<T>20 DURABLE AND SUPERIOR LAKE. 



two ounces of the Smyrna root the firft precipitate was one 

 drachm and twenty four grains, and the lake was two drachms 

 and twenty-four grains. The proportion of the lake to the 

 other colour is, therefore, much higher in the Smyrna, than 

 in the Dutch root. 



Erejh Madder. 



The recentroot The colour may be prepared from the recent root; and it 

 is preferable. . , .• i . 



will be of a quality equal, it not lupenor, to any other. I he 



difficulty of procuring the freth root has prevented me from 



making as many experiments on it as I could have wifhed. 



I procured, however, a final! quantity of the belt roots packed 



in mofs from Holland, and the following procefs anfwered 



perfectly well. 



Experiment ac- Eight ounces of the root having been firft well waflied and 



W wX t fSh Ceft cleaned from dirl of aI1 kinds > were broken int0 rma11 P ie ces, 



maddei j and pounded in a bell-metal mortar, with a wooden peftle, 



till reduced into an uniform pafte. This parte being enclofed 



in a calico bag, was walhed and triturated, as defcribed in 



the firft procefs, with cold water. About five pints feem to 



have extracted nearly the whole -of the colour. To the water 



thus loaded with colour, and boiled as before, one ounce of 



alum, diifolved in a pint of boiling water, was added, and 



'eery fuceefsful. the alkali poured on the* whole, till the tafte of the mixture 



was jufl perceptibly alkaline. The colour thus obtained, 



when dry, was of a very beautiful quality. 



Itpromifes The fuccefs of this experiment, which was twice repeated 



great advantage ^j^ t[)e ," ame re f u | t [ ias \ eL \ we to hope, that it is not im- 



to the arts. ' 



poffible that the mode of obtaining the colour from the freth. 



root here defcribed, may be productive of advantages for 

 more extenuve ufe than I had in view when firft I attempted 

 to obtain a pigment from madder. Many tracts of land in this 

 country are as well adapted to the growth of this valuable 

 article, as the foil of Holland can be; and the cultivation of 

 it, which has more than once been attempted to a confiderable 

 extent, has been laid afide, principally from the expence at- 

 tendant on the erection of drying-houfes and mills, and the 

 great expence and nicety requifite for conducting the procefs 

 For if the colour of drying. But lhould the colour prepared in the mode juft 

 /hnuldanfw f for defcribed, be found to anfwer the purpofes of the dyers and 



dying, &c. it , . . r • r r , , 



would fave dry- calico-printers, the procefs is io eafy, and the apparatus re- 

 ing and carriage ; quired 



