201 [ 175 ] 



fciark, a species of agaric, pomegranate bark, &.c. may be employed for 

 this purpose. 



The jyrocess by Vitalis.. 



I commence by boiling the silk in the ordinary way, with 20 lbs. of 

 soap to 100 lbs. of silk, and, after it is well washed, and freed from the 

 soap, it is dried. The skeins are then immersed in a decoction of galls 

 in sort, in the proportion of two ounces to a pound of silk. The gall 

 bath must be moderately warm. The hanks* are put on the rods, and 

 ligiuiy pressed, in order that the gall -liquor may penetrate them, and 

 ensure a uniform color. They are then put in the bath, which must be 

 kept warm during fifteen or eighteen hours; after this, they are to be 

 taken out and dried, and then put in a warm bath of pyrolignate of iron, of 

 the strength of live degrees, as marked on the areonjeter of Baume, and 

 dipped for some time; then immersed, and the heat of the bath increased, 

 during five or six hours: observing to take them out and air them from 

 time to time. After being taken from the iron bath, the silk is wrung 

 and dried in the air, or under a shed in moist weather. It then receives 

 two beetlings, and is subjected to a new galling, made with the remains 

 of the former gall-liquor, and an ounce and a half of galls to the pound 

 of siik: then taken out, wrung and dried. This second galling is fol- 

 lowed by a new bath, made warm, of the pyrolignate of iron, of four de- 

 grees of strength, with the precautions before noted. The silk is again 

 taken out, wrung, and dried, two more beetlings and a third galling 

 given to it, the bath for which must have one ounce and a half of new 

 galls to a pound of silk, and the former procedure renewed. It must 

 then have another bath of pyrolignate of iron, of three degrees of 

 strength, and be dried and washed. For a deep black, a fourth galling 

 with one ounce of galls to a j)ound of silk, followed by a fourth bath oi 

 iron pyrolignate, of three degrees of strength, will be requisite. Then 

 dry and wash carefully. The gum prescribed in the process of Angles,! 

 gives a brilliancy which is highly prized by the trade. I supply its 

 place, after the silk has been died and w^orked, by a light bath of warm 

 soap and water, into which it rs plunged for some time; after which it 

 is to be washed and dried for the last time. Finall}", my method does 

 not exclude the employment of gum, which may Idc dissolved in the 

 bath of the iron pyrolignate. Even where the process of M. Angles, 

 or any similar one, is followed, advantage may be taken of the substitu- 

 tion I propose, of the pyrolignate for the copperas. A greater intensity 

 and solidity of color will thereby be obtained, and the silk will suffer 

 les^. 



* A hank weighs four oi- five ounces. 

 + See Cooper on Dying-, for the procesr, p. 247. 

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