Old faded light colors, such as blue, pink, ecru, corn, drab, etc.,
that you are desirous of bleaching white, can be accomplished in the
following way. Wash feathers thoroughly in warm water, using soap. Add
a small pinch of soda, after which rinse in about three warm waters
to insure the removal of every particle of soap. Dilute in clean bowl
or basin one-quarter ounce of permanganate of potash in one gallon
of boiling water. The water must be as hot as steam or fire can make
it. Enter feathers, and let remain in bath about one minute, a few
seconds more or less will do no harm, nor will it make any material
difference in the result; continually agitating in bath with clean
stick, after which you will notice that the feathers have assumed a
light, full brown color. Take out of the bath, but do not rinse them;
let the loose color drain off for a few seconds, meantime empty bath
and rinse your bowl thoroughly; then dilute half an ounce of oxalic
acid or sulphurous acid in one gallon of boiling water. The water must
be absolutely clean. Enter feathers, and let remain in until all the
color has entirely disappeared, gently agitating while in bath. After
the bath has become transparent and the feathers white, which will
take about two minutes, empty out about two-thirds of the bath, and
add cold water to reduce to hand heat; then add a small handful of
starch and a drop of diluted violet, and enter your feathers, and let
them remain in about one minute, squeeze out and dry in starch. Blue
you will generally find the hardest of all light colors to remove for
white, the soda and permanganate seeming apparently to decompose the
color. The moment it enters the oxalic bath, it generally, to a more
or less extent, develops the color again. Such being the case, after
rinsing in luke warm water to remove acid, return to a weak soda bath
for a minute, and then rinse and return to permanganate bath, rather
weaker than the first one; in other words, repeat the first operation
all through, only in weaker solutions.
This process can be used successfully in bleaching all light colors
white. In bleaching natural blacks, however, it would not be
practicable. A recipe for bleaching natural black will be found in
another portion of the book.
[Illustration: WHITE--page 16.]
[Illustration: LILAC--page 56.]
[Illustration: LIGHT PINK--page 20.]
[Illustration: LEMON--page 52.]