our own country is better calculated to afford than any other, and to an employment 

 for leisure hours, in a very high degree amusing, interesting, and instructive. 



The mordants employed by D'Ambourney were not well calculated for the dyer's 

 work shop: they were the following: 



1. Bismuth dissolved in single aqua fortis: of this solution one part, with brine of 

 common salt, two parts, and tartar in powder, one part, was used to woollen sixteen 

 parts by weight. Water, as much as necessary. 



2. A solution of tin made by dissolving four ounces of sal ammoniac and nine ounces 

 of grain tin in four pounds of single aqua fortis. Five pounds and one ounce of this 

 solution, with an equal quantity of tartar, and twice the quantity of brine, formed the 

 mordant for sixty pounds weight of cloth. 



3. A solution of tin in aqua fortis and common salt. 



4 and 5. Another solution of tin with less tin: both hot and cold. 



6. A solution of tin with a small quantity of gold, in aqua regia. 



7. Tin dissolved in strong muriatic acid only. 



8. Tin dissolved in nitro- muriatic acid; nitrous acid, one part; muriatic acid, one 

 part; tin, one-eighth of a part. 



9. Tin dissolved in various proportions in nitro-muriatic acid, wherein the muriatic 

 was one-third of the nitrous. 



10. Solution of nitrat of copper. 



11. Muriatic solution of iron. 



12. Solution of three pounds of red argol or tartar in boiling water, and nine pounds 

 of alum, for sixty pounds of cloth. 



It is evident that the experiments are less valuable, in proportion as you employ new, 

 unusual, and expensive mordants: so that M. D'Ambourney's experiments do not bear 

 upon practice so much as they might do. 



I have had a good deal of experience in this kind of experiment myself, and I feel 

 myself therefore entitled to offer to others who would pursue the same very entertaining 

 employment of leisure hours, the following advice. 



The object is, not so much to procure brilliant colours, as permanent colours: by 

 permanent colours meaning always such as will stand the three tests of air, soap, and 

 acids. 



The substances to be dyed may be confined to woollen and cotton. The mordants 

 ought to be the mordants in common use. I have a very high opinion of nitrat, and 

 nitro- muriat of bismuth; and also of nitrat of iron; but I fear, the necessary attention to 

 economy will confine their utility to brilliant colours, and very high priced goods. 

 They ought to be the subjects of a separate set of comparative experiments. 



For experiments on Woollen, take well scoured, clean, white flannel as the subject 

 to be dyed. Boil it in clean snow or rain water for half an hour. Take it out, wring it, 

 dry it. Water of calcareous soils will modify the effect of the colouring substances em- 

 ployed; not so the water of mountainous and siliceous soils. Of such flannel, take any 

 quantity of a given weight, as one, two, three, or four pounds. 



1. Let it soak in the common boiling hot mordant of alum three ounces and a half, 

 to finely-powdered tartar one ounce and a half, for each pound of cloth. It may remain 

 covered up for twelve hours. Then take it out, wring it moderately, rince it in cold 

 water moderately, and dry it not perfectly, but so as to be slightly damp, and keep it 

 in an under-ground room. Tartar in proportion of one-third of the alum I consider as 

 too small, in the proportion of one-half, rather too much; that is, as a general rule. 

 Alum without the tartar, crystallizes too readily, gives the cloth a harshness to the 

 touch, and though the colours are equally full in most cases, they are not equally bright. 



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