640 CALICO-PRINTINa 



these materials in a pan and raise to boil in half an hour, and then add ono gallon of 

 boiliug water. I prefer now to allow the mixture to become perfectly cold, and pour 

 it into three gallons of cold water, in which I prefer to dissolve eight ounces of sugar 

 or one pound of treacle (though this addition is not essential) I add to this solution 

 two and a half pints of muriatic acid at thirty-two degrees of TwaddolTs hydrometer, 

 or one pint of sulphuric acid of commerce, previously diluted with one pint of water, 

 and allowed to stand till clear, or three quarts of acetic acid at eight degrees of 

 Twaddell's hydrometer. The indigotine may also bo precipitated by a mixture of 

 protochloride of tin solution at one hundred and twenty degrees of Twaddell's hydro- 

 meter, with any of the acids named, using ono quarter of a pint of tin solution and 

 only half the quantities of the acids given above : this quantity of tin solution being 

 the maximum that I can use when precipitating the indigotine for producing a fine 

 blue and green. Of all these precipitants I prefer to use " acetic acid alone." Instead 

 of using protochloride of tin crystals in making the indigo solution, protoxide 

 of tin made by precipitating a solution of protosalt of tin with an alkali may be used, 

 the precipitate being washed with water and filtered to a thick paste, or anhydrous 

 protoxide of tin made in any convenient way may be employed, in all cases taking such 

 a proportion of oxide as shall contain an amount of tin about equal to but not greater 

 than that in one and a quarter pounds of crystallised protochloride. In some cases 

 the mixture of one and a quarter pounds of indigo and one gallon of alkali may be 

 boiled with metallic tin in powder or granulated, the quantity of the latter being such 

 that when the boiling is finished and the indigo all dissolved there shall be metallic 

 tin undiss -Ived. In all these cases I precipitate the indigotine as previously des- 

 cribed. I filter the indigotine precipitate through a deep conical filter so as leave as 

 small a surface exposed to the air as possible ; when filtered, the pulp should measure 

 one gallon or thereabouts. 



1 To make a blue colour for printing I take four gallons of indigotine precipitate and 

 fourteen pounds of gum-Senegal in powder, stirring until dissolved (other suitable 

 thickening substances may be used), after straining, the colour is ready for printing. 



' To make a green colour I take four and a quarter gallons of indigotine pulp and 

 .eighteen pounds of gum-Senegal in powder, stir till dissolved, and add eleven pounds 

 of nitrate of lead in powder, and eleven pounds of white acetate of lead in powder, 

 stir till dissolved and strain. 



' Compound colours may be made by mixing the blue and green colours with each 

 other or with the ordinary mordants for dyeing. With the blue and green above 

 described and the ordinary ferruginous and aluminous mordants I print cotton and 

 linen fabrics, and after cooling hang the pieces in a room known to printers as an 

 ageing room for one night ; I then cause them to undergo what is known as the fixing 

 .operation by passing them into a solution of silicate of soda or silicate of potash at 

 ight degrees of Twaddell's hydrometer, or into a solution of carbonate of potash at 

 twelve degrees of Twaddell's hydrometer, to which about one ounce of chalk in powder 

 per gallon may be added, or into a mixture of silicate of soda or silicate of potash at 

 eight degrees of Twaddell's hydrometer with carbonate of potash at twelve degrees of 

 .Twaddell's hydrometer. I heat the bath at ninety degrees Fahrenheit or thereabouts 

 jn a cistern fitted with rollers at the top and bottom, and the passago of the pieces 

 may be at the rate of twenty-five yards per minute. On leaving this the pieces must 

 be quickly winced in a pit of cold water fitted with a reel about four feet above the 

 surface of the water. By this wincing the indigotine attached to the fibre becomes 

 again indigo blue. If green has been printed, I next pass the pieces into a solution of 

 bichromate of potash containing one ounce of bichromate of potash per gallon of 

 water at one hundred degrees Fahrenheit for five minutes : the goods are then washed. 

 If only blue has been printed along with the mordants this process may be omitted. I next 

 subject the pieces to the operation known to calico printers as " second dunging," and 

 which consists in making the pieces circulate in a beck containing cow-dung and water 

 at a temperature to about one hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit for from fifteen 

 to twenty minutes. They are then washed with water and dyed with madder, munjeet, 

 flowor of madder, garancin, extract of madder, cochineal, mixtures of garancin with 

 sumac and bark, or with either of them, after which the ordinary operations of clear- 

 ing the white grounds may be performed, preference being given to the chloride of 

 lime clearing usually adopted with garancin colours.' 



Another variety of garancin work is that where an orange is introduced along 

 with black, red, and chocolate, The orange colour is made as follows : 3 gallons of 

 pyroligneous acid at 7 T., 1 gallon of water, 7 Ibs. acetate of lime, dissolve and strain; 

 then boil with lOlbs. of flour and 3 gallons of water, cool, and add 8 Ibs. of muriate of 

 tin crystals, dissolved in 1 gallon of water. The dyeing is with 3 ozs. garancin, 

 l ozs. of sumac, l oz. of bark, 1 oz. of ground Persian berries per piece of 26 

 yards. The bark and berries are first put in the beck with the pieces, heat up to 



