256 
DYING. 
mordants. The procefs fucceeds bell on filk. When 
this fubftance, after being dyed, is made to pafs through 
a bath of foft foap, it acquires a lhining golden-yellow 
colour, which has a perfedt refemblance to the yellow of 
that filk employed to imitate embroidery in gold, and 
which has hitherto been brought from China, and fold 
at a dear rate, as the method of dying it is unknown in 
Europe. 
The Rottlcra tinEloria , a plant lately difcovered by Dr. 
Roxburgh on the coaft of Coromandel, alfo affords a dye 
extremely elegant for yellow filk. The red powder 
which covers the capfules conftitutes a confiderable 
branch of commerce from the Circars, chiefly with the 
merchants of Hydrabad, and other interior parts of Hin- 
dooflan. When the capfules are ripe, they are gathered, 
and the red powder is carefully collected for fale. This 
powder dyes filk a deep yellow ; or a durable orange 
flame-colour, of very great beauty, according to the in- 
tenlity of the mixture : alkaline falts enable water to ex- 
traiSt from it a very deep blood red; and the addition of 
alum renders the colour brighter and more permanent. 
Red Silks are ufually dyed with cochineal, or car- 
thamus, and fometimes with Brazil wood. Kermes does 
not anfwer for filk ; madder is fcarcely ever ufed for that 
purpofe, becaufe it does not yield a bright colour. Ar¬ 
chil is employed to give filk a bloom ; but it is fcarcely 
ufed by itfelf, unlefs when the colour wanted is lilac. 
Silk may be dyed crimfon by fteeping it in a folution of 
alum, and then dying it in the ufual way in a cochineal 
bath. But the common procefs is to plunge the iilk, 
after it has been alumed, into a bath formed of the fol¬ 
lowing ingredients : Two parts of white galls, three parts 
of cochineal, three-fixteenths of tartar, and three-fix- 
teenths of nitro-muriat of tin, for every fixteen parts of 
filk. The ingredients are to be put into boiling water 
in the order they have been enumerated ; the bath is 
then to be filled up with cold water ; the filk put into it, 
and boiled for two hours. After the bath has cooled, 
the filk is ufually allowed to remain in it for three hours 
longer. 
The colours known by the names of poppy, cherry, 
rofe, and fleth-colour, are given to filk by means of car- 
thamus. The procefs confifts merely in keeping the filk, 
as long as it extracts any colour, in an alkaline folution 
©f carthamus, into which as much lemon juice as gives 
it a fine cherry colour has been poured. To produce a 
deep poppy red, the filk muft be put fucceflively into a 
number of fimilar baths, and allowed to drain them. 
When the filk is dyed, the colour is brightened by plung¬ 
ing it into hot watqr acidulated with lemon juice. The 
filk ought to be previoufly dyed yellow with annotta. 
Cherry red is produced the fame way, only the annotta 
ground is omitted, and lefs colouring matter is neceffary. 
When a flefh colour is required, a little foap fhould be 
put into the bath, which foftens the colour, and prevents 
it from taking too quickly. To lefi'en the expence, forne 
archil is often mixed with carthamus for dark fhades. 
The fame fhades may be dyed by means of brazil wood, 
but they do not ftand. 
Silk cannot be dyed a full fcarlet; but a colour ap¬ 
proaching to fcarlet may be given it, by firfl: impregnating 
the fluff with murio-fulphat of tin, and afterwards dying 
it in a bath compofed of four parts of cochineal and four 
parts of quercitron bark. To give the colour more body, 
both the mordant and the dye may be repeated. A colour 
approaching fcarlet may be alfo given to filk, by firfl 
dying it crimfon, then dying it with carthamus, and laftly 
yellow without heat. 
Black Silks are dyed nearly in the fame manner as 
wool and cloth. Silk is capable of combining with a 
great deal of tan ; the quantity given is varied at the 
pleafure of the artift, by allowing the filk to remain a 
longer or fhorter time in the decodtion. After the galling, 
the filk is put into a folution of fulphat of iron, which 
js ufually mixed with a certain quantity of iron filings 
3 
and of gum. It is occasionally wrung outof the bath, ex. 
pofed for fome time to the air, and again immerfed. 
When it has acquired a fufficiently full colour, it is walhed 
in cold water, and afterwards fleeped in a decodlion of 
foap to take off the harfhnefs, which filk always has after 
being dyed black. 
Green Silks are ufually dyed yellow firfl, by means 
of weld, according to the procefs defcribed for wool ; af¬ 
terwards it is dipped into the blue vat, and dyed in the 
ufual manner. To deepen the (hade, or to vary the tint, 
decodtions of logwood, annotta, fuftic, &x. are added to 
the yellow bath. Or filk may be dyed at once green, by 
adding fuitable proportions of fulphat of indigo to the 
common quercitron bark bath, compofed of four parts of 
bark, three parts of alum, and two parts of murio-fulphat 
of tin. Purple is firfl: dyed crimfon, by means of cochi¬ 
neal, in the ufual way, excepting only that no tartar, nor 
folution of tin, is to be employed. It is then dipped 
into the indigo vat, till it has acquired the wifhed-for 
fhade. It is often afterwards paifed through an archil 
bath, which greatly improves the beauty of the colour. 
Arch.il is often employed as a fubflitute for cochineal. 
The filk firfl receives a red colour, in the ufual way, by 
being dyed in an archil bath ; afterwards it receives the 
proper fhade of blue. The vioiet, or purple, given by 
this procefs is very beautiful, but not very lading. Silk 
may be dyed violet or purple at once, by firfl treating it 
with a mordant, compofed of equal parts of nitro-muriat 
of tin and alum, and then dipping it into a cochineal 
bath, into which a proper quantity of fulphat of indigo 
has been poured. But this dye is fading ; the blue colour 
foon decays, and the filk becomes red. Marrones, cinna¬ 
mons, and all the intermediate fhades, are given to filk, 
by logwood, bra(il, and fuftic, for which the filk is fcoured 
as ufual, alumed, and a bath prepared, by mixing de¬ 
coctions of the three above-mentioned woods made fepa- 
rately ; the proportion of each is varied according to the 
fhade required, but that of the fuftic ought to prevail: 
this bath fhould be of a moderate temperature. The filk 
is turned on the fkein flicks in the bath ; and when it is 
taken out, if the colour be uniform, it is wrung and dip¬ 
ped in a fecond bath of the three ingredients, the propor¬ 
tions of which are regulated according to the effedi of the 
firfl bath, in order that the defired fhade may be procur¬ 
ed. By any of thefe fimple and eafy preparations, ladies 
who refide in the country, or live remote from a filk-dyer, 
may with great facility and certainty dye any pieces of 
filk, ribbons, gauzes, &c. fo often required for domeftic 
purpofes. 
Of DYING COTTON. 
Cotton is a thread produced by a great number of her¬ 
baceous annual plants ; and by fome perennial fhrubs or 
trees ; but they differ from each other in the length, fine- 
nefs, foftnefs, flexibility, and colours, of the cotton which 
they feverally produce. The climate is alfo fuppofed 
to have confiderable influence on the texture and quality 
of the different fpecies of cotton ; that which grows 
neareft the equator being generally the mod efteemed. 
There are two fpecies which feem to have belonged ori¬ 
ginally to Siam ; the firfl: is white, and of a long fine 
flaple, capable of being fpun into very fine threads: this 
fpecies has been tranfplanted to the Weft Indies a confi¬ 
derable time ; the other is naturally of that brownifh buff 
colour which it retains in the pieces of cloth manufac¬ 
tured from it, and denominated nankins. The cottons of 
Cyprus, and other parts of the Levant, are generally 
whiter, and their filaments more dry and elaftic, than 
thofe of other countries ; and thefe peculiarities have 
been fuppofed to render the former particularly fuited to 
refledt, and permanently retain, what is called the Tur¬ 
key red. See the article Cotton, vol. v. p. 263. 
The ftrudlure of the fibres of cotton feems not to have 
been well afcertained. Levvenhoeck, by microfcopical 
examinations, found each of them to have two fliarp 
fides j 
