[ 175 J 



EXTRACTS FROM A GERMAN TREATISE ON DYING 



SILK. 



Ji handsome Yellow. 



[Note— The following receipts are proportioned to 10 lb. of silk previously boiled.] 



Take 1:^ lbs. of alum, 



20 lbs. of common Lady's (St. Mary's) thistle,* 

 h lb. of woad ashes. ■ 



Dissolve the alum in a kettle containing ten buckets of water, pour 

 the solution into a vat, fix your silk upon rods,t and in the usual way, 

 steep it in the solution, work it well therein for an hour, take it out,- 

 wring it, and lay it aside wet, for further use. 



Put ten buckets of water in a kettle, add the St. Mary's thistle, and 

 boil it well for a quarter of an hour; run the decoction through a sieve 

 into a tub, to separate the coarse from it; let it cool, until you will be 

 able to bear your hands in it; steep the silk in the liquor, work it welJ 

 therein for half an hour, then take it out, wring it, and lay it aside, in 

 its wet state, for further use. 



The vessels in which you dress the silk with alum, must be kept, 

 during the process of working it, to within a few inches of the top; 

 and, should there be occasion to fill up, or to increase the quantity of 

 liquor with water, care must be taken not to make it too cool, but to 

 preserve, at all times, a degree of heat in which the hand can be bare- 

 ly held. While this is doing, the St. Mary's thistle must be put into 

 the kettle a second time, with fresh water, and be boiled again. Then 

 take out the silk, dip out some of the liquor, in v/hich you bad pre- 

 viously worked the silk, and add as much of the liquor of the second 

 boiling to it as was taken therefrom, so that the first quantity will be 

 preserved. The liquor must now, as weJl as each time before you 

 steep the silk in it, be stirred well; then steep the silk in the liquor 

 again, and work it well therein for half an hour. 



The liquor may, ia this latter process, be made a little hotter than 

 it was in the first; but be cautious not to make it too hot, as the silk 

 would be considerably injured thereby. 



• This in.ejedient, v/hich has not, as yet, been applied in tliis work, to the dying of 

 yellow coloi's, is found growing- spontaneously in an unrultivated state; but the cul- 

 tivated is more esteemed. It flourishes best in a sandy soil, and must be cut as soon 

 as it is of proper ripeness, which may be known by its having attained a handsome 

 yellow color. [Itisti>e Cardxius Murit. — Editor.] 



f This is to be understood as a general rule before steeping; the direction to at- 

 tend it, will not, tliercfore, he repeated, 



