191 [ 175 ] 



To make the diflerent shades of blue, put into this new vat the shades 

 intended to be the deepest; they are to be died by keeping them more 

 or less time in it, in proportion as the liquor becomes weak, until it be- 

 gins to be exhausted, and the shades which the silk takes, after having 

 remained in it two or three minutes at most, begin to appear faint. 

 When the liquor is so far weakened that it begins to lose its green, re- 

 fresh it, to give it new strength, by a kettle-full of a decoction composed 

 of onepouna of pearl ash, two ounces of madder, and one handful of wash- 

 ed bran, boiled together for a quarter of an hour in water, or in a por- 

 tion of the liquor in the vat, if it be still full enough for that. The li- 

 quor is to be stirred up, after these additions, and left to settle at least 

 for two or three hours, before we begin to die v/ith it. In order to die 

 fme blues, it is proper to have a fresh vat: the light blues colored in 

 this fresh weak liquor, are always more lively than those which are 

 made in a liquor which has served for coloring deep blue. • 



Fine Crimson. 



The silks intended to be died in crimson with cochineal, should be 

 boiled in the proportion of twenty pounds of soap to an hundred pounds 

 of silk, without any azure, because the slight yellow tint which remains 

 in the silk, when it is freed from its gum, only with this quantity of soap, 

 is favorable to this color. 



After washing and beetling the silks at a stream, in order to clear 

 them from the soap, they are to be put into the alum solution in its full 

 strength; and left in it from night till morning, or about seven or eight 

 hours. After this, the silks are to be washed, and twice beetled at the 

 river. During this interval, the bath is to be prepared in the following 

 manner: The long trough is charged with river water, about one-half, 

 or two-thirds, and, when boiling,some gall-nuts, powdered are to be put 

 into it, and suffered to boil for a while; then put from four drachms to 

 two ounces of them for every pound of silk; if the gall-nuts are pounded 

 very fine, and passed through a hair-sieve, they may be put in at the 

 same time with the cochineal. 



When the silks are washed and beetled, they are to be put upon rods 

 by hanks: these hanks may be thick, because the crimson color is not 

 subject to be unequally set. The cochineal, pounded and sifted, is 

 then to be thrown into the bath, and well stirred, and must receive 

 five or six boils; from two to three ounces for each pound of silk, are to 

 be put in, according to the required shade. In order to give the most 

 common shade or color, the proportion of cochineal is two ounces and 

 a half: there are seldom put more than three ounces, except when one 

 dies some particular variety. 



These ingredients are to be put into clear, pure, and soft water, in a 

 kettle of pure tin, and not of copper, or brass tinned. This is a rule 

 from which the diers of the British East India Company never de- 

 viate. When the cochineal and the galls have undergone a boiling, 

 put into the bath, for every pound of cochineal, one ounce of a solution 

 '">r tin in aoiLa re^ia. called comnosition. which is madf^ in the foMnu-- 



