Cotton- JFool, Flax, Hemp, &fc. 32r) 



than any other that has heretofore been made use of, the 

 action of the alkali being much more powerful when pent up 

 in close vessels than when otherwise applied, and all waste 

 being thereby prevented. Even the volatile alkali that may 

 remain condensed in the fibre or tissue, or on the surface of 

 the goods when taken from the steaming-vat, ought not to 

 be lost. The goods should be rinsed in water to extract the 

 alkali from them, and this water should be employed for the 

 next lixiviation of the soot, where soot is made use of, or 

 should be thrown into the steaming-vat, and the volatile 

 alkali be separated from it by means of heat, and made to 

 pass into the receiver before described, which will never re- 

 quire a long time or a waste of much fuel, being so much 

 more volatile than the water that it soon passes over. 



In the application of the volatile alkali, the goods may be 

 taken from the steaming-vat or vats from time to time, and 

 the operations of washing, steeping in acidulated waters, ex- 

 posure to the sun and air, or to the action of oxygenated 

 muriatic acid, be employed with advantage in such stages of 

 the process as the bleacher may think proper, as has been 

 above observed respecting the application of fixed alkaline, 

 soapy, or other lyes, to the bleaching, whitening, and to thei 

 purifying and cleansing of the various goods above enume- 

 rated, by the use or through the medium of any apparatus, 

 "constructed on the principles before stated. When cloth or 

 garments are to be washed and cleansed by means of the 

 steaming apparatus before specified, they may be impregnated 

 with a strong solution of soap made from tallow, or from oil, 

 or from fish, or from bones, or from wool, and with or with- 

 out an addition of fixed alkali, and with or without the ap- 

 plication of the volatile alkali in the manner before specified. 

 It is only necessary further to observe, that oak should not be 

 employed in the construction of the steaming-vat or other 

 necessary vessel, nor any kind of wood that contains that sub- 

 stance known among chemists by the name of the gallic 

 GCiV/, and formerly called the astringent principle, because a 

 portion of it might be dissolved in the lye, and would not fail 

 to exercise its action upon the steaniing-kettie if made of 

 iron, (which is the best material for that vesse^^,) and would 



, pioduce 



