193 [ 175 j 



When tiie color takes well, the silk is to be wrung, washed in a 

 stream and beetled, if it be thought proper. The silk is then to be 

 dressed, re-formed into hanks suitable for the vat, then steeped, one 

 hank after another, in the blue vat; finally, wrung and dried with care 

 and celerity. 



The fifteen or sixteen clearest shades of this kind of green, need only 

 to be steeped in the vat, in order to be entirely completed. 



For the Pistachio green, if the vat be too strong, air the hank, when 

 taking it out, without washing it, clap it with the hands; that is, hold- 

 ing it in one hand, and clapping it lengthwise with the other, to sepa- 

 rate the threads, and thus receive the air, which causes the color to 

 brighten uniformly: some threads are to be washed, in order to prove 

 whether the color be good: the silk is then washed. For deeper greens, 

 of this shade, add to the weld a decoction of logwood, or of Venice 

 sumach. 



For very deep greens, such as duck-green and bottle-green, add s 

 little copperas.* The apple-green and sea-green, require a light yel- 

 low. We shall be less liable to give too deep a shade of yellow, by 

 taking the precaution to die in the weld baths, which have already 

 been used, for the silk being strongly alumed, will be apt to take too 

 strong a hue in the new bath. Raw silk, reeled off dry, {soie crue,) 

 is died precisely in the same manner, after having been immersed.t 



Lilac. 



As lilac is a very light and brilliant tint of the violet, or of the pur- 

 ple, we must apply the blue with much caution, or sparingly; and, 

 as commonly the baths are tgo strong, it is the custom to mix a little 

 of the fresh or new bath, with some potash in clear cold water, in order 

 to prepare a bath on purpose for blueing the lilacs at will. 



When the liquor has been put into the bath, it is to be immediately 

 stirred up, then it assumes a green color which imperceptibly dimin- 

 ishes; we wait till the bath begins to lose a little of its first green color, 

 and approaches to that of indigo, in order to put the silks into it. The 

 potash helps to make the archil blue, because it is in general the effect 

 of all the alkalies to render every red more of a violet tint. 



Another Process. 



The process consists in employing the chemical blue with a quantity 

 of archil, in pi'oportion to the intensity of the die that is desired. 



Violet with Logwood. 



Take died silks impregnated with the alum water, and washed 

 in the usual way, boil water with logwood chips, as done with respect. 

 +0 Brazil wood: it is destined to give a blue. 



* Baillot, page 115. 



^ vitalis: Cours Elementaire de Teinture, p. 502. 

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