I. For this color naturally white feathers are preferably used, but
well bleached grays may also be employed; scour and rinse well. Then
fill your pan with boiling water, add a few handfuls of bran, let it
well boil up, remove the bran from the bath and rub the feathers in
the bath as in washing; then pass them three times through clean, cold
water. While the feathers are draining, prepare another fresh bath of
lukewarm water, to which add a little chloride of tin and, for one
pound of feathers, about two pinches of starch and ninety grammes
cochineal; then bring the bath to boil and let it gently boil for
eight or ten minutes, shut off the steam or remove the pan from the
fire, let it stand for a few minutes. Then lay the feathers down in
the bath, taking care that they are well kept down in the liquid, work
for twenty minutes diligently, then let them lodge in the bath for six
to eight hours. As the combination of cochineal and the chloride is
readily oxydized and changed to violet by the oxygen of the air, it is
advisable to dye in a tinned pan with cover to shut out the air.
Then pass through three lukewarm waters, the last of which contains a
little chloride of tin and about a pinch of cream of tartar.
II. Prepare a hot bath with twenty per cent. (of the weight of
feathers) bisulphate of soda, well crystallized and dry, and four to
six per cent. azo red, according to shade. Enter the feathers at 170°
F., dye to sample in fifteen or twenty minutes, lift, starch and dry.
According to the brand of azo red which is used, either scarlet or
ponceau is obtained. By mixing the various brands of azo red, a very
fine ponceau is produced. If a very blue tone is desired, add to the
bath some solution of coccinine (azo red blue touch).