TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=.
Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been
placed at the end of the paragraph.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
[Illustration: PLATE I. INDIGO DYED BATIK FROM MADRAS]
DYES _and_ DYEING
BY
CHARLES E. PELLEW
_Formerly Adjunct Professor of Chemistry
at Columbia University_
[Illustration: (colophon)]
NEW YORK
ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY
1918
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY
ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY
New and enlarged edition
Published, January, 1918
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I—INTRODUCTION 5
Dyes of the Ancients—Dyes of Our Ancestors—Animal, Vegetable and
Mineral Dyes—Outfit for Practical Dyeing.
CHAPTER II—MODERN DYESTUFFS 40
Discovery of the Aniline or Coal-Tar Colors—Their Properties and
Uses—How Obtained—How Named—Classification of Coal-Tar Colors for
Craftsmen.
CHAPTER III—THE DIRECT COTTON OR SALT COLORS 53
Discovery, Properties and Uses of the Salt Colors; with Lists of
Selected Dyestuffs, and Dying Directions for Cotton and Linen—
Fastness to Light and Washing—After-treatment.
CHAPTER IV—THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COLOR DYEING 71
Even and Shaded Dyeing with the Primary Colors—Experiments with
Secondary Colors—Matching Shades.
CHAPTER V—THE SULPHUR COLORS 85
Discovery—Properties and Uses of the Sulphur Colors—List of
Selected Dyestuffs, and Dyeing Directions for Cotton and Linen.
CHAPTER VI—THE INDIGO OR VAT COLORS 91
Natural and Synthetic Indigo—Properties and Application—Vat Dyeing,
Old and Modern—Dyeing Directions—The Modern Vat Colors—Their
Properties and Uses—Selected Dyestuffs—Fastness to Light and
Washing—Dyeing Directions for Cotton, Linen and Silk.
CHAPTER VII—THE BASIC COLORS 108
History, Properties, and Application to Cotton, Wool, Silk,
etc.—Disadvantages—Not Fast to Light—Dyeing Directions for Straw,
Raffia, etc.
CHAPTER VIII—THE ACID COLORS 123
History, Properties, Uses, and List of Selected Dyestuffs—Dyeing
Directions for Wool.
CHAPTER IX—DYEING FEATHERS 131
The Dye-bath—The Dyeing Method—The Finishing Process—Dry and
Wet Starching—Dyeing in the Starch—Black Dyeing of Feathers—
Painting Feathers.
CHAPTER X—LEATHER AND LEATHER DYEING 141
History—Preparation of Leather—Oil, Mineral and Bark Tanning—
Dyeing, Staining and Finishing Leather.
CHAPTER XI—SILK I 156
History, Origin and Varieties of Silk—Preparing Silk for Dyeing—
Piece Dyeing—Skein Dyeing—Dyeing Wild Silks.
CHAPTER XII—SILK II 168
Black Dyeing of Silk—Coal-Tar Colors—Logwood—Weighting of Silk—
Properties and Tests for Weighted Silk—Dyeing Silk with Colors
Fast to Washing.
CHAPTER XIII—IMITATION AND ARTIFICIAL SILK 181
History, Preparation and Properties of Mercerized Cotton—History,
Preparation and Properties of Artificial Silk—Precautions to be
Taken in Dyeing and Finishing.
CHAPTER XIV—TIED AND DYED WORK 192
As Used in South America, India, Philippines and U.S.—Variations
in Tying Process—How Dyed—Tied and Discharged Work.
CHAPTER XV—STENCILS AND STENCILLING 211
Japanese Practice—U.S. Practice—Knives, Brushes, Paper, etc.—
Colors for Leather, Silk, and Cotton—Stencilling with Aniline
Black Paste.
CHAPTER XVI—RESIST AND DISCHARGE STENCILLING 228
Japanese Practice—Resist Paste and the Sulphur Colors—Discharge
Stencilling with Bleaching Powder and Hydrosulphite.
CHAPTER XVII—BATIK OR WAX RESIST 241
Javanese Practice—Modern Practice and Apparatus—Dyeing of Batiked
Goods—Use of Batik Process on Cotton, Linen, Silk, Leather, Wood,
Bone, etc.
CHAPTER XVIII—THE INFLUENCE OF THE WAR UPON THE DYESTUFF
INDUSTRY 260
Rise of the German Dyestuff Monopoly—Ruin of the English Dyestuff
Industry—Dyestuff Industry in the United States—Changed
Conditions Due to the War—Lists of Best Dyestuffs.
THE ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES IN COLOR
PLATE
I Indigo dyed batik from Madras _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
II Japanese towelling, showing impression of fresh damp leaves 26
III Same towelling after immersion in iron spring 30
IV (_a_) Example of tied and dyed work } 210
(_b_) Example of tied and discharged work }
V Japanese towelling stencilled in resist and dyed by
immersion in iron spring 230
ILLUSTRATIONS IN HALF-TONE
FIG.
1 Shellfish used by the ancients for Tyrian purple 12
Sir W. H. Perkin 42
2 Tied and dyed headdress from an Inca tomb in Peru 192
3 Shikar chundri, from Rajputana, with knots still untied 196
4 Same chundri untied and shaken out 198
5 Bagobo headdress from the Island of Mindanao 200
6 Sample of tied and dyed work, “tied on itself” 202
7 Sample of tied and dyed work, “tied in bands” 204
8 Tied and dyed work—Folding the cloth 206
9 Starting to tie 206
10 Centre portion tied 206
11 Centre and corners tied 208
12 Dyed, untied and shaken out 208
13 Japanese stencil knife 212
14 Japanese stencil brushes 212
15 Japanese stencil, showing holes punched by hand tool 216
16 Japanese stencil, showing use of stops 216
17 Japanese stencil, showing use of sewing instead of stops 216
18 Japanese stencils, showing use of both stops and net 218
19 Large and handsome Japanese stencil, showing use
of net 224
20 “Teapot” model of tjanting 248
21 Walther glass tjanting 248
22 “Wax pencil” model of tjanting 248
23 Javanese tjantings 250
24 American modification of Javanese tjanting 250
DIAGRAMS IN THE LETTERPRESS
Primary Colors 73
Mixed Colors 79
PREFACE
When a new text-book is offered to an innocent and long-suffering
public about such an ancient subject as Dyes and Dyeing, it is,
perhaps, the very least that the author can do, to explain briefly
his reasons for hoping that his particular book may prove of some
special usefulness.
As a matter of fact this book is intended for the use of craftsmen
and others who are trying to dye and stain textiles by hand and on a
small scale, rather than for professional dyers or dyeing chemists
who are interested in factory dyeing, conducted on a large scale.
For the latter there is little or no difficulty in getting any
information that they desire, either from the large and carefully
written text-books or, still better, from the many excellent dyeing
manuals and books of directions issued at frequent intervals by the
great color houses.
But for craftsmen and their like, the amateur dyers as opposed to
the regular professionals, the required information is not easy to
obtain. Their leaders and teachers, as a rule, profess a scorn of
the wonderful discoveries which, in the last half century, have
revolutionized the art of dyeing more, perhaps, than any other branch
of handicraft. And the dyeing chemists and writers have devoted
themselves almost exclusively to the far larger and more important
and more profitable field of commercial or professional dyeing, and
only here and there is one found who has given any special attention
to the dyes and processes needed by those working only on a small
scale.
For my own part, after teaching the principles and practice of modern
dyeing to class after class of chemical students at Columbia, my
attention was called to this particular branch of the subject by
finding, one spring, that some friends had started a hand-weaving
industry at a settlement house in which I was interested, but had
not made any arrangement for a dyehouse at the same time. This was a
serious omission because it is almost impossible to buy in the market
raw materials for hand-woven rugs, table-covers, and the like, that
are dyed just the right shade and, at the same time, are fast to both
light and washing; and, unless this last is guaranteed, there is
little or no excuse for charging the large prices necessary to pay
for the extra expense of the hand labor.
Wishing, therefore, to help out my friends, I offered to assist as
far as possible in this part of the work. That summer was spent on
the St. Lawrence, where it was possible to study some of the textile
work of the French _habitants_ whose dyeing processes, designs, and
looms had descended from mother to daughter since the old Colonial
days; and in the autumn I fitted up a little dyehouse and started
with a small but intelligent class of neighbors who were working at
the looms.
Of course, it was foolish to attempt to teach them the scientific
chemical formulæ used by my students uptown. The processes must
be short and simple—must give the desired shades on cotton, linen,
wool, and silk in the course of an hour or an hour and a half at
the outside, counting from the time when the class was called to
order. And the colors must be absolutely fast to light, and, wherever
possible, to washing also.
The work was very interesting and proved successful enough, at least
as far as the dyeing went. After a few months some visiting reporter,
in an article on Greenwich House and its industries, mentioned the
dyeing, in a magazine, and stated that the colors resulting were not
only beautiful but fast. Immediately I was bombarded with letters
from all over the country, begging for information about permanent
dyestuffs to be used for hand-woven textiles. Requests came from
friends and acquaintances to help them in various side branches of
the subject, such as feather dyeing, leather dyeing and staining,
stencilling, tied and dyed work, and, above all, Batik. And it soon
became a source of much interest to look up some old process of
dyeing, originating perhaps in the East, perhaps among the ancient
Egyptians, and to work it out with the best modern dyestuffs.
Finally, my correspondence grew so burdensome that I arranged with
the well-known New York magazine, _The Craftsman_, for a series of
articles upon “Modern Dyestuffs and Dyeing Processes for the Use of
Craftsmen”; and from these articles the present book is a natural
result.
It is hoped that it will prove useful, not only for individuals who
are trying, under considerable difficulties, to get satisfactory
results, by means of long-abandoned processes, upon textile materials
of many sorts and kinds, but also for teachers of art in our public
as well as private schools. Much attention is being given now to
training the hands of children in various drawing and decorating
and weaving processes. But the modern dyestuffs give a much greater
opportunity to train their eyes to a sense of color and to its
beauties, as well as giving them an introduction into an art which
can be used at home for most useful as well as beautiful purposes.
My hearty thanks are due to many friends, notably, to Mr. Philip
Clarkson, head chemist of H. A. Metz & Co., to Dr. Ludwig, of the
Cassella Color Co., and to many other expert dyeing chemists,
who have most kindly helped me with advice and information about
many widely varying branches of the subject. Also to many of my
craftsman friends, notably Mrs. C. L. Banks, of Bridgeport, Conn.,
and Mrs. Charlotte Busck, of this city, who have been of the
greatest assistance in working out many of the problems involved in
stencilling and Batik; and to Miss Mary Grey, of Hackettstown, N. J.,
who has kindly allowed me to insert an illustration of some of her
interesting and well-designed tied work (Fig. 7). It is my earnest
hope that the information contained in this book may encourage and
assist other craftsmen throughout the country to come up to the high
standard of these skilled textile workers.
C. E. P.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
There has been so much said and written about the beauty and value
of the old-fashioned dyestuffs and dyeing processes and their
superiority to the modern coloring matters, that many well-meaning
people of artistic tastes have never ceased to deplore the discovery
and introduction of the so-called aniline or coal-tar dyes, and to
regard them as a serious detriment to the art of dyeing.
Some, indeed, have gone so far as to decry the discoveries not
only of the last fifty years, but also of the last nineteen or
twenty centuries. These quote with approval the great John Ruskin,
founder and original leader of the whole Arts and Crafts movement in
England, if not in the world, as having said, “There has been nothing
discovered of the slightest interest in the tinctorial art” (the art
of dyeing) “since the days of the ancient Greeks and Romans.”
To suppose for an instant that this important and highly specialized
art has not advanced during nearly two thousand years is, on the
face of it, absurd. A very little knowledge of dyestuffs forces
recognition of the fact that many of the very best, fastest, and most
beautiful of the dyes of our ancestors—such as cochineal, with which
they dyed practically all of their fast pinks and scarlets; logwood,
with which silk as well as wool was, and is still dyed black; fustic,
which was used for fast yellows on wool and cotton, and several
others—were natives of America, and therefore only known to the world
at large since the seventeenth century.
Indeed, as we shall see, the art of dyeing, based as it is on
chemical processes, discovered one by one, but never properly
explained or understood until the last sixty or seventy years, is,
perhaps, the one art above all others in which not only the ancient
world, but the world of comparatively a few years ago, was very
distinctly inferior to that of the present day.
In drawing, sculpture, painting, architecture, ceramics,
wood-carving, lacemaking, metal working, and almost every other art
that can be mentioned, the craftsman of the Middle Ages, if not
indeed of ancient Rome or Greece, could still hold his place against
modern competitors. Even in such a modern art as book printing, the
lover of books will claim, with considerable reason, that no more
beautiful or more nearly perfect specimen of the printer’s art has
ever been produced than the Gutenberg Bible, the first product of the
European printing press.
The art of dyeing, however, has been changing and developing so much
from century to century, that, even before the wonderful discoveries
of the last fifty years, the effects produced by any one generation
of dyers would have been totally impossible for their ancestors of a
few generations before them.
It would seem hardly worth while to dwell further upon this subject,
were not the idea so fixed in the minds of craftsmen in general that
to get permanent and artistic effects in dyeing we must go back to
the colors of our ancestors, if not to those of the ancient world.
To this day we hear of new industries being started in the lines of
hand-made tapestries, hand-woven linens, homespun cloths, and the
like, where, as a great inducement to prospective purchasers, the
goods are loudly proclaimed as dyed with “pure vegetable colors”; and
the first question commonly asked about a pretty piece of dyed work
is, “Are you sure that it is fast? Did you use the vegetable dyes?”
As a result of this ignoring and scorning of the wonderful results of
modern science in its application to this most important industry,
the work of textile craftsmen all over the world is far behind the
times, and comparatively far behind other lines of craftwork.
Nobody expects a modern sculptor to do his carving with the bronze
tools used by the old Athenians; nor do we consider that the present
day worker in metals should refrain from using the modern gas
furnace, or limit his products to the few metals and alloys known in
the Middle Ages, ignoring those which modern chemistry has developed.
And yet, all over the world, craftsmen are still pottering with long
since obsolete dyestuffs and obscure and antiquated formulæ, instead
of spending their energies in getting, with the minimum expenditure
of time and trouble, results of a quality never dreamed of by the
most skilful dyers of half a century ago.
As a matter of fact, so far from Mr. Ruskin’s estimate of the value
of ancient dyes being correct, it is actually no more than fair to
say that hardly a single dyeing process, known and used more than
fifty years ago, is of the slightest practical importance now to any
one.
DYES OF THE ANCIENTS
So far as we can tell, the art of dyeing is an extremely ancient
one. It seems to have developed in every country and to have been
practised by every race of mankind, as soon as that race ceased to
rely exclusively upon the skins of fur-bearing animals for clothing
and coverings. Wherever we find people using woven goods, whether
vegetable, like cotton or linen, or animal, like wool or silk—or
wherever, as in the case of the North American Indians, they
have learned the art of dressing skins so as to make them soft,
pliable, and with a comparatively smooth surface, we find at least
the rudiments of the process of dyeing, in the staining of these
materials to add to their beauty and interest.
_Vegetable Dyes._—The earliest dyes were probably of vegetable
origin, discovered by accidentally staining garments with juices
of fruits or plants. Thus, for instance, in the Bible we read of
“garments dyed in the blood of grapes”; and we can all call to mind
fruits in common use—blackberries, huckleberries, peaches, and the
like, whose juice could be used, if nothing better presented itself,
to dye or stain light-colored fabrics.
In most cases, as in those just mentioned, the colors would be
fugitive, and after a short time become dull and uninteresting. But
in the process of time vegetable dyes were discovered, in one part
and another of the world, which, in the hands of those who knew how
to work with them, gave colors both fast and beautiful. And thus grew
and developed the art of the professional dyer.
For instance, in many widely separated countries, such as India,
Java, South and Central America, plants are found, known as
_indigoferae_, whose juices, yellow when fresh, rapidly turn blue
when exposed to the air. These juices impart a rich and permanent
blue stain to objects moistened with them while they are still
yellow; and this blue is the coloring matter known as indigo. The
plants bearing it have been cultivated for hundreds, if not, indeed,
thousands of years, and used for dyeing.
Garments and blankets found in the so-called Inca graves in Peru and
Chili, dating from long before the Spanish conquest, as well as the
oldest specimens of Hindoo workmanship, and even some of the textiles
found in the tombs of Egypt, all show examples of this same dyestuff.
It was so valuable that, in small quantities and at vast expense, it
was imported by the Romans from India, as is shown by its Latin name,
Indicum (Indian), from which its present name, indigo, is directly
derived.
But, curiously enough, exactly the same dyestuff, but in a very
impure form, and derived from an entirely different plant, the
_isatis tinctoria_, commonly known as _woad_, has been discovered
and used in Western Europe from time immemorial. And when Julius
Cæsar, nearly two thousand years ago, led a Roman army for the first
time across the channel into England, he found the native Britons
adorning themselves by smearing their bodies with a dirty blue
dyestuff obtained from this source.
So, little by little, the knowledge of these natural dyestuffs and
their application grew and expanded. But as a matter of fact, so
far at least as can be gathered from the old writers, those known
and used by the ancient Greeks and Romans were few in number and of
comparatively little interest.
For blues they were obliged to use the inferior color derived, as
above mentioned, from the native woad, excepting when, for some
special purposes, a little indigo was imported from the East at
enormous expense.
Their principal yellow dyestuff was saffron, which is derived from
the flowers of the common yellow crocus. This gives pleasant, warm
shades of golden yellow, not fast, however, to either light or
washing. This same saffron, though long since entirely abandoned as
a dyestuff, is still used in small quantities for staining candy and
foodstuffs, and occasionally for medicinal purposes.
The ancients are believed to have discovered the dyeing properties
of the roots of madder—_rubia tinctorum_—(the dyer’s root), and to
have used it in small quantities for producing purple and brown and,
possibly, even red shades, on cotton and wool. Whether, however,
the art of dyeing the brilliant crimson and scarlet shades known as
Turkey red was ever worked out before the Middle Ages, is extremely
doubtful.
=Animal Dyes.=—Unquestionably the best red dyes known to the people
of those early times were of animal origin, and were used for various
shades of red and of purple.
_Kermes._—One of these, called kermes, is very closely related to the
more important and, up to a few years ago, the very generally used,
cochineal, and to the lac dye.
These three dyestuffs—kermes, cochineal, and lac—come to the market
in the form of little dark colored grains, which, when ground up with
hot water, give a bright red solution called carmine, which contains
a considerable amount of a coloring known as carminic acid. When wool
or silk that has been previously _mordanted_—that is, impregnated
with chemical agents; in this case salts of tin, aluminium, iron,
or copper—is boiled in one of these solutions, it becomes scarlet,
crimson, purple, or claret color, according to the mordant employed.
From the appearance and form, as they come to market, of these
dyestuffs, the shades thus derived are commonly known as the “grain
colors.”
When these granules are soaked for some time in warm water they
swell, and their true character becomes apparent. They consist of
the dried bodies of small insects, known as “cocci” (berries), which
are carefully cultivated on particular kinds of trees or shrubs and
when full grown are brushed off and dried for market. They are very
small—the cochineal grains, which are the most important, running
about 70,000 to the pound.
Kermes, which was the only one of the three known to the old Greeks
and Romans, consists of the dried bodies of the “_coccus ilicis_,”
a variety of the insect which lives on a species of oak, and which,
it is said, is still occasionally used in Southern Europe, and in
Morocco, for dyeing leather and wool.
_Tyrian Purple._—The most highly prized ancient dyestuff, and
one concerning which much interest has always been felt, was the
so-called “Tyrian purple.” This was obtained from the juices of
certain species of snails found in the waters of the Mediterranean
Sea, and, indeed, in the ocean waters of many other warm climates.
Two species of this class—the _murex Brandaris_ and the _murex
trunculus_—were used extensively by the ancients, and great mounds of
their shells, such for instance as the so-called Monte Testaccio at
Tarentum, are still found along the shores at places famous, in old
days, for their dyeing establishments.
Other shellfish of the same general type, known as _purpura
lapillus_, are found quite abundantly, not only in the Mediterranean,
but also on our own coast and along the shores of Central and
South America. They have been used by the natives in Nicaragua and
elsewhere, from time immemorial, for obtaining a similar color.
[Illustration:
_Purpura lapillus_ _Murex trunculus_ _Murex Brandaris_
FIG. 1—SHELLFISH USED BY THE ANCIENTS FOR TYRIAN PURPLE]
These shellfish were so much sought after in the old days that, by
the time of the early Middle Ages, they were almost exterminated,
and the dye disappeared from commerce entirely. But, long before
that, in the early days of the Roman Empire, the coloring matter
was so expensive that fabulous sums were paid for cloth or
yarns dyed with it, and its use was practically confined to the
imperial family. In fact one of the imperial titles in the Eastern
empire—_purpureogenitus_, “born to the purple”—was due to this fact.
Some interesting information upon the value set on this dyestuff
by the ancients is afforded by the so-called Edict of Diocletian,
fragments of which, engraved on stone tablets, have been found in
different parts of the old Roman Empire, ranging from Egypt to Asia
Minor. By this edict, issued in A.D. 301, the emperor Diocletian
attempted to fix the market price of the principal articles of
commerce, for the Eastern empire. According to this, the price of
wool, heavily dyed with this color, was worth about $350 a pound, in
gold.
The dyestuff, as we learn from the description of the process by
ancient writers, was obtained from a whitish or yellowish liquid
found, two or three drops at a time, in a particular vein in the body
of these animals. This juice, when exposed to air and especially to
sunshine, forms the purple or violet color, much in the some manner
that the blue color of indigo is formed from the yellow juice of the
indigo plant.
The shellfish in question, having for many centuries been left
undisturbed, are now quite common in the waters of the Mediterranean,
and are occasionally to be found in the poorer quarters of Venice
and other Italian seaports, exposed for sale as food.
A year or two ago a German color chemist, famous for his discovery of
the brilliant and extremely permanent reddish violet dyestuff, known
as Thio Indigo red B., made a careful investigation to see whether,
by any chance, this color of his might happen to be the same as the
famous old Tyrian purple.
He managed to secure some twelve thousand specimens of _murex
Brandaris_, and, with an immense amount of labor, obtained from these
twelve thousand specimens about twenty-one grains of pure dyestuff.
This he carefully analyzed and experimented with, until finally he
was able to prove that, while it was not identical with his own Thio
Indigo red dyestuff—which, as the name shows, is a compound of indigo
and sulphur—the Tyrian purple was a similar compound of the same
indigo dyestuff, with the comparatively rare acid element, bromine.
In fact it is what the chemists would call a brom-indigo; and this
same famous chemist, Dr. Friedlaender, of Biebrich on the Rhine,
after discovering its composition, amused himself by manufacturing
some of it artificially; and, with the artificial reproduction
of the ancient Tyrian purple, he dyed some skeins of silk, as an
illustration to his article detailing his discovery.
Now, if there were any truth in the theory of the superlative value
and beauty of these ancient dyestuffs, it is evident that this
rediscovery of the true and genuine Tyrian purple would have been a
matter of great practical importance. On the assumption that one
pound of dyestuff would color at least twenty pounds of wool, this
would put the price of the dye itself, in Diocletian’s day, at a
pretty high figure.
It can now be manufactured, at a profit, for not over one
one-thousandth of what it cost in those days, not allowing, either,
for the difference in value of money between then and now. And yet
this famous dye, which was so highly esteemed and of which so much
has been written, is so inferior in color and tone to several of
the modern dyestuffs that it probably would not pay to put it on
the market. Dr. Friedlaender’s samples were, indeed, fast to both
light and washing, but their color showed dull and, to modern eyes,
distinctly uninteresting shades of violet. And there are already on
the market several violet, red and blue dyes of the same general
class—the indigo or vat dyes—which are quite as fast to light and
washing, and far superior in beauty and brilliancy of shade.
It is only proper, however, to state that Dr. Friedlaender’s
investigation did not completely clear up the subject, though there
is no question but that he really discovered the true Tyrian purple;
and the color of the specimens dyed and exhibited by him corresponded
very closely to some still surviving from antiquity.
Among the fine collections of textiles from the Egyptian tombs that
are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, are some
excellent examples of Tyrian purple. These are what the Greeks used
to call “di-bapha,” or double dyed—i.e., dyed very deep, full shades
of dark purple. While a wonderful example of the lighter, violet,
shades of the same dye can be seen in a famous manuscript, known as
“The Golden Gospels,” now in Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan’s collection in
the same city, but which was given about 1520, by Pope Leo X to King
Henry VIII. This was written, in golden characters, upon vellum dyed
with Tyrian purple, and the shades of the latter correspond quite
closely with the violet of the artificial brom-indigo compound.
On the other hand there is evidence to show that the ancients were
also able to obtain, with the same Tyrian purple dye, perhaps from
the shellfish _purpura lapillus_, fast and brilliant shades of
scarlet, as well as these rather dull tones of violet and purple. In
the days of the Roman Empire, as above mentioned, the use of “purple”
garments was denied to all but the imperial family; but later, after
the rise of the Christian Church, the ecclesiastics gained sufficient
power to obtain this privilege for themselves. And to this day the
cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are called “porporati” on
account of the “purple” or, as we would say, scarlet, color of their
characteristic robes. So, whenever we see the red robes of a high
dignitary of the church we are probably looking at one of the tints
of the real old Tyrian purple, although the art of actually producing
it has long since been lost; and, if rediscovered, would probably
be of as little practical value as Dr. Friedlaender’s remarkable
investigation.
THE DYES OF OUR ANCESTORS
Between the days of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and the discovery
of the first aniline dye in 1856, many and important additions were
made to the list of available dyestuffs, some of which have continued
in use, for special purposes, up to the present day.
=Indian Dyes.=—The opening of trade to the Far East, due to the
discovery of the sea route round the Cape of Good Hope, brought
to Europe the free use of some of the Indian dyestuffs. Indigo,
for instance, was introduced for the first time in considerable
quantities, and, after much opposition, completely took the place of
the much inferior native dyestuff, woad.
For yellow, the old saffron dye was superseded by the more powerful,
but still rather fugitive, turmeric, or Indian saffron. This came
from the root of the _curcuma tinctoria_, a plant freely grown to
this day in both India and China. The safflower was also imported
from India; this is a kind of thistle, _carthamus tinctorum_,
the dried heads of flowers of which were largely used for dyeing
pretty shades of pink upon cotton, _directly_—that is, without any
mordanting process. This color, too, is comparatively fugitive to
light, and has almost disappeared from sight.
Of more importance were the so-called red woods, which came partly
from India and partly from the east and west coasts of Africa; and
of which the most important are the sandal wood, bar wood, and cam
wood. The wood of each of these trees probably contains the same
coloring matter. The color is not very easy to extract, but when
used with mordants of chromium, aluminium, or tin salts, it dyes
wool various shades of red and reddish-brown. These colors are very
fast to milling—in other words to the action of alkalies when the
wool is finished in the manufacture of broadcloth; but they are not
particularly fast to light, and for this reason, as well as because
of their greater expense, they have been for the most part abandoned.
From India, too, were introduced the well-known brown dyes known as
cutch (catechu) and gambier. These come to the market in the form of
dark colored pastes, formed by evaporating infusions of leaves, seed
pods, nuts, and sometimes the wood of various species of acacia and
areca trees. They contain large amounts of a peculiar variety of the
substance known as tannin or tannic acid, which is widely distributed
among many plants, and which is very useful in dyeing, as will be
described later. The brown coloring matter has been isolated, and is
called catechin. Both cutch and gambier will dye cotton and wool rich
shades of brown, which are quite fast to light when after-treated
with copper or chromium salts.
=Dyes from the New World.=—The discovery of America, and the
colonizing and opening to trade of South America and the West Indies,
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, still further enlarged
the field for dyers.
_Cochineal._—One of the first dyes introduced from there was
cochineal, a “grain color,” similar to kermes, already described,
consisting of the dried bodies of an insect known as _coccus cacti_,
because it lives upon certain kind of cactus which are native to
Mexico and Central America.
This dyestuff was largely used for dyeing wool and silk goods, and
produced fairly fast shades of crimson or of scarlet, according to
the mordant employed. But it has been replaced almost entirely now by
the various acid dyes, to be described later, which are cheaper, are
much easier to apply, and are of equal and, in many cases, of much
greater, fastness to light.
One of the few cases where cochineal is still used on a large scale
is in England, where the scarlet coats of the British regulars are
dyed with this color, on a tin mordant. It is believed, however, that
this is not due to any real or fancied superiority of the old dye
over many of the modern colors, but simply to the terms of an old
“perpetual” contract, which, a hundred and fifty years or more ago,
gave the privilege of dyeing the English “redcoats” to one particular
firm and their successors, on condition that they use this dye and
none other. Although both dyers and government would profit by the
use of modern dyes, the terms of the old contract are still rigidly
adhered to for fear of losing the monopoly.
_Lac Dye._—The similar dyestuff called lac dye, which had been known
and used in India for hundreds of years, was introduced into Europe
towards the end of the eighteenth century. It also is the body of a
small insect, the _coccus laccae_, which lives on the twigs of the
banyan tree, and other varieties of fig trees. When these twigs are
broken off and dried to kill the insect, there is found present on
them, along with the coloring matter, a large amount of a peculiar
resinous or gummy substance, which, when extracted and purified, is
known and widely used, as “shellac.”
Lac dye was used in practically the same way as cochineal, and
produced, upon wool, scarlet, orange, and crimson shades, which
were faster and more solid, but not as brilliant, as the cochineal.
It is now used but rarely, even in the East, having been largely
superseded, there, by brilliant but, unfortunately, in many cases,
cheap and worthless modern dyestuffs.
_Fustic._—From America, also, came the excellent yellow dyestuff,
“fustic,” yielded by the tree commonly called yellow wood, Cuba wood,
etc. Its true botanical name, however, is _chlorophora tinctoria_,
and it was largely used for dyeing, either directly in the form of
chips, or as a solid or liquid extract made from the wood.
It was principally used with mordants of aluminium or tin salts,
for dyeing wool bright, fast shades of yellow, or, with the aid of
bichromate of potash as a mordant, for obtaining mixed shades, in
conjunction with indigo, cutch, madder, and logwood. It has been
almost entirely replaced now by fast modern dyestuffs.
_Logwood._—The most important of all these dyestuffs, and the only
one still used on a large scale, is logwood, a dye extracted from
the wood of quite a large tree, the _haematoxylon Campechianum_ (the
“blood-red wood from Campeachy”), which grows freely in the West
Indies and Central American states.
It was discovered and used by the Spaniards early in the sixteenth
century, and in Queen Elizabeth’s reign was introduced into England,
much against the wishes of the older school of dyers who furiously
denounced it as producing fugitive colors, and had its use prohibited
by Act of Parliament. It was over a hundred years before the real
value of the dyestuff was appreciated, and this law was repealed.
The operation of extracting the coloring matter from the wood
itself, of which it forms only some three per cent. by weight, is
a troublesome and delicate one. The logs are chipped or rasped
into fine pieces, then moistened and piled in heaps and the color
developed by a process of fermentation. Accordingly, extracts
of logwood have been put on the market by various large firms,
especially of late years, and, while the use of the wood itself by
dyers has for the most part been abandoned, these extracts are widely
used for dyeing blacks upon silk, in spite of there now being many
excellent acid blacks.
The dyeing process, too, is rather complicated, for the goods must
be carefully mordanted before dyeing, with salts of iron, chromium,
or tin. For this reason wool is rarely dyed with logwood. It is,
however, still used for silk dyeing, partly because it gives very
full, deep, permanent shades of black, but principally because, by
using one mordant after another before dyeing, it is possible to
increase enormously the weight of the dyed silk, at very moderate
expense.
_Turkey Red._—The use of madder which, as before mentioned, was
probably known to the ancients, was greatly developed during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, owing to the introduction from
the near East of the so-called Turkey red process for obtaining, upon
cotton and wool, very fast and very brilliant shades of scarlet.
The process took some three months, and consisted of an elaborate
series of mordanting operations, before the dyeing proper began. The
goods were first soaked in a bath of some fatty material, such as
milk or, later, rancid olive oil, and then dried carefully. After
this they were soaked in a bath of alum and then in limewater, or a
chalk bath—and these operations were repeated over and over, with
various manipulations in between.
Finally, the mordanted material was dyed by boiling it in a bath
containing the finely-ground madder root, and then “brightened” by
washing out, in a boiling soap bath, all the loose color and the
unfixed mordant. This process was repeated until the proper shade was
reached.
During the early part of the nineteenth century, various extracts
of madder were made, by treating the ground root with strong
sulphuric acid and other agents, which destroyed the woody tissues
and other inert matter, without injuring the coloring matter. The
dyeing process also was greatly simplified and shortened. Later the
real active principles of the madder root were investigated, and
found to be two crystalline bodies named alizarine and purpurine,
respectively. And finally, several years after aniline dyestuffs
had been discovered and manufactured, two German chemists, Graebe
and Liebermann, discovered a method for making these very identical
substances out of coal tar.
Since that time the cultivation and use of madder has disappeared
almost entirely. But real Turkey red is manufactured to-day, and
in very large quantities—and, though freely imitated by inferior
products, the modern Turkey red is just as fast to light and to
washing as it ever was in the past, and possesses a brilliance and a
lustre which never could have been obtained formerly. The process,
however, is completed now in hours, not days, and instead of yielding
a few shades of red and purple, the alizarine colors have been added
to until they cover a large range of blues, purples, reds, oranges,
yellows, and browns, all of them as fast as the original Eastern
products, and all of them made from coal tar.
The dyes already mentioned were the ones which, after hundreds of
years of experiment, proved to be of distinct value. Many of them
were expensive in themselves and, in almost every case, the process
of dyeing with them was a quite complicated one, worked out by
generations of practical dyers, and passed down from father to son as
a precious trade secret.
Besides these there were, in almost every community, certain special
formulæ and recipes for obtaining, by comparatively simple methods,
dyes of varying degrees of value from more or less common vegetable
materials. Some of these are occasionally met with to this day.
Thus, in the province of Quebec, well down on the St. Lawrence, the
French Canadian women still dye their homespun worsteds an orange
shade of yellow, of very moderate fastness to light, by boiling them
with the skins of the yellow or brown onions. And they get a pretty,
but fugitive, shade of golden yellow by using the dried flowers of
the goldenrod.
Some recipes from the mountain districts of North Carolina, where
the sheep are raised and sheared, and the wool carded, spun, dyed,
and woven into homespun, are unique, and wool dyed with them shows
extremely good color. Thus, for green, we are told to “Git blackjack
or black oak bark, and bile it right good, and put in a li’l piece of
alum. This makes the pur’tiest green, mighty nigh, that ever was.”
And for purple and black the instructions are to “git maple bark and
bile it. Throw in a grain of copperas and put in your wool. Bile it
just so long if you want purple, and longer if you want black. The
longer you bile it the darker it gits.”
Recipes like these can be picked up in country districts all over the
land to this day, and where no other coloring agents can be obtained,
they may still be of some use. They are to be compared, however, to
the somewhat similar recipes of the herb or “yarb” doctor, now almost
extinct, who concocted various brews and teas and messes from roots
and leaves, and administered them as valuable remedies.
Useful these brews undoubtedly were in their day, when it was
impossible to get better medicines at any price, and the available
drugs, even in large cities, were few and costly and but little
understood. But who of us would now prefer to treat a serious illness
with herb tea when within reach of even a third-class drug store?
And so to-day, when modern dyestuffs, even if not of the very best
varieties, can be bought in packages at the nearest grocery or
druggist, who has time to waste upon the laborious processes and
messy, uncertain formulæ of former and unscientific ages?
MINERAL DYES
Tribes and nations in different parts of the world seem, at a
comparatively early date, to have found out the art of coloring and
staining textiles with mineral compounds. Iron springs, containing
iron salts in solution, are found in many countries; and such springs
are always noteworthy from the taste of the waters, and the color of
the sediments left when the water stands exposed to the air.
Therefore discovery of the fact that those waters would impart
a permanent and quite pleasing orange or reddish-brown color to
textiles was perfectly natural.
=Iron Buff.=—Accordingly, in different parts of the world, people
learned to dip cloths in these springs and then expose them to the
air, thus dyeing them this iron rust color, commonly called by dyers
“iron buff.” When iron became a common metal, it was found that any
soluble salt of iron would act as a dyeing solution, just as well
as a natural iron spring; and hence we find use made, in widely
separated countries, of iron salts for dyeing.
This iron buff is used to this day, though of course it has lost the
importance it had in the past. The red sails of the fishermen in the
Mediterranean show this color; and it is a useful and interesting
dye for weavers of hand-made rugs, curtains, and the like, because
of its pleasing tone and great permanence. On the other hand, it is
very likely to rub; and it fills the fibre of the cloth with mineral
matter, thereby making the material stiff and hard to sew or cut.
_Preparation._—Our colonial ancestors made this color cheaply enough.
They carefully saved all the scraps of iron and steel that they could
find—old horseshoes, broken knife blades, etc., etc.—and placed them
in a barrel half filled with vinegar and water. Little by little
the iron dissolved in the acid and, when it was strong enough, the
housewife would soak her homespun cloth, or other material, in the
solution, warming and stirring it, and making it absorb as much
of the liquor as possible. Then she would take it out, wring it
thoroughly, rinse it slightly, and dip it for a minute or two in
another barrel half filled with a water extract of wood ashes.
[Illustration: PLATE II. JAPANESE TOWELLING, SHOWING IMPRESSION OF
FRESH DAMP LEAVES]
After removing from the solution and wringing again, the goods were
shaken out and exposed to the air for some minutes, during which time
the color would develop—in other words, would make its final change
to yellow or orange, or even to brownish-red, according to the amount
of iron absorbed by the fibre.
The process, nowadays, is much the same, excepting that, for the
first or iron bath, it is cheaper and easier to use a solution of
the green crystalline iron salt, known as copperas, or as _ferrous_
(iron) _sulphate_. This can be obtained at, or through, any drug
store at a very low price, as it is not necessary to buy a chemically
pure product. The ordinary commercial salt is as pure as the work
requires; this dissolves quite readily in warm water.
The amount of copperas to be used, to dye a particular lot of
material a particular shade, can only be determined by experience and
experiment. It is always easy to build up a color, i.e., to deepen
its shade if it is too light, by dipping the fabric over again in
the same dye-bath. Indeed there is a general rule to be observed in
dyeing all colors like this iron buff or the manganese brown—as well
as the sulphur and indigo colors, which will be described later—that
are developed, or fixed, by exposure to the air. Whenever dark shades
of these colors are desired, they should be produced by successive
dippings in weak baths, rather than by one or two dippings in strong
baths. This avoids rubbing, as far as possible, and lessens the
injury to the cloth fibre. In general, it is best to start with a
dye-bath containing some three or four tablespoonfuls of copperas to
one gallon of hot water.
For the second, or fixing, bath—that is, the alkali bath—it is now
customary to use a solution of soda instead of the extract made
from wood ashes. Either cooking soda (bicarbonate of soda) or the
stronger washing soda or soda crystals, known to the chemist as
carbonate of soda, will be satisfactory, and instead of soda the
corresponding potash salts may be used, though these are usually
more expensive. It is possible, too, to use a bath of the so-called
caustic soda, or caustic potash, known to the chemist as hydroxide of
soda and hydroxide of potash. But these, as the name implies, must
be handled with care because, when strong, they are likely to burn
the hands and clothes. Careful analyses of dyed mummy cloths show
that the ancient Egyptians were accustomed to use for their second or
fixing bath, a solution of slaked lime, or lime water.
_Khaki._—By mixing in the first bath of copperas or other iron salt
an equal quantity of chrome alum, and then fixing and developing as
above, a certain amount of greenish chromium oxide is deposited in
the fibre along with the oxide of iron. This gives rise to the shade
known as “khaki.” Sometimes shaded a little with manganese brown,
this was the regular dye for the army uniforms, until the recent
introduction of the extremely fast and very satisfactory vat dyes.
_Uses._—Iron buff is chiefly used for cotton, linen, and other
vegetable fabrics; on them it gives pleasant, warm shades of orange
and reddish-brown. But on wool, and especially on silk, it is not so
satisfactory, owing to its tendency to roughen and injure the fibre.
Indeed, in the case of silk, it is likely to greatly diminish, or
even to destroy, the lustre. On cotton and linen, however, it has
great fastness to light and to washing. Indeed, every one who has
tried to get rust stains out of a garment or a piece of table linen
knows how hard a matter it is to get rid of the color.
Another important reason for using this dye is that the coloring
agents are very cheap, and are easily obtained in any quantities.
It has, however, some serious disadvantages, one of which is that
the color, especially in dark shades, is very liable to rub. This
can best be obviated by building up the shades with successive
dippings; and by thoroughly washing the finished goods in a hot soap
bath. The dyed goods are pretty certain to be a little stiff, and
therefore hard to sew or cut, owing to the fact that the final color
is composed of iron rust. When vegetable fibres are filled with a
mineral matter they are naturally stiffer and harder than they were
originally.
Then there is the final objection on the part of professional dyers
to this color, as well as to all the other developed colors, i.e.,
those colors fixed by exposure to the air. It is not easy to get a
smooth, even color with them, and it is very difficult to dye to
shade. For handicraft work, where these two points are of minor
importance as compared with the beauty of the color, this objection
is not so serious, but where it is necessary to dye large amounts of
yarn or cloth to a definite shade with this, or similar, dyes, it is,
as a rule, far easier to use a dyestuff which does not materially
change its shade after the goods leave the dye-bath.
_Iron Grey._—Soon after the discovery, in different localities, of
the iron buff color, it was discovered that by the action of various
vegetable extracts upon the iron salts, dark grey stains could be
produced which, under certain conditions, would be fairly fast to
light and washing.
This color was, later, found to be due to the combination with iron
of the peculiar vegetable acid called tannic acid or tannin. This
is found in small quantities in the juices of twigs and leaves of
many varieties of plants, and, until the introduction of the modern
dyestuffs, this process offered the chief method of obtaining grey
or black shades upon cotton. At present it is rarely, if ever, used
for that purpose, but the compound is still the basis of most of the
writing inks on the market.
To make this color, the cloth is soaked for some time in a solution
of an iron salt—nitrate of iron, formed by boiling a solution of
copperas for a minute or two with a few drops of nitric acid, is
preferable to the untreated copperas—and then, after being wrung and
slightly rinsed, it is plunged into a bath containing tannic acid.
This can be made by dissolving a few tablespoonfuls of the dry tannic
acid in some water, or by making a hot infusion of the leaves, twigs,
or bark of any plant or tree containing it. Tea leaves contain much
tannin, and so do unripe English walnuts and butternuts. Acorns,
oak leaves with nut galls on them, the green twigs of alders, and
hazelnut bushes, have all been used to form this color.
[Illustration: PLATE III. SAME TOWELLING AS IN PLATE II, AFTER
IMMERSION IN IRON SPRING. THE ROUND WHITE PATTERNS ARE MADE BY TIEING]
The grey color quickly develops and, after rinsing, the material can
be dried and pressed, or dipped again to obtain a deeper shade, first
into the iron and then into the tannin bath. The color is a pleasant,
soft shade of grey or, if dyed deeply, a black. It is fast to
washing, and fairly so to light, though it may become rusty on
standing; like the iron buff, it is not fast to acids.
Some interesting examples of the dyeing of cotton cloth with iron
buff and iron grey are shown in Plate I. They came from the mineral
springs at Arima, near Kobe in Japan, where the waters are so
saturated with iron salts, that comparatively short immersion, and
exposure to air, will bring out a deep orange shade. The Japanese,
not content with dyeing their goods plain colors, have for many
generations utilized these springs in the production of figures and
designs on the cloth. Plate V is an example of stencil work, where
the white patterns are made by covering parts of the cloth with a
“resist paste” which protects whatever it is in contact with from the
action of the coloring agent.
Plate II shows a piece of soft calico on which impressions of leaves
have been made by placing fresh juicy leaves between two pieces of
cloth, and beating them with wooden mallets.
Plate III shows the same piece of cloth as in Plate II, after
immersion in the iron spring, and exposure to air. The tannin from
the leaf juice converts some of the iron oxide into iron grey; while
the white figures are made by tying the cloth with string or tape
(Tied and Dyed work) before dyeing it.
So far as we can tell, these two were the only mineral colors
known to the ancients. Several other mineral colors, however,
were in common use by the cotton dyers in the days preceding the
introduction of modern dyestuffs, but it is hardly worth while to
dwell here on many of them. Yellow and orange shades were obtained by
impregnating cloth with lead salts, and then developing with a bath
of chromate or bichromate of potash, with more or less caustic alkali
added for the darker shades.
Prussian blue, too, was used as a substitute for the more expensive
indigo. This was formed by using the nitrate of iron for the first
bath, and then developing the color with a bath of yellow prussiate
(_ferrocyanide_) of potash. These colors, however, are so far
inferior in their application, and in fastness to light and to
rubbing, to the colors now at our command, that they have disappeared
entirely for textile work, though they are still widely used for
pigments.
=Manganese Bronze (Manganese Brown, Bistre).=—There is one good
mineral color, however, which came into use early in the last
century and which, while hardly ever used by professional dyers, is
of interest to craftsmen. This color, in its chemical composition,
greatly resembles the iron buff. It is quite cheaply produced
by first impregnating the cloth to be dyed with a solution of a
manganese salt (_manganese chloride_ is the cheapest), and then, by
means of a second bath of alkali, forming a deposit on the fibre of
pink _manganese hydroxide_—corresponding to the greenish _ferrous
hydroxide_—which, on exposure to the air, absorbs oxygen and forms
the final brown color.
Unfortunately the alkali used in this case must be caustic
alkali—_potassium hydroxide_ or _sodium hydroxide_—and not one of the
mild alkalies like the carbonates or bicarbonates, which will do for
the iron color. And, therefore, although it is rather more expensive,
and is somewhat liable to weaken the fabric, it is generally more
convenient to obtain this color by a one-bath process. A purple
solution of the salt known as _permanganate of potash_, is prepared
and the cloth dipped. After being immersed it is wrung carefully and
shaken out, and the red or purplish color gradually changes into the
final brown. As soon as this change has taken place the goods should
be plunged into a hot soap bath and thoroughly scoured, both to
remove any loosely adhering particles of color which cause rubbing,
and to prevent tendering of the cloth.
The latter danger, however, is always present with this process and,
therefore, full shades should not be dyed excepting on heavy, strong
goods like rugs or very coarse yarns or cloth. Even then it should be
done carefully and by successive dippings, with a careful washing,
after the color has been developed in the air, between each bath.
This injury to the cloth which, hitherto, has been the great drawback
to the permanganate process, can be avoided by dipping the goods,
as soon as possible after leaving the dye-baths, into a solution
containing glucose, as, for instance, two or three spoonfuls of
Karo (corn syrup) or molasses in each gallon of hot water. Directly
the purple-stained cloth touches this solution the color changes to
brown, without affecting the strength of the materials.
This color, like the other mineral colors, is rarely, if ever, to be
used on silk, being altogether too likely to injure the texture and
the lustre of the material.
In at least one instance, however, it has been used on animal
fibres with considerable success. During the critical part of the
Boer war, it was at one time necessary for England to put as many
of her troops as possible—especially her mounted troops—into the
field. Among others the Scots Greys, distinguished at Waterloo and
made famous in many other bloody campaigns as a fine old fighting
regiment, were ordered to the front. There is a tradition, dating
back over two hundred years, that the horses of this regiment must
all be either white or grey in color. Some heaven-sent genius at the
Horse Guards—the English War Department—hinted quite forcibly to
the authorities that to send out a cavalry regiment on white horses
to face the Boer sharpshooters, was rather a dangerous experiment.
The authorities, therefore, consulted a well-known dyeing chemist.
He advised them to send down, on the troopship, some kegs of
permanganate; and to instruct the officers and men to sponge each
horse with a weak solution of the salt, every day at “Stables.” This
was done, and, in consequence, long before reaching Cape Town, the
skin and hair of every horse was thoroughly colored a soft, quiet
shade of brown.
The color produced by permanganate varies, according to the strength
of the solution, or rather with the number of dips in comparatively
weak solutions, from a light brownish tan to a full, rich, soft, seal
brown. Pleasant shades, too, can be obtained by dyeing first with
the iron rust dye and then covering with the permanganate. This color
is discharged, not only from textiles but from the hands, by soaking
in a solution of _sodium hydrosulphite_ (commonly used in dyeing
indigo) and then washing.
PRACTICAL DYEING
Before proceeding to the practical dyeing instruction it is well to
say a few words about the equipment needed for the work.
Fortunately no elaborate or expensive outfit is necessary, even
for the beginner. And after one has had a little experience, it is
astonishing what an amount of interesting, and even important work
can be turned out with a few of the very simplest utensils. The
essentials may be set down as follows:
Dye-pots.
Heating devices.
Stirring rods, or dye-sticks.
Wringers.
Drying arrangements.
_Dye-pots._—For this purpose, common agateware vessels are best
and most convenient. There should be varying sizes to accommodate
different amounts of material to be dyed. The so-called “miner’s
cups,” which are agateware cups holding a pint or more, are large
enough for practical work, when single skeins are being dyed. For
large pieces use the wash boilers which vary in capacity from one to
five gallons. It is always best, especially for amateurs, to dye in
one batch enough material to complete the work on hand, whether rug,
portière, or piece of tapestry. This avoids the necessity of exactly
matching the shade afterward.
For three and a half to four pounds of cotton rags, such as are used
in making rag carpets, three and one-half gallon pots are about the
right size. This amount of material will be about enough for the
filling for one rug about 6×4 feet, woven on a hand loom.
_Heating Devices._—Work may be done over any flat-topped stove that
burns wood or coal; gas is, of course, an advantage and so is an oil
stove, as with these the heat may be regulated very exactly and much
time saved. For actual work, a stove with space for four or five pots
is the most convenient type to use.
There should always be one large pot set aside for heating water,
another for boiling out the raw goods, and still a third for boiling
out and brightening the finished materials with soap, when very fast
colors are used on cotton or linen; and each of these pots should be
reserved for its special purpose and _not used_ for dyeing. This will
avoid the danger of staining the goods.
The top of a kitchen range will do for heating, but whenever
possible, it is best to have a separate stove, so placed that the top
of it will not be more than about twenty-four inches from the ground
or floor. This enables the operator to look down into the dye-pot
and so avoid strain, and the consequent excessive fatigue while
stirring the goods.
_Stirring Rods._—While the material is being dyed, it should be kept
in constant motion. When working with small amounts of material, or
with goods such as straw, raffia, muslin, or silk in skeins, which
are delicate and easily spoiled, it is far more satisfactory in every
way to use heavy glass rods for stirring. These are rather expensive.
They are about fifteen inches in length and well rounded at the ends.
If carefully handled and thoroughly washed, they are always clean
and smooth. Care must, of course, be exercised in their use, as
sudden variations of heat and cold may cause them to crack or chip,
and lifting or stirring large quantities of heavy materials—anything
above five pounds—is liable to break them. In these cases, it is
best to use wooden dye-sticks. Broomsticks or dowel sticks, cut into
two-foot lengths, with the ends rounded carefully by whittling with
a sharp penknife, are excellent substitutes. For careful work it is
necessary to have several sets of wooden dye-sticks—two for each main
color at least—and these must be carefully washed each time after
using, or they will stain cloth that is being dyed light shades. They
are bound to get soft and rotten before very long, from the action of
the alkali in the dye-baths, but they are easily replaced.
Good rubber gloves are extremely useful while dyeing, to protect the
hands not only from being stained and discolored by the dyes, but
also from the action of the chemicals—especially while dyeing with
indigo and other dyes wherein the caustic alkalies are employed.
After some experience in the use of dye-sticks, however, it will be
found comparatively easy to handle the materials, in and out of the
dye-baths, with the sticks, without at any time taking hold of them
with the hand. Nothing demonstrates more clearly the skill of the
dyer than the ability to carry, immerse in the dye-bath, stir, take
out, wring, and rinse the materials without getting stains on either
clothes or fingers. On the other hand, the amount of slopping that
can be accomplished by a careless, but enthusiastic, amateur must be
lived with to be thoroughly appreciated.
_Wringers._—Both before and after dyeing it is very important to have
at hand a good clothes wringer, preferably with metal frame. In fact,
for very careful work there should be two wringers; one to wring out
the raw materials after boiling them in soap and water, or, if clean,
in plain water, to insure that they are thoroughly and evenly wet;
and the other to wring out the excess of dye-liquor from the goods
before rinsing, or, as in some cases, before hanging up to oxidize.
The rubber rolls of these wringers should be kept clean by scouring
with soap and sapolio immediately after finishing the day’s work, and
by carefully rinsing free from dye-liquor.
It is always well to keep on hand near the wringer a supply of clean
blotting paper, or cheap filter paper, or even soft, dry cheesecloth
or muslin. For by wrapping the materials that have just been dyed, in
any of these, and then running them backwards and forwards through
the wringer, it is possible to dry them with a minimum of time and
exposure. This is particularly important in the case of natural and
artificial silks, either in skeins or scarfs, of ostrich feathers,
and of other light and fragile materials.
_Drying Arrangements._—Sufficient room should be provided for
hanging up the cloth to dry. An ordinary clothes-line, conveniently
fastened, is the best means of support. For special purposes, where
the material handled is very delicate or where the work is done in
a classroom, a simple clothes-horse made of thick glass tubing, one
inch or so in diameter and supported on a wooden frame, will occupy
the least possible space and give the best support.