M.

MACARONI, is a dough of fine wheat flour, made into a tubular or pipe

form, of the thickness of goose-quills, which was first prepared in

Italy, and introduced into commerce under the name of Italian or Genoese

paste. The wheat for this purpose must be ground into a coarse flour,

called _gruau_ or _semoule_, by the French, by means of a pair of light

mill-stones, placed at a somewhat greater distance than usual. This

_semoule_ is the substance employed for making the dough. For the mode

of manufacturing it into pipes, see VERMICELLI.

MACE, is a somewhat thick, tough, unctuous membrane, reticulated or

chapt, of a yellowish-brown or orange colour. It forms the envelop of

the shell of the fruit of the _myristica moschata_, which contains the

nutmeg. It is dried in the sun, after being dipped in brine; sometimes

it is sprinkled over with a little brine, before packing, to prevent the

risk of moulding. Mace has a more agreeable flavour than nutmeg; with a

warm and pungent taste. It contains two kinds of oil; the one of which

is unctuous, bland, and of the consistence of butter; the other is

volatile, aromatic, and thinner. The membrane is used as a condiment in

cookery, and the aromatic oil in medicine.

MACERATION (Eng. and Fr.; _Einweichen_, Germ.), is a preparatory steep

to which certain vegetable and animal substances are submitted, with the

view of distending their fibres or pores, and causing them to be

penetrated by such menstrua as are best adapted to extract their soluble

parts. Water, alone, or mixed with acids, alkalis, or salts; alcohol and

ether, are the liquids usually employed for that purpose.

MACLE, is the name of certain diagonal black spots in minerals, like the

ace of diamonds in cards, supposed to proceed from some disturbance of

the particles in the act of crystallization.

MADDER (_Garance_, Fr.; _Färberröthe_, Germ.), a substance very

extensively used in dyeing, is the root of the _Rubia tinctorum_, a

plant, of which two species are distinguished by Linnæus.

The best roots are those which have the size of a writing quill, or, at

most, of the little finger. They are semitransparent, and reddish; have

a strong odour, and a smooth bark. They should be of two or three years’

growth.

The madder, taken from the ground and picked, must be dried in order to

be ground and preserved. In warm climates it is dried in the open air;

but, elsewhere, stoves must be employed.

The stringy filaments and epidermis are to be removed, called _mulle_;

as also the pith, so as to leave nothing but the ligneous fibres.

The preparation of madders is carried on in the department of the Rhone,

in the following manner.

The roots are dried in a stove, heated by means of a furnace, from which

the air is allowed to issue only at intervals, at the moment when it is

judged to be saturated with moisture. The furnace-flue occupies a great

portion of the floor; above are three close gratings, on which the roots

are distributed in layers of about two decimetres (nearly 8 inches). At

the end of 24 hours, those which are on the first grated floor directly

above the stove are dry, when they are taken away and replaced by those

of the superior floors. This operation is repeated whenever the roots

over the stove are dry. The dry roots are thrashed with a flail, passed

through fanners similar to those employed for corn, and then shaken upon

a very coarse sieve. What passes through is farther winnowed and sifted

through a finer sieve than the first. These operations are repeated five

times, proceeding successively to sieves still finer and finer, and

setting aside every time what remains on the sieve. What passes through

the fifth sieve is rejected as sand and dust. After these operations,

the whole fibrous matters remaining on the sieve are cleaned with common

fanners, and women separate all the foreign matters which had not been

removed before. For dividing the roots, afterwards, into different

qualities, a brass sieve is made use of, whose meshes are from six to

three millimetres in diameter (from 1/4th to 1/8th inch E.) What passes

through the finest is rejected; and what passes through the coarsest is

regarded as of the best quality. These roots thus separated, are carried

into a stove, of a construction somewhat different from the first. They

are spread out in layers of about a decimetre in thickness (nearly 4

inches E.), on large lattice-work frames, and the drying is known to be

complete, when on taking up a handful and squeezing it, the roots break

easily. On quitting the stove, the madder is carried, still hot, into a

machine, where it is minced small, and a sieve separates the portion of

the bark reduced to powder. This operation is repeated three or four

times, and then the boulter is had recourse to. What passes through the

sieve, or the brass meshes of the boulter, is regarded as common madder;

and what issues at the extremity of the boulter is called the flour.

Lastly, the madder which passes through the boulter is ground in a mill

with vertical stones, and then passed through sieves of different sizes.

What remains above is always better than what goes through.

The madder of Alsace is reduced to a very fine powder, and its colouring

matter is extracted by a much longer ebullition than is necessary for

the lizari of the Levant. The prepared madders ought to be carefully

preserved from humidity, because they easily imbibe moisture, in which

case fermentation spoils their colour.

D’Ambourney and Beckman have asserted, that it is more advantageous to

employ the fresh root of madder than what has been submitted to

desiccation, especially by means of stoves. But in its states of

freshness, its volume becomes troublesome in the dyeing bath, and

uniform observation seems to prove that it ameliorates by age. Besides,

it must be rendered susceptible of keeping and carrying easily.

It appears that madder may be considered as composed of two colouring

substances, one of which is dun (tawny), and the other is red. Both of

these substances may combine with the stuff. It is of consequence,

however, to fix only the red part. The dun portion appears to be more

soluble, but its fixity on stuffs may possibly be increased by the

affinity which it has for the red portion.

The different additions made to madder, and the multiplied processes to

which it is sometimes exposed, have probably this separation for their

chief object.

The red portion of madder is soluble, but in small quantity, in water.

Hence but a limited concentration can be given to its solution. If the

portion of this substance be too much increased, so far from obtaining a

greater effect, we merely augment the proportion of the dun part, which

is the more soluble of the two.

In consequence of the Société Industrielle of Mulhausen having offered

in the year 1826 large premiums to the authors of the best analytical

investigation of madder, eight memoirs were transmitted to it in the

year 1827. They were examined with the greatest care by a committee

consisting of able scientific and practical men. None of the competitors

however fulfilled the conditions of the programme issued by the

society; but four of them received a tribute of esteem and gratitude

from it; MM. Robiquet and Colin at Paris, Kuhlmann at Lille, and

Houton-Libillardière. Fresh premiums were offered for next year, to the

amount of 2000 francs.

Every real discovery made concerning this precious root, would be of

vast consequence to dyers and calico-printers. Both M. Kuhlmann, and

Robiquet and Colin, conceived that they had discovered a new principle

in madder, to which they gave the name _alizarine_. The latter two

chemists treated the powdered madder with sulphuric acid, taking care to

let it heat as little as possible. By this action the whole is

carbonized, except perhaps the red matter. The charcoal thus obtained is

pulverized, mixed with water, thrown upon a filter, and well washed in

the cold. It is next dried, ground, and diffused through fifty parts of

water, containing six parts of alum. This mixture is then boiled for one

quarter of an hour, and thrown upon a filter cloth while boiling hot.

The residuum is once more treated with a little warm alum water. The two

liquors are to be mixed, and one part of sulphuric acid poured into

them; when they are allowed to cool with occasional agitation. Flocks

now make their appearance; the clear liquid is decanted, and the grounds

are thrown upon a filter. The precipitate is to be washed, first with

acidulated water, then with pure water, and dried, when the colouring

matter is obtained in a red or purple state. This purple substance, when

heated dry, gives out alizarine, and an empyreumatic oil, having an

odour of animal matter; while a charcoally matter remains.

M. Dan. Kœchlin, the justly celebrated calico-printer of Mulhausen, has

no faith in alizarine as the dyeing principle of madder; and thinks

moreover that, were it of value, it could not be extracted on the great

scale, on account of the destructive heat which would result from the

acid acting upon a considerable body of the ground madder. Their

alizarine is not a uniform substance, as it ought to be, if a proximate

principle; for samples of it obtained in different repetitions of the

process have produced very variable effects in dyeing. The madders of

Avignon, though richer in colour than those of Alsace, afford however

little or no alizarine. In fact, _purpurine_, the crude substance from

which they profess to extract alizarine, is a richer dye than this

_pure_ substance itself.

Madder contains so beautiful and so fast a colour, that it has become of

almost universal employment in dyeing; but that colour is accompanied

with so many other substances which mask and degrade it, that it can be

brought out and fixed only after a series of operations more or less

difficult and precarious. This dye is besides so little soluble, that

much of it is thrown away in the dye-house; the portion supposed to be

exhausted being often as rich as other fresh madder; hence it would be a

most valuable improvement in this elegant art to insulate this

tinctorial body, and make it a new product of manufacture.

Before the time of Haussmann, an apothecary at Colmar, the madder bath

was subject to many risks, which that skilful chemist taught dyers how

to guard against, by introducing a certain quantity of chalk into the

bath. A change of residence led Haussmann to this fortunate result.

After having made very fine reds at Rouen, he encountered the greatest

obstacles in dyeing the same reds at Logelbach near Colmar, where he

went to live. Numerous trials, undertaken with the view of obtaining the

same success in his new establishment, proved that the cause of his

favourable results at Rouen existed in the water, which contained

carbonate of lime in solution, whilst the water of Logelbach was nearly

pure. He then tried a factitious calcareous water, by adding chalk to

his dye bath. Having obtained the most satisfactory results, he was not

long of producing here as beautiful and as solid reds as he had done at

Rouen. This practice became soon general among the calico-printers of

Alsace, though in many dye-works the chalk is now replaced by lime,

potash, or soda. But when the madder of Avignon is used, all these

antacid correctives become unnecessary, because it contains a sufficient

quantity of carbonate of lime; an important fact first analytically

demonstrated by that accurate chemist M. Henri Schlumberger of

Mulhausen. Avignon madder indicates the presence of carbonate of lime in

it, by effervescing with dilute acids, which Alsace madder does not.

M. Kuhlmann found a free acid resembling the malic, in his analysis of

madders. But his experiments were confined to those of Alsace. The

madders of Avignon are on the contrary alkaline, as may be inferred from

the violet tint of the froth of their infusions; whereas that of the

Alsace madders is yellowish, and it strongly reddens litmus paper. This

important difference between the plants of these two districts, depends

entirely upon the soil; for madders grown in a calcareous shelly soil in

Alsace, have been found to be possessed of the properties of the Avignon

madder.

The useful action of the carbonate and the phosphate of lime in the

madder of Avignon, explains why madders treated with acids which remove

their calcareous salts, without taking away their colouring matter, lose

the property of forming fast dyes. Many manufacturers are in the habit

of mixing together, and with advantage, different sorts of madder. That

of Avignon contains so much calcareous matter that, when mixed with the

madder of Alsace, it can compensate for its deficiency. Some of the

latter is so deficient as to afford colours nearly as fugitive as those

of Brazil wood and quercitron. The Alsace madders by the addition of

chalk to their baths, become as fit for dyeing Turkey reds as those of

Avignon. When the water is very pure, one part of chalk ought to be used

to five of Alsace madder, but when the waters are calcareous, the chalk

should be omitted. Lime, the neutral phosphate of lime, the carbonate of

magnesia, oxide and carbonate of zinc, and several other substances have

the property of causing madder to form a fast dye, in like manner as the

carbonate of lime.

The temperature of from 50° to 60° R. (145° to 167° F.), is the best

adapted to the solution of the colouring matter, and to its combination

with the mordants; and thus a boiling heat may be replaced

advantageously by the long continuance of a lower temperature. A large

excess of the dye-stuff in the bath is unfavourable in two points of

view; it causes a waste of colouring matter, and renders the tints dull.

It is injurious to allow the bath to cool, and to heat it again.

In a memoir published by the Society of Mulhausen, in September, 1835,

some interesting experiments upon the growth of madders in factitious

soils are related by MM. Kœchlin, Persoz, and Schlumberger. A patch of

ground was prepared containing from 50 to 80 per cent. of chalky matter,

and nearly one fifth of its bulk of good horse-dung. Slips of Alsace and

Avignon madders were planted in March, 1834, and a part of the roots

were reaped in November following. These roots, though of only six

months growth, produced tolerably fast dyes, nor was any difference

observable between the Alsace and the Avignon species; whilst similar

slips or cuttings, planted in a natural non-calcareous soil, alongside

of the others, yielded roots which gave fugitive dyes. Others were

planted in the soil of Palud, transported from Avignon, which contained

more than 90 per cent. of carbonate of lime, and they produced roots

that gave still faster dyes than the preceding. Three years are

requisite to give the full calcareous impregnation to the indigenous

madders of Avignon.

As to the function of the chalk, valuable observations, made long ago by

M. Daniel Kœchlin, have convinced him, that the combination of two

different bases with a colouring matter, gave much more solidity to the

dye, in consequence, undoubtedly, of a greater insolubility in the

compound. Experiments recently made by him and his colleagues above

named, prove that in all cases of madder-dyeing under the influence of

chalk, a certain quantity of lime becomes added to the aluminous

mordant. In the subsequent clearing with a soap bath, some of the

alumine is removed, and there remains upon the fibre of the cloth a

combination of these two earths in atomic proportions. Thus the chalk is

not for the purpose of saturating the acid, as had been supposed, but of

forming a definite compound with alumina, and probably also with the

fatty bodies, and the colouring matter itself.

The red mordants are prepared commonly in Alsace, as follows:--The

crushed alum and acetate of lead being weighed, the former is put into a

deep tub, and dissolved by adding a proper quantity of hot water, when

about one tenth of its weight of soda crystals is introduced to saturate

the excess of acid in the alum. The acetate of lead is now mixed in; and

as this salt dissolves very quickly, the reaction takes place almost

instantly. Care must be taken to stir for an hour. The vessel should not

be covered, lest its contents should cool too slowly.

The different mordants most generally employed for madder, are detailed

under _Colours_, in CALICO-PRINTING and MORDANT.

Much mordant should not be prepared at once, for sooner or later it will

deposit some sub-acetate of alumina. This decomposition takes place even

in corked phials in the cold; and the precipitate does not readily

dissolve again in acetic acid. All practical men know that certain

aluminous mordants are decomposed by heating them, and restored on

cooling, as Gay Lussac has pointed out. He observed, that by adding to

pure acetate of alumina, some alum or sulphate of potash, the mixture

acquires the property of forming a precipitate with a heat approaching

the boiling point, and of redissolving on cooling. The precipitate is

alumina nearly pure, according to M. Gay Lussac; but, by M. Kœchlin’s

more recent researches, it is shown to be sub-sulphate of alumina,

containing eight times as much base as the neutral sulphate.

_Madder dye._--On account of the feeble solubility of its colouring

matter in water, we cannot dye with its decoction; but we must boil the

dye-stuff along with the goods to be dyed; thereby the water dissolves

fresh portions of the dye, and imparts it in succession to the textile

fibres. In dyeing with madder, we must endeavour to fix as little of the

dun matter as possible upon the cloth.

_Dyeing on wool._--Alumed wool takes, in the madder bath, a red colour,

which is not so bright as cochineal red, but it is faster; and as it is

far cheaper, it is much used in England to dye soldiers cloth. A mordant

of alum and tartar is employed; the bath of madder, at the rate of from

8 to 16 ounces for the pound of cloth, is heated to such a degree that

we can just hold our hand in it, and the goods are then dyed by the

wince, without heating the bath more till the colouring matter be fixed.

Vitalis prescribes as a mordant, one fourth of alum, and one sixteenth

of tartar; and for dyeing, one third of madder, with the addition of a

24th of solution of tin diluted with its weight of water. He raises the

temperature in the space of an hour, to 200°, and afterwards he boils

for 3 or 4 minutes; a circumstance which is believed to contribute to

the fixation of the colour. The bath, after dyeing, appears much loaded

with yellow matter, because this has less affinity for the alum mordant

than the red. Sometimes a little archil is added to the madder, to give

the dye a pink tinge; but this is fugitive.

Silk is seldom dyed with madder, because cochineal affords brighter

tints.

_Dyeing on cotton and linen._--The most brilliant and fastest madder red

is the Turkey or Adrianople. The common madder reds are given in the

following way:--The yarn or cloth is boiled in a weak alkaline bath,

washed, dried and galled, by steeping the cotton in a decoction of

bruised galls or of sumach. After drying, it is twice alumed; for which

purpose, for every 4 parts of the goods, one part of alum is taken,

mixed with 1-16th of its weight of chalk. The goods are dipped into a

warm solution of the alum, wrung out, dried, and alumed afresh, with

half the quantity. The acetate of alumina mordant, described above,

answers much better than common alum for cotton. After the goods are

dried and rinsed, they are passed through the dye bath, which is formed

of 3/4 lb. of good madder for every pound of cotton; and it is raised to

the boiling point by degrees, in the space of 50 or 60 minutes. Whenever

the ebullition has continued a few minutes, the goods must be removed,

washed slightly, and dyed a second time in the same way, with as much

madder. They are then washed and passed through a warm soap bath, which

removes the dun colouring matter.

Hölterhoff prescribes for ordinary madder red the following

proportions:--20 pounds of cotton yarn; 14 pounds of Dutch madder; 3

pounds of nut-galls; 5 pounds of alum; to which 1/2 lb. of acetate of

lead has been first added, and then a quarter of a pound of chalk.

In the calico-print works the madder goods are passed through a bran

bath first, immediately after dyeing; next, after several days exposure

to the air, when the dun dye has become oxidized, and is more easily

removed. An addition of chalk, on the principles explained above, is

sometimes useful in the madder bath. If bran be added to the madder

bath, the colour becomes much lighter, and of an agreeable shade.

Sometimes bran-water is added to the madder bath, instead of bran.

_Adrianople or Turkey red._--This is the most complicated and tedious

operation in the art of dyeing; but it produces the fastest colour which

is known. This dye was discovered in India, and remained long a process

peculiar to that country. It was afterwards practised in other parts of

Asia and in Greece. In 1747, Ferquet and Goudard brought Greek dyers

into France, and mounted near Rouen, and in Languedoc, Turkey-red dye

works. In 1765, the French government, convinced of the importance of

this business, caused the processes to be published. In 1808, Reber, at

Mariakirch, furnished the finest yarn of this dye, and M. Köchlin became

celebrated for his Turkey-red cloth.

_Process for Turkey-red._--The first step consists in clearing the yarn

or cloth in alkaline baths, and dipping them in oily liquors, to which

sheep’s dung was formerly added. This operation is repeated several

times, the goods being dried after each immersion. There next follows

the cleansing with alkaline liquors to remove the excess of oil, the

galling, the aluming, the maddering, the brightening or removing the dun

part of the dye by boiling, at a high temperature, with alkaline liquid,

and the rosing by boiling in a bath of salt of tin. We shall give some

details concerning this tedious manipulation, and the differences which

exist in it in the principal dye-works.

At Rouen, where the process was first brought to perfection, two methods

are pursued, called the gray and the yellow course or march. In the

gray, the dye is given immediately after the cotton has received the

oily mordant, the gall, and the alum, as it has then a gray colour. In

the yellow course, it is passed through fresh oils, alum, and galls

before the maddering, the cotton having then a yellow tint.

Different views have been taken of the principles of the Turkey red dye,

and the object and utility of the various steps. The most ancient notion

is that of animalizing the cotton by dung and blood, but experience has

proved that without any animal matter the finest colour may be obtained.

According to Dingler, the cotton is imbued with oil by steeping it in

combinations of oil and soda; the oil is altered by repeated dryings at

a high temperature; it attracts oxygen from the air, and thereby

combines intimately with the cotton fibre, so as to increase the weight

of the stuff. The dung, by a kind of fermentation, accelerates the

oxidizement, and hence crude oil is preferable to pure. In England, the

mucilaginous oils of Gallipoli are preferred, and in Malabar, oils more

or less rancid. The drying oils do not answer. The subsequent treatment

with the alkaline liquors removes the excess of oil, which has not been

oxidized and combined; a hard drying completely changes that which

remains in the fibres; the aluming which follows combines alumina with

the cotton; the galling tans the fibres, producing a triple compound of

oil and alum, which fixes the colouring matter. The object of the other

steps is obvious.

According to Wuttich the treatment with oil opens the cotton so as to

admit the mordant and the colouring matter, but the oil and soap do not

combine with the fibres. In the alkaline baths which follow, the oil is

transformed into soap and removed; whence the cotton should not increase

in weight in the galling and aluming; the cotton suffers a kind of

tanning, and the saline parts of the blood assist in fixing the madder

dye.

_The German process improved_, according to Dingler, consists of the

following operations: mordant of an oily soap or a soapy liniment, hard

drying; alkaline bath, drying, steeping, rinsing away of the uncombined

mordant, drying; galling, drying; aluming, drying, steeping in water

containing chalk, rinsing; maddering, airing, rinsing; brightening with

an alkaline boil, and afterwards in a bath containing salt of tin; then

washing and drying.

The yarn or the cloth must be first well worked in a bath of sheep’s

dung and oil, compounded as follows:--25 pounds of sheep’s dung are to

be bruised in a solution of pure caustic potash of hydrometer strength

3°, and the mixed liquor is to be passed through a sieve. Two pounds of

fine oil are now to be poured into 16 pounds of this lye, after which 30

pounds of coarse oil are to be added, with agitation for 1/4 of an hour.

Other 4 pounds of hot lye are to be well stirred in, till the whole is

homogeneous. This proportion of mordant is sufficient for 100 pounds of

cotton yarn, for 90 pounds of unbleached or 100 pounds of bleached

cotton goods. The cotton stuff, after being well wrung out, is to be

laid in a chest and covered with a lid loaded with weights, in which

state it should remain for five days. At the end of 24 hours, the cotton

becomes hot with fermentation, gets imbued with the mordant, and the oil

becomes rapidly altered. The goods are next exposed freely to the air

during the day, and in the evening they are dried in a hot chamber,

exposed to a temperature of 158° F., for 6 or 8 hours, which promotes

the oxidizement of the oil.

The goods are now passed the second time through a soapy-oil mordant

similar to the first, then dried in the air by day, and in the hot stove

by night. The third and fourth oil-soap steeps are given in the same

way, but without the dung. The fifth steep is composed of a lye at 2°,

after which the goods must also be dried. Indeed from the first to the

fourth steep, the cotton stuff should be put each time into a chamber

heated to 145° F. for 12 or 15 hours, and during 18 hours after the

fifth steep.

The uncombined oil must, in the next place, be withdrawn by the

_degraissage_, which consists in steeping the goods for 6 hours in a

very weak alkaline ley. After rinsing and wringing, they are dried in

the air, and then put into the hot stove.

The goods are now galled in a bath formed of 36 pounds of Sicilian

sumach, boiled for 3 hours in 260 pounds of water, and filtered. The

residuum is treated with 190 fresh pounds of water. This decoction is

heated with 12 pounds of pounded nut-galls to the boiling point, allowed

to cool during the night, and used next morning as hot as the hand can

bear; the goods being well worked through it. They are again dried in

the air, and afterwards placed in a stove moderately heated. They are

next passed through a tepid alum bath, containing a little chalk; left

afterwards in a heap during the night, dried in the air, and next in the

stove. The dry goods are finally passed through hot water containing a

little chalk, wrung out, rinsed, and then maddered.

For dyeing, the copper is filled with water, the fire is kindled, and an

ounce and a half of chalk is added for every pound of madder; a pound

and a quarter of madder being taken for every pound of cotton yarn. The

goods are now passed through the bath, so that they penetrate to near

its bottom. The fire must be so regulated, that the copper will begin to

boil in the course of from 2-1/2 to 3 hours; and the ebullition must be

continued for an hour; after which the yarn is aired and rinsed. Cloth

should be put into the dye-bath when its temperature is 77°, and winced

at a heat of from 100° to 122° during the first hour; at 167° during the

second; and at the boiling point when the third hour begins. It is to be

kept boiling for half an hour; so that the maddering lasts four hours.

Dingler does not add sumach or galls to the madder bath, because their

effect is destroyed in the subsequent brightening, and he has no faith

in the utility of blood.

After being dyed, the goods are washed, pressed, and subjected to a

soapy alkaline bath at a high heat, in a close boiler, by which the dun

parts of the galls and the madder are dissolved away, and the red colour

remains in all its lustre. This operation is called brightening. It is

repeated in a similar liquor, to which some muriate of tin is added for

the purpose of enlivening the colour and giving it a rosy tint. Last of

all, the goods are rinsed, and dried in the shade.