll, then rinse it in as many diiFerent clean waters as it may require. In the last rins- ing water put a table spoonful of the oil of vitriol, it will brighten the colours, and make the carpet look clear, especially where reds and greens are in it. CHAP. II. THE NAMES, PRICES, AND METHODS OF PRE- PARING VARIOUS DYES.— METHODS OF DIS^ CHARGING AND RE-DYING. On Colours. The five primitive colours are blue, red, yel- low, black, and brown ; each of these separately will afford an infinite number of colours, or rather c 2 28 THE FAMILY shades, and by the combination of two or more of them, all the colours in nature are formed. On the Mixture of the Jive primitive Colours^ taken hy three and three to produce the various com^ pound Colours. From blue, red and yellow, the red olives, and greenish greys are made. From blue, red and brown, olives are made from the lightest to the darkest shades, and by giving a greater shade of red, the slated and lavender greys are made. From blue, red, and blackj greys of all shades are made, such as sage, pigeon, slate, and lead greys. The king's or prince's colour is duller than usual ; this mixture produces a variety of hues, or colours almost to infinity. From yellow, blue and brown are made the goose dung, and olives of all kinds. From brown, blue, and black are produced the brown olives, and their shades. From the red, yellow, and brown, are derived the orange, the gold colour, feuille-mort, or faded leaf, dead carnations, cinnamon, fawn, and tobacco, by using three, or two of the colours as required. From yellow, red, and black, browns of every shade are made. From blue and yellow, greens of all shades. From red and blue, purples of all kinds are formed^ DYER AND SCOUHER. 29 Names of Dying Drugs^ and the current Prices, averaged for seven Years together. From these an accurate idea may be formed as to the expence of dying each garment, which will not exceed one eighth of the charge made by a dyer. Thus it will be seen that eight garments may be dyed and re-dyed at the expence charged by the trade for a single one. A dyer, for in- stance, charges from three shillings and sixpence to five shillings and sixpence for cleaning a lady's pelisse ; whereas, done at home, even allowing you pay for finishing, that is pressing, the charge will not exceed sixpence ; namely, twopence for bullock's gall, or if of a lig-ht colour, a quarter of a pound of soap, two pence, and pressing as before. The names of the dying materials are alum, argil, tartar, verdigris, blue vitriol, rock alum, Ameri- can and oak bark, fenugreek, logwood, old and young fustic, Brazil wood, braziletto, camwood, barwood, and other red woods, peachwood,shumac, dyer's galls, welds or wolds, madder of three or four sorts, safflower, savory, green wood, arnatta, turmeric, archil, cudbear. Brazil wood is about one shilling and sixpence per pound, shumac five- pence, other woods from two-pence to three- pence per pound, safBower one shilling and six- pence to two shillings, cudbear two shillings, and rohil ten-pence. 3© On the Effects of various Salts oh MoKBANTS ON CoLOURS. Remarhs on the Dye of Madder, For a madder red on woollens, the best quan- tity of madder is one half the weight of the wool- lens that are to be dyed ; the best proportion of valts to use is five parts of alum and one of red tartar for sixteen parts of the stuff. A variation in the proportions of the salts, wholly alters the colour that the madder naturally t^ives. If the alum is lessened, and the tartar in- creased, the dye proves a red cinnamon. If the alum be entirely omitted, the red wholly disap- pears, and a durable tawny cinnamon is produced. If woollens are boiled in weak pearl ash and water, the greater part of the colour is destroyed. A solution of soap discharges part of the colour, and leaves the reaiaining more beautiful. Volatile alkalies heighten the red colour of the madder, but they make the dye fugitive. Remarks on Logwood Dye, Volatile alkaline salts or spirits incline this to purple; the vegetable and nitrous acids render it pale ; the vitriolic and marine acids deepen it. DYER AND SCOURER. 31 TJme Water. Lime water in dying browns or black, especially browns, is found to be a good corrective, as also an alterative, when the goods are not come to the shade required ; but practice alone can shew its utility ; it answers for either woollens, silks, or cottons. On fast and fugitive Colours, and on Salts or Mordants for Preparation. The Cause why some Colours are more holding than others. Browns and blues, or shades from them, re- quire no preparation, but reds and yellows, either of silk, cotton, or woollens, require a preparation to make them receive the dye, and hold it fast when it has received it. The alum and tartar, boiled together, when cold, form a mastic, within the pores of the substance, that serves to retain the dye and reflect the colour in a manner transparently. Almost all browns are deemed fast and holding colours, without any pre- paration, the dying wares containing in them- selves a sufficient degree of astringent quality to retain their own colours. Many reds also are equally holding, but none more so than those made with madder on woollens prepared with alum and 3S THE FAMILY tartar. A very fast red is also made with Brazil wood, by boiling the woollen in alum and tartar, according to the receipt laid down in this treatise, and suffering the cloth to remain several days in a bag kept moist with the preparation liquor. The cause of the solidity of the colour fromBrazil wood, dyed after this method, results from the alum and tartar masticating itself within the pores of the wool in quite a solid state. Then such parts as can be again dissolved (for such parts there are) by being put into the boiling dye instantly seize the colouring substance, and the pure dye water being of a more soluble quality, and of a finer natui^ than the gross particles of the alum and tartar, the stain of the dye penetrates through the masticated alum and tartar, and of course becomes holding and transparent. There is not a drug in the whole art of dying, but may be made a permanent dye, by finding out a salt, or solution of some metal, that when once dissolved by spirits,or by boiling water, will not again calcine in theair,nor be dissolved by moisture. Such are alum and tartar, the solution of tin, &c. But these salts and solutions do not answer with all ingredients that are used in dying. This proves the dying art is by no means yet brought to perfection ; yellow is also one of the most holding colours; for, in the first instance, many of the drugs, woods, barks, roots, &c. that, dye yellow, contain in themselves qualities that BYER AND SCOURER. 33 are of a nature to cement together, possibly hy a kind of glutinous substance which those herbs or drugs possess. Besides this they are generally prepared to receive the dye by alum and tartar, and all drugs that are used in dying yellow, are made perfectly solid by these preparations. Never- theless some of them are sufficiently permanent or holding without a preparation. Of Black. Blacks require no preparation, but it is neces- sary to body them, that is, to fill up the pores of the wool, silk, or any other substance ; on being put into hot water it is dilated, and the astringent qualities of the dying wares adhere to it, and fill up the little cavities in its pores. The articles that are generally used for this purpose are dyer's galls, sandal, shumac, fustic, alder bark, oak-saw- dust, &c. When the cloth, or other thing, is filled with these substances, it is then in a prepared state to take the staining or dye liquor, which is generally logwood and copperas, with alder bark, or shumac, and sometimes blue vitriol. The copperas or vitriol, joined with the vegetable as- tringents, form a mastic that withstands both sun and rain (which are the natural proof of dyes), but will not stand spirits or oil of vitriol without totally changing the colour from a black to a red brown. c 5 34 THE FAMILY Of Blue. Blue is also reckoned a fast colour, when dyed either by indigo or woad in a prepared vat, this vat containing- the necessary properties to seize and cement the colouring atoms. The blue, with oil of vitriol alone, never can be ranked among the fast dyes ; but blues, obtained from logwood, may be made sufficiently holding to be adopted almost for ye Blue. You must first wet out your cottons in warm water, and hang them inj^our vat; this is done by having a stick put across it. Having strings pinned to the articles, hang them on the sticks, and let them down an inch or two below the surface of the liquor : your cottons are to remain in a longer or a shorter time, as required, now and then tak- ing them out and changing ends, that the dye may take on evenly. When your article is dyed, take it out and rinse it in cold water^ To dye a Puce Colour on Cotton. Boil the cotton in archil to a full violet, thea handle it quickly through your blue vat. For a red Puce. — Soak your gown, &c. in hot water with half a pound of shumac all night. Take it out next morning, and rinse it in cold water ; then pour half a pail full of boiling water on a pound of purple archil ; handle your goods through this for half an hour. If it is too blue for the shades required, dissolve about a quarter of an ounce of alum in water; run your goods through this to the shade required. If it should now be too red, have a pan with warm water in 90 THE FAMILY which a small bit of pearl ash has been dissolved, and it will blue it again to colour. For Slate coloured Cotton. First wash your cotton clean in soap and water, and rinse in warm water, then put a half pound of shumac in a sieve, and pour boiling water over it, and let it drain into a pan, then enter jour gown, and let it steep for two hours, now and then handling it, that it may take the colour evenly ; then draw it and run it through a pan of warm water in which a quarter or half an ounce of cop- peras has been dissolved for five minutes. It will then be a lead grey, more or less full. But to turn it on the blue slate, draw your gown from that liquor, and run it through a decoction of weak logwood liquor, which is made by boiling an ounce of logwood chips, a quart of water, with a small bit of pearl ash, and throwing it into a pan of warm water ; handle the gown in this till it comes to the shade required, then wash and dry it in the air. To make the above a lavender shade, put a small quantity of Brazil wood in with the log- wood. DYER AND SCOURER. 91 Another Grey^ called Pearl or Silver Grey. Fill your copper or boiler half full of river water, when it boils take out a half pail full, and strain it through a quarter of a pound of shumac; put in your gown to steep in this liquor for half an hour. In the mean time throw a handful! of wheaten bran into the copper, and boil it five minutes, then take two drachms of powdered and sifted alum, and throw it into you copper. This will throw up all the scum, which be sure to take oft* carefully with a bowl, then draw your goods from the shumac liquor, wash them clean in cold water, put them again into the copper, and let them simmer ten minutes, having previ- ously boiled two or three ounces of logwood for half an hour with a quarter of an ounce of Ame- rican pearl ash. Tiiis decoction should be boiled some time before it is used, and kept in ajar. A small quantity of this decoction is to be added to the bran water in the copper, then cool down your copper, and enter your goods, and let them simmer, handling them well, and adding the de- coction to the colour required, then draw and let them be rinsed slightly, and dried in a warm room. Every gradation in the shades of slates or greys are made as in the foregoing recipes, by adding a larger or smaller quantity of dying wares* 92 THE FAMILY For an Olive Green. Let this be first washed in soap and water, then wetted out in warm water; then boil two ounces of chipped log wood, three ounces of chipped fustic together for half an itour ; then dip out your dye liquor, and put it into a pan with hot water; then put in jour goods, then dissolve two drachms of verdigris in a tea cup full of warm water, which put into a pan of cold water, then take your gown from the dye, and run it through the verdigris water, well handling it for ten minutes, then take it out and wash it in clean water, then through the dye liquor, and again in the verdigris water, and so continue this process till you obtain the colour required, only take care to wash it out of the verdigris water before you put it into the dye liquor ; dry it in the shade. For Yellow Cottons. To make a lemon yellow, wash your article well in soap and water, then rinse it in warm water; then, for every yard of stout cotton, dissolve a piece of blue vitriol as large as a horse bean, in boiling water ; and when the water is at a hand heat, put the cotton in, and handle it well for half an hour. In the interim boil a quarter af DYER AND SCOURER. 93 a pound of welds to every yard of cotton. Boil it well for half an hour, then dip the liquor out in a pan and handle your cotton through this till it comes to the fullness inquired ; then take it out to C00I5 when cold, wash it out and dry it in the air. For a full Yellow. Wdsh your goods well in soap and water, and rinsein warm water; then dissolve from a quarter to half an ounce of alum into a pan of boiling water; when at a hand heat, enter your goods, and let them remain for two hours, handling them now and then to take the colour evenly, then boil a sufficient quantity of welds, and dip the liquor out in a pan, and take your goods from the alum, and put them into the dye, and handle them well for one hour, or till they come to the shade re- quired, then wash and dry in the air. Another Yellow^ supposed to stand all Manner of Proof. First wash the articles in soap and water, then rinse in warm water and boil together equal parts of sugar of lead and alum, say a quarter of an ounce of each to a yard of cotton, handle your goods well through this, taking in due proportion, then draw and wring every part alike. If care 94 THE FAMILY is not taken to make the cotton receive the pre- paration evenly, the dje will be much fuller in one place than in another. Then put into your copper one pound of welds and boil it strongly for one hour, then dip your weld liquor out in a pan, and handle your goods well through at a hand heat till they come to the colour required. Wash and dry in the air. N. B. Handle your cottons through this liquor for half an hour at least. For a Gold Colour* The articles must be washed, as above, with soap and water, and you may use or not use a small quantity of sugar of lead with your alum ; after preparing boil with your welds, to every yard of cotton a quarter of an ounce of turmeric, then dip your liquor into your pan, and handle your goods as directed ; then wash and dry in the air. For an Orange Colour. The process in this is the same as above, only instead of turmeric put in the same quantity of Spanish arnatta dissolved in pearl ash and warm water, and when this is done, throw it into your copper, then dip it out into a pan, and proceed at a hand heat, as for yellows. Dry in a warm 3 DYER AND SCOURER. 95 room : some dyers run it through weld for half an hour before they add the solution of arnatta. Nasturtium. This is the same as orange, only not so strong of weld liquor, but rather njore so of arnatta and pearl ash. For Red Cottons. Take your gown, &c. and let it be washed in soap and water, and rinsed in warm water ; then take a quarter of a pound of shumac and run some boiling water through it into a pan, then steep your gown in this for two hours, and pre- pare your alum water by dissolving two ounces of alum in a pan of hot water ; then take your gown and wash it clean out of the shumac, and put it into the alum water, and let it remain in two hours at a hand-heat, handling it often ; then boil in your copper one pound and an half of peach wood, and a little Brazil wood; boil these well for half an hour, then strain your liquor through a sieve into a pan ; take your gown out of the alum, and give it a slight rinse in cold water, then put the gown in the pan of dye liquor, and handle it at a hand heat for half an hour or an hour, still adding fresh liquor out of your copper, till it comes to the fullness required ; then wash it in 96 THE FAMILY the clear of the dye liquor, and dry it in a warm room. For another Red inclining to Crimson. Wash well in soap and water as before, then clear in warm water, then in shuniac liquor for two hours. Being washed out well with cold spring water, put your gown or cotton into strong alum liquor for two hours, or if for a crimson, all nii;ht. JNow add to your copper, one pound and a half of peach wood, and let it boil half an hour, till the colour is extracted ; then add a suf- ficient quantity of logwood decoction to the pan in which you have drawn off your liquor from the copper to the colour required ; into which put your gown, and handle it well over for half an hour, at a hand-heat, and you will find it a good colour. But to make it a full crimson, add more of the logwood decoction, with a small piece of pearl ash, and dry in a warm room. N. B. Logwood decoction is made by boiling half a pound of logwood in two quarts of water, and a small quantity of pearl ash. To make a bright Scarlet^ inclining to Scarlet for a Gown^ 8^c. This must be washed well in soap, and cleared in warm water ^ then take two or three ounces of DYER AND SCOUREH. 97 shumac, with boiling water poured on it in a pan, let it steep for two hours in this liquor, well handling and squeezing it with j^our hand; then take it out and wash it well with cold water, then put the gown in strong alum water for two hours, again well handling and squeezing it with your hands so as to make it strongly imbibe the alum all over. In the mean time have your copper three parts full of hard spring water, in which put three drachms of tartar ; when the water becomes hot put in a quarter of a pound of ground Brazil, and let it boil well for half an hour, then strain off the liquor in a pan; and, when it comes to a hand-heat, put in your goods and handle them well for half an hour ; then draw your gown, and add to your liquor in the pan the half of a wine glass full of solution of tin in aqua regia, stirring your liquor well, and it will instantly become a bright red, bordering on scarlet. Then enter your goods again for ten minutes ; rinse in its own liquor, and dry in a warm room. N. B. Some dyers put in tartar or bran water to harden it. When this is first put into the cop- per, as the Brazil will not give out its colour but to hard water, you may put a small quantity of purple archil in your pan before you use the so- lution of tin. Some dyers think that archil gives it a richer colour. For a Madder Red. Some dyers use the best madder for red cottons, F 98 THE FAMILY and put in the pan, at a hand-heat, some Brazil liquor. The recipe for a red shawl, inclining to crimson, is as follows : Wash your shawl in hot soap and water, and rinse in war^n water. In this put in two or three ounces of shumac at a hand heat, for twenty minutes. In the interim, boil two ounces of madder for about twenty mi- nutes, or simmer it for half an hour. In the meanwhile, having put your shawl in the liquor of preparation, consisting of two ounces of alum dissolved in boiling water, handle your shawl now and then. After keeping it in for one or two hours, drain it, and let it cool ; then rinse it slightly in cold water, and draw your madder liquor from the copper into a pan ; enter your shawl, and handle it for twenty minutes, or longer. If it requires to be fuller coloured, dip out of your Brazil tub half a pint or less of fermented Brazil liquor, and add to your madder liquor in the pan. When dyed enough, draw and rinse it in cold spring water, and hang to dry. Scarlet Cotton done two Ways^ and on a Plan that has not long been generally known. For a shawl, rinse in soap and water, wash it out in warm water; then, in two ounces of shumac, boiled four or five minutes, and then poured into a pan. When at a hand-heat, handle DYER AISD SCOURER. 99 your shawl through for ten minutes ; then draw your shawl, and when cold rinse it well in cold spring water. In the mean while clean your copper or boiler, and put in a sufficient quantity of spring water, and a very small quantity of white tartar ; boil five minutes, then cool down your copper, having previously passed your shawl through a solution of turmeric in hot water, and having again rinsed it in cold water, put it in the copper, when at a hand-heat, and pass it through five minutes; then draw your shawl, %vhich will be somewhat impregnated with the acid of the tartar ; then take of the saturated or (turned liquor) of the safflower, put as much as you may require of this dye liquor into a pan, and if the pearl ash should not be sufficiently overcome by the tartar or lemon juice, a little more tartar may be added to the pan, then enter your shawl and handle to the colour re* quired : some use spirits to rouze it, if necessary. A Plum coloured Cotton, The article for this must be boiled in purple archil, and passed through the vat to the shade required ; then through archil ; and when cold, rinsed in cold water. If this should be too blue, it may be rectified by passing it to the colour re- F 2 loo THE FAMILY quired, through warm water, in which a drop or two of oil of vitriol has been added: sometimes, as for reds, shumac is first given. If for very light blues, put into a pan half full of warm waier^ a sufficiency of the liquor of the vat, and the cotton may be dipped herein to colour. I have said all that is necessary on dying blue, plum, purple, and their shades with the vat. False Purple on Cotton. This is done by passing* the goods through strong alum liquor for two hours ; then put into your copper a quarter of a pound of logwood, more or less, boil them half an hour; then cool down your copper, put in your article, and simmer it for half an hour; then 'add pearl ash to colour. Pearl ash will sadden it to the depth of colour required. All gradations of shades may be made this way, from the violet, the pansy, &c. to the darkest purple. Another Method. Put archil and pearl ash in your copper, and this, kept at a hand heat, dyes nearly the same colours. N. B. No blues, purples, plums, &c. are half so fine as those dyed in a vat. DYER AND SCOURER. 101 Brown Cottons. Wash you cottons well in soap and water, then rinse them in warm water ; then pass them at a hand-heat through shumac, in a pan for an hour; then draw and rinse, and pass them through alum water for twenty minutes. In the meanwhile boil brazilletto in your copper for half an hour ; then cool down your copper, enter your goods, and keep the liquor at a hand heat till it has taken the desired redness ; then draw your goods and handle them through a pan of warm water, in which a little copperas has been dissolved. In the mean time add madder, cam wood, or red wood toyour copper, with more shumac, if required, for half an hour ; then cool down your copper, and keep it at a hand-heat ; put in your cotton, and boil to colour. Another Brown. Supposing the article a gown, you must wash it and rinse it in warm water. Then boil a quarter of a pound of shumac, one ounce of mad- der, three ounces of fustic, saddened by copperas, first drawing your goods, and adding copperas. When dissolved and thoroughly mixed with the liquor, cool down your copper and enter your 109 THE FAMILY gown; keep the copper at a hand-heat. Some use a great body of archil in dying these browns; hy these different ingredients the shades may be varied without end. The walnut rootj the green rind of the walnuts^ &c. are used for dying cottons brown ; so are log- wood and shunjac, in dying chocolate, &c. which are saddened by copperas. When the browns are too red and dull, it is customary to add a verjr small quantity of red tartar which clears them. In dying a Cotton Gown Black. You must observe more copperas may be added if required; but if once the dye is poisoned with using too much copperas, not only the texture of the cotton will be injured, but the woods will not give their colour, and a good black can never be made. The recipe that follows, I consider the best for black cotton ; but 1 have dyed black various ways : the first method I followed for a consider- able time ; but the oak dust has the best suction, and it also gives the greatest body for the other ware. For a gown, take half a pint of ground shumac and put it into a sieve, and place it in a pan ; then pour boiling water on it, and let the shuraac water run into the pan ; then put in your gown^^ DYER AND SCOUREtl. 103 and let it steep for six hours ; then dissolve two ounces of copperas in another pan of cold water, into which put the gown ; handle it well, and let it remain for two hours; then take it out, and slightly rinse it; then take about three or four ounces of good slacked lime ; put this in a pan of cold water, and let it stand for a quarter of an hour; pour off the clear, then enter your gown, and handle it well for ten minutes; take it out and wash it, and prepare your copper with half a pound of chipped logwood, and one pound of fus- tic; boil these half an hour; then cool your cop- per, and put in your gown for half an hour; then take it out and add an ounce or more of copperas ; then put in the gown again for half an hour ; take it out, cool it, enter it again for twenty minutes, taking care to handle it well all the time ; then take it out, wash it, and dry it. if it should not dry so black as 3'ou wish, leave your liquor in the copper, and add a little more copperas and chipped logwood, and boil it again for an hour, handling it well all the time : if it should not appear to have body enough, add an ounce or two of shumac, and a little more copperas. For another Black. First clean yx>m cotton well with bullock's gall and warm water, then rinse in warm water. In 104 THE FAMILY the interim take two ounces of chalk or whitening", put them into your copper with half a peck of oak saw-dust, and eight or ten gallons of river water; boil these together half an hour, then draw off the clear liquor into a pan, into which put your gown, and let it remain for twentj-four hours; if you have lime, if not, let it remain a night, hand- ling it now and then ; then take it out. In the mean time dissolve from one to two ounces of copperas; run your gown through this for half an hour, then rinse it clean in cold water; then boil together in your copper half an ounce of sbumac, three quarters of a pound of fustic, half a pound of logwood, half an hour, cool down the cop- per, and enter your gown ; then let it simmer for half an hour, taking care to handle it well, then draw it out, and add half an ounce of copperas; let it boil five minutes; then cool down your copper, enter your goods, and let them simmer for an hour; then take them out, wash and dry them, and let tlie dye-liquor remain in the cop- per till you see whether your gown dries black enough ; if not, put it in again, add one ounce more of logwood, a pinch of shumac, and a very \iV\e copperas. Simmer these for an hour, or longer, as you may see occasion. Be sure to keep your goods well stirred in the copper, turn- ing them over with your clothes-stick. Your copper must always be cooled down before you DYER AND SCOURER. 105 put in either jour cottons or silks, and not be kept boiling, but only on the spring, or ready to boil. For black Linen^ Cotton or Thread, after the French Method. First steep them in galls or shuraac six hours ; then alum them strongly, dip them in a weld- liquor, and make a strong^ decoction of logwood in your copper, to which add a quarter of a pound of blue vitriol to every pound weight of the sub- stance that is to be dyed. Your goods must be well washed in cold water, but not wrung hard. They must be afterwards dyed in madder, using half a pound of this dye for every pound weight of goods to be dyed. The articles must then be dipped in a boiling soap-liquor^ handled ten minutes, and dried in the air. Cotton velvets are dyed as plain cottons are, and silk velvets as plain silks, and finished by being pinned out, and then well brushed backwards and forwards before or near a fife, or in a warm room. Crapes are finished by being passed tJi rough a little gum, or reddeather cuttings ; size them well, beat them between the hands, and let them be pinned out as on a lrame«. 106 THE FAMILY To Jinish Cotton and Silk Velvets. This is done by brushing them when almost dry, near a fire; and, if pinned out on a table, (for want of a frame), rub them with a hard brush to and from you, till the nap or plush raises itself upright, and every hair appears to stand in its place. Velvets are seldom stiffened: but when they are, a small portion of gum or isinglass must be dissolved in water; and lightly rubbed on the wrong side of the velvets, with a sponge wrung almost dry. CHAP. V. ON DYING WOOLLENS, STUFFS, GENTLEMEN'S AND LADIES' CLOTHES ; AND DIRJECTIONS FOR MAKING A WO AD VAT. On the Woad Vat. I WILL here give the process of the woad and other blue vats, as taken from the work of a very ingenious dyer. The process here laid down I have practised myself with the greatest success; though (excepting the woad vat) the other blue vats may be made fifty diiTerent ways, always re- membering that the cold vat is mixed with pearl ash, copperas, or green vitriol, lime, madder, and DYER AND SCOUIIER. 107 bran. The hot vats are prepared either with water or urine: if with water, pearl ash and a small quantity of madder must be added: if with urine, alum and tartar must be joined to the in- digo. Both of these vats, being principally in- tended for wool, require a moderate degree of heat; but, at the same time, strong enough for the wool to take a lasting dye, such as will withstand the destroying action of the sun and air. I beg here to observe, that the liquor of all vats appear green beneath the surface, as also does all woollen cloths, as soon as they come out of any vat; but, being exposed to the air, they immedi- ately torn blue ; and, were it not so, the dye would not be lasting. Of the Garden TVoad^ or Pastil Vat. A copper set to work as near as possible to the vat, must be filled with water that has stood some time; or, if such water is not at hand, a handful of dyer's woad, or hay, is added to the water, with eight pounds of crust of fat madder; but if the old liquor from a vat that has been used in dying from madder can be procured, it will save the madder, and have a better effect. The copper being filled about three in the morning, it must boil an hour and a quarter. It is then conveyed by a spout into a woad vat, in 108 THE FAMILT which a peck of wheaten bran has been previously put. Whilst the boiling liquor is emptying into the vat, the balls of woad must also be put in, one after the other, that they may be the easier broken, raked, and stirred. This is to be continued till all the hot liquor from the copper has run into the vat; which, when a little more than half full, must be covered with cloths somewhat larger than its circumference, so that it may be covered as close as possible, and left in this state four hours; then it must be aired^ that is, uncovered to be raked, and fresh air let into it ; and to each ball of woad a good measure of ware^ as it is called, or slaked lime, thrown in. What is meant by this measure, is a good handful. The lime being scattered in, and the vat well raked, it must be a- gain covered, leaving open a little space, about four fingers, to let in air. Four hours after, it must be raked again, without serving it with lime; the cover is then put on as before, leaving an opening for the air. In this manner it must be let to stand two or three hours, and then be well raked again. If the vat is not yet come to work, that is, if it does not cast blue upon the surface, or if it still works or ferments, which may be known by raking, and plunging with the flat of the rake in the vat; then, being well raked, it must remain one hour and a half more, carefully observing if it yet casts blue. It is then to be served with water^ dyeh and scourer. 109 and the quantity of indioo judged necessary is to be put in : it is commonly used in a liquid state at the rate of a dye house kettle full for each ball, if for a woad vat. The vat being filled within three fingers breadth of the brim, is to be raked, and co- vered, as before: one hour after filling it with water, it must be served with two measures of lime for each ball of woad, giving more or less, accord- ing to the quality of the woad, and what you may judge it will spend, or take, of lime. There are some kinds of woad readier prepared than others, so that general and precise rules cannot be given. On this head it must be observed^ that the lime must not be put into the vat till it is well raked: your vat being again covered, put in a pattern. The vat being kept entirely covered for an hour^ the pattern is then taken out, to judge if fit to work : if so, the pattern must come out green, and, on being exposed to the air, it will acquire a blue colour. If the vat gives a good green to the pat- tern, it must be raked, served with one or two measures of lime, and covered. Three hours after it must be raked again, and served with what lime may be judged necessary, it is then to be covered, and an hour and a half after, the vat being then settled, a pattern may be put in, which must re- main an hour, to see the effect of the woad. Jf the pattern is of a fine green, and tiirns to a deep blue in the air, another pattern must be dipped in, to 110- THE FAMILY see the effect of the vat. If this pattern is deep enough in colour, let the vat be filled up with hot water;, or, if at hand, old liquor of madder, and rake it well. Should the vat still want lime, serve it with such a quantity as jou may judge by the smell and handling to be sufficient; this done, it must be again covered; and one hour after, put in your stuffs, and make your overture. This is the term used for the first working of wool in a new vat, Marks hij which you may know how to conduct a Vat regularly. A vat is fit to work when the grounds are of a green brown; when it changes on its being taken out of the vat; when the flurry, or bladders at the top, are of a fine Turkish, or deep blue; or when the pattern which has been dipped in for an hour comes out a fine deep grass green. Wlien tiie vat is fit to work, the Jei^er has a good appearance, being clear and reddish, and the drops and edges t^^at are formed under the rake in lift- ing up the bever are brown. Examining the ap- pearance of the bever is lifting up the liquor with t»he hand, or rake, to see what colour the liquor is of that the vat has under its surface. The sedi- ment, or grounds, must change colour (as has been already observed) when taken out of the be- DVER AND SCOURER. Ill ver, and must turn brown on being exposed to the air. The bever, or liquor, must feel neither too rough nor too greasy, and must not smell either of lime or lee. T-sese are the distinguishing marks of a vat when it is fit to work. The process of the woad vat just given may be termed a digression, as it is impossible for any but a dyer, or one acquainted with the art, to conduct a vat made with woad, or even with indigo. The expence of vats, also, is such as families would not be willing to incur; nor is it necessary, as, at most large dye houses, a woad wool vat is kept, and^ by sending what woollens you may have for the co- lour, you may always have them done at a trifling expence. A vat, however, may be made from the size of a pail to that of a hogshead, and it will keep good till the ingredients of which it is pre- pared are wholly exhausted. Merely by stirring it an hour before it is worked, it will always be in readiness, constantly observing to wet your cot- tons, crapes, woollens, &c. thoroughly all over, in order that they may take the dye evenly. Thin silks, intended for plums^ prunes, dark purples, &c. may also be dyed in this vat, by first passing them through hot purple archil, then through the vat, then through archil again, and so alternately, till they have taken the desired shade. There are other methods of dying blues, which will be given hereafter. 112 THE FAMILY I shall now give the method of dying olive greens. They may be said to be a brown green. The following is the method, as used by the small, or rag dyers. For a WomarCs Pelisse. When your water in the copper boils, add from a quarter to half a pound of fustic, from two ounces to four of shumac, and from two to four ounces of logwood or more, as you require the shade to be; but if it requires to be of a green brown, a larger proportion of fustic and shumac must be used. Then the goods are to be taken out, and a little verdigris added: if this verdigris does not green it enough, add logwood chips, as you require the colour to be deeper. Copperas also will sadden this colour, and lime browns it. It is almost impossible to give the exact quan- tity for a garment, as the goodness or badness of the drugs would in these colours cause so great an alteration, iis not to resemble the colour intended. But a single trial will be sufficient to gu de you. The goods are boiled as for brown; but often they do not require above an hour, and may be sad- dened, or made darker, by copperas; and, if the dying wash, or liquor, does not draw on, or strike fast enough, a little verdigris must be dissolved ia water, and added to your boiling water, which will DYER AND SCOURER. 113 cause them to adhere. For olive green, you may use a little alum with the fustic. For dying of Woollens Green^ from the lightest to the darkest Shades. Green is produced by a combination of blue and yellow. There are two sorts of green, the fast, and false; but ladies' clothing, as also broad and nar- row cloths, are often dyed with the false, known by thename of Saxon green, and generally this is much more beautiful than those called fast, or permanent greens. The fast greens are dyed yellow first, or blue, then dipped in the woad vat. Instead, how* ever, of the woad vat, the false cbymic, otherwise called Saxon, is used in the false, the making of which has been described. If the goods to be dyed are required to be some- what durable, it is customary to boil them first in alum for half an hour; about two pounds of alum for a quarter of a hundred weight of cloth: the way, however, generally practised by the rag dy- ers is, for instance, for a pelisse or man's coat, of a good full green, when your copper boils, put in from half a pound \o a pound of fustic: when this has boiled half an hour, add a bit of alum as big as a small walnut, then enter your goods, boil ten minutes; then take them out, draw, and add a ^mall wine glass three parts full of chymic; boil 114 THE FAMILY from half an hour to an hour and a half, as it may require; they are generally very well and evenly dyed in three quarters of an hour; they maybe saddened, if required, with copperas; and if to be bluer, more chymic is added; if to be of yellow green, less chymic, and more fustic; for a pea green, or any light green, it is not necessary to alum the goods first. Put into your copper a little fustic, and a sufficient quantity of chymic barely to colour the liquor; let your fustic boil ten minutes before you add the chymic. For a chymic Blue on Woollens, — You must ob- serve all through this process not to let the water be much hotter than you may be able to put your hand in, or the colour will be of a green cast. When the water is hot, cast a handful of wheaten bran in a bag, and put in your copper; and when it has simmered a quarter of an hour, draw it out, and add a table spoonful of powdered tartar, and a sufficient quantity of chymic to the colour re- quired ; afterwards enter^our pelisse, «&c. and keep handling for half an hour, or thereabouts, recol- lecting that your goods, when dyed, will be of the same blue shade your liquor appears of when lifted up and dropped off the hand. Chymic blue on woollens seldom lasts beyond a season. DYER AND SCOURER. 115 A Pi'ocess of dying Blue hy Logwood. This is quite a false colour, and should not be used where the goods are to be exposed much to the air, but is very beautiful in appearance. When jour water boils, add, for a pelisse, two pounds of logwood; when this has boiled half an hour, add a lump of blue vitriol, from one to two ounces, or more : when this is dissolved, cool your copper down, and enter your goods, and boil from one hour to an hour and a half, till the colour ap- pears even and regular all over. Sometimes half the time dyes it. On the dying of Yellozo on Stuffs and Woollens. I must begin this recipe by observing, that all cloths^ previous to being dyed, should be well scoured, and also be run through warm water, be» fore they are put into the copper to dye. This colour is the first I have treated upon which actually requires any preparation, and which without it would not only have a dull appearance, but the colour would neither be even nor bright. Supposing the garment to be dyed weighs two poun Is, your copper should be made to boil, and six or seven ounces of alum put in it, with two ouiices of tartar; when this is dissolved, 116 THE FAMILY cool down your copper with cold water, and enter your goods, and boil them, if you have time, from an hour and a half to two hours; but it may often be prepared in an hour, if it has been well stirred in the copper; this liquor is then thrown away, and your copper filled and boiled. When it boils, put in about five or six pounds of welds, or woulds, the French weld is best. When this has boiled half an hour, more or less, till }ou may suppose it has spent its virtue; draw it out, enter your goods, and boil to colour. Sometimes half an hour's boilino* does, or from that to two hours will do; but in this recipe the preparing liquor is very strong, therefore the colour will strike in, or , draw on quickly. Supposing you want lighter shades, then half the quantity of alum and tartar will do, as lemon yellow, pale yellow, straw, &c. ; but this recipe is for a full bright yellow : when dyed rinse in cold water. To make a 'oery bright and beautiful Yellow on Jine Cloth. This i^i done by dving it a preparation of half the quantity of the articles mentioned in the pre- ceding recipe; and in ten minutes previous to your drawing your goods for rinsing, add a little muriate of tin; then enter your goods, and boil DYER AND SCOURER. 117 them ten minutes. They must be slightly rinsed in spring water. For gold colour, prepare as for the recipe pre- ceding the last, only adding to the weld powdered turmeric and fustic, according to the shade re- quired. , For orange colour, and the like shades, the same process is to be used as specified in the last recipe, only witii the addition of arnatta, which must be dissolved, with nearly its weight of pearl ash, made into a perfect solution, and otherwise fur- nished as tlie preceding recipe for a full yellow. If a permanent orange colour is wanted, instead of arnatta, a small quantity of best crop madder and fustic must be added to the welds; and these three drugs, viz. wolds, fustic, and madder must be worked well tog ther with the same preparation as for common yellow, only do not let it bvoil in the alum and tartar quite so long as for a full bodied yellow: practice alone can make you a judge of what quantity of madder to use. The welds a full yellow, The fustic an orange yellow, The madder a fire red. And those three colours being properly com- bined, that is, used in due proportion, produces orange colour of the brightest dye. I am thus particular in order that you may vary the shades to your fancy. The proportions of alum and 118 THE FAMILY tartar also will vary the simple colour of yellows. Please to recollect that your garment should re- ceive the yellow of the welds and fustic before the madder is used, except you take care not to boil the madder; for whenever madder is boiled it turns brown, and consequently will not afford that clear red, which is so necessary for an oranjje. It must farther be observed, that madder gives a profusion of dye to woollens that have been pre- pared, therefore but a small quantity must be used for orange. Turmeric also gives a good deal of colour, therefore a small quantity does for gilding the yellows. There are many other things that dye yellow, as the American bark, yel- low woad, ash bark, dock, the alder, and several others^but weld isthe best. The American bark is used for very bright yellows, and muriate of tin in the finish. Of Reds. This is a colour that requires a preparation of alum and tartar before it is dyed. The first of these reds is done with madder, and is simple and easy. Supposing the article dyed weighs about two pounds, or thereabouts. When your copper boils, put into your boiling water, about six or seven ounces of alum, and DYER AND SCOURER. 119 about two ounces of red tartar. When dissolved, enter your goods, and boil from one to two hours, handling well every fiftoen minutes, and always keeping them under water, when not handling; then take them out and fill the copper with fresh clean water, pouring oS the preparing water; and when this water gets pretty warm, so as you can bear your hand and arm in it, put in six pounds of the best grape madder, let this be well stirred in the copper, and well broken ; and when the liquor is of a good red dye, which will be within half ail hour, enter your goods, and handle them well one hour or thereabouts. This will produce a bright red ; but if you want to have a fine red, you should decrease the quantity of madder, and add decoction of ground Brazil wood; and if you want them to be of a crimson cast, add purple archil to your pattern. The above is the cheapest red that is dyed. Reds from Brazil Wood alone. The water of preparation must for each pound of wool or woollen st sff, consist of four ounces of alum and one of red tartar and the hardest well- water must be used. The Brazil should be ground or rasped, and boiled at least an hour be- fore the goods are entered ; and they should also boil in the preparing-liquor, for two hours at least, and then be cooled from the preparing- 120 THE FAMILY liquor previous to their being put into the copper in which the Brazil has been boiled. They should be rinsed in two waters, and drjed in the shade, or in a warm room. Bright Redy otherwise called Fire coloured Scarlety Is the colour of the king's livery, and that of the coats of the officers in the army. It is also much worn by ladies in their pelisses, mantles, scarfsj wittles, &c, I have followed the method of one of the best scarlet dyers in England, and this I have found by experience to produce colours superior to any other. With respect to the nature of the vessel it is dyed in, I have found it quite immaterial whether block tin, brass or copper, so that a net be let down into the vessel to pre- vent its touching the sides of it ; and that clean sticks are used in the handling, and a clean wool- len cloth thrown across the horse where it is to drain, that it may not spot. A cloth must also be put all round the sides of the copper. A Mode of preparing Scarlet Cloth. For each pound of cloth put from fifteen to twenty quarts of very clear river water into a small copper. When the water is lukewarm put in two ounces of cream of tartar, and one drachm and a half of powdered and sifted cochineal ; and when the liquor is ready to boil, add two ounces DYEH AND SCOURER. 121 of the solution of tin, as made according to m}^ direction. The fire is then made brisk under the copper, and when it begins to boil, the cloth is put in, after being passed through warm water, that it may receive the dye equally. The cloth is to be handled well in this liquor for an hour and a half; it is then taken out, and slightly washed in clean water. The colour of the liquor is wholly taken up by the goods; this is called preparing it. To finish it, as afresh water is prepared, in this you must put an ounce and a half of the best starch ; and when the liquor is little more than lukewarm, six drachms and a half of cochineal, finely powdered and sifted, must be thrown in a little before the liquor boils. Two ounces of solu- tion of tin is then poured in, and the liquor changes its colour from a blood red to a bright scarlet. Then make it boil, and having boiled a few mi- nutes, cool your copper down, and enter your goods, and boil for an hour and a half; then take them out, and wash them, and the liquor is then in its perfection. If they should be too fiery, take a small bit of alum dissolved in warm water, and handle them, and this wiU sadden them. Having given a recipe for crimson and red, I shall here produce others. G 122 THE FAMILY For Crimson in Grain, These are easily made: your copper being' ready to boil, put in for each pound of cloth or stuff two ounces and a half of alum, and an ounce and a half of white tartar ; let this boil a niinute or twoj and then you may enter your goods, and boil them for an hour and a half. Then they are to be taken out and cooled in all places alike. The preparing liquor being emptied away, your c opper must be filled again with fresh water, and when about lukewarm, put in about an ounce of cochineal, Well ground and sifted through a fine sieve, and when this boils^ cool down with a pint of cold water, enter your goods, and boil an hour or an hour and a half, as you may see occasion. They must be then taken out, washed and hung to dry. If a lighter shade is required, use less cochineal and less alum and tartar. A larger proportion of alum may be used, but not of tartar, as tartar would obscure the red, and leave a brick colour. Another Crimson. This is to be made as above, only when you put in your grain (cochineal) add a drachm of red arsenic, and a tea spoonful of burnt wine lees, DYER AND SCOURER. 123 or for want of either, a small lump of pearl ash in a table spoonful of purple archil. It is to be noticed thcit turmeric, or young fustic, are often added in dying scarlet, and may be used to the shade required, which is done in the reddening, or second liquor, and is put in as soon as the second liquor boils, so that it may cool ten minutes be- fore the gniin is put in. You must be cautious not to use too much, as it will give it so much orange as to require a deal more cocliineal to cover it, and will often spoil the colour, if more is used, then a little alum or warm water will sad- den it. The crimson may be made much darker^ by mixing any alkali, as pearl ash, &c. with it, or by using a little more alum in the preparing liquor. Maroons^ Which are a shade of , the red, are done with Brazil wood and galls. Supposing the thing to be done be a pelisse ; after the cloth is well scoured, boil it for half an hour in alum and tartar, as for madder red. Then in the second liquor, when you put in your Brazil, as for Brazil red, add two blue nut galls used by dyers, well pounded in a bag. After they have boiled a quarter of an hour, take out the bag in which they were before you put in your goods^ for if the G 2 124 THE FAMILY galls are left in the copper in the bag, they maj spot, and cause the dye to be uneven. Some dyers boil the goods for an hour in galls or shuraac, both being of the same nature ; then draw them out, and wash in cold water, then boil for an hour in alum and tartar, using rather more tartar than for reds. This second prepar- ing liquor is thrown away, and a third liquor is made for dying, with about half a pound of Brazil wood, and sometimes more, as the shade is re- quired. To make a Decoction of Brazil Wood^ otherwise called Brazil Juice^ or fermented Brazil. Much Brazil is saved by this means, and it works much better. Fill your copper quite full of hard spring water; then put in three or four pounds of Brazil, for about ten gallons of water ; boil them an hour, then draw off the clear of this liquor, and put it in a deal cask or pan, pouring fresh clean water on the Brazil grounds, boil as before an hour or two, and so continue till the Brazil is spent. Keep this fermented Brazil juice any length of time till it becomes oily, the older the better. In fact, this is the only way Brazil wood will give out its colour. If a dark maroon is required, it is to be sad- dened by drawing the goods a quarter of an hour previous to their being dyed enough, and putting DYER ANp SCOURER. 125 into the copper a little dissolved green copperas, from a table spoonful to one and a half. For a Puce. A very beautiful fast coloured puce, which is, in fact, a purple brown ; and the red puce may be termed a brown violet, or a gris de liriy and these are much worn. Supposing the garment to be a pelisse; when your copper boils, add a quarter of a pound of the best Cam wood, three ounces of shumac, se- venty-four pounds of logwood, and from half a pound to a pound of the best purple archil, and if you should want it of a deeper blue, add more archil : a small lump of penrl-ash or blue vitriol purples it. If required to be of the red cast, some dyers useeither a small quanlity of the oil of vitriol in the copper, or they pass the article through oil of vitriol in warm water after it is dyed. But, to prevent any occasion for this, be sparing of your archil, and use no pearl-ash. I dyed up- wards of seventy pelisses in one season after the above method. You may proportion your ingre- dients to the colour required. Cam wood, as I have before observed, gives a n»d brown; shu- mac a greenish grey brown archil a blue violet; and logwood nearly the same colour : handle well, and boil one hour and a half^ then wash and dry, G 3 126 THE FAMILY Greys of all Shades. By referring to the former pages of this book^ you will see what colours produce such and such shades ; for instance^ from the blue, red, and yel- low, are produced the red olives and the greenish greys. Logwood produces both blue and red com- bined ; fustic a yellow ; and, by being saddened with copperas, first drawing your goods from the copper, any shade may be made from the lightest to the darkest, as greys, lead colour, stone colour slate, lavender greys, pigeon grey, and an infi- nite number of other shades ; sometimes if more red is required, madder is used, which, being boiled, affords a red brown. Cam wood must be used if more blue is wanted; blue vitriol, or pearl-ash^ if more green. Where fustic is used^ add a little verdigris. Those greys made in the false dye require no preparation, and in such a work as this, it is needless to give the method of producing fast colours of this kind. It is sufficient that those colours will stand the washing with soap, but will not bear strong acids. Oil of vitriol will at all times wholly discharge logwood and copperas, and a greater part of the shumac, and from these three ingredients slate greys, lead grey, pigeon DYER AND SCOURER. 127 greys, &c. are made. In those colours inclining to green, fustic is used, as the blue of the log- wood and jellow of the fustic produce a green cast or hue in proportion as tliose colours predo- minate, minding not to use much fustic except you want a deep greenish grey. For Raven Grey, Supposing a pelisse is to be dyed, about three quarters of an ounce of alum pounded is to be put into the copper when it boils : then enter your garment, and boil for lialf an hour or more ; then take out your goods, and add to your copper about an ounce of green copperas ; when this is dissolved, enter your goods again, and boil for twenty minutes ; then throw away your liquor, and let your goods cool, and be washed, and add about from one to two ounces and a half of log- wood chips, which must be boiled in a fresh liquor. When boiled about a quarter of an hour, enter your goods, and boil again to colour or pattern ; lastly, sprinkle a thimbleful of powdered alum nto your copper (if occasion require), and return your goods, five minutes, for this tends to clear them. Wash in two or three waters, and dry in ^ the shade. 128 THE FAMILY For a Bright or Pearl Grey. Supposing it a mantle of about a pound weight, boil your water, and then put in about one ounce and a half of logwood — if good logwood, less may do, such as the campeachy logwood ; boil this twenty minutes ; add to it three or four drachms of pearl-ash, let this boil five or ten minutes. In the meanwhile, wet out your garment in warm water, and wring it ; have also another copper or boiler, in which put a small bag with a handful of whealea bran in it, and two drachms of powdered alum, the alum will throw the scum on the top of the liquor, which take off, then enter your garment for five or ten minutes, draw this, and add a bowl of the logwood decoction into the vessel containing the bran-water; then enter your goods, and boil to colour, adding more logwood when required. N. B. This recipe may be performed in one copper, by making the decoction of logwood first; and many dyers do it in this manner. Another Grey^ Which, being taken from one 1 had given me, 1 cannot answer for; the expence, how- ever, is not two pence to try the experiment as DYER AND SCOURER. 129 follows: — For one pound weight of cloth, take three ounces ofalum, and five ounces of fenugreek, and boil them with the goods half an hour; then take it off, and add seven ounces of pearl ash, and three ounces and a half of Brazil ; boil them gently with the goods half an hour; rinse them out, and it is added, that the colour will be yery fine. It will be needless to swell this book with nume- rous recipes for one colour, the shades of which are only diversified by a larger or smaller quan- tity of ingredients. The principal of these used by dj'ers for grey, are shumac, galls, logwood, fus- tic, and copperas. If you want a dead coloured grey, fustic is omitted, and either galls or shumac substituted. By adding copperas, the colour may be run down as dark as black, because grey is a shade of the black dyed with the same ingredients, except bark ; and even blacks may be dyed without bark, by using more shumac instead of bark. Moreno window curtains and bed furniture must be dyed the same way as other woollens are; and when so done, finished at the pressers, who will water press, or plain press them, as required, and which cannot be done well at home. For Browns. To describe all the shades of brown, from the lightest fawn colour to the darkest brown, would alone fill a volume. Yet no colour is more easily 130 THE FAMILY obtained. iJ d the least practice will prove what I say. I will first give a list of what ingredients are principally used in dyinsf brown. The first is walnut root, or the green rhind of the walnut, now almost out of use* Fustic, shumac, cam wood, red wood, logwood, bark, madder, and archil are still used. The fustic gives a yellow; the cam wood, a brown red; the shumac, a colour resem- bling a green grey brown; the red wood, used without any preparation, as is always the case with browns, gives something near the colour known by the name of brick colour; the walnut root, rhind, and bark, give of themselves a root colour; and logwood a red blue, inclining to violet; madder, after being boiled strongly half an hour, produces, w^ithout any preparation, a red brown ; and with fustic, and a little shumac, makes fawn and drab colours, with the addition of a little archil, which tends at all times to brighten browns. Having given a slight sketch of the colours each drug produces, I will proceed to the mixture of them. All browns are saddened, or made to in- cline towards black, by copperas. Lime is often used for browns. For a middling sized Womatis Pelisse^ a 'pretty lied Brown^ remarkably bright ; and the Cost of the Dye not more than Sixpence. When your copper boils, put in the following dying wares, viz. DYER AND SCOURER. 131 Half a pound of ground cam wood. 2 ounces of shumac (ground). 1 ounce of logwood chips. 1 ounce of alder bark. 2 ounces of chipped fustic. N.B, A larger quantity of ingredients may be used, but thej must be in the same proportion as mentioned in this recipe. When these ingredients have boiled half an hour, cool your copper by throwing in a pint of cold water; then enter your goods, and boil from one hour to an hour and a half; then draw, and add from half an ounce of green copperas to one ounce; as you wish the colour to be darker, add more copperas. Lastly, adding a tea spoonful of powdered argil, take out your goods, and rinse them in one or two clean waters, and hang in the air to dry; then send them to the press to be finished. A 'pretty kind of Fawn Brown, Take a quarter of a pound of fustic, or possibly not quite so much; one to two ounces of madder; shumac, two or three ounces; a little copperas and archil. But if the shade requires it, more ingredients 132 THE FAMILY may be added, and according to the quantity of cloth to be dyed. There is scarcely a drug used in dying that may not be used in dying brown. You have oul) to put in what drugs you rhmk proper, boiling them halt' an hour; then enter your got>ds, and boil them from one to two hours, as the shade is re- quired* Browns may be diversified in the copper ad infinitum" by adding a larger quantity of the in- gredient that produces the desired colour. For instance, cam wood makes it redder fustic more yellow, shumac browner, copperas l>lacker, archil redder, logwood more of the puce, &c. &c. For dying Woollen Stuffs Black. Black, the fourth of the primitive colours, is one of the most tedious to perform, on account of the time it takes in dying, which is at least ten hours. 2b di^e a Pelisse Black. Fill your copper with soft water to the brim, and when it begins to boil, add 4 ounces of logwood 3 ditto shumac. 3 ditto of bark; viz, alder bark. DYER AND SCOURER. 133 When these ingredients have boiled half an hour, enter jour pelisse, always recollecting to handle it over every ten minutes, which is done with a short stick, and when you have done handling it, keep it under the water, and boil your goods this first time an hour, then take out your pelisse and hang it across your horse or stick to cool. In the interim, take a bowl of your boiling liquor out, and put therein six ounces of green copperas to dissolve ; when dissolved, put almost two-thirds of it into your copper and mix it well with the liquor, then check your copper by throwing in as much water as may have evaporated (or old black liquor if at hand), then enter your goods again, handling as before with a stick, &c. at a boiling heat, daring an hour; then it is to be drawn again and cooled iii all parts alike. In the interim add the remain- der of your dissolved copperas ; check your cop- per again with cold water or old liquor, and enter your goods again, and boil them as before for two hours; then cool it again. While the cooling is carrying on, put into your copper two or three ounces of logwood, and two cr three ounces of bark, and an ounce of copperas^ and nearly two ounces of pearl-ash, aifd about a half ounce of pounded argil. These ingre- dients must be made to boil one hour ; when ihe copper must be checked as before, and the goods entered, and be made to boil one hour^ H 134 THE FAMILY DYER AND SCOURER. keeping them handled as before. Instead of the pearl-ash in this process, chamberlje may be sub- stituted. If the cloth should not be sufficiently bodied, or should seem not to be black enough, jou may add a little more bark, and a little more logwood and copperas; then put them in again, and boil them an hour: afterwards, having cooled your cloth, put it again into the copper, and there let it remain till next day ; but if you are in a hurry there will be no occasion for this. Lastly, rinse your pelisse, &c. in three orfour cold waters, and if this process is regularly followed it will pro- duce a most beautiful black. For Dying Black Cloth Dark Green. Clean your coat well with bullock's gall and water, and rinse in warm water ; then make a copper full of river water boiling hot, and for each coat take from one pound to one pound and a half of fustic ; pat it in and boil it twenty minutes, and then take a lump of alum as big as a walnut, and when this is dissolved in your copper, put in your coat and boil it twenty minutes; then take it out, and add a small wine-glass, three parts full, of chemic blue, and boil again from half an hour ta an hour, and the cloth will be a beautiful dark green; then wash out and dry. APPENDIX. ADDITIONAL RECIPES FOR CLEANING AND DYING, WITH VARIOUS OBSERVATIONS. After the preceding recipes it is only neces- sary to remark, that the five primitive colours are, blue, yellow, red, black, and brovt^n. Blues and black on woollens, are scoured with bullock's gall and water, and sometimes with chamberley ; while all other colours are scoured with soap, either in the solid or in solution, as before described. The following additions and alterations will be found to embrace all the possible variations and im- provements in the useful and entertaining occu- pation of dying. In cleaning silks of various colours, the water must be barely hot enough to extract the filth, and it is preferable to give the silk a second or a third liquor, rather than use the water too hot; therefore the soap had better be kept dissolved and added in a state of solution. Soft soap is generally used for coloured silks. Mazarine, garter, navy blues and buffs excepted; reds, yellows, browns, and fawn coloured silks, are cleaned with soft soap, as it is not so powerful in 136 APPENDIX. its action, and contains less alkali. But tot purples, blues, &c. alkalies are necessary; there- fore, not only hard soap is used, but pearl ash, as it has an affinity to the wares those colours were dyed with ; for both the vat as well as the ground colour are made from alkaline matters, which consequently tend to brighten and restore them where too much is not used. In like manner, reds, yellows, pinks, and shades from them, are cleaned with soft soap, and finished by being immersed in acid liquors, which have an affinity to the dye they are already saturated with, therefore all alkalies have the property of saddening reds, yellows, pinks, scarlets, &c. while acids injure blues, purples, violets, pansies, and every shade of these colours. Ked archil is made from purple archil, by adding a small quantity of oil of vitriol and tartar to redden it. For d^ifig Cotton and Muslin Blue. The theory of this is described in the direc- tions for giving the azure to counterpanes. As it may not be convenient for housekeepers in general to erect a blue vat for the purpos^^ of dying their muslins and cottons, the following is a method of dying those substances with Ch/ymic Blue ; the recipe for making this may be found in page 35. This blue is not a fast colour, but answers for many purposes. APPENDIX. 137 Take some of the liquid blue made with oil of vitriol and indigo; put this into a pan of conve- nient size, but large enough to hold twice as much as you intend to use, in order that there may be room to stir it. You must then add some potash or other alkali by degrees, till, after several trials, you find it does not taste sour, or until the acid is entirely saturated or neutral- ized. Take of this neutralized liquor enough to dye what goods you require, and put it in a tub of water (about blood warm is generally used) and by dipping a small piece of cotton in- to it, you may judge of the depth of the colour. To dye with this Chymic Vat^ (for so it is called) first wet out your goods in warm water, then immerse them in the dye water, and handle them to the shade required. Blue, when dyed this way, should be dried ia a warm room, and if book muslins, they must be pinned out; if cotton furniture, it must be made stiff with starch, or flour, and glazed, sleeked, mangled, or callendered. Remarks on this Dyt. — If the acid of the vitriol is not overcome by the alkali of the pearl or pot- ash, the goods worked in this dye will be rotten ; it should rather have a salt than an acid taste^ and then you will be sure of its working well, but the nearer you can bring it to a point of neutrali* zation, the better will be the effect. i2 138 APPENDIX. To dye a Grey Green Drab on Prince's Cord, or Corduroy. Boil for one hour, half of a pound of chipped fustic and a quarter of a pound of shumac ; in the interim, pour some boiling water on two ounces of shumac, strain this liquor, and put your goods in it for half an hour, then draw them and slightly rince in cold water; after this, dissolve an ounce of alum in hot water ; when at a hand heat, enter your goods for twenty minutes, then draw them, and cool down your copper with cold water, slight- ly rince your goods from the alum liquor, and enter them in the copper, (after first taking out the bag containing the shumac and fustic). The goods must simmer in this liquor for twenty minutes, then draw them from the copper, and *hey will be of a yellow brown colour; slightly rince them in cold water, and add to the liquor in the copper a table-spoonful of chymic and a small lump of copperas, something less than a quarter of an ounce; suffer this to boil ten minutes, then cool down your copper, and enter your goods, and boil from ten to fifteen minutes ; then wash them in cold water, and dry in a warm room. The quantities here specified will serve for two pair of breeches. Whatever is the cause of the solidity of this colour I cannot immediately account for, but I have known a pair of breeches dyed this way APPENDIX. 139 wear without losing any of their colour for twelve months. To dye thick Silks^ SatinSy Silk Stockings^ Sfc. of a Flesh Colour. Wash your stockings clean in soap and water, then rince them in hot water ; if then they should not appear perfectly clear, cut half an ounce of white soap into thin slices, and put it into a saucepan half full of boiling water ; when this soap is dissolved cool the water in the pan, then put in the stockings, and boil them twenty mi- nutes, then take them out, and rince in hot water ; in the interim pour three table spoonfuls of purple archil into a wash-hand bason half full of hot water, put the stockings in this dye water, and when of the shade called half violet or lilac, take them from the dye water and slightly rince them in cold water ; when dry, hang them in a close room in which sulphur is burnt, (for this process, see page 21); when they are evenly bleached to the shade required of flesh colour, take them from the sulphuring room, and finish them by rubbing the right side with a clean flannel. Some persons callender them after- wards. Satins and silks are done the same way. To dye a Bu^^ inclining to a dull Orange. This colour has been much worn of late, and is known to the trade by the name of Indiain 140 APPENDIX. buff. There are several ways of dying it; the principal of which may be noted in the three fol- lowing recipes. This colour is generally applied upon cotton and silkj either wove together or separate. The first recipe is the most expensive, nor would 1 re- commend it, excepting for a very valuable article, such as an Indian shawl or scarf, and then the dying wares should be first boiled; when they have given their colour to the water, check the boiling, and put in a pattern; in five minutes it will be seen what colour the contents of the cop- per will afford. If such a colour as is required, then enter your shawl, allowing for what altera- tion the lime will effect in the saddening. For a common Sized Woman* s Shawl. First clean it in soap and water, then rince in warm water; pour boiling water on half an ounce of turmeric, and stir it well. When this dye liquor is at a hand heat put in the shawl, and handle it over for twenty minutes or half an hour, then take it out, and slightly rince it in cold water; in the interim dissolve a piece of alum as big as a boy's marble or horse-bean in boiling water; wh( n this alum water becomes of a hand heat, put in the shawl, and suffer it to remain half an hour, now and then turning it over, that it may receive the alum regularly ; then take it from the alum liquor, and slightly APPENDIX. 141 rince it in cold water; the shawl will now have imbibed the ground colour, and the mor- dant of preparation. While this is perform- ing, the dye liquor should be prepared by boiling sufficient water to dye the garment in, to which add from half an ounce to an ounce of fustic, and a drachm of powdered and sifted cochineal; when these dying wares have boiled ten minutes, cool down the copper or boiler by adding cold water, then enter your shawl, and simmer for half an hour ; in the interim add a teacup full of lime water to a small pan of cold water, then take the shawl from the copper, rince it in cold water till it is cold, then immerse it in this lime water, the caustic of which will bring it to the shade re- quired; then rince in cold water, and dry in a warm room ; when dry it umy be mangled, but callendering is preferable. Some dyers press the shawls done this way. The cochineal and fustic liquors should not be emptied or thrown away until it is seen how the shawl dries, as this often requires to be re-entered, and either more cochineal or more fustic added, as required. I have seen the colour in the foregoing recipe worn much more on the brown cast. This is performed after being dyed as described, by pound- ing a small dyer's gall, and pouring boiling water on it. This liquor must then remain half an hour to extract the properties of the gall, then 142 APPENDIX. strain it off, and enter the shawl, and handle it over about twenty minutes. It must then be taken out, and a tea spoonful of copperas water added to a pan of cold water, and the shawl entered, which will sadden it to the shade re- quired. A much shorter Method than the last^ but the Colour is not so Jine or bright. For a common sized silk shawl, boil for half an liour, from one to two ounces of welds ; take this dye liquor and put it in a pan, to which add a quarter of an ounce of alum; when dissolved put in the shawl for half an hour, theii draw it, and rince it in cold water; in the mean time dissolve a quarter of an ounce of arnatto, with an ounce of pearl-ash, in a teacup, add this arnatto to a small pan of warm water, then enter the shawl, and keep handling it for half an hour at least ; then take it out and pass it through lime water, then back again through the arnatto, and again through the lime water; lastly, rince it in cold water, which finishes it. Dry in a warm room, and send it to a callen- derers. This colour will wash well if a small quantity of pearl-ash is used with the soap liquor, and it is at last rinced in pearl-ash and water. APPENDIX. 143 For di/mg Indian Buff. This colour is dyed by giving the silk or cotton a ground colour of fustic, which colour is sad- dened with lime ; a fresh copper is prepared with old madder liquor, into which the silk is to be dipped now and then- It must afterwards be returned into the fustic liquor, and at last sad- dened in lime water. It is somewhat singular that it is necessary that lime should be used to bring this colour to that shade of buff. There are other means of procuring this shade, but those already specified are the principal. The precise rules as to the quantity of ingredients cannot be given, but must depend on the judg- ment of the person performing this process. I have said but little of drab colours ;^ because they depend so much on the judg- ment of the person dying them, that no precise rules can be given for any particular shade: for, independently of the various shades, which by different persons are called by different names, even were patterns affixed, these would fade in time, and become precarious and uncer- tain. Sufficient, however, has been said, to inform persons of the meanest capacity how to clean every article of dress, and to dye i5 144 APPENDIX. many colours to a great degree of perfection. As to performing the various colours here spe- cified, the only difficulty is in getting people to make the attempt ; but this once hazard- ed, they will certainly succeed, and then plea- sure and profit will of course attend each other. Drab colours are generally performed by giving the stuffs a strong preparing liquor; second- ly, by giving them a slight body, a stuffing liquor, or ground colour; then the shade, whatever it may be, must be ascertained. Supposing it to be of a dull red cast, madder root and walnut root are to be put in a bag and boiled, until they give to the liquor the degree of shade supposed requisite. The goods are then entered and boiled to the colour required. An olive drab requires a strong preparation, and a stuffing of sliumac and fustic. It is dyed or turned off by adding a strong decoction of logwood and fustic. If for a grey olive, pearl-ash and copperas are used ; but if the shade is to be very delicate, no stuffing is required, but a full body of colour is given of dying wares, and then turned off with spirits, previously having a strong mordant of dying. Archil and bearwood, copperas, blue vitriol, and chymic, are seldom used for drabs, but logwood is one of the principal drugs which are changed bluer by alkalies, and reddened by acids. Shumac is sometimes used, but its colour is somewhat too full i it tends rather to dye shades APPENDIX. 145 of brown than drab. The dyer's galls are more frequently used ; they may be said to be a mor- dant for copperas to run on, and almost any clear colouring body, particularly archil, will turn their colour. These may serve as hints to the dyer, but help him to no certain rule. The mordants generally used are alum and tartar, sometimes white or crude tartar, at other times red tartar : these do well for yellows, reds, and shades from them. Various Colours. Roman vitriol and blue vitriol are used for blue and their shades ; copperas for blacks, greys, and their shades ; sometimes different mor- dants are used together, at other times separately; but tartar is never used alone, except for dividing the red particles in drabs, and then either in hot or boiled water; and in altering crimson, scarlet, &c. Alum is used either for saddening scarlet even down to a crimson, or as a preparation for dying crimson; the effect however of these al- kalies, salts, or acids, can only be completely obtained by practice ; theory may afford a general idea of the ingredients that are to be used, but the various ways of performance cannot be fully explained by any recipes, as the goodness of the ingredients alone would make an alteration in some colours. It is necessary for a young artist to consult the compound colours in mix- 146 ture, and then the effects of salts and acids oit these different colours. To try patterns with a small saucepan and a little piece of cloth, first give it the preparation as described in this work, pour this away, and boil your dye stuff according to the different recipes. By this means great practical expej-ience may be gained, which is more easy than people generally imagine, and to an inquisitive mind the art will prove ex- tremely entertaining, though the most persever- ing will be convinced that one half of the art yet remains in oblivion. Useful Remarhs on dijing Feathers, I beg to refer the reader to the recipes given in this work for dying feathers of various colours, adding, that previous to their being dyed, it is necessary that they should be soaked in warn^ water for several hours. The same degree of heat should be kept up, but the water must be but little more than blood warm. For reds and yel- lows, and some drab colours, it will be necessary to use the alum water at the same degree of heat, as its being too hot would injure the feathers. For dying browns, archil, &c. are used instead of woods, barks, &c. ; cudbear is also used. After a feather has been dyed any dark brown or other dark colour, its nature is lost, and consequently its texture. It is unprofitable for the wearer to redye them, and difficult even for a dyer Af'F'ENDlX* 147 to perform. A feather by being beat across the hand soon dries; hy this means feathers are as easily dyed as silk or woollen, and there is a greater certainty of obtaining the de- sired shade. The only difficulty of dying fea* thers is in compounding the dying waresy and making a homogeneous liquor of them, that shall give them the desired shade, after being saddened or made of a darker colour by means of copperas, which is generally used to darken brown greys, blacks, slate colours, &c. Shumac and fustic, or shumac alone, is the general ground of browns; the red, as I have before observed, is obtained by archil, and the black hue by copperas, in warm water; and after the feather has beer put in the copperas water, it may be return^ again into the dye water, and back again into copperas; but care should be taken each that the feather should be rinced from the /he' peras water, before it is again returned if staining or dye liquor, otherwise the r/^'^^^ would poison the dye water (as the dyerr e also when it would have lost its effect, should be taken not to use too much saddening colours, as it injures the prevents the colour from appearing^'s'^^ ' if the ground colour is not of a ^^^^"^ the saddening or copperas will maP^ uneven. 148 appendix; Blue on Feathers. The finest blues are obtained by means of the silk blue vat. The feathers should be well cleaned in soap and water, then rinced in warm water. By means of the soap liquors and warm rincing water, the feather will be sufficiently soft ; then it will be necessary to boil as much water as will serve to dye it, unto which add (for one feather) half a teacup full of purple archil ; simmer the feather twenty minutes, until the stem and flue is of the full violet colour, then take it out of this dye, and immerse it in the vat. According to the shade required, so deep must be the shade of the violet ; a full violet, by remaining in the vat long enough will dye a full blue. There are various ways of dying blue on fea- ^rs, for instance, clean the leathers as described ^he preceding recipe, and when your water ^ throw in a teaspoontulof tartar, and as much as will dye the desired shade of blue. Coo ^ wn the copper by means of cold water, and feathers, and keep the water uiuch below a f^^Jic^^jj^^ g^j^j iiave a blue of the brjghtesi^^^ more or less full, but of the false dye. Another vdpe.— Use blue vitriol and log- wood as be^g described for silk and woollen, at a blood hi, , ttjis also is a false colour, but very bright. APPENDIX. m For Orange^ Moidore^ S^c. These colours are very simple, and are pro- duced bj ariiatto and pearl-ash, which dye the feathers of a bu(F colour; they are reddened or ©ranged by means of acids, as vinegar, cyder, lemon juice, tartar, and bran water. Vitriol, &c. is also used, and especially vinegar, being the most simple ; copperas is also applied as a corrective : thus arnatto and turmeric are used in dying bright reds and scarlets, as they redden by means of the acid liquor, and at the same time add beauty and fulness to the colour. Chocolate^ and full rich Browns^ These are produced by archil, logwood, and shumac, boiled together, and these liquors heated at different times. The feather must be dipped into this as hot as it will bear, without injuring the texture of the feather. Fustic is also used when for chocolate brown, and copperas; and sometimes pearl-ash in the saddening. Jiemarks on Dyes in general. When a copper is made up, that is, when the dying wares have yielded their colour to the water, whether these are archil, cudbear, logwood, or some other dying wares, that are acted on by alkalies, and the liquor wants blueinti: or sadden- ing, pearl-ash will have the proper effect, and it ISO APPENDIX. may be used even in the same vat with copperas. It is of essential service to know this in dying puce colours^ either on silk, woollen^ or feathers. It brightens when too much is not used, by bring- ing out the blue which the logwood affords, on the surface of the cloth, and it unites with the alkali used in the manufacturing of archil ; it also has as good an effect on cudbear, and some kinds of red woods. Persons who are wholly ignorant of the Art of Chemistry, will be surprised to find, that by means sometimes of a small quantity of lime water, sulphuric acid, the marine or nitric acid, or alum, that in an instant the colour in the copper will be entirely changed. Supposing this change to have been effected by means of an al- kali, by adding to the same copper a sufficient quantity of acid, to satiate the salt, the colour may be again restored. These changes may be ef- fected several times, till the two opposites form or become masticated, which, will be the case when certain parts; called :the %)irit or strength are lost hair, 51, 53. Brown, a, inclining to a Mulberry, 52» Brown, inclining to a Brick colour, 53. Brown, another root coloured, 54. Brown, of a Greenish-yellow cast, 54. Brown Cottons, 101, 102. Brazil Wood, how to make a decoc* tion of, 124. Brown Woollens, Stuffs, Cloths, &c. 129, ISO, 131. Brown, how obtained, 130. Browns, a pretty Red, 130. A pretty kind of Fawn, 131, 139. Browns, how acted upon, 153. Buff Colour, to dye a, inclining to a dull Orange, 139. Chintz Bed and Window Furniture, how to clean, so as to preserve the gloss and beauty, 13, Chocolate and full rich Browns, 149. Chymic Blue, how to make, 35. Cinnamons, Greys, &c. how to dis- charge when dyed too full, 43. Cloth, to raise a nap on threadbare, 19. Clothes, directions for dry cleaning, 30, 21. Colours, what the five primitive, 27, 135. Colours, on the mixture of the, 28. Colours, on fast and fugitive, 31. Colours, why some are more holdioc: than others, 31 to 33, Colours, modes of discharging, 42, 4S« Colours, how to be redyed or chango ed, 43, 44. Colours, remarks on various, 146* IBS INDEX. Copper 6r Brass Utensils used in dying-, how to clean, 84. Cotton, Scarlet done two ways, 98. Cotton, a plum coloured, 99. Cotton, false Purple on, 100. Cotton gown, to dye Black, 102. An- other, 10.^, 104. Cotton Velvets, how dyed, 105. Cotton and Silk Velvets, how to finish, 106. Cottons, thick. Counterpanes, &c. how to clean, 13, 14. Cottons, thin, mode of cleaning-, 14. Cottons, dresses and bed furniture, how to dye, 85. Cottons, a copperas vat for, 85, 86, 87, 88. Cottons, directions for bleaching, 88. Cotton, to dye blue, 88. Cotton, to dye a puce colour on, 89. Cottons for a Slate colour, 90. Cottons, Yellow, 92. Cotton, a full yellow, 93. Cotton, Red, 95. Cotton, inclining to Crimson, 96. Cottons, a Gold colour on, 94. An Orange colour on, 95. Cottons, Nasturtium, 95. Cottons, plum coloured, 99. Cottons, Brown, 101, 102. Cottons, to finish,and SilkVelvets, 106. Crimson Silk, to dye, 67. Crimson, a false, 68. Crimson, another method of dying, 69. A third and fourth, 69, 70. Crimson, for a shawl, 70. Crimson in grain, directions for making, 122. Another, 122, 123. Drab, a Grey-green, how to dye, 138. Drab colours, for scouring, 26. Drab colours, bordering on the Beaver, 55. Drab colours, inclining to a grey, 56. Drab colours, how generally made, 143, 144. Drabs, various to make, 55, 56. Drabs, of a Dove colour, 56. Dresses to dye, 85. Drugs, names of dying, and their current prices, 29. Dry-cleaning Clothes of any colour, 20. Dye, stain of, how to take from the hands, 84, 85. Dying, directions for making vari- ous articles used in, 35. Dyes, various prices, and methods of preparing, 27. Of discharging and re-dy ing, 27, 28. Dyes in general, remarks on, 149. Fawn colour. Drabs to make, 55. Fawns for scouring, 26. Feathers, for cleaning and dying, 81. Feathers, Black, Brown, Ac. 8"). Feathers, Black, how to clean, 83. Feathers, Brown, Fawn colour, and White, 83. Feathers, useful remarks on dying, 146. Flesh colours, to make, 75. Flesh-coloured Silks, how to dye, 139. Garden Woad, or Fastil Vat, the, how made, 107--109. Gold colour, to make, 94. On Cottons, 95. Grease spots, the mode of extracting from Silk, coloured Muslin, &c. 10. Green and Olive, 92. Greens of all shades, how produced, 46, 47. Grey for scouring, 26, Grey Silk, how dyed, 49. Grey, a fast, on Silk, 50. Grey, a, called Pearl or Silver, 91. Greys, cinnamons, &c. how to dis- charge, 43. Greys of all shades, how to make, 126. Greys, Raven, how made, 127. Greys, Bright or Pearl, 128. Another, 128, 129. Hearth Rugs, on scouring, 26, 27, Indian Buff, mode of dying, 14;3. Indigo, a cold vat of, for Silks, W^ool- lens, Ac. French method of making, 37. English method of making a Blue, 37. Lilacs, 71. LimC'water, its properties, 31. Logwood Dye, remarks on, 30. London Smoke colour, 76. Mantles, mode of cleaning Ladies, 16, 17, 18. Maroon and other coloured Wool- lens for scouring, 26. Maroon Silk, 66. Maroon Woollens, to dye,12S. Maroons, how made, 123, 124. 3 I INDEX. Mordants, what generally used, 145. Moreno window curtains, how to dye, 128. Nap on Cloth, how to raise, 19. Nasturtium, to dye on cotton, 96. Olive Green, how to clean, 7. Olive Green, to dye, 92, 112. Orange colour and Nasturtium, to make, 94, 'Jb. Orange colour, a permanent, 117. Orange and Moidore,directions for ob- taining, 149. Orange Colour, to clean, 153. Paint, how to take fr )m Cloth, Silks, &c. 11. Pansy, and colours bordering on Pur- ple, how made, 48. Peach Blossom, different ways of dy- ing, 74-, 75. Pearl Grey on Silk, hew dyed, 49. Pelisse, to dye Brown, 112. Black, 139, 133. Plum-coloured Cottons, 99. Puce on Cottons, 88. Puce, how to make a very beautiful, 125. Prince's Cord, or Corduroy, how to dye drab, 138. Purple, False, on Cotton, 100. Another method, ib. Puce, a beautiful fast-coloured, how to make, 125. Rag, or small dyers, their method, 112. Red, a bright, how made, 48. Red Puce, how to dye, 89. Red, a, inctining to Crimson, 96,97. Red, a Madder, 97. Another recipe, 98. Red, bright, or Fire-coloured Scarlet, 120. Reds, for dying of all shades, 6+, 65. Reds on Woollens, 118. Reds, from Brazil wood alone, 119. Reds in general, modes of dying, 151, Re-dying, or changing the colours of garments, directions for, 43, 44. Rose colours, deep, how topped, or made fuller, 74. Safflower. how to prepare, 71, 72, 73. Salts, on the effects of various, on Mordants or Colours, 30. Salts and Mordants for preparation, 31, 32, 33. Satins of all shades, 51. m Scarlet cloth, how to prevent from being stained Black, 11. Modes of cleaning, 15, 16, 17, 18. Scarlet, a, c lUed False, 65,66. Scarlet, a bright, to make, 96, 97. Scarlet Cotton done two ways, 99. Scarlet Cloth, a method of prepar- ing, 120, 121. Shawl, to clean a common-sized silk, 4. Shawl, to dye a Scarlet silk, of a per- manent colour, 64. Shawl, to dye a Crimson, 70. Shawl, how to dye a common-sized buff, 140. A shorter method to pro- cure the same colour, but notso fine or bright, 142. Sheeting Silks, what, 5. Siik Stockings, how to clean, 9, Silk, light Blue, how to dye, 46, 47. Silk, a Stone colour, how made, 50,51. Silk, a Slate colour, 51. Silk Pelisse, to dye Brown, 63, Silk Stockings, to dye Black, 78. Silk, Cotton, and Woollen garments, how to clean orange coloured, 163. Silks stained by corrosive or sharp liquoi s, 9. Silks, how to extract grease spots from, and from coloured Muslin, 10.* Silks, how to take spots of paint from, Silks, directions for sulphuring, 21. Silks of all colours, methods of clean- ing, 4, 5. Silks, directions for aluming, 45. Silks, on dying in the small or false dye, 45. Silks, a pretty Hair Brown, how to dye, 51, 53. Silks, to finish, 106. Silks of various colours, directions for cleaning, 135, 136. Silks and Satins, thick. Silk Stockings, &c. to dye of a Flesh colour, 139. Silver or Pearl Grey, 91. Slate coloured Cottons, 90. Sour water, how to prepare for dying Scarlets and Reds on Silks, Cottons, and Woollens, 38, ^9. Stain of the dye, how to take from the hands, 84, 85. Straw Bonnets, directions for sulphur- ing, 21. Straw and Chip Bonnets, to dye, 79, 80. 158 Stuffs, Woollen, gentlemen and la- dies' clothes, how to dye, 106. Tin, how to make solution of, in aqua regia,35. Tin, muiiate of, to make, 37. Vat, marks to know how to conduct a, regularly, 110, 111. Veils, how to clean White and Black Lace, 1, 2. Violet, False, and Pansy bordering Oh Purple, how to produce, 48. Violet, Half, or LUac, 'il. Velvets and Silks, to finish, 106. Water, sour, mode of preparing, for dying Scarlet and Reds of all kinds on Silks, Cottons, and Woollens, 38. Waters, various, a description or, witn their compo»ic«xt par-ts, and effects on different colours, 41, 49. White Loice Veils, to clean, 1, White Satins, Silks, &c. to clean, 2, 3. Woad, the Garden, or Pastel Vat, 107, 108, 109. Woad Vat, a, directions for making, 106, 107. Wool, Silks, and Straw Bonnets, how to sulphur, 21, 22. Woollen StufBs, how to dye Black, 132. Woollens, remarks on the scouring of, 22. Wool! ens, undyed as Blankets and Flannels, remarks on, 23, 24. Woollens, directions for scouring all kinds of J 26, \ Woollens, how to scour Black, Blu«, and dark Brown, broad and narrow Cloths, as Gentlemen's Coats, Ladies' Pelisses, &c. 24, 25. Woollens, directions for party colour- ed, as Carpets, Hearth-Rugs, &c. 26, 27. Woollens, on dying, 106. Woollens, to dye Green from the lightest to the darkest shades, 113, 114. Woollens, for a chymic Blue on, 115. Woollens, how scoured, 135. Yellow Silk, the French way of dying, 56. Yellow, and shades from it, on Silks, 66, 57, 58, 59. Yellow, bordering on a Blue cast or Iiemon, 58. Yellow, bordering on Gold colour, 59. Another, 60. Yellow, a bright one, 62, 63. Yellow, a beautiful bright, 61, 62, 63. Yellow, a, supposed to stand all manner of proof, 93. Yellow, on the dying of, on Stuffs and Woollens, 115, llG. Yellow, to make a bright and beau- tiful on fine cloth, 116. Yellow, directions for orange and Gold colours, with their shades, 117, 118. Yellows, how acted upon, 152= GETTY CENTER LIBRARY CONS TP 909 T89 1818 BKS c. 1 Tucker. WllUain. The family dyer and scourer : being a co 3 3125 00316 0450