Dyeing silk, mixed silk fabrics and artificial silks

Preface

There is no lack of works on Dyeing in general, but unless they are extremely voluminous and expensive, they cannot treat the different branches of the industry with the desired thoroughness. Consequently, the practical man, wherever this is possible, turns to a special work in which he can find sufficient information on all the requisite details of his particular subject.

Such works specially devoted to the dyeing of silk are rare, and it is to fill this gap that the present book has been written. Based on a practice of more than twenty years as a teacher, and the experience gained thereby, the author has treated all the material dealing with this special branch in a readily comprehensive manner, and thus placed in the hands of the silk dyer a book that will be useful.

The Author.

Introduction

PAGE I

CHAPTER I Silk

Further Treatment of Raw Silk

Scouring .......

Souple, or Half-scoured Silk ....

Ecru, or Hard Silk . . " .

Sundry Operations Preceding Dyeing

Bleaching Silk ......

Loading .......

i8

Physical and Chemical Properties of Silk .

3°

Estimating the Value of Silk ....

Mechanical Operations in Silk Dyeing

Dyeing Machinery and Appliances .

Water in Silk Dyeing . . . . .

Chemicals Used in Silk Dyeing

Salts ■ .

Sundries .......

Mordanting Silk ......

Bast Soap : Its Properties, Application and Action

Behaviour of Silk Towards Dyestuffs

Selecting the Dyestuffs and Preparing the Baths

Dyeing with Basic Dyestuffs ....

Dyeing with Acid Dyestuffs . . . .

Dyeing with Substantive Dyestuffs .

Dyeing with Diazotised Dyestuffs .

Dyeing with Sulphone Dyestuffs vi

CONTENTS

Vll

Silk (continued')

Dyeing with Mordant Dyestuffs

Dyeing with Sulphur Dyestuffs ■

Dyeing with Vat Dyestuffs

Dyeing with Natural Dyestuffs

Black-dyeing Silk

Testing Dyed Silk for Loading

Colour-dyeing

Dyeing Chappe Silk

Special Effects in Silk Dyeing

Dyeing Silk in the Piece

Matching ....

Testing Silk-dyeings for Fastness

Treatment of Silk after Dyeing

Gilding Silk

PAGE I02

io8

I lO

115 117

133 136 144

148 149

151 154 157

Chapter II

Scouring, Bleaching and Loading Tussah Dyeing Tussah . . . . ,

158 161

CHAPTER III Wool-Silk

Wool-Silk and its Treatment Before Dyeing Dyeing Wool-Silk ....

Dichroic Effects on Wool-Silk

170 170 177 182

CHAPTER ly

Half-Silk Fabrics ......

Half-Silk Fabrics and Their Preparatory Treatment Properties of Half-silk and its Behaviour Toward

Dyestuffs Dyeing Half-Silk .

Dichroic Effects on Half-Silk .

Black on Half-Silk Dyeing Silk- Wool-Cotton Fabrics Mechanical Operations in Half-Silk Dyeing

CHAPTER V Artificial Silk

Commercial Grades of Artificial Silk and

Properties .....

Dyeing Artificial Silk ....

Fabrics with Fancy Threads of Artificial Silk

Their

I'AGE

209 212

INTRODUCTION

In dealing with the subject of dyeing silk, it is advisable, in the first place, to have a clear understanding of what is meant by the term " silk." It is true that the term is, or at least was, so closely circumscribed that a new definition would seem unnecessary ; but during the last twenty-five years a large number of articles, all claiming to be " silk," have come on the market, and there are now so many varieties of silks that it takes an expert to " divide the sheep from the goats." The layman and the beginner will find great difficulty in finding their way through this wilderness of " silks/' as may be gathered from the following list : waste silk, acetate silk, ailanthus silk, bast silk, bourette silk, chappe silk, Chardonnet silk, cocoon silk, collodion silk, corah silk, cordonnet silk, cuite silk, ecru silk, Fagara silk, flock silk, florette silk, lustre silk, grege silk, half-silk, artificial silk, Lehner silk, Linkmeyer silk, marabout silk, mulberry silk, mussel silk, organzine silk, Pauly silk, down silk, raw silk, simili silk, souple silk, hank silk, trame silk, Tussah silk, viscose silk, Vivier silk, wild silk, wool-silk, Yamamai silk, and numerous others.

In the above list, the natural and artificial silks are given indiscriminately, with the intention of shov\ing how necessary a new definition of the term " silk " has become. In the present work the name will be restricted.

2 INTRODUCTION

as a matter of principle, to natural silks, excluding all the artificial kinds entirely. Moreover, among the numerous natural varieties, only those textile fibres will be considered " silk " as are spun by the true silkworm, Bombyx mori, in making its cocoons. This natural variety is also known as " mulberry silk," and is the handsomest, finest, and therefore the most highly valued of all the natural silks. At the same time it forms the foundation of the silkworm industry. The silkworm can be cultivated, whereas, with few exceptions, all the other larvae that are capable of spinning a silken thread and building a cocoon can only be cultivated with difficulty, if at all — at least, none of the attempts hitherto made in this direction has led to any really satisfactory result. All the natural silks spun by larvae which cannot be cultivated, or only with difficulty, will be classed as " wild silks," the best knowTi representative of which is the Tussah silk met with in commerce as a fabric, and also — under the name " bast silk " — in hank form. The present work will deal with the dyeing of Tussah as well as true silk.

Mussel or Byssus silk is a natural textile fibre, not spun by a worm, but secreted by the Byssus gland in certain mussels [e. g. Pinna). In both physical and chemical properties it differs considerably from true silk, and cannot therefore really be classed as a silk. Moreover, it is of merely subsidiary im.portance.

The case is quite different, however, with artificial silk, which, in the course of years, has become such an important article of commerce that it cannot be ignored here. As a matter of fact, the name " artificial silk " is not happily chosen, since the article is not a silk prepared by artificial means. True, it is an artificial product, but no silk ; being an artificial textile fibre prepared by a complicated process, and exhibiting an excellent lustre which

INTRODUCTION 3

is even not inconsiderably superior to that of true silk. In every other respect, however, the artificial silks of commerce (for there are numerous varieties) have nothing in common with natural silk but the name— and that wrongly, because natural silk is a product of animal vitality, whereas all artificial silks are of vegetable origin. Consequently, these latter can only replace natural silk in so far as their characteristic silky lustre is concerned, there being no comparison between the two in respect of tensile strength and fineness. Nevertheless, the artificial silks have acquired a sphere of usefulness, quite independent of that of natural silk, and they will therefore be dealt with, in a special supplementary chapter, though not as " silk."

Wool-silk is a term for fabrics made of _ silk and wool, in some of which (such as " Gloria " fabrics) both fibres are of equal importance, whereas in others the silk appears as decorative designs (flowers or stripes) or threads. Wool-silk therefore belongs to the class of mixed fabrics.

Half-silk is a name for fabrics of silk and cotton woven together in such a manner that the silk forms the face and the cotton the wrong side of the material.

Fabrics containing silk, wool and cotton at the same time will also be taken under consideration.