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

Front matter

THE

DYER’S GUIDE.

LON DON :

Preface

To insist on the utility of the present Manual is, as¬ suredly, superfluous. The favourable reception of the first edition, sometime since out of print, has stimulated the author to revise the work throughout, and to render it more deserving the public approbation. The Appendix to the first edition now forms a part of the Introductory Chapter , to which it naturally belongs ; to the whole have been added such improvements as the present advanced state of knowledge, and particularly chemical knowledge, has rendered absolutely necessary ; and which the prac¬ tical dyer will find of considerable importance and much utility.

The following letter from the late Sir Humphry Davy, the first chemist of the age, appeared in the Preface to the first edition ; it is here again reprinted as some proof of the sufficiency of that learned man’s judgment, at least concerning the chemical theory of the art of dyeing.

SIR, vi

No. 16, Berkeley Square, June 18, 1823.

I am very much obliged to you for your liberal com¬ munication on a subject of my Lectures : I will attend to the information you are so good as to give me in the next Edition.

I am Sir,

H. DAVY.

Mr. T. Packer,

The author has only to add, that an Index is now ap¬ pended to the work, by which every article may be most readily and conveniently found.

London, Nov. 1829.

ERRATUM.

Page 22, line 3, for proximate read ultimate.

Chapter I. Introductory

PAGE

On the different branches of dyeing — On the drugs used in dyeing —

On vegetable and animal substances— On substantive and adjective colours, and mordants — And on the leading facts of chemical science as connected with the art of dyeing — On the calico printer’s mordant for yellow and red, and on compound colours — On bleaching — On the theory of fast and fugitive colours — On dye-houses and water — Miscellaneous observations . 1

Chapter II

To dye cotton a Saxon or chemic blue — Sulphate of Indigo — Saxon or chemic green — To set a cold indigo vat — Another Indigo vat — To dye cotton a fast green with the cold indigo vat and weld — Another cold blue vat for linen and cotton — solution of indigo for penciling printed muslin, &c. — To dye cotton a fast buff — To dye cotton pink . 47

Chapter III. On Dyeing Silk

To alum silk — The blue vat of indigo for silk — Another blue vat for silk — To dye silk violet, royal purple, &c. — To dye silk lilac— Another process for lilac — Another process for dyeing muslin, &c. lilac — To dye silk a violet or purple with logwood — To dye silk violet with Brazil-wood and logwood — To dye silk violet or purple with Brazil¬ wood and archil . - . 03

Chapter IV. On Scouring And Dyeing Wool

n the action of alum and tartar upon wool — A pastil or woad vat for blue — To prepare the indigo mentioned in the preceding directions — Rules to judge of the state of the vat — Indications when a vat has had too much or too little lime — To work a vat which is in proper order — On the putrefaction of the woad vat — Methods of dyeing blues — To dye wool with lac-dye, scarlet, or crimson — To dye worsted yarn a crimson — A preparation of archil to finish the crimson — on dyeing wool scarlet — To dye wool maroon — To dye wool yellow — To dye

Vlll

CONTENTS,

PAGE

wool brown or of a fawn colour — To dye wool purple, &c. — To dye wool green — A chemic vat for green woollen — A chemic vat for blue woollen — To dye wool orange, gold colour, &c. — To dye wool black — Another process for black without a blue ground — To dye wool a grey — Mixture of black or grey with red and blue — On browns, fawns, greys, &c. — On the yellow of Quercitron bark — On a full bright yellow from the same bark — Bancroft’s murio-sulphate of tin — To dye wool buff— To dye wool peach — To set an indigo vat for worsted, serge, &c. . 70

Chapter V. On Dyeing Silk And Cotton Black

To dye silk black for velvets — To dye silk black London process — On dyeing cotton black at Rouen — To dye cotton black, London process —

For dyeing black, particularly cotton velvets, at Manchester — On dyeing silk and cotton black with a blue ground — Another iron liquor — To dye cotton black by using the preceding solution — to dye cotton violet — To dye cotton red — To dye cotton an Adrianople or Turkey red — Miscellaneous observations relative to Adrianople red* ••••••• 105

Chapter VI. On Dyeing Cotton And Silk

To dye skein cotton yellow — On dyeing and re-dyeing cotton furniture yellow — to dye cotton skein a duck’s wing green and olive — Of browns, maroons, coffee colours, &c. — Observations on silk — On un¬ gumming and boiling silk — Whitening — Sulphuring — Onaluming silk — Skein silk for yellow — Preparation of annatto for aurora or orange, moidore, gold colour, and chamois — To dye silk aurora or orange — To dye moidore — Process for orange — To dye silk poppy or coquelicot — A cheaper poppy with annatto and Brazil wood — On dyeing silk a fine crimson — Composition for dyeing silks scarlet or crimson with cochineal — Another process for crimson — Another process for crimson by Brazil wood — Of fine violet — Observations on crimson and scarlet upon silk — On dyeing silk green — On olives — On dyeing silk grey — Nut grey — Black greys — Iron greys — On dyeing silk of a Prussian blue colour — Chromate of lead for yellow on silk or cot¬ ton — Conclusion . . . . . 123

THE

DYER’S GUIDE.

Chapter I. Introductory

On the different branches of dyeing — On the drugs used in dyeing — On vegetable and animal substances — On substantive and adjective colours and mordants, and on the leading facts of chemical science , as connected with the art of dyeing — On the Calico-Printers mor¬ dant for yellow and red, and on compound colours — On bleaching — On the theory of fast and fugitive colours — On dye-houses and water — Miscellaneous observations .

The trade of a Dyer is, in this country, subdivided into several distinct branches. Thus we have woollen dyers, who are occupied solely in the colours obtained from cochineal, such as scarlet, crimson , orange, buff, fyc.; likewise purple, or royal purple , obtained from cochineal and indigo . They are called, also, grain dyers, from the circumstance of the colouring material, cochineal,

B

INTRODUCTORY.

being in small grains *. Yet it ought to be observed, that the term dyed in grain is applied by the public generally in a very different sense, namely, to those cloths the raw material of which is dyed previously to being spun into thread, or at least before woven into cloth ; and hence such dyes are usually more permanent than those which are dyed after the materials are woven into cloth. This class of dyers generally dye cloth in the piece, or a number of pieces of cloth tacked together, and worked over a winch in a suitable copper.

There are dyers who likewise dye worsted and woollen yarn of those grain colours, but they are generally a distinct branch. The yarn is dyed in hanks, upon sticks ; and, when in the copper, the hanks are changed end for end, so that they may be kept even; such changing being performed five or six times to each turn¬ ing in.

There are also silk dyers who are grain dyers. These dye in the skein, chiefly for new goods. Some silk, and some mixed silk and worsted goods, are dyed in the piece.

In dyeing cotton , the Adrianople or Turkey Red is, in many cases, a branch of itself, and comes the nearest to what may be called grain or scarlet dyeing upon cotton, because cochineal cannot be applied to cotton to any advantage; yet cotton is occasionally dyed with this material.

In woollen another branch consists of the woad dyers . These often superintend the black dye on woollen cloth,

* Cochineal was at first supposed to be a grain , which name it still retains by way of eminence among dyers. Ure.

THE DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF DYEING.

as well as the blue from woad and indigo. There is the same distinction among worsted yarn dyers , they having likewise to do slates, greys, &c. Nearly the same may be said of the silk skein dyers .

In many places, particularly in the country, browns, drabs, stone-colours, &c. constitute a branch in woollen. The same colours form also a branch in calico and muslin ; but black , in calico and muslin, is a distinct branch.

The dyers (whether in London or provincial towns) who keep shops, and take in garments, furniture, &c. to be dyed, are termed by the trade Rag-dyers .

There are a few dyers in the metropolis who dye black on woollen, silk, cotton, &c. for the dye-shops, many of these putting all their black out to be dyed.

There are one or two dyers famous for dyeing silk stockings black ; these constitute a particular branch. Dyeing bombasins black is also another branch.

The following constitute also particular branches : black hats , — hats of fancy colours —fur, — chip and straw, —feathers, — leather, Morocco and Spanish, and kid leather for shoes and gloves. Many other branches of the dye-trade might be enumerated, but more detail does not appear necessary.

Concerning all these different branches, one general observation will suffice ; namely, that those who aye concerned in them have, for the most part, obtained -their knowledge of the art of dyeing, not from theories adapted to explain the different processes, but from practice in that branch in which they are occupied. They usually, therefore, perform those processes which

b2

INTRODUCTORY.

they have been shewn and told, without any inquiry into the causes which produce the results. There are, it is admitted, exceptions to this, men of general informa¬ tion and knowledge being occasionally found in the various branches of dyeing, but they are so few, that it may be questioned, when compared with the great body employed in the art, whether they amount to one in a thousand. This is not, however, to be attributed to any indifference in such persons to acquire a correct know¬ ledge of the art, but is chiefly owing to a deficiency of the ready means of acquiring such information ; which information it is the design of the present Treatise to supply; there not being, as far as the present writer knows, any such work, at a moderate price, to be ob¬ tained in the English language.

It is true many of the Cyclopedias furnish us with much useful information on the subject of dyeing : one of these, J ennings’s Family Cyclopedia , may be par¬ ticularly mentioned as containing such ; but it is scat¬ tered about in these dictionaries in various ways, at once troublesome and unpleasant to obtain. Dr. Bancroft’s work on the philosophy of Permanent Colours , in two octavo volumes, will also supply much valuable informa¬ tion ; so also will the edition, some time since published, of Berthollet’s Elements of the art of Eyeing , with the addition of valuable Notes by Dr. Ure. Dr. Ure’s Chemical Dictionary is also very useful to the dyer, as well as many detached papers in several of our English publications. A Treatise on Printing and Dye¬ ing Silks, $c. lately published by H. M‘Kernan, is also valuable, and should be consulted by the curious in this

ON THE COLOURS OF DYEING.

art. But all these works are expensive, and such as few dyers will be disposed to obtain ; hence the necessity of the present Manual, the author of which has not servilely followed the directions or recommendations of any pre¬ vious writer ; but from his own practice, a practice of more than thirty years, has laid down such rules as he knows to be at once practical and efficient. At the same time he thinks it right to state, that he has not only consulted all the works mentioned above, but also Hellot, Macquer , $c. adopting all that appeared essen¬ tial in these, and giving such additions as accord with the present improved state of chemistry and dyeing; and, as far as was possible, in the limits prescribed for this work, so that it may be within the reach of every dyer in the kingdom, as well as every journeyman and apprentice in all the various branches of this truly exten¬ sive and mysterious art, as carried on in London, Nor¬ wich, Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, and various other parts of the British dominions.

The author has, in treating of the various matters to be dyed, adopted nearly the same arrangement as that which appears in the Title , taking Cotton first, in con¬ sequence of its having the least affinity for dyeing bodies. He has taken Silk next, which has a greater affinity for many dyes, and, when dyed, yields colours more per¬ manent than cotton.

Wool he has not placed entirely last, although many of the colours which it receives from the dyer are com¬ plex. The black dyeing of cotton and silk is placed after the processes of black for wool, as likewise the Turkey red , $c. these being naturally difficult to perform.

b 3

INTRODUCTORY.

White and black have been considered colours by dyers, and with propriety, black forming a part of slate, grey, &c. White is seldom pure ; in proportion to its clearness and purity will the colours be with which it is dyed.

In regard to black dye , and particularly cotton black dye , the author does not know any simple and concise theory, consistent with chemical principles. He flatters himself, however, that from his extensive experience, his observations are founded on interesting facts. Cottop, for instance, will take fast blues from the cold indigo vat ; this vat, with the combination of iron, and in a heat no greater than the hand can bear, will easily pro¬ duce all shades of grey, slate, &c. Many of these colours may be done by logwood instead of the blue vat, and in the same heat of the dye bath ; so cotton likewise, whether in pieces or skeins, may be dyed brown, fawn, drab, &c. in consequence of the great affi¬ nity which cotton has for acetate and sulphate of iron.

With respect to black , it should be also observed, that few substances are known which yield by themselves a good black. The juice of the cashew nut communicates, however, a black colour, which resists not only washing, but even boiling with soap and alkaline leys. It is used for marking linen. The Toxicodendron yields a juice which produces nearly the same effect. Some other vegetables also produce black dyes, but all of them in such small quantities as not to be available for the purposes of art ; nor do they, besides, produce blacks equal to those formed in the dye-house.

Blue , red , and yellow are admitted to be three dis-

DRUGS APPLICABLE TO DYEING.

tinct colours. In many of the browns , red and yellow are combined naturally in the drugs from which they are produced, and so they are in logwood. Blue, red, and yellow, are developed by iron , whether in the state of an acetate or sulphate.

It may be useful, before we proceed any farther in noticing the theories of dyeing, to give a brief descrip¬ tion of the

DRUGS APPLICABLE TO DYEING.

Alum, or Potash-sulphate of alumina , is a concrete salt, composed of alumina or clay, potash, and sulphuric acid. It is found native in some places ; but the greatest part of the alum of commerce is prepared by a peculiar management of schistose pyritic clays, usually denominated alum ores . Alum is made at Civita Vecchia, in Italy, and also at many other places on the con¬ tinent ; at Hurlett near Glasgow, at Whitby in York¬ shire, &c. Its form and appearance are both too well known to need being described. Its chemical composi*- tion is as follows : sulphate of alumina, 36.70 ; sulphate of potash, 18.88; and water, 44.42— together 100. The alum called in commerce Roch alum , said to be obtained from Roccha, in Syria, is in smaller crystals than com¬ mon alum, and has a reddish hue, but does not appear to be essentially different from the common alum. Com¬ mon alum requires sixteen parts of water, at a tempera¬ ture of 60°. to dissolve one of it ; but there is another kind not generally made or known, containing soda instead of potash, and hence with propriety named sodasulphate of alumina , which is soluble in less than its

b 4

INTRODUCTORY.

own weight of water, and which, on this account, may be¬ come valuable in some processes of dyeing. — Ure.

Acetate of Alumina is prepared in large quantities for the calico printers, by decomposing alum with acetate of lead, or more economically with aqueous acetate of lime, having a specific gravity of about 1.050, a gallon of which, equivalent to nearly half a pound avoirdupoise of dry acetic acid, is employed for every 2\\bs. of alum. A sulphate of lime is formed by complex affinity which precipitates, and an acetate of alumina floats. — Ure.

Archil, Archilla, Rocella, Orseille, or Litmus, is said to be a whitish lichen growing upon rocks in the Canary and Cape Verd islands, which yields a rich purple tincture, fugitive, but extremely beautiful. It is brought to this country as it is gathered ; it is prepared here for the dyer, by grinding it between stones, so as thoroughly to bruise but not to reduce it into powder ; it is moistened occasionally with a strong spirit of urine, or urine itself, mixed with quick lime ; in a few days it acquires a purplish red, and at length a blue colour; in the first state it is called archil, in the latter lacmus or litmus . The dyers rarely employ this drug by itself, on account of its dearness and the perishableness of its beauty. Its chief use is to give a bloom to other colours, as pinks, &c.

Cudbear is also manufactured in this country from archil, and is in repute for dyeing various shades, from pink and crimson to a mazarine blue ; it is said these co¬ lours are very permanent.

Argol, or Tartar, is a crystalline substance depo¬ sited in wine casks during the fermentation of the wine, from the juice of the grape, in which it exists in consi¬ derable abundance. It is an impure supertartate of potash ; that is, potash combined with a superabundant quantity of tartaric acid . Argol is found in commerce of two colours, white and red . Cream of tartar is the same substance freed from colouring and other extrane¬ ous matter.

Blood. See Adrianople red.

Bran acts in some peculiar way on colouring matter, but scarcely on the mordants. It seems to loosen and remove the colouring matter ; as also to alter its hue in some cases, an effect obvious in the bran pinks. — Ure.

Chlorine. See Oxymuriatic acid.

Cochineal is the female insect of the coccus cacti found on the cactus coccinellifer and cactus opuntia, Prickly pear or Indian fig , natives of South America, the West Indies, and other tropical regions. The female of the insect is the true cochineal ; in her full sized, pregnant, and torpid state, she bears so small a proportion to her former or creeping state, that her antennae, legs and proboscis are scarcely discernible ; her whole appearance is that of a whitish berry, and so it was formerly regarded. This insect is found in a wild state in Mexico, Georgia, South Carolina, and some of the West India Islands, feeding on several species of the cactus ; but in some of the Spanish settlements, as well as in Mexico, the insect is domesticated, and fed on the cactus coccinellifer, which is cultivated for the purpose, on which it attains a much larger size than in its wild state. Cochineal is also obtained from the East Indies; but East Indian cochineal has not yet attained the quality of that pro-

b 5

INTRODUCTORY.

duced in the West Indies and America. Its use, as a colour for dyeing many shades of red, &c. is great and important.

Copper is also used in dyeing, in the state of a sul¬ phate or blue copperas , a nitrate , and also as an acetate . See Verdigris.

The Gall or Bile of animals consists of a sapona¬ ceous bitter, yellowish fluid, secreted by the liver, and found in the sac usually called the gall-bladder. It is sometimes preferred to soap for cleansing cloths by the dyer and the scourer.

Galls are excrescences produced on the quercus in - fectoria , a species of oak growing throughout Asia Minor. The gall grows on the shoots of the young boughs, and is produced by an insect, the cynips quercusfolii ; this insect punctures the tender shoot with its sting and deposits its egg in the puncture ; the egg is soon hatched, and the irritation of the maggot feeding on the plant produces the wen or gall-nut. When the nuts are gathered before the worm within changes to a fly, and not yet having eaten its way out, they are of a dusky green colour, and are called in commerce blue galls, and are by far the best. Those collected after the fly has eaten its way out have a hole in each, are of a whitish yellow colour, considerably lighter than the bluegalls, and of an inferior quality: they are brought to this country chiefly from Aleppo. They are used in large quantities in the arts, principally for dyeing, and making ink. They contain a large quantity of Tannin and Gallic acid .

Indigo is a well known deep blue substance, obtained

DRUGS APPLICABLE TO DYEING.

from the Indigofer a tinctoria or Indigo bearing plant, a native of the East Indies, which is propagated by seed and will thrive in most tropical climates ; hence we have good indigo from South America, the East Indies, Carolina, &c. The chief criterion of the goodness of indigo is, if, when cut with a knife, it exhibits a reddish copper-like appearance ; where this shade is not, or only very slight, the indigo is of inferior value. It is pre¬ pared by macerating the leaves in water, whence is ob¬ tained the blue feculence or indigo. Indigo is insoluble in water, but soluble in sulphuric acid, hence a solution of it in this acid, forming a sulphate of indigo , is well known in the art of dyeing.

The best indigo is that called Flora , which floats in water, all the other kinds sink in that fluid.

The constituent parts of indigo are Carbon, 7 3.22, Ni¬ trogen 11.26. Oxygen 12.60, and Hydrogen, 2.92, =100.

When indigo is digested in concentrated sulphuric acid, it is converted into a peculiar blue substance, com¬ monly called sulphate of indigo ; this colouring matter has been, however, lately named Cerulin, by Mr. W. Crum, who has made many experiments on it ; (see notes to Bertholet , vol. ii. p. 357. et seq.) he observes that cerulin dissolves more abundantly in sulphuric acid than water ; but this does not prove the formation of a com¬ pound entitled to be called sulphate of indigo ; that, such a solution differs in no respect from that of resins in acids or in alcohol. Another substance has been also obtained from indigo by Mr. Crum, of a purple colour, which he calls Phenicin ; it dissolves both in water and alcohol.

b 6

INTRODUCTORY.

Iron rarely in its metallic state enters into the mani¬ pulations of dyeing, but its sulphate , muriate acetate , &c. as well as its oxides contribute largely to the dyer’s art.

Sulphate of Iron, or green copperas , as it is com¬ monly called, is too well known to need description ; it is in green crystals of different sizes, and is used for various purposes in dyeing, &c.

Peracetate of Iron, or Acetate of Iron, forms a reddish-brown uncrystallizable solution, much used by the calico printers, and is prepared by keeping iron turnings or pieces of old iron for six months immersed in redistilled pyrolignous acid. It may be also prepared in a more expeditious way by boiling filings of iron with the acid.

Lac dye and lac lake are two articles now regularly imported from the East Indies, and employed for dyeing scarlet. They both appear to be the colouring matter of seed-lac, obtained from it in India by a process not gene¬ rally known. Both these articles are in lumps or cakes of a dark-reddish or blackish colour.

Muriatic acid, or spirit of salt , as it was formerly called, is obtained from common salt or muriate of soda, by distillation with sulphuric acid. When this acid is pure it is perfectly colourless, but it generally has a yellow hue arising from a little iron. It gives out, at all tem¬ peratures, a large quantity of a fuming suffocating gas of a peculiar smell. Its usual specific gravity is about 1.160. For the basis of this acid see Oxymuriatic acid.

Nitric acid is composed of oxygen and nitrogen: it is usually obtained from nitre , (the chemical name of which

DRUGS APPLICABLE TO DYEING.

1 3 is nitrate of potash ,) by distilling three parts of it with two of sulphuric acid. When pure, nitric acid is a colourless, extremely sour, and corrosive liquor. Its specific gravity is 1 .42 ; it always contains more or less water, which modifies its specific gravity. It is usually coloured with nitrous acid gas. It forms a variety of compounds with numerous other bodies. Aqua fortis is this acid diluted more or less with water ; when strong it is called double , when weak single aquafortis . For Nitrogen, see forwards.

Nitro-muriatic acid, or aqua regia, is a mixture of nitric and muriatic acids. It is usually made by dissolving sal ammoniac or common salt in nitric acid. When the former is employed the usual proportion is one of the salt to four of the acid ; but equal parts will be neces¬ sary to dissolve platinum. Aqua regia is the only men¬ struum which will dissolve gold.

Orpiment, realgar, or sulphuret of arsenic has been lately applied to the purposes of dyeing a yellow colour. Sulphur may be combined with arsenic in dif¬ ferent proportions. Realgar is red, and occurs native in Germany and Switzerland ; it is also produced by art, Orpiment is commonly produced by art and is of a yel¬ lowish colour ; native orpiment is also occasionally found ; it is of a bright lemon colour.

Oxymuriatic acid, or as it is now more correctly termed chlorine, from its yellowish green colour, is an elastic gaseous fluid of a pungent disagreeable smell, and highly injurious to animal life, even when largely diluted with atmospheric air. Mixed with hydrogen, and ex¬ posed to light, they combine and produce a sour com-

INTRODUCTORY.

pound called muriatic acid gas ; this gas is greedily absorbed by water, which takes up 480 times its bulk, and has its specific gravity increased from 1 to 1.210. Thus dissolved in water it forms the liquid muriatic acid mentioned in a preceding article.

Chlorine forms combination, besides, with several other bodies ; many of its combinations are termed oxymu - riates , or more properly, chlorides : some of these are extremely useful in bleaching, dyeing, &c. The muriatic acid appears to be the only acid of any consequence into which oxygen does not enter.

Oxide is the combination of oxygen with some base, without being in the state of acid ; it is most commonly applied to the combination of oxygen with metals ; most of the different rusts of metals are oxides. As oxygen combines with the metals and other bodies in different proportions, its combinations are distinguished by dif¬ ferent prefixes, thus : protoxide denotes an oxide con¬ taining the least quantity of oxygen ; deutoxide the next larger quantity ; tritoxide the next ; and peroxide the largest possible quantity of oxygen in the compound when it is not acid. For Oxygen see forwards.

Pot-ashes and Pearl-ashes (one of the fixed alka¬ lies) are both impure carbonates of potash obtained from the ashes of innumerable vegetables, over which water is poured which dissolves the salts, and by evaporating the water leaving the salt, a dry powdery white mass is obtained. * The chief difference between pot-ashes and pearl-ashes consists in the superior whiteness of the latter, and in the former being of a more dirty colour, and more caustic than the latter ; hence it is not so highly

DRUGS APPLICABLE TO DYEING.

saturated with carbonic acid. For many purposes in the arts such caustic potash is to be preferred.

Quercitron, or American-bark is obtained from the quercus nigra or black oak, a native of North Ame¬ rica. It is used for dyeing yellow, and was brought into notice by Dr. Bancroft, who obtained the exclusive privilege of using it as a dye by an Act of Parliament, passed in the 25th year of the reign of George III.