146 
Starch. 
Potatoe starch is not saleable in the shops, not having so long 
and firm a grain as starch from flour; but if properly made is pre- 
ferable to all others for blue-makers, as it melts or dissolves so 
easily, and incorporates with the colour with far less trouble than 
any other substance whatever. 
When starch is made from flour, the wheat is not ground so 
small as when intended for sale, but ground with a broader flag or 
bran, as the meal and starch are found to separate more readily 
from the bran. When laid in to steep, as much water must 
be used as to wet completely the whole meal ; in three, four, or 
five days it will ferment, and in a few days more will settle, and all 
fermentation cease : after this, the stuff is fit to be what is called, 
washed out. 
The common time allowed to steep is fourteen or twenty days s 
as much depends on the temperature of the weather, the exact 
time cannot be ascertained ; but it is much better to lie a few days 
longer than to be washed out one day too soon. This operation is 
performed by the stuff being taken from the vats and put into a 
strong round basket, which is set across a tub below a pump : one 
or two men keep going round the basket stirring up the stuff with 
^strong wooden shovels, called stirrers, while another keeps pump- 
ing water till all the meal is completely washed from the bran, 
which is emptied into some convenient place to feed hogs : this 
operation is continued till the vats are emptied of the whole stuff, 
at the same time that it is strained through the basket into the 
tub underneath. As fast as the tub fills, it is taken out and strain- 
ed through hair sieves into what are sometimes called squares, by 
others, frames. It is then suffered to rest twenty-four hours, when 
the water is drawn off the frame by plugs fixed at different depths. 
A thin stuff is then found to float above the starch, which is taken 
off by a tray made of a particular form for that purpose ; this is 
called slimes, and is put into a cistern to feed hogs, by being mix- 
ed with the bran or grains fresh water is then pumped into the 
squares, and the whole is wrought up with the stirrers till it is 
completely incorporated with the water ; it is then strained 
through a fine silk sieve, and suffered to rest and settle twenty- 
four hours, when the water is again drawn off', and some more 
slimes will be found floating, or at least in a loose and unsettled state, 
on the top of the starch ; which being carefully removed, fresh 
water is again pumped on the starch, and the whole is again 
wrought up as before ; when it is again put through the silk sieve. 
