Part I] Lindsay and Harlow': Lac and Shellac 67 
supplied by a well-known firm of carpet manufacturers who have given 
it full and careful trial :— 
(1) Lac-dye cannot coVnpete with the synthetic dyes unless it 
is put on the market in a cleaner and handier form. 
(2) The use of synthetic dye-stuffs is much easier. Lac-dye is 
not always uniform and the adjustment of the quantities 
of mordaunts used with it requires great skill and care. 
(3) The synthetic dyes are much cleaner in use, one pound 
doing the work of 20 lbs. of lac-dye as at present put on 
the market. The refuse in the lac-dye fouls the yarn and 
# often leads to a percentage of the hanks being so badly 
dyed as to be unusable. There is no such loss with 
synthetic dyes. 
(4) The principal mordaunts used, salts of tin, are expensive 
and rather unstable. 
(5) It is difficult to shade lac-dye with other dye-stuffs without 
the expense of a second dye bath. 
'6) The shades obtainable with lac-dye are more restricted than 
those obtainable with blends of good synthetic dyes. 
From the above facts, it is obvious that, if lac-dye is ever to 
compete with synthetic dyes, a means must be devised by which the 
essential dyeing agent contained in it can be extracted almost pure, 
standardized, and put on the market in a clean and handy form. 
Lac-wax is hardly yet a by-product of lac manufacture as suit¬ 
able means have not yet been devised for isolating it from 
kiri . At present it is only recovered by precipitation during the 
manufacture of bleached shellac. It is harder than bees-wax and has 
been reported on favourably by polish manufacturers* 
Packing and Storage. 
Shellac is usually packed by manufacturers in two-maund wooden 
cases, lined with cloth. Two maunds (164 
lbs.) is approximately ig cwt. (= 168 lbs ) 
and shellac is sold on this basis in England and America. It is 
sometimes also packed in double gunny bags, the use of which 
increased when packing cases grew scarce during the war. The grade 
of shellac is usually marked on the outside of the box, but in the case 
of button lac the buttons are also stamped with the maker’s mark. 
[67] 
