an 
and Dyeing Turkey Med. 
line liquor may be decanted ; and that none of what still 
remains in the deposit may be lost, it ought to be diluted 
with more water, which may be afterwards employed to 
lixiviate the cotton, which must be well purified and 
cleaned before it is dyed ; which may be done by lixi- 
viating and soaping, or merely boiling it in water, and 
then rinsing and drying it. As wringing with the hands 
may derange the filaments of the skains of cotton and 
linen, and consequently weaken the thread, it will be 
proper, in operating on a large scale, to squeeze them by 
means of a press. 
In regard to thread or linen to be dyed of a beautiful 
dark and fixed red, it must be well bleached, and im- 
pregnated at least four times successively with the oily 
alkaline solution ; because, not only alumine and metallic 
oxides adhere with more difficulty to linen than to cotton, 
but because these mineral substances, when coloured, 
abandon linen much easier than cotton when clearing. It 
still remains to examine whether, between each impreg- 
nation with the oily alkaline solution of alumine, cotton 
or linen thread requires to be left at rest for a greater or 
shorter time before it is rinsed and dried. 
All fat oils may be employed in the mixture with pro- 
per precautions ; but linseed-oil mixes better, and re- 
mains longer suspended in the alkaline solution of alu- 
mine : I never tried fish-oil, which, perhaps, would be 
preferable. It is probable also, that in operating on a 
large scale, it would be best to diminish the quantity of 
linseed-oil in the mixtures with the alkaline solution of 
alumine ; for I have had reason often to observe that too 
much oil hurts the attraction of the colouring parts of the 
madder : a thirty-third part of linseed-oil always pro- 
duced the best effect in my trials on a small scale. 
In regard to the process of dyeing cotton and linen 
thread, sufficiently charged with alumine, by the oily ah 
