Wash and rinse feathers thoroughly in hot water and soap, and rinse
thoroughly in about four hot waters; then pass through a bath of plain
boiling water; next prepare a bath of one gallon of luke warm water,
and add a handful of starch. Enter feathers and rub thoroughly between
the hands; remove and add a teaspoonful of oxalic acid; enter feathers
and let them remain in bath about two minutes; then remove and add
to bath a few drops of diluted picric acid, and re-enter feathers;
let remain in about one minute longer, take out and dry in the usual
way by rubbing in powdered starch between the hands and beating
out on a clean board until all the starch has been removed from the
fibre. Should you find your color a shade too dark, mix a luke warm
starch bath, and pass feathers through, keeping them under about
half a minute, and dry as usual. Be careful that your picric acid is
thoroughly dissolved, as otherwise it will be likely to spot your
feathers, if the particles come in contact with the flues, and the
spots are very hard to remove, as it would be necessary to put them
through a bleaching process.