I. Scour and rinse the white, respectively bleached gray, feathers and
prepare a bath of boiling water with eight per cent., of the weight of
feathers, alum, four per cent. tartaric acid, two or three per cent.
oxalic acid, and three per cent. alizarine red; let the bath boil
for fifteen minutes, then let the temperature go down just below the
boiling point. Lay down the feathers in the bath, which keep at near
the boiling point for at least one hour before allowing it to go down
to hand-heat; then continue for two or three hours longer, agitating
the feathers from time to time; lift, rinse, starch and dry.
By using alizarine acid 2 A. bl. bl., a pure red, similar to Turkey
red is obtained. Alizarine 1 W. S. gives scarlets. If the feathers are
passed, before rinsing, through a strong soap bath, pretty blue tones
are produced.
II. For a fuller red, striking towards bordeau, prepare a well
concentrated boiling bath in the same manner with three per cent.
bichromate of potash, one and one-half to two per cent. tartaric acid,
one per cent. oxalic acid, and eight per cent. alizarine red 2 A.
bl. bl. When all is dissolved, let the temperature go down below the
boiling point, enter the feathers, and proceed as above.