A Practical Treatise on Dying Woollen, Cotton and Silk: Including Recipes for Lac Reds and Scarlets Chrome Yellows and Oranges and Prussian Blues on Silks, Cottons and Woollens; With Every Improvement

Excerpt from A Practical Treatise on Dying Woollen, Cotton and Silk: Including Recipes for Lac Reds and Scarlets Chrome Yellows and Oranges and Prussian Blues on Silks, Cottons and Woollens; With Every Improvement in the Art, Made Since the Year 1828; Also, a Correct Description of Sulphuring WoollensIn my last edition I gave an account of a discovery made by Messrs. Wm. Adams & Co., of New York, of an improved process of dying black and Prussian blue on calico. I was informed, very recently, by a large dyer of Frankfort, Pennsylvania, that he had adopted the improvement, and had realized by it many hundreds of dollars. Such information is truly encouraging, and I hope many others have experienced results equally beneficial. The discovery consists in oxydizing the iron before applying the coloring matter. I am of the opinion that dying and color-making are altogether the result of oxydizement and de-oxydizement.It has several times gone the rounds of our newspapers, since I published my last edition, that a new blue for woolens had been discovered superior to indigo in brilliancy and permanency. I would wish to put our manufacturers on their guard relative to this barefaced quackery. It has been long known that a Prussian blue can be made on woolen of a superior brilliancy to indigo ; but it has been as well known that this color will not stand the action of an alkali. Even the soap used in fulling the cloth will change the color. In the advertisement of the inventor, he asserts " that he has discovered a means of preventing this change." On seeing this I sent to his agent, Mr. Marshall, for a pattern of his color, and I never tested any Prussian blue on woolen that gave way more readily on the application of an alkali. I can assure our dyers that the property of an alkali to take prussic acid from iron, leaving the color a dirty green drab, is a law implanted on nature by supreme intelligence, and that man never can prevent its action.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.