248 farmers' AMD mechanics' journal. 



ceptins: the coarser grades, were colored blue in the woad-vat |>re- 

 vious to their receiviiii; the black dye ; and a consideiable portion 

 of nuto;alls was used with logwood, &c. in finishing the color. All 

 the black cloths brought from England, have a white and a blue 

 rose near the end. The white rose w ;s designed to show that the 

 cloth was white previously to its bein^ dyed blue ; for, as cloths 

 dyed other colors, if found defective, were usually dyed black to 

 cover their imperfections, and as repeated colorings were found to 

 injure {\\c icsture of the goods, the dealers would not give the sanrie 

 price for cloths without the white rose. The blue lose was de- 

 signed to show that it had received the bbie dye, and the color of 

 the rose was considered a criterion of the depth of the blue given. 

 The white and blue rosss aic sLiil preserved ; but the blue is never 

 put on, excepting by dipping a corrier of the cloth in the blue-vat, 

 and by tying a rose on that part. Nulgalls, which v.ere found to 

 give permanency to the colors, have also been exploded as too ex- 

 pensive ; and the blacks now given to the public, are dyed with 

 only logwood, fustic, and sumach. The lattei- being the only ma- 

 terial in the composition that has any tendency to impart th^ least 

 degree of permanency to the color, and that is nccessr.rily used in 

 such small portions, to preserve the blue bloom of the now fashion- 

 able colors, as to have but little etfect in checking the fugitive dye 

 of the logwood. 



The French and the Germans have always made much better 

 black, and given to that color r, far greater degree of permanency 

 than the English. 1 am aw;>ie that tiiis opinio:i will be consider- 

 ed as high treason bv Eivjlish agents, through whose intluence the 

 most flimsy goods, and the most miseraSle colors, have become 

 fashionable in this country, and the public taste in this particular, 

 been materially vitiated. To prove the correctness of this opinion, 

 I need only request any citizens, who have an opporiunity of doing 

 it, to compare an English black that has been worn three months, 

 with a French black that luu- been worn th-e same time. 



The color put on hats is even more fugitive than that put on the 

 cloth ; and it is high time that our dyers, both of woollen and hats, 

 should pursue some mode of giving more permanency to their 

 colors. The primary object of this essay is, to show them how 

 this can be effected, without any additional expetise to the opera- 

 tor. 1 am aware that it would be worse IS. an useless to attempt 

 to bring our dyers back to the old cxpensi'. 3 but highly permanent 

 process of giving a woad-blue to their goods before coloring them 

 black : for the public taste has become so highly vitiated by the 

 passion for cheap goods, that firmness of fabric, body, and perma- 

 nency of color, and every other quality that give to them an in- 

 trinsic value, riie now never taken into consideration. As giving 

 a blue ground is out of the question, and as the nutgalls, the next 

 most jcrmanent mode, must also be resigned as too expensive, 1 

 have to ditect th«^ attention of our dyers to a material growing 

 aband;i*.tly in this co'.uivy, whicii ansv/ers even a better purpose 

 than n jlj^alls, and will i.-jst no mv;re than the process now pursued. 



