THK 
 
 u 
 
 DIER’S ASSISTANT 
 
 IN THK 
 
 ART OF DYING 
 
 WOOL AND WOOLLEN GOODS. 
 
 Extracted from the philosophical and chymical w^orks ofthost 
 most eminent Authors 
 
 FERGUSON, DUFAY, HELLOT, GEOFFERY, 
 COtBERT ; 
 
 AND THAT REPUTABLE FRENCH DIER 
 
 MONS. DE JULIENNE. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. 
 
 WITH ADDITIONS AND PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS. 
 
 BY JAMES HAIGH. 
 
 Late Silk and Muslin Dier, Leeds. 
 
 POUGHKEEPSIE : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY PARACLETE POTTER, MAIN-STREET. 
 P. & S. Potter, Printers, 
 
 181 S. 
 

 
 
 '■■k* 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THERE are very few arts so expensive as that 
 of dteiijg ; and although those principal corn, 
 modities, clothing and furniture, receive their 
 chiet improvement and value therefrom, it is nev- 
 ertheless very far from being brought to perfec- 
 tion. A long practice, sound judgment, and 
 great attention, will form a good and expert dier. 
 Many diers can w'ork with success in a number 
 of colours only w’hich depend on each other, and 
 are entirely ignorant of the rest, or have but a 
 ver\ imperfect idea of them. 
 
 A philosopher, who studies the art of dieing, 
 is in some measure astonished at the multiplicity 
 of new^ objects which it affords ; every step pre- 
 sents new difficulties and obscurities, u'ithout 
 hopes of any instruction from the common work- 
 men, who seldom know more than facts ard cus- 
 tom. Their manner of explaining tiiernseives, 
 and their common terms, only affirnd more dark- 
 ness, w'hich the uncommon and often useless cir- 
 cumstances of their proceedings render more ob- 
 scure. 
 
 Before we enter into the particulars of dicing 
 wooi, it is necessary to give an idea of the prima- 
 ry colours, or rather of those which bcc=r this 
 name by the arti:st ; for it will appear by reading 
 the celebrated w’orks of Sir Isaac Newton oa 
 Light and Colours, that they bear no aPiinitv v. ith 
 those w hich the Philosophers call by that name. 
 They are thus named by the workmen; because 
 
IV 
 
 PREFACE* 
 
 by the nature of the ingredients of which they 
 are composed, they are the basis from whence all 
 others are derived. This division of colours, 
 and the idea which [ intend to give of them, are 
 also common to the different kinds of diting. 
 
 The five primary colours are blue, red, yellow, 
 brown and black. h.ach r.f these can furnish a 
 great number of shades, from ihe lightest to the 
 darkest ; and from the combination of two or 
 more of these different shades, arise all the col- 
 ours in nature. Colours are often darktned, or 
 made light, or considerably changed, by ingre- 
 dients that have no colour in themselves ; such 
 are the acid, the alkalis, and the neutral salts, 
 lime, urine, arsenic, alum, and some others ; and 
 in the gri^test part of dies, the wool and woollen 
 goods ar^ prepared with some of these ingredi- 
 ents which of themselves give little or no colour. 
 It may easily be conceived what an infinite vari- 
 ety must arise frorai#ie mixture of these differ- 
 ent matters, or even from the manner of using 
 them ; and what attention must be given to the 
 minutest circumstances, so as perfectly to suc- 
 ceed in an art so complicated, and in which there 
 are many diffieiilties. 
 
 It is not needful tp be very particular in describ- 
 ing the utensils of a die house, as they are com- 
 monly known ; this work being des'^ned for the 
 experienced dier. A die- house shoTO, however, 
 be erected on a spacious plan, roofed over, but 
 admitting a good light, and as nigh as possible 
 to a running water, which is very necessary, eL 
 ther to prepare the wool before it is died, or to 
 wash it afterwards. The coppers should be set 
 at the distance of eight or tea feet, and two or 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 V 
 
 more vats for the blue, according to the quanti- 
 ty of work that is to be carried on. ^ 
 
 The most important point in dicing the primi-* 
 tive blue is to set the vat properly at work, and 
 conduct her till she is in a state to yield her blue. 
 The siz of the, vvoad vat is not fixed, as it de- 
 pends upon necessity or pleasure. A vat con- 
 taining a hogshead, or half that quantity, has often 
 been used with success ; but then they must be 
 prevented l»y some means from cooling too sud- 
 denlv, otherwise these small vats v\ ill fail. 
 
 Another kind of vat is prepared for blue : this 
 is called the indigo vat, because it is the indigo 
 alone that gives it the colour. Those that use 
 the woad vat do not commonly use the indigo one. 
 
 There are two methods of dicing wool of any 
 colour ; the one is called dicing in the great, the 
 other in the lesser die. The first is done by 
 means of drugs or ingredients that procure a last., 
 ing die, resist the action of the air and sun, and 
 are not easily stained by sharp or corrosive li- 
 quors. The contrary happens to colours of the 
 lesser die. The air fades them in a short time, 
 more particularly if exposed to the sun ; most 
 liquors stain them, so as to make them lose their 
 first colour. It is extraordinary that, as there 
 is a method of making all kinds of colours by the 
 great die, the use of the lesser should be toiera-. 
 ted ; but thl*ee reasons make it difficult, if not 
 impossible, to prevent this practice. 
 
 1st, The work is much easier. Most colours 
 and shades which give the greatest trouble in the 
 great, are easily carried on in the lesser die. 
 
 Most colours in the lesser are more bright 
 and lively than those of the great. 
 
Vi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 \ 
 
 3d, For this reason, which carries more weight, 
 the lesser die is carried on much cheaper than the 
 great. This is sufficient to determine some men 
 to do all in their power to carry it on in prefer- 
 ence to the other. Hence it is that the true 
 knowledge of chymistry, to which the art of dic- 
 ing owes its origin, is of so much use. 
 
 It may be observed, that all lasting colours are 
 called colours of the great, and the others of the 
 lesser die Sometimes the first are called fine, 
 and the latter false colours ; but these expressions 
 are equivocal, for the fine are sometimes con- 
 founded with the high colours, which are those 
 in whose composition cochineal enters ; therefore, 
 to avoid ail obscurity, I shall call the first colours 
 of the great, and the latter colours of the lesser die. 
 
 Experiments, (which are the best guides in 
 natural philosophy as well as arts) plainly shew, 
 that the difference of colours, according to the 
 foregoing distinction, partly depends on the prep- 
 aration of the subject that is to. be died and part- 
 ly on the choice of the ingredients which are af- 
 terwards used to give it the colour, I therefore 
 think it may be laid down as a general principle, 
 that all the invisible process of dicing consists in 
 dilating the pores of the body that is to be died, 
 and dep(j^iting therein particles of a foreign mat- 
 ter, .which are to be detained by a kind of ce- 
 ment which prevents the sun or rain #f>m chang- 
 ing them. 'Vo make choice of the colouring par- 
 tiales of such a durability that they may be re- 
 tained, and sufficiently set in the pores of the 
 subject opened b}yhc heat of boiling water, then 
 contracted by the cold, and afterwards plaistered 
 over witli a kind of cement left behind with the 
 
PREFACE.' Vii 
 
 salt used for their preparation, that the pores of 
 the wool or woollen stuff ought to be cleansed, 
 enlarged, cemented and then contracted, that the 
 colouring atom may be contained in a lasting 
 manner. 
 
 Experiments also shew that there is no colour- 
 ing ingredient belonging to the great die which 
 has not more or less an astringent and precipitant 
 quality. That this is sufficient to separate the 
 earth of the alum ; this earth, joined to the col- 
 ouring atoms, forms a kind of lacque, similar to 
 that u^ed by the painters but infinitely finer. 'Phat 
 in bright colours, such as scarlet, where alum 
 cannot be used, another body must be substitu- 
 ted to supply the colouring atoms (block- tin gives 
 this basis to the scarlet die.) When all these 
 small atoms of earthly coloured lacque have insin- 
 uated themselves into the poies of the subject that 
 is dilated, the cement which the tartar leaves be- 
 hind serves to masticate these atoms ; and lastly, 
 the contracting of the pores, caused by the cold, 
 serves to retain them. 
 
 It is certain that the colours of the false die 
 have that defect onl\ because the subject is not 
 suffic iently prepared ; so that the colouring parti* 
 cles being onl) deposited on its plain surface, it is 
 impossibie but the least action of the air or sun 
 must deprive them of part, if not of the whole. 
 If a method was discovered to give to the colour- 
 ing parts of dicing woods, the necessary astric- 
 tion which they require, and if the we>ol at the 
 same time was prepared to receive them, (as it is 
 the red of madder) I am convinced, by thirty ex- 
 periments, that these woods might be made as 
 useful in the great, as they have hitherto been in 
 the lesser die. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 tiii 
 
 What I have said shall be applied in the sequel 
 of this treatise, where I shall shew what engaged 
 me to use them as general principles. 
 
 I should have been glad to have seen a work of 
 this sort, (knowing the great need there is of a 
 chymical understanding of this art) signed by the 
 name of some person of distinction, to have given 
 it a better face ; yet, in defect of that, I was pre- 
 vailed upon to undertake the tedious task. I dare 
 not flatter myself to have brought it to its last per- 
 fection, as arts daily improve, and this in particu- 
 lar ; but I hope some acknowledgment will be 
 due to me for bringing this matter a little further 
 out of that obscurity in which it has laid, and for 
 assisting the diers in making discoveries to help 
 to perfect this most useful art. 
 
 I shall now proceed to examine the five prima- 
 ry colours above mentioned, and give the different 
 methods of preparing them afteV the must solid 
 and permanent manner. 
 
 ^ JAMES HAIGH. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE materials of which cloths are made, for 
 the most part are naturally of dull and gloomy 
 colours. Garments would consequently have 
 had a disagreeable uniformity, if this art had not 
 been found out to remedy it, and vary their shades. 
 The accidental b'uising of fruits or herbs, the 
 effect of rain upon certain earih:> and minerals 
 might suggest the first hint of the art of dicing, 
 and of the materials pro'per for it. Every climate 
 furnishes man with ferruginous earths, with boles 
 of all colours, with saline and vegetable materials 
 for this art. The diffi mlty must have been to find 
 the art of applying them. But how many trials 
 and essays must have been made, before they 
 found out the most proper methods of applying 
 them to stuffs, so as to stain them with beautiful 
 and lasting colours ? In this consists the principal 
 excellence of the dier’s art, one of the most in^ 
 geniousand difficult which we know. 
 
 Dicing is performed by means of limes, salts, 
 waters, leys, fermentations, macerations, &c. It 
 is certain that dicing is very ancient. The Chi- 
 nese pretend that they owe the discovery of it to- 
 Hoan-ti, one of their first sovereigns. 
 
 One of the most agreeable effects of the art of 
 diring, is the diversil) ing the colours of stufis. 
 There are two ways by which this agreeable vari- 
 ety is produced, cither by needle woik with 
 threads of diffi < rnt colours, on an uniform ground, 
 or by making use of yarn of different colours in 
 the weaving. 
 
 B 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTION . 
 
 The first of these inventions is attributed to the 
 Phrys^ians, a very ancient nation ; the idbt to the 
 Babylonians. Many things incline us to think 
 that these arts were known even in the times of 
 which we are now treating. The great progress 
 the-^e arts had made in the days of Moses> sup- 
 poses that they had been discovered long before. 
 It appears to me certain, then, that the arts of em- 
 broidery or weaving stuffs of various colours 
 wore invented in the ages we are now upon. But 
 I shall not insist on the manner in which they 
 were then practised, as I can say nothing satis- 
 factory upon that subject. 
 
 Another art nearly related to that of dieing, is 
 that of cleaning and whitening garments, when 
 they have been stained and sullied. Water alone 
 is not sufficient for this. We must communicate 
 to it by means of powders, ashes, &.c. that deter- 
 sive quality which is necessary to extract the 
 stains which they have contracted. Idle ancients 
 knew nothing of soap, but supplied the want of 
 it by various means. Job speaks of wash- 
 ing his garments in a pit with the herb borith. 
 This passage shows that the method of cleaning 
 garments in these ages, was by throwing them 
 into a pit full of water, impregnated with some 
 kind of asshes ; a method which seems to have 
 been very universal in these first times. Homer 
 describes Nausicaa and her companions washing 
 their garments, by treading them with their feet 
 in a pit. 
 
 With respect to the herb which Job calls borith, 
 I imagine it is salvvorth. This plant is very com* 
 mon in Syria, Judea, Egypt, and Arabia. I'bey 
 burn it« and pour water upon the ashes. This 
 
INTBODUCTION, 
 
 XI 
 
 water becomes impregnated with a very strong 
 lixivial bait proper ior taking stains or impurities 
 Out of wool or cloth. 
 
 The Greeks and Romans used several kinds of 
 earths and plants instead of soap. The savages 
 oi America make a kind of soap- water of certain 
 fruits, with which they wash their cotton beds 
 and other stuffs. In Iceland the women make a 
 ley (vf ashes and urine. The Persians employ 
 boles and marls. In many countries they find 
 eaahs ’vhich, dissolved in water, have the prop- 
 perty nf cleaning and whitening cloth and linen. 
 All these muhods might perhaps be practised in 
 the primitive ages The necessitie^s of ail man- 
 kind are much the same, and all climates present 
 them with nearh the same resources. It is the 
 art of applying them, v hich distinguishes polite 
 and civilized nations from savages and barbarians. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I. 
 
 ©F THE ART OF DIEING WOOL AND WOOLLEN 
 STUFFS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of Blue . . . . • . 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of the Garden- Woad or Pastel- Vat • • 29 
 
 The vat set to work . . . . ib. 
 
 IVIarks how to conduct a Vat regularly . 32 
 
 The opening of the Vat . . ; 36 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Of the Field Woad Vat • . ; 46 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Indigo Vat , . • . .49 
 
 Process of makir g the Indigo in America . ib. 
 Method of working the Indigo \ at . . 51 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The cold Vat with Urine , , . 55 
 
 The hot Vat ith Urine ... 57 
 
 Re- heating ot the Vat with Urine . . 59 
 
tOKTEXTS. 
 
 xm 
 
 CHAPTER Vr. 
 
 or the cold Indigo- Vat without Urine * • 
 
 Water of Old Iron - . . . 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Of the Method of dying Blue 
 The manufacturing of Pastel, or Garden 
 Woad in France ... * 
 
 Powder of Woad . ... 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Of Red . . . . . 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of scarlet of Grain 
 
 Preparation of the wool for scarlet of Grain 
 Liquor for the Kermes 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Of Flame coloured scarlet 
 
 Composition for Scarlet 
 
 Water for the Preparation of Scarlet 
 
 Reddening 
 
 Experiments on Cochineal Liquor 
 Violet withoui Blue 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Of C rimson . , , 
 
 Languedoc Crimson 
 Natural Crimson in Grain 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Scarlet of Gum Lacque 
 jB2 
 
 62 
 
 6a 
 
 65 
 
 89 
 
 91 
 
 94 
 
 95 
 
 96 
 
 97 
 
 107 
 109 
 1 2 
 li3 
 128 
 129 
 
 130 
 
 133 
 
 136 
 
 136 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Of the Coccus Polonicus, a colouring Insect 149 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Of the Red of Madder 
 Purple with Madder without Blue 
 
 Of Yellow 
 
 Of Brown 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Of Black . ... 
 
 Remarks on Black Die 
 
 CHAPTER XVHI. 
 Of the Mixture of Blue and Red 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Of the Mixture of Blue and Y eilow 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Of the Mixture of Blue and Brown 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 Of the Mixture of Bme and Black 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Of the Mixture of Red and Yellow 
 
 142 
 
 151 
 
 152 
 
 156 
 
 164 
 
 166 
 
 167 
 
 170 
 
 175 
 
 17S 
 
 176 
 
frOWTENT S. 
 
 XV 
 
 CHAPTER XXIIL 
 
 Of the Mixture oi' Red aiid Brown • 179 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Of the Mixture of YcUowand Brown • 180 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Of the Mixture ol Brown and Black . 181 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Of the Mixture of the primitive Colours taken 
 three b} three . . . . loi] 
 
 Variety of Carnation Colours . . 184 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Of the Manner of mixing Wool of different 
 Colours, for cloth, or mixed Colours, (Co- 
 lours mixed in the Loom ) . . 187 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Of the method of preparing the Pattern Felts, 
 or Mixture for an Essay . . • 189 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Of Polish Red 
 
 191 
 
 PART II. 
 
 OF THE LESSER DIE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of the dicing of Wool by the Lesser Die 19S 
 
 / 
 
xvi 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of the dicing of flock or Goat’s Hair ^ 
 
 AS'uiphuring of Wool 
 
 Uiie Theory of the Dissolution of flock 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Of the manner of using Archil 
 Basiard scarlet by Archil 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of Logwood or Campeachy • i 
 The Raven Grey, , . . 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of Saxon Blue and Green . , 
 
 Blue on Cloth, Stuff, or Yarn 
 Chymic for Green, 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Of Brazil Wood . . . , 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Of Fustic 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Of Roucou 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Of the Grains of Avignon 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Of Turmeric • - I 
 
 . IPS 
 . 202 
 . ib. 
 
 . 206 
 . 209 
 
 211 
 
 215 
 
 • 215 
 . 216 
 . 217 
 
 218 
 
 . 222 
 
 22S 
 
 225 
 
 225 
 
cox TENTS. xvii 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Of Silver Grey 227 
 
 Another excellent Silver Die . . 228 
 
 Instructions on the proof of dyed Wool and 
 . Woollen Stuffs , , . ib# 
 
 PART III. 
 
 ADDITIONAL ARTICLES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of Flowers . . . . . 237 
 
 Of Blue Flowers , . • . 238 
 
 Of Red and Yellow Flowers. • . 240 
 
 Of WhiteFlowers .... 242 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of Fruits .... 243 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Of Leaves • . • 247 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mr. Lewis’s History of Madder, and manner 
 of treating it - . , 250 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of Fustic , . . . 254 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Of Nephritic Wood . , . 254 
 
XViii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Mr. Ferguson’s History of Logwood as a 
 colouring Drug 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The process of Prussian Blue , 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of Alkanet Root . 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Of Alum ... 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Chymical History nf Saunders, and its dif- 
 ference from other Red \V(.ods 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 256 
 
 258 
 
 260 
 
 262 
 
 26S 
 
 OfVerdigrisc 
 
 265 
 
DIER’S ASSISTANT 
 
 IN THE 
 
 ART OF DYING. 
 
THE 
 
 DIER^S ASSISTANT. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I OF BLUE. 
 
 • WOOL and woollen stuffs of all kinds, are di- 
 ed blue without any other preparation, tiian weU 
 ting them well in iuke-warm water, squeezing them 
 well afterwards, or letting them drain ; this pre- 
 caution is necessary, that the colour may the nrore 
 easily insinuate itself into the body of the wool, 
 j that it may be equally dispersed throughout ; 
 nor is this to be omitted in any kind of colours, 
 whetlurr the subj xt be wool or cloth. 
 
 As to wool in the fleece, w hich is used in man. 
 iifltcturing cloth, as well inc mixt as other sorts, 
 i and which they are obliged to dye before they are 
 ' spun, they are prepared in another manner, viz. 
 
 ! they are^ scoured, and thereby divested of the nat- 
 ! Ural fat they had w hen on the body of the animal.^* 
 As this operation ib properly the i tier’s, and is 
 
 The natural fat adhering to the veool presence?, it ia the warehouse, an(f 
 also from modis. 
 
^6 
 
 • t 
 
 indespensable in. wool which is to be died before it 
 is spun, let the colour be what it will, 1 shall give 
 the proper process. 
 
 This operation is not every where alike, but 
 this is the method followed in the n>anu factory of 
 Audly in Normandy, where cloths are most beau- 
 tifully manufacuirecl. 
 
 A copper containing twenty pails is used for 
 this purpose ; they put twelve pails of water, and 
 four of urine, (which is generally fermented), the 
 copper is heated, and when the liquor is so hot as 
 to bear the hand withent sc Iding, ten or twelve 
 pounds of wool, that still contains its natinal fat, 
 are put in and left in the copper about a cjuarter of 
 an hour, stirring from time to tiiTie with sticks ; it 
 is then taken out and put to drain on a scray ; from 
 thence it is carried in a large square basket, and 
 placed in running water, two men stirring it tQ 
 and fro for a considerable time with long poles, till 
 it is entirely cleansed of its fat ; then it is taken 
 out and placed in a basket to drain ; while this wool 
 is thus preparing, a like quantity may be put into 
 the copper, and thus proceed till the whole is 
 scoured, if the liquor is too much wasted, fresh is 
 to be added, made up of one part urine and three 
 parts w^ater. They generally scour a bale ofw^ool 
 at once ; if it weighed 250\b in the fat, it gener- 
 ally loses 60ib, in scouring; but this diminution of 
 weight varies in proportion to the wool being more 
 or less scoured, and in proportion to the more or 
 less fat contained therein. Too much attention 
 cannot be paid to the scouring, as it is thereby bet- 
 ter disposed for the reception of the dye. 
 
 The fat, which is an oily transudation, and 
 slightly partarking of the quality of urine retained 
 
 / 
 
27 
 
 by the fleece, which is too thick to let it out, is so- 
 luble in water, consequently, as water alone could 
 not separate it, a fourth part of urine is put into the 
 copper, which must have been kept some days, in 
 order to separate its volatile salts by fermentation ; 
 
 (I mean that it is necessary this urine should be- 
 gin to acquire a strong smell) ; this volatile salt, 
 being an alkali forms with the fat a kind of soap, 
 which is always the result of all oils and alkalis 
 whatsoever mixed together. As soon as soap is 
 formed bv the combination of these two principles 
 it becomes soluble in water, and is consequently 
 easily carried off A proof that a true soap has 
 ,been formed in this operation, is, that the water 
 which carries it away, whitens as long asany fat is 
 separated from the wool : if there was a sufficient 
 quantity of fermented urine in the copper, tlie wool 
 will be well scoured ; if it wa^ not, all the fat would 
 not be changed into soap* and consequently the 
 w ool w ill remain greas/. l*he same operation 
 might be performed with fixed alkalis, as with 
 the lee of pot- ash or pearl ashes ; but as this lee 
 wc uid not only come dearer than urine, it might 
 also damage the w ool, i* the exact proportion w as 
 not a])plied. 1 am convinced by several expy^ri- ' 
 ments, that these caustic salts do easily destroy all 
 animal subs^ices, as w’ool, silk, &c. 
 
 I beg the reader may take notice, that though in 
 the sequel I do not mention this operation of scour- 
 ing, it is nevertheless necessary for all wool that 
 is to be died before it is spun, as also that it is ne- 
 cessary to w^et those that are spun, and stuffs of ail 
 kinds, that the colour may be the more equal^ 
 diffused throughout. 
 
28 
 
 Of the five primary colours mentioned in the 
 preface, two of them require a preparation given by 
 noncolouring ingredients, which, by the acidity 
 and fineness of their earth, dispose the pores of the 
 wool to receire the colour. This is called the 
 preparation ; it varies according to the nature of 
 shades and colours : the red, the yellow, and the 
 colours derived from them must be so treated ; 
 black must have a preparation peculiar to itself ; 
 blue and brown require none ; it is sufficient that 
 the wool be thoroughly scoured and wetted ; and 
 even for blue, it suffices to dip it into the vat, stir- 
 ring it well, and letting it remain, more or less, ac- 
 cording as the ground of the colour is wanted.. 
 For this reason, and also that many colours previa 
 ously require a blue shade to be given to the wool, 
 I shall begin with it, and give thereon the most ex- 
 act rules in my power. .It is an easy matter to 
 dye wool blue, when the vat is once prepared, but 
 it is not so easy to prepare the vat,, which is the 
 most difficultpartof the Dier’sart. In all the other 
 processes, it is sufficient to follow the simple ope* 
 rations transmitted from masters to apprentices. 
 Three ingredients are used in the blue die, viz. 
 garden- woad or pastel, the woad, and the indigo. 
 I shall give the preparation of each, beginning with 
 the garden woad. # 
 
29 
 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 9F THE GARDEN. WOAD, OR PASTEL-WOAB. 
 
 THE garden-woad is a plant cultivated in many 
 parts of Holland and France, and might be in Eng« 
 land or Ireland, to the great advantage of the hus- 
 bandman ; it is made up in bales, generally weigh- 
 ing from one hundred and fifty pounds to two 
 hundred ; it resembles little clods of dryed earth, 
 .interwoven with the fiiires of plants ; it is gather, 
 ed at a proper season, and laid up to rot, and then 
 made into small balls to dry. Several circumstan- 
 ^ ces are to be observed in this preparation; on this 
 you may see the regulations of Mons. Colbert on 
 Dies ; the best prepared comes from the diocese . 
 of Aiby in France. 
 
 The vat set to work, 
 
 A copper as near as possible to the vat is filled 
 with water that has stood for some time, or, if such 
 Tv^ater is not at hand, a handful of Dier’s woad or 
 hay is added to the water, with eight pounds of 
 crubt of fat madder. If the old liciuor from a vat 
 that has been used in dicing from^ madder can be 
 procured, it will save the madder, and produce a 
 better effect. 
 
 The copper being filled, and the fire lighted 2 l^ 
 bout three iu the morning, it must boil an hour and 
 a quaiier, (s< me diers boil it from two hours and 
 . a half to three); it is then conveyed by a spout ia- 
 
 C 2 
 
50 
 
 to the woad vat, in which has been pr^ionsly put 
 a peck of wheaten bran. Whilst the boiling* li- 
 quor is emptying into the vat, the balls of woad 
 must be put one after another into the vat, that 
 they may be the easier broken, raked and stirred ; 
 this is to be continued till all the hot liquor from 
 the copper is run into the vat, which, when little 
 more than half full, must be covered with cloths 
 somewhat larger than its circumference, so that 
 it may be covered as close as possible, and left in 
 this state for four hours. Then it must be aired, 
 that is, uncovered to be raked, and fresh air let in 
 it ; and to each bale of woad, a good measure of 
 ware flung in ; this is a concealed name for lime 
 that has been slacked. This measure is a kind of 
 wooden shovel, which serves to measure the lime 
 grossly ; it is five inches broad and three inches 
 and a half long, containing near a good handful ; 
 the lime being scattered in, and the vat well raked 
 it must be again covered, leaving a little space of 
 about four fingers open, to let in air. Four hours 
 after, she must be raked, without serving her with 
 lime ; the cover is then put on, leaving as before, 
 an opening for the air ; in this manner she must 
 be let to stand for two or three hours. Then she 
 may be raked well again, if she is not ^et come ta 
 work ; that is if she does not cast bltfe at her sur* 
 face, and that she works or ferments still, which 
 may be known by raking and plunging with the 
 flat of the rake in the vat ; being well raked, she 
 is to remain' still for one hour and a half more, 
 carefully observing whether she casts blue. She 
 is then to be served with water, and the quantity 
 of indigo judged necessary is to be put in ; it is 
 commonly used in a liquid state, the full of a dye;* 
 
1 
 
 31 
 
 house kettle for each bale of woad ; the vat being 
 filled wiihiii six finger breadths of her brim, is to 
 be raked and covered as before ; an hour after fib 
 ling her with water she must be served with lime 
 viz. two measures of lime for each bale of woad, 
 giving more or less according to the qualuy of the 
 w'oad, and what may be judged it will spend or 
 take of lime. 
 
 I hope the reader will excuse my plainness j 
 this treatise being wrote for the dier, 1 must speak 
 the language he is used to ; the philosopher will 
 easily substitute proper terms, which perhaps the 
 workman would rot understand. There are 
 kinds of woad readier prepared than others, so 
 that general and precise rules cannot be given on 
 this head. It must also be remarked, that the 
 lime is not to be put into the vat till she has been 
 well raked. 
 
 The vat being again covered, three hours after 
 a pattern must be put in, and kept entirely cover ^ 
 ed for an hour ; it is then taken out to judge, if 
 she be fit to work. If she is, the pattern ttiiist 
 come out green, and on being exposed a minute 
 to the air, acquire a blue colour. If the vat gives 
 a good green to the pattern, she must be raked, 
 served w ith one or two measures of lime and cov- 
 ered. 
 
 Three hours after, she must be raked, and ser- 
 ved with what lime may be judged necessary ; she 
 is then to be covered, and one hour and a half af- 
 ter, the vat being pitched or settled, a pattern is put 
 in, which must remain an hour to see the effects of 
 the woad. If the pattern is of a fine green, and 
 that it turns to a deep blue in the air, another must 
 fee dipt in to be certain of the effect of the yat. If 
 
32 
 
 tills pattern is deep enough in colour, let the vat be 
 filled up with hot water, or if at hand, with old li- 
 quor of madder, and rake her well Should the 
 vat still want lime, serve her with such a quantity 
 as you may judge sufficient by the smell and hand^ 
 ling. This done, she must be again covered, and 
 one hour after put in your stuffs, and make your 
 overture. 7'his is the term used for the first work- 
 ing of wool or stufts in anew vat. 
 
 Marks by which you may know how to conduct a 
 vat regularly^ 
 
 A vat is fit to work when the grounds arc of a 
 green brown, when it changes on its being taken 
 out of the vat, when the flurry is of a fine Turkish 
 or deep blue, and when the pattern, which has 
 been dipt in it for an hour comes out of a fine deep 
 grass green. When she is fit to work, the bever 
 has a good appearance, clear and reddish, and the 
 drops and edges that are formed under the rake m 
 lifting up the bever are brown. Examining the 
 appearance of the bever, is lifting up the liquor 
 with the hand or rake, to see what colour the liquor 
 of the vat has under its surface. The sediment or 
 grounds must change colour (as has been already 
 observed) at being taken out of the bever, and 
 must grow brown by being exposed to the exter- 
 nal air. The bever or liquor must feel neither too 
 rough nor too greasy, and must not smell cither of 
 lime or lee. These are the distinguibiiing marks 
 of a vat that is fit to work. 
 
33 
 
 Mow to know when a Fat is cracked hy too ^reat or 
 
 too small a quantity oj Lime ; extremes which 
 
 must he avoided. 
 
 When more lime has been put in than was suf- 
 ficient for the woad, it is easily perceived by dip- 
 ping in a pattern, which, instead of turning to a 
 beautiful grass green, is only daubed with a steely 
 green. The grounds do not change, the vat gives 
 scarcely any flurry, and the bever has a strong o- 
 dour of quick lime, or its lees. 
 
 This error is rectified by thinning the vat, in 
 which the diers differ ; some use tartar, others 
 bran, of which they throw a bushel into the vat, 
 more or less, in proportion to the quantity of lime 
 used, others a pail of urine. In some places a 
 large iron chafing dish is made use of, long enough 
 to reach from the ground to the top of the vat, this 
 chafing-dish or furnace has a grate at a foot dis- 
 tance from its bottom, and a funnel coming from 
 under this grate, and ascending to the top of the 
 chafing-dish, which is to give air to, and kindle 
 the coals which are placed on the grate. This fur- 
 nace is sunk in the vat, near to the surface of the 
 grounds, so as not to touch them, and is fastened 
 with iron bars to prevent its rising. By this meth- 
 od the lime is raised to the surface of the liquor, 
 which gives an opportunity to take oflf with a sieve 
 what is thought superfluous ; but when this is ta- 
 ken out, the ne( essary quantity of ware must be 
 carefully restored to the vat. Others again thin 
 the vat with pearl ashi s, or tartar boiled in stale 
 urine ; but the best cure, when she is too hardVis 
 to put in bran and madder at discretion ; and if 
 she be but a little too hard, it will suffice to let her 
 
34 
 
 remain quiet, four, five, or six hours, or more^ 
 puttin«' in only two hats full of bran, and three or 
 four pounds of madder, wbicli arc to be lightly 
 strewed on the vat, after which it is to be covered. 
 Four or five hours after, she is to be raked and 
 plunged, and according to the colour, that the fur- 
 ry which arises from this motion, assumes and im- 
 prints on the whole liquor, a fresh proof is made 
 by putting in a pattern. 
 
 If she is cracked, and casts blue only when she 
 is cold, she must be left undisturbed, sometimes 
 whole days without raking ; wdien she begins to 
 strike a tolerable pattern, her liquor must be re- 
 heated or warmed ; then commonly the lime, which 
 seemed to have lost all power to excite a fermen- 
 tation, acquires new strength, and prevents the vat 
 from yielding its die so soon. If she is to be has- 
 tened, some bran and madder are to be thrown on, 
 as also one or two baskets of new woad, which 
 helps the liquor that has been reheated to spend its 
 lime. 
 
 Care must be taken to putpatternsin each hour, 
 in order to judge, by the green colour which they 
 acquire , how the lime is worked on. B) these 
 trials she may be coi^ducted with more exactness, 
 for when ojice a vat is cracked, by too great or too 
 small a quantity of lime, she is brought to bear 
 with much more difficulty. If while you are en- 
 deavouring to bring her to w'ork, the bever grow’s 
 a little too cold, it ust be heated by taking off 
 some of the clear, and instead thereof, adding 
 some warm water ; for w hen thr bever is cold, 
 the w’oad spends little or no lime ; when it is too 
 hot, It retards the action of the w^oacl, and prevents 
 it from spending the lime ; therefore it is better to 
 
55 
 
 wait a little, than to hasten the vats to come to 
 work when they are cracked, A vat is known 
 not to have been sufficiently served with lime, and 
 that she is cracked, when the bever gives no flur- 
 ry, but instead lilt reol gives only a scum, and 
 when she is plu ng</d or raked, she only works, 
 ferments and hisses, (I’nis noise is made by a great 
 number of air bubbles that burst as soon as they 
 form,) the liquor h is also the smell of a common 
 sewer or sink, or rotten eggs ; it is harsh and dry 
 to the touch ; the grounds when takeji out do not 
 change, w hich generally happens when a vat is 
 cracked for want oi' lime. This accident is chief- 
 ly to be ajjprehended w hen a vat is opened and a 
 di]) made in her ; for if her state has not been 
 looked into, both in regard to the smell as well as 
 raking arid plunging, and that the stuffs be impru- 
 dently put in wlieii the woad has spent its lime, 
 it is to be feared the vat may be lost ; for the stuffs 
 being put in, the small quantity of lime that still 
 remains in a stale to act, sticks to them, the bever 
 is divested of it, and tl\c stuffs only blotted ; these 
 must be immediately taken out, and a quick rem- 
 edy applied to the vat, to preserve the remaining 
 part of the die, which is done bv putting in three 
 or four OiCasures of lime, more or less, according 
 as the vat is cracked, and that without raking her 
 bottom. 
 
 It is also to be observed, that if in raking and 
 plunging the fermentation ceases, and the bad 
 smell change, it is then to be supposed that the 
 bever or liquor alone has sufiered, and that the 
 grounds are not yet in want, \\ hen the ferment- 
 ation is in part or totally abated, and the bever has 
 a smell of lime, and feels soft to the touch, the vat 
 
36 
 
 is to be covered and left at rest ; and if the flurry- 
 still remains on the vat an hour and a half, a pat- 
 tern is to be put in, which must be taken out one 
 hour after, and you are to be guided according to 
 the green ground it will take. But generally vats 
 that are thus cracked, are not so soon brought to 
 a state fit for dicing. 
 
 The Opening of the Vat. 
 
 The vat being come to work, the cross must 
 be let down, and about thirty ells of cloth, or the 
 equivalent of its weight of wool well scoured, 
 (which is first intended to be died of a Persian 
 blue to make a black afterwards,) having returned 
 this stirring several times, which must have al- 
 ways been covered v/ith liquor, the cloth must be 
 twisted on the rings fastened to the jack at the top 
 of the vat ; if it be wool, it is to be dipt w ith a net, 
 which wdll serve to wTing it : the cloth must be 
 opened by its lists to air it, and to cool the green, 
 that is, to make it lose the green colour it had com- 
 ing out of the vat, and take the bluci, 1 1 this cloth 
 or wool was not deep enough for a mazarine blue 
 by the first dipping, it must get anodier, by re- 
 turning into the va. the end of the piece of cloth 
 wdtich first came out; and accord'mgto the strength 
 of the woad, you must give to tiiis striking two 
 or three returns, as may be thought nccessar} for 
 the intensity of the blue required. If the wo .d be 
 good, such as the true L’Aurag.as is commonly, 
 after taking out the first stirring, a second may be 
 put in at this first opening of the vat. After mak- 
 ing this opening, which is also called ihe fir.it rak- 
 ing, the vat is to be again raked, and sei veu wiili 
 
Ume at discretion, observing that. It has the smell 
 and touch conformable to what has been laid down 
 before, and taking notice, that in proportion as 
 the die diminishes, so does the strength of the 
 woad. 
 
 If the vat be in good order at the first opening, 
 three or four stirrings ina}' be made, and the next 
 day, two or three more, only observing not to hur- 
 ry her, or to work her as strong as at first. That 
 the vat may turn to as much profit as possible for 
 the shades of blue ; first, all stuffs iniended to be 
 black, are died ; then the kings blue ; after these 
 the green brown : the violets and Turkish blues 
 are commonly done in the last rakings of the sec- 
 ond day of the opening. The third day, if the 
 vat appears much diminished, she must be filled 
 with hot water within four inches of the brim. 
 This is called filling the vat 
 
 The latter end of the week, the light blues are 
 made, and on Saturday night, having raked the 
 vat, she is to be served a little more than the pre- 
 ceding day, that she may keep till Monday. 
 
 Monday morning the bever is put on the fire, 
 
 I by passing it from the vat into the copper by a 
 I trough, which rests on both ; this clear bever is 
 i emptied to the grounds, and when it is ready to 
 ; boil it must be returned into the vat, raking the 
 ‘ grounds, as the hot liquor falls from the trough ; 
 at the same time may be added a kettle f ull of pre- 
 pared indigo. 
 
 When the vat is filled within four inches of the 
 i brim, and well raked, she must be covered, and 
 I two hours after a pattern put in, which must re- 
 \ main not more than an hour ; lime must be added 
 I according to the shade of the green, which this 
 
38 
 
 proof pattern shall have taken, and at the expiration 
 of an hour or two, if the vat has not suiFered, the 
 stuff is to be put in ,* having conducted it between 
 two waters for about half an hour, it is wrung, 
 and a dip is again given to it, as was done in the 
 new vat. This vat heated again, is conducted in 
 the same manner, that is, three rakings are made 
 the first day, observing at each raking, whether 
 she want lime ; for in this case, the quantity judg- 
 ed necessary must be given. 
 
 Blue made of woad alone, according to the 
 opinion of some prejudiced in favour of old cus. 
 toms, is much better than that which the woad 
 gives with the addition of indigo. But then this 
 blue would be much dearer, because woad gives 
 much kss die than indigo, and it has been found 
 by repeated experience, that four pounds of fine 
 indigo from Guatimala, produced as much as a 
 bale of Albigeois woad or pastel ; and five pounds 
 as much as a bale from L’Auragais, which gene- 
 rally weighs two hundred and ten pounds. So the 
 using of the indigo with the woad is a great saving, 
 as one vat with indigo shall die as much as three 
 without it. 
 
 Indigo is generally put into hew vats after the 
 Woad yields its blue, and a quarter or half after 
 she is to be served with lime ; as this solution of 
 indigo is already impregnated with some of its 
 dissolution, the lime must be given with a more 
 sparing hand than where the woad is used alone. 
 At the re-heating, the indigo is put in on Satur.. 
 day night, that it may incorporate with the bever, 
 and that it may serve as garnish by its lime. The 
 indigo that is brought from Guatimala in Ameri- 
 ca is the best; it is brought over in the shape of 
 
39 
 
 small stones, and of a deep blue ; it must be of 
 a deep violet colour within and when rubbed on 
 the nail, have a copper hue ; the lightest is the 
 best. It is necessary to observe, that for the bet- 
 ter conducting of a woad vat, and to prevent acci- 
 dents, a manufacturer ought to have a good woad** 
 man, this is the name given to the journeyman 
 dier, wdiose principal business is to conduct the 
 woad ; practice has taught him more than this 
 treatise can furnish. 
 
 I shall make some rejections necessary to attain 
 a more perfect knowledge of this process. The 
 woad vat must never be re- heated, but when fit 
 for working ; that is, she must have neither too 
 much nor too little lime, but be in such a state as 
 only to want healing to come to work. It is 
 known she has too much lime (as has been before 
 observed) by the quick smell ; on the contrar}% a 
 want is known by the sweetish smell, and by the 
 scum which rises on the surface by raking, being 
 of a paie blue. 
 
 Care must be taken when a vat is intended to be 
 rc-heated, not to serve her with lime in the evening 
 (unless in great want of it) for if she was too 
 much served with it, she might next day be too 
 hard, as the diers term it ; for by heating her 
 again, a greater action is given to the lime, and 
 makes her spend it the quicker. Fresh indigo 
 is commonly put into the vat, each time she is re- 
 heated, in proportion to the quantity to be died. It 
 would be needless to put in any, if there was 
 but little work to do, or only light colours want- 
 ed. It was not permitted by the ancient regu- 
 lations of France, to put more than pounds 
 of indigo to each bale of woad, because the co- 
 
40 
 
 lour of the indigo was thought not lasting, and 
 that it was only the great quantity of woad which 
 could secure and render it good ; but it is now 
 ascertained, both by the experiments of Monsieur 
 Dufay, and those which I have since made, that 
 the colour of indigo^ even used alone, is full as 
 good, and resists a’s much the action of the air, 
 sun, and rain, as that of pastel or woad. 
 
 When a vat has been heated two or three times, 
 and a good part has been worked off, the same 
 liquor is often preserved, but part of the grounds 
 are taken out, which is replaced by new woad ; 
 (this is called vamping ;) the quantity cannot be 
 prescribed on this occasion, for it depends upon 
 the work the dier has to do. Practice will teach 
 all that can be wished for on this head. There 
 are diers who preserve liquor in their vats several 
 years, renewing them with woad and indigo in 
 proportion as they work them ; others empty the 
 vat entirely, and change the liquor when the vat 
 has been heated six or seven times, and that she 
 gives no more die. A series of practice alone 
 will show which of these is preferable. It is 
 however more reasonable to think, that by renew- 
 ing it now and then, more lively and beautiful co^ 
 lours may be obtained, and the best diers follow 
 this method. 
 
 In Hc/iland tliey have vats which do not require 
 to be so often heated, Mr. Van Robbais had 
 some of these made some years since for their 
 royal manufactory at Abbeville. The upper parts 
 of these vats, to the height of three feet, are of 
 copper, and the rest lead. They are also sur- 
 rounded with a small brick wall, at seven or eight 
 inches from the copper ; in this interval embers 
 
41 
 
 are put, which keep up the heat of the vat a long 
 time, so that she remains several days together in 
 a condition to be worked, without the trouble of 
 heating her over again. These vats are much 
 more costly than the others, but they are very 
 convenient, especially for the dipping of very 
 light colours ; because the vat is always fit to 
 work, though she be very weak ; this is not the 
 case of the others, which generally make the co- 
 lour a great deal deeper than required, unless they 
 are set to cool considerably, and then it happens 
 that the colour is not so good, nor has it the same 
 brightness. To make these light colours in com- 
 mon vats, it is better to work some purposely that 
 are strong with woad and weak of indigo ; such 
 give their colours slower, and light colours arc 
 made with greater ease. 
 
 As to the vats made after the Dutch fashion, 
 and which have already been mentioned, the four 
 which Mr. Van Robbais has in his manulactory, 
 are six feet in depth, of which three feet and' a 
 half in the upper part are copper, and the two 
 feet and a half of the bottom are lead. The di- 
 ameter at the bottom is four feet and a half, and 
 that at the top fi\ e feet four inches. 
 
 To return to the observations on heating the 
 common vats. If the vat was heated ^vhcn crack- 
 ed, that is, when she has not quite lime enough, 
 she would turn in the heating without being per- 
 ceived, and perchance be entirelv lost, as the 
 heat would soon finish the spending of the lime, 
 which was in too small a quantity. Jf this is per- 
 ceived in time, it must be helped by pouring, 
 it back into the vat withou^smore heating ; then 
 feed her with lime, and not heat her till she is 
 come to work. D 2^ 
 
 V 
 
42 
 
 On the re-heating, some of the grounds must 
 be put into the copper with the liquor or bever ; 
 and great care must be taken not to boil it, be- 
 cause the volatile necessary in this operation would 
 evaporate. There are some diers, who, in heat- 
 ing their vats, do not put in the indigo immedi- 
 ately after the liquor is poured from the copper 
 into the vat, but wait some hours till they see her 
 come to work : this they do as a precaution, lest 
 the vat should fail, and the indigo be lost ; but by 
 this method, the indigo does not so freely yield 
 its colour, as they are obliged to work as soon as 
 she is fit, that she may not cool, so that the in- 
 digo, not being entirely dissolved, nor altogeth-. 
 er incorporated, has no effect. It is therefore bet- 
 ter to put it into the vat at the same time the 
 liquor is cast in, and rake her well after. If the 
 vat is heated over again without her coming to 
 work, she must not be scummed as in the com- 
 mon heatings, as the indigo w^ould be carried off 
 thereby, whereas, when she has worked, this 
 scum is formed of the earthy part of the indL 
 go and woad, united with a portion of lime. 
 When too much lime is put into a vat, you must 
 w^ait for her till such time as she has spent it, or 
 it may be accellerated by heating it, or by put- 
 ting in ingredients which destroy in part the ac- 
 tion of the lime, such as tartar, vinegar, honey^ 
 bran, some mineral acid, or any matter that will be- 
 come sour ; but all these correctors wear out the 
 die of the indigo and woad, so that the best 
 method is, to let it spend of its own accord. 
 A vat is not commonly fed with lime, but on 
 the first, second, ai^^d sometimes the third day, 
 and it is also remarked, riot to dip the violets, pur? 
 
43 
 
 pies, or any other wool or stuffs which have pre- 
 viously a colour that may be easily damaged 
 the surxceding day after its being fed with lime, 
 as it is then too active, it dulls the first colour ; 
 the fifth or sixth day the crimson may be dipt 
 to give them a violet, and the yellows for green ; 
 following this rule, the colours will always be 
 bright. 
 
 W hen a vat has been re heated, she must come • 
 to work before she is served with lime ; if this 
 was done a little too soon, she must be cracked ; 
 the same thing would happen if some of the 
 grounds were put into the copper. The most cL 
 fectual method in this case is to let her rest before 
 she is worked, until she comes to, wlticli often 
 happens in two, three or four hours, and some- 
 times a day. By using light or weak lime, she 
 grows too hard ; because this light lime remains 
 in the liquor, and does not incorporate with the 
 grounds. This is known by the strong smell of 
 the liquor, and on the contrary the grounds have a 
 sweetish smell, whereas the smell ought to be e- 
 qual in both. The best way then is, to let it spend 
 itself, by raking her often, in order to mix the 
 lime with the grounds, until the smell of the vat is 
 restored, and the flurry becomes blue. 
 
 A w'oad vat may be set without the addition of 
 indigo, but then she yields but little colour, and 
 only dies a small quantity of wool or stuffs ; for 
 one pound of indigo^ as has already been ol^serv- 
 cd, affords as much die as fifteen or sixteen pounds 
 of woad. I set one of this kind to try the qualities 
 of woad by itself, and I could not find that mdigo 
 was any way inferior to it, either for the beamy or 
 solidity of the colour. As lime is always used^" 
 
44 
 
 and sometimes sour liquors, in the setting of a vat, 
 this is the proper place to speak of their prepara- 
 tion. 
 
 Preparation of Lime. 
 
 That the lime may be properly slacked for the 
 dier’s use several pieces are immersed in water, 
 one after another, and when each has remained till 
 it begins to crackle, they are taken out to put in 
 others, and after this manner they are cast into an 
 empty vessel, where the lime finishes slacking, 
 and reduces itself to powder, considerably aug- 
 menting its bulk ; it is afterwards sifted through 
 a canvass, and kept in a dry hogshead. 
 
 Sour liquors are not only necessary in some cir- 
 cumstances of setting a woad vat, but also in some 
 of the preparations given to wool and stuffs previ- 
 ous to their being died ; they are prepared after 
 #ie following manner : 
 
 Preparation of sour Liquors. 
 
 A copper of the size required is filled with riv~ 
 €T water, and when it boils, it is flung into 'a hogs- 
 head, where a sufficient quantity of bran has been 
 put, and stirred with a stick three or four limes a 
 day. The proportion of bran and water is not 
 very material ; I have made a good liquor by put- 
 ting three bushels of bran into a vessel containing 
 two hundred and four score quarts. Four or five 
 days after, this water becomes sour, and conse- 
 quently fit for use in all cases, where it will not be 
 detrimental to the preparations of wool that are in- 
 dependent of dying. 
 
45 
 
 For it may happen, that wool in the fleece which 
 has been died in a liquor w'here too great a quan- 
 tity of sour water has been put, will be harder to 
 spin, as the sediment of the bran forms a sort of 
 starch that glues the fibres of the wool, arid pre- 
 vents them from forming an even thread. I must 
 here take notice of the bad custom of letting sour 
 liquors remain in copper-vessels, as 1 have seen in 
 some eminent die- houses ; for this liquor being 
 an acid, corodes the copper, and if it remains long 
 enough to take in a portion of this metal, it will 
 cause a defect both in the die and in the quality of 
 the stuff : in the die, because the dissolved copper 
 gives a greenish cast ; in the quality of the stuff, 
 because the copper dissolved preys on all animal 
 substances. The diers are often ignorant of the 
 cause of these defects. 
 
 I flatter myself to have omitted no essential 
 point on the woad vat : if any difficulties or acci- 
 dents, which I have not mentioned, are found in 
 the practice they are not considerable, and an easy 
 remedy will be found by those who make them- 
 selves familiar with the working pari. 
 
 The readers who have no idea of this work, may 
 think me too prolix, and find repetitions ; but 
 those who intend to make use of what I have taught 
 in this chapter, will perhaps reproach me for not 
 having said enough on the subject. 
 
 Those that read this chapter with attention, will 
 not be surprised that the master-piece for appren.. 
 tices lo diers of the great die, is^ to set the woad 
 vat and work her. 
 
46 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 0I^ THE FIELD WOAD VAT. 
 
 I HAVE but little to say on this woad vat, dif- 
 ferent from that which has been related of the pas- 
 tel or garden woad. The woad is a plant 
 vated in Normandy, and prepared after the same 
 manner the garden w^oad is in Languedoc. The 
 method of cultivating it may be seen in the French 
 “ General Instructions on Dies,’* of the 28th of 
 March, 1671; from the article 259 to 288, where 
 it treats of the culture and preparation of the pastel 
 and woad. The woad vat is set at work after the 
 same manner as that of pastel ; all the difference is 
 that it has less strength and yields less die. There 
 follows a description of the woad vat, which I car- 
 ried on in small, and in a bath heat, similar to that 
 of the pastel in the foregoing chapter. 
 
 I placed in a copper a small vessel containing 
 fifty quarts, and filled two-thirds with a liquor 
 made of river water, one ounce of madder and a 
 little weld, putting in at the same time a good 
 handful of wheaten bran and five pounds of woad. 
 The vat was well raked and covered ; it was then 
 five in the evening ; it was again raked at seven, 
 nine, twelve, two and four o’clock ; the woad was 
 then working, that is, the vat was slowly coming 
 to work, as I have already related of that of the 
 pastel. 
 
 Pietty large air bubbles formed themselves, but 
 in a small quantity, and had scarcely any colour. 
 
She was then served with two oiinces of Uine and 
 raked. At five o’clock a pattern w’as put in ; 
 which was taken out at six, raking hei ; this pat- 
 tern began to have some colour ; another was put 
 in at seven, at eight she was raked, and the pattern 
 came out prett\ bright ; an ounce of indigo was 
 then put in ; at niiiC another pattern, at ten she 
 was raked, and one ounce oflime was added be- 
 cause she began to have a sweetish smell ; at 
 eleven a pattern, at twelve she was raked ; it 
 was thus continued till five, then three oun- 
 ces of indigo were put in, at six a pattern, at 
 seven she was raked. It would then have been 
 proper to have served her with water, as she was 
 at that time perfectly come to work, the pattern 
 that w^as taken out being very green, and turning 
 of a bright blue. But besides that I was fiuigued, 
 having sat up the whole night, I chose rather to 
 put her back to the next day, to see her efiect by 
 day-light; and for that purpose, I put one ounce 
 of lime, which kept her up till nine in the morn- 
 ing : from time to time patterns were put in, the 
 last that was taken out was very beautiful ; she 
 was served with a liquor composed of water, and 
 a small handful cf bran. She w^as raked, and 
 patterns put in from hour to hour ; at five she 
 was come to work ,* she was afterwards served 
 with lime, and raked to preserve her till she was 
 to be reheated. 
 
 Some time after I set another with the woad 
 alone without indigo, that I might be able to 
 judge of the lasting of the die of the woad, which 
 upon trial, I found to be as good as the pastel or 
 garden woad. Thus all the superiorly the pas- 
 
48 
 
 tel has on the woad, is, that the latter yields less 
 die than the former. 
 
 The little varieties that may be observed in 
 setting these different vats at work, prove, that 
 there are many circumstances in these processes 
 that are not absolutely necessary. It appears to 
 me, that the only important point, and that to 
 which the greatest attention is to be given, is in the 
 conducting the fermentation with care, and not 
 to serve her with lime, but w^hen judged ne- 
 cessary by the indications I have laid down. As 
 to the indigo being put it at twice, or altogetlier, 
 a little sooner or later, it appears very indifferent. 
 The same may be said of the w^eld, which I made 
 use of twice, and suppressed the two other times, 
 and of pearl-ashes, which I added in a small quan- 
 tity in the small pastel vat, and suppressed in the 
 woad vatr In short, I believe, and it appears to 
 me to a demonstration, that the greatest regard is 
 to be had to the proper distribution of the lime, 
 throughout the whole course of the working of 
 the vats, either to set them at work, or to re-heat 
 them. I must also add, that when a woad vat is 
 set to work, she cannot be too often inspected 
 into to know her state; for if there are some that 
 are backward (which is attributed to the weakness 
 of the w^oad) there are also others that very quick- 
 ly come to work. I have seen a middling one 
 of seventy pounds of woad, poisoned ; beoc use 
 the woad man neglected to inspect her as oiten as 
 she required, and she had been two h(.urs fit to 
 work before he discovered it ; ihe grounds v/cre 
 entirely come up to the surface of the liquor, and 
 the whole had a very sour smell ; ii was not pos • 
 sible to bring her back, and they were obliged to 
 
49 
 
 fiing her away, as she would in a short time have 
 contracted a ibeted smell. The retarding of the 
 action of the vat may also proceed from the tem- 
 perature of the air ; for the vat cools a great deal 
 sooner in winter than in summer ; therefore it 
 becomes necessary to watch it attentively, though 
 commonly they are fourteen or fifteen hours be- 
 fore they come to work. 
 
 1 shall endeavour to explain, in the sequel, how 
 the colouring part of this ingredient, so necessa- 
 ry in dicing, displays itself ; but I must first of 
 all speak of vats which are prepared from in- 
 digo, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE INDIGO VAT. 
 
 Process of making i n d i g o m America; 
 
 INDIGO is the fecula of a plant named nlll or 
 anil ; to make it, three vats are placed the one 
 over the other, in form of a cascade : in the first, 
 called the steeper, the plant is put in with its leaves, 
 bark and flowers,^ and filled with w ater ; some 
 ^ time alter, the whple ferments, the w’ater grows 
 intensely hot, thickens, aiid becomes of a blue 
 colour bordering on the violet ; the plant, accord- 
 ing to the opinion ofsorr-e, deposing all itssahs,and 
 according to others, all its substance. In this state, 
 
 1 of Sargussa, near tlie town of AmadabaC the Tndian? only 
 
 . ose the leaves of the Anil; they fling away the rest of the plant. The best 
 5 incligo coruee from thence. 
 
 ; E 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
50 
 
 the cocks of the steeper are turned, and all the water 
 let out stained with the colouring parts of the plant 
 into the second, called the beater ; because this wa- 
 ter is beat by a mill or a machine that has long 
 sticks, to condense the substance of the indigo, 
 and precipitate it to the bottom. By this means j 
 the water becomes clear and colourless, like com- 
 mon water ; then the cocks are turned, that the 
 ’ivater may run off from the surface of the blue 
 sediment ; after which, other cocks are turned 
 that are at the bottom, that all the fecula may fall 
 into the third vat called the reposer, for it is there 
 the indigo remains to dry ; it is then taken out 
 to be made into cakes, &c. See on this subject, 
 Histoire des Antilles^ pare le Pere Labat. 
 
 At Pondicherry, on the coast of Coromandel, 
 there are two kinds of indigo, the one a great deal 
 finer than the other ; the best is seldom used but 
 to lustre their silks, the inferior in dicing. They 
 augment in price, according to their quality ; 
 there is some which cost from 15 pagodas the bar I 
 {which weighs 48 pounds) to 200 pagodas. The 
 most beautiful is prepared nigh Agra, There is 
 also a very good kind that comes from Masilupa- 
 tan and Ay anon, where the East- India company 
 have a factory. At Chandernagor it is called nil 
 when it is prepared and cut to pieces. The indi- 
 go of Java is the best of all ; it is also the dearest, 
 and consequently few diers use it. Good indigo 
 ought to be so light as to float on the water ; — ! 
 the more it sinks, the more it may be sus-. 
 pected of being adulterated by a mixture of 
 earth, cinders, or pounded slates. It must be of 
 a deep blue, bordering on the violet, brilliant, live- , 
 ly, and shining ; it must be finer within, and ap* 
 pear of a shining hue. Its .goodness is tried ^ ] 
 
51 
 
 dissolving it in a glass of water ; if it be un mix- 
 ed and well prepared, it will dissolve entirely ; if 
 sophisticated, the foreign matter will sink to the 
 bottom. Another method of trying it is by burn- 
 ing ; good indigo burns entirely away, and when 
 adulterated, the mixture remains after the indigo 
 is consumed. 
 
 Powdered indigo is much more subject to adul- 
 teration than that which is in cakes ; for it is a 
 difficult matter that sand, powdered slates, &c. 
 should unite so as not to form together in different 
 places, layers of different matters j and, in this 
 case, by breaking the lump indigo, it is easily dis- 
 covered. 
 
 Method of Working the Indigo Fat. 
 
 There are several methods of preparing the in- 
 digo vat ; 1 tried all those I knew, and they all 
 succeeded. I shall describe them after the most 
 exact manner, beginning with that which is the 
 most in use, and almost the only one known at 
 Paris. 
 
 It is a vat which is about five feet in height, two 
 feet in diameter, and becomes narrower towards the 
 bottom ; she is surrounded with a wall that leaves 
 a space round her, which serves to hold embers . 
 In a vat of this size, two pounds of indigo may at 
 least be used, and five or six for the greatest pro- 
 portion. To set a vat of tw^o pounds of indigo in 
 such a vessel that may contain about fourscore 
 quarts, about sixty quarts of river water are set to 
 boll in a copper for the space of half an hour, with 
 two pounds of pearl ashes, two ounces of madder, 
 and a handful of bran ; during this, the indigo is 
 prepared after the following manner ; 
 
52 
 
 Two pounds of it are weighed out, and cast in- 
 to a pail of cold water to separate the earthy parts. 
 The water is afterwards poured off by inclination, 
 and the indigo well ground ; a little warm water 
 is put into it, shaking it from side to side ; it is 
 poured by inclination into another vessel ; what 
 remains is still ground, and fresh water put in to 
 carry off the finest parts, and thus continued till 
 all the indigo is reduced to a powder, fine enough 
 to be raised by the water. This is ail the prep- 
 aration it undergoes. Then the liquor which has 
 boiled in the copper with the grounds are pour- 
 ed into the high and narrow vat, as likewise the 
 indigo ; the whole is then raked with a small 
 rake, the vat is covered, and embers placed round j 
 her. If this work w^s begun in the afternoon, a 
 few embers are added at night ; the same is re- 
 peated next day morning and night. I'he vat is 
 also lightly raked twice the second day ; the third 
 j^ay, theembers are continued to be put round, to 
 keep up the heat of the vat ; she is raked twuce in 
 the day : about this time, a shining copper co- 
 loured skin begins to appear on the surface of the 
 ♦ liquor, and appears as if it was broken or cracked 
 in several places. The fourth day, by continuing 
 the fire this skin or pelicle is more formed and 
 closer; the flurry, wdwch rises in raking the vat, 
 appears, and the liquor becomes of a deep green. 
 
 When the liquor is in this state, it is a sign that 
 it is time to fill the vat. For this purpose a fresh 
 liquor is made, by putting into a copper about 
 twenty quarts of water, w ith one pound of pearl 
 ashes, a handful of bran, and half an ounce of 
 madder. This is boiled a quarter of an hour, and 
 the vat is served with it ; she is then raked, and 
 
53 
 
 causes a great quantity of flurry to rise, and the 
 vat comes to work the next day ; this is known 
 by the quantity of flurry witli which she is cover- 
 ed by the skin or copper-scaly crust which swims 
 on the liquor, which, although it appears of a 
 blue brown, is nevertheless green underneath. 
 
 This vat was much longer coming to its colour 
 than the others, because the fire was too strong 
 the second day, otherwise she would have been 
 fit to work two days sooner* This did no other 
 damage but retarded her, and the day she came to 
 work, we dipt in serges weighing thirteen or four- 
 teen pounds. As this caused her to lose her 
 strength, and the liquor being diminished by thc. 
 pieces of stuff' that had been died in her, she was 
 served in the afternoon with fresh liquor, made 
 with one pound of pearl-ashes, half an ounce of 
 madder, and a handful of bran ; the whole was boiled 
 together in a copper for a quarter of an hour ; the 
 vat being served with it she was raked, covered 
 and a few embers put round. She may be pre- 
 served after this manner several days, and when 
 she is wanted to work, she must be raked over 
 night, and a little fire placed about her. 
 
 When there is occasion tore„heat, and add in- 
 digo to this kind of vat, two- thirds of the liquor 
 (which then is no more green, but of a blue 
 brown and almost black) is put into a copper; 
 when it is ready to boil, all the scum that is form- 
 ed at the top is taken off with a sieve ; it is after-, 
 wards made to boil, and two handfuls of bran, a 
 quarter of a pound of madder, and two pounds of 
 pearl-ashes are added. The fire is then removed 
 from the copper, and a little cold water cast int© 
 it to stop the boil ; after which the whole is put 
 E2 
 
54 
 
 into the vat, with one pound of powdered indigo, 
 diluted in a portion of the liquor as before related ; 
 after this the vat is raked, covered, and some fire 
 put round ; the next day she is fit to work. 
 
 When the indigo vat has been re heated several 
 times, it is necessary to empty her entirely, and to 
 set a fresh one, or she will not give a lively die ; 
 when she is too old and stale, the liquor is not of 
 so fine a green as at first. 
 
 I put several other vats to work after the same 
 method, with different quantities of indigo, from 
 one pound to six ; always observing to augment 
 or diminish the other ingredients in proportion, 
 but always one pound of pearl-ashes to each pound 
 of indigo. 1 have since made other experiments, 
 which proved to me that this proportion was not 
 absolutely necessary ; and I make no doubt but 
 that several other means might be found to make 
 the indigo come to as perfect a colour. I shall, 
 nevertheless^ proceed to some other observations 
 on this vat. 
 
 Of all those I set to work, after the manner de- 
 scribed, one only failed me, and that by neglecting 
 to put fire round her the second day. She never 
 came to a proper colour ; powdered arsenic was 
 put in to no effect ; red-hot bricks were also plun- 
 ged in at different times ; the liquor turned of a 
 greenish hue, but never came to the proper col- 
 our ; and having attempted several other means 
 without success, or without being able to find out 
 the cause of her not succeeding,! caused the liquor 
 to be emptied and cast away. 
 
 All the other accidents that have happened me 
 in conducting the indigo vat, have only lengthened 
 the operation ; so that this process may be looked 
 
55 
 
 upon as ver^ easy when compared to that of the 
 woad vat. I have also made several experiments 
 on both, in which my chief view was to shorten 
 the time of the common preparation ; but not meet- 
 ing with the desired success, I shall not relate 
 them. 
 
 The liquor of the indigo vat is not exactly like 
 that of the wmad ; its surface is of a blue brown, 
 covered v^ith coppery scales, and the under part 
 of a beautiful green. he stulf or wool died in 
 this is green when taken cut, and becomes blue a 
 moment after. We have already seen that the 
 same happens to the stuff' died in tlie woad vat 
 but it is remarkable^ that the liquor of the last is 
 not green, and yet produces on the woad the same 
 effect as the other, it must also be observed, 
 that if the liquor of tlie indigo vat be removed out 
 of the vessel in which it was contained, and if too 
 long exposed to the air, it looses its green and all 
 its quality, so that, although it gives a blue col- 
 our, that colour is not lasting. 
 
 I shall examine this more particularly in the se- 
 quel, and endeavour to give the chymical theory 
 of this change. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE COLD VAT WITH URINE. 
 
 A VAT is also prepared with urine> which 
 yields its colour cold, and is worked cold ; for 
 this purpose four pounds of indigo are powdered, 
 which is to be digested on warm ashes twenty four 
 
liours, in four quarts of vinegar ; if it is not then 
 well dissolved, it must be ground again with the 
 liquor, and urine is to be added little by little, with 
 half a pound of madder, which must be well dilu- 
 ted by stirring the liquor with a stick ; when this 
 preparation is made, it is poured into a vessel fill, 
 ed with 250 quarts of urine ; it matters not wheth- 
 er it be fresh or stale ; the whole is well stirred 
 and raked together night and morning for eight 
 days, or till the vat appears green at the surface 
 when raked, or that she makes flurry as the com- 
 mon vat ; she is then fit to work, without more 
 trouble than previously raking her two or three 
 hours before. This kind of vat is extremely con- 
 venient, for when once set to work, she remains 
 good till she be entirely drawn, that is, till the in- 
 digo has given all its colour ; thus she may be 
 worked at all times, whereas the common vat must 
 be prepared the day before. 
 
 This vat may at pleasure be made more or less 
 considerable by augmenting or diminishing the 
 ingredients in proportion to the indigo intended to 
 be made use of ; so that to each pound of indigo 
 add a quart of vinegar, two ounces of madder, and 
 sixty or seventy quarts of urine. This vat comes 
 sooner to work in summer than in winter, and 
 may be brought sooner to work by warming some 
 of the liquor without boiling, and returning it in- 
 to the vat ; this process is so simple that it is al- 
 most impossible to fail. 
 
 When the indigo is quite spent, and gives no 
 more die, the vat may be charged again without 
 setting a new one. For this purpose, indigo must 
 be dissolved in vinegar, adding madder in pro- 
 portioQ to the indigo^ pouring Uie whole into the 
 
r 
 
 B7 
 
 ^ vat, and raking her night and morning, and eve- 
 ning as at first, she will be as good as before ; 
 
 I however she must not be charged this way above 
 ? four or five times, for the ground of the madder 
 t and indigo would dull the liquor, and in conse- 
 quence render the colour less bright I did not 
 i try this method, and therefore do not answer for 
 I the success ; but here follows another with urine 
 t which gives a very lasting blue, and which I pre- 
 pared. 
 
 Hot Fat with Urine, 
 
 A pound of indigo was steeped twenty-four hours 
 in four quarts of clear urine, and when the urine 
 became very blue, it was run through a fine sieve 
 into a pail, and tlie indigo which could not pass, 
 and which remained in the sieve, was put with four 
 quarts of fresh urine ; this was so continued till 
 all the indigo had passed through the sieve with 
 the urine ; this lasted about two hours. At four 
 in the afternoon three hogslteads of urine wei»e put 
 into the copper, and it was made as hot as could 
 be without boiling. The urine cast up a thick 
 scum, which was taken up with a broom and cast 
 out of the copper. It was thus scummed at differ- 
 enr times, till there only remained a white and light 
 scum ; the urine, by this meane sufficiently purL 
 fied and ready to boil, was poured into the wood-, 
 en vat, and the indigo prepa ed as above, put in ; 
 the vat was then raked, the better to mix the in- 
 digo with the urine ; soon after, a liquor was put 
 into the vat made of two quarts of lu ine, a pound 
 of roach-alum, and a pound of red tartar. To 
 make this liquor, the alum and tartar were first 
 
58 
 
 put into the mortar, and reduced to a fine powder, 
 upon which the two quarts of urine were poured, 
 and the whole rubbed together, till this mixture, 
 TV’hich rose all of a sudden, ceased to ferment : it 
 was then put into the vat, which was strongly raked ; 
 and being covered with its wooden cover, she 
 was left in that state all night ; the next morning 
 the liquor was of a very green colour ; this was a 
 sign she was come to work, and that she might 
 have been worked if thought proper, but nothing 
 was died in her ; for all that was done, was only, 
 •properly speaking the first preparation of the vat, 
 and* the indigo which had been put in was only in- 
 tended to feed the urine, so that to finish the prep- 
 aration the vat was left to rest for two days always 
 covered, that she might cool the slower ; then a 
 second pound of indigo was prepared, ground with 
 purified urine as before. About four in the after- 
 noon all the liquor of the vat was put into the cop- 
 per ; it was heated as much as possible without 
 boiling ; some thick scum formed on it which 
 was taken off, and the liquor being ready to boil 
 was returned into the vat. At the same time the 
 ground indigo W’as put in with a liquor made as 
 above of one pound of alum, one pound of tartar, 
 and two quarts of urine, a fresh pound of madder 
 was also added ; then the vat was raked, well cov- 
 ered, and left so the whole night. The next morn- 
 ing she was come to work, the liquor being very 
 hot, and of a very fine green, she was worked with 
 wool in the fleece, of which thirty pounds were 
 put into the vat. It was well extended and work- 
 ed between the hands, that the liquor might the 
 more easily soak into it ; then it was left at rest 
 for an hour or two, according as lighter or deeper 
 blues are required. 
 
59 
 
 All this time the vat was well covered, that it 
 might tiie better retain its heat, for the hotter she 
 is, tlie better she dies, and when cold acts no more, 
 \Vhen the wool came to the shade of the blue re- 
 quired, it was taken out of the vat in parcels about 
 the bigness of a man’s head, twisted and wrung 
 over the liquor as they were taken out, till from 
 green, as they w'ere coming out of the vat, they be- 
 came blue. This change from green to blue is 
 made in three or four minutes. These thirty 
 pounds being thus died, and the green taken off, 
 the vat w as raked, and suffered to rest for tvro 
 hours, being ail that time w’ell covered ; then thir- 
 ty pounds more were put in, which was well ex- 
 tended with the hands, the vat was covered, and 
 in four or five hours this wool was died at the 
 height or shade of the first thirty pounds ; it was 
 then taken out in heaps, and the green taken off as 
 before. This done, the vat had still some little 
 heat, but not sufficient to die fresh wool ; for when 
 she has not a sufficient heat, the colour she gives 
 would neither be uniform nor lasting, so that It 
 must be re- heated, and fresh indigo put in as be- 
 fore. This may be done as often as judged prop- 
 er, for this vat does not spoil by age, provided, that 
 whilst she is kept without working, a little air is 
 let into her. 
 
 Re .heating of the Vat with Urine. 
 
 About four in the afternoon, the whole liquor 
 •f the vat was put into a copper, and a sufficient 
 quantity of urine added to this liquor, to make up 
 the dificiency that had been lost by evaporation 
 during the preceding work. This filling common- 
 
60 
 
 ly takes eight or nine pails of urine ; the liquor was 
 then heated and scummed as before, and when 
 ready to boil, returned into the vat with a pound 
 of indigo, and the liquor above described, consist- 
 ing of alum and tartar, of each one pound, madder 
 one pound and two quarts of urine. After raking 
 the vat well, and covering her, she was left to rest 
 the whole night. 
 
 The next day she came to work, and sixty 
 pounds of wool were died in her at twice as before, 
 it is after this manner all the re-heatings must be 
 done the evening before the dieing, and these re- 
 heatings may extend to infinity, as the vat, once 
 set serves a long time. 
 
 I must here observe, that the greater the quan- 
 tity of indigo put in at once is, the deeper the blue; 
 thus instead of one pound, four, five or six pounds 
 may be put in together ; nor is it necessary to 
 augment the dose of alum, tartar, or madder, of 
 which ingredients the liquor is composed ; but 
 if the vessel hold more than three hogsheads, then 
 the dose of these must be augmented in propor- 
 tion. The vat I have mentioned held three; and 
 was too small to die at one time a sufficient quan- 
 tity of wool to make a piece of cloth, viz fifty or 
 sixty pounds ; for this purpose it would be neces- 
 sary that the vat should contain at least six hogs- 
 heads, and from this a double advantage wf iild 
 arise. 1. All the wool would be died in three or 
 four hours, whereas dieing it at twice, it takes 
 eight or ten hours. 2. At the end of three hours, 
 in which time the woe] would be died, taken out, 
 and the green taken off, the vat being vet very hot ; 
 after raking and leiting her rest a couple of h<nirs, 
 the same wool might be returned into her, which 
 
61 
 
 would heighten the colour very much for all wool 
 that has been died, aired, and the green taken off, 
 always takes a finer colour than new or white wool, 
 which might remain twenty hours in the val. 
 
 Great care must be taken to air and take off the 
 green of the died parcels of wool that are taken 
 out of the vat hastily, that the air may strike them 
 equally, without which the blue colour will not be 
 uniform throughoutthe wool. 
 
 There are manufacturers w ho say that cloths, 
 whose wool has received this ground of blue w ith 
 urine, cannot be perfectly scoured at the ful- 
 ling mill, even at twice ; others vouch the con, 
 trary,and I am of opinion the last speak the truth; 
 yet, if the first are right, it might be suspected 
 that the animal oil of the urine becoming resinous 
 by drying on the wool, or by uniting with the oil 
 with w'hich the wool is moistened ; for its other 
 preparations more strongly resist the fuller’s earth 
 and soap, than a simple oil by expression. To 
 remedy this, the wool ought to be w’ell washed in 
 a running water after it is died, twisted, aired, the 
 green taken off, and cooled. Be it as it may, the 
 woacl vat will always be preferred in the great die 
 houses to those kinds of indigo vats made with 
 urine or otherwise : and for this reason, that 
 with a good woad vat, and an ingenious woad- 
 man, n;uch more work is despatched than with 
 all the other biue vats. 
 
 I have described the indigo vats in this treatise, 
 not with a design to introduce them in the large 
 manufactories, but to procure ea-v means to the 
 diers in small, and small manufactories, to whom 
 I wish this work may be of as much advantage as 
 to the others. I shall therefore here describe a 
 
 F 
 
62 
 
 Gold vat, which may be used with advantage by 
 those who die small stuffs, in whose composition 
 thread and cotton enter. The colour is lasting, 
 but cannot be made use of for wool. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COLD INDIGO VAT WITHOUT URINE. 
 
 IT is customary at Rouen, and in some other 
 cities of France, to die in a cold indigo vat, differ, 
 cut from that described in the foregoir.g chapter, 
 and more convenient, as she comes to work soon- 
 er, and has no bad smell. She is prepared after 
 the following manner. 
 
 Dissolve three pounds of indigo powdered fine- 
 ly, in a glazed earthen pot, with three pints of strong 
 soap boiler’s lees, which is a strong lee of soda 
 and quick lime. The indigo takes about twenty- 
 four hours dissolving, and when perfectly so, re- 
 mains suspended in the liquor, thickens it, and 
 gives it the consistence of an extract. At the same 
 time, three pounds of sifted slacked lime must be 
 put into another vessel, with six quarts of water, 
 and boiled together for a quarter of an hour; when 
 settled, the clear is poured off by inclination. Then 
 three pounds of green copperas are to be dissolv- 
 ed in this clear lime water, and the whole let to 
 rest till the next day. Three hundred quarts of 
 water are then put in a large deal vessel (no other 
 wood but deal will do, for it would dull and black- 
 en the die, especially if it was oak.) The two so- 
 lutions which were made the day before are put 
 
63 
 
 in, the vat is well raked, and suiFered to rest. I 
 have seen her come to colour in two hours after, 
 but this never fails to happen the next day at far- 
 thest. She makes a great dealjof flurry, and the li- 
 quor becomes of a fine green colour, but a little 
 more on the yellow than the green of the common 
 vat. 
 
 When this vat begins to spend herself, she is to 
 be quickened without putting in fresh indigo, by 
 making a small liquor with two pounds of green 
 copperas, dissolved in a sufficient quantity of limO 
 water ; but when the indigo has spent all its col- 
 our, she must be re-charged by putting in fresh, 
 dissolved in such a lee as has been described* 
 
 Water of old Iron. 
 
 Some diers put into this vat a little water of old 
 iron. It is a mixture of vinegar and water, in which 
 some old iron nails have been put to rust. They 
 say this makes the colour more lasting, but I have 
 experienced, that it is sufficiently so without this, 
 and as good as all the other blues, of which I have 
 before given the preparation. 
 
 I set several small vats ; those that required to 
 be heated were put in a bath or sand-heat, in small 
 glass bodies ; and' those that are worked cold were 
 left without doing anv thing to them. These last 
 are easy, being sufficient to diminish the quantity 
 of liquor, and of ail the other ingredients, in pro- 
 portion to the vessel that is to be set, and it is al- 
 most impossible to fail. 
 
 As to that which I first described, which is set 
 hot, as it is somewhat more difficult, and that sev- 
 
64 
 
 era! might be willing to try the experiment, 
 which in itself is curious, and neither requires ex- 
 pense nor apparatus to perform in small, I shall 
 give the process of one which succeeded perfects 
 ly, and in which I had designedly put a greater 
 quantity of indigo than usually is done in the com- 
 mon proportion. 
 
 I boiled two quarts of water with tw'o scruples 
 of madder and four ounces of pearl-ashes; after 
 boiling a quarter of an hour, I put it into a body, 
 which held about four quarts, and had been previ- 
 ously heated with warm water, and in which I 
 had put a quarter of a handful of bran. The whole 
 was wtII stirred With a deal spatula, the glass body 
 put on a very gentle sand-heat, which only kept 
 it warm, and pretty near the same degree of heat 
 that is required, for the common indigo vat. 
 
 The fire was kept all night, and the next day 
 under the sand- heat, without any sensible change* 
 happening ; it was only stirred twice a day. The 
 next day some flurry began to rise, and a coppery- 
 coloured skin formed on the surface, and the li- 
 quor was of a green brown ; it was then filled up 
 with a liquor made of a quart of water, two ounc- 
 es of pearl-ashes, and a little bran. I mixed the 
 whole together, then let it rest. It came perfectly 
 well to colour, and the next day I died several 
 middling pieces of stuffs and wool. These small 
 vessels may be re-heated and charged again as ea- 
 sily as a large one. 
 
 I think 1 have nothing more to say concerning 
 the method of setting to work all these kinds of 
 blue vats ; yet I am persuaded that there are sev- 
 eral other means practised in different places, and 
 
65 
 
 that it is even easy to contrive new ones ; howev- 
 er, I can affirm that all those which I havedescribed 
 are very sure, and that they have all been worked 
 several times with the same success. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OF THE METHOD OP DIEING BLUE. 
 
 WHEN the vat is once prepared and come to 
 work, the dicing of w’ool or stuffs is easy. Wet 
 them well in clear warm water, wringing and dip- 
 ping them in the vat, and keeping them in more or 
 less time, according as the colour is required in 
 shade. From time to time the stuff is aired, that 
 is, taken out of the vat and wrung, so that the li- 
 quor may fall back into the vat, and exposed a lit« 
 tic to the air, which takes off (he green in one or 
 two minutes ; for let what vat soever be used, the 
 stuff is always green at its coming out, and only 
 takes the blue colour in proportion as the air acts 
 upon it. It is also very necessary to let the green 
 go off before it is returned into the liquor to re- 
 ceive a second shade, as being then better able to 
 judge of its colour, and know if it is requisite to 
 give what is called one or several turnings. 
 
 It is an ancient custom among diers to reckon 
 thirteen shades of blue from the deepest to the 
 lightest. Although their denominations be some- 
 what arbitrary, and that it is impossible exactly to 
 fix the just passage from one to tiie other, I shall 
 notwithstanding give the names. They are as fol- 
 lows,beginning with the lightest : miiWblue, pearl- 
 
66 
 
 blue, pale-blue, flat-blue, middling-blue, sky-blue, ■ 
 queen’s-blue, turkish-blue, watchet-blue, garter- 
 blue, mazareen-blue, deep-blue, and very deep- 
 blue. 
 
 These distinctions are not equally received by 
 all diers, nor in all provinces, but the most part 
 are known ; and it is the only method that can 
 be taken to give an idea of the same colour, 
 whose only difference is in being more or less 
 deep. 
 
 It is easy to make deep blues. I have already 
 said, that to effect this, the wool or stuffs are to be 
 returned several times into the vat ; but it is not j 
 so in respect to light blues ; for when the vat is 
 rightly come to work, the wooloan seldom be left 
 in short time enough, but that it takes more than 
 the shade required. It often happens when a cer- 
 tain quantity of wool is to be dipped, and that it 
 cannot all be put in at the same time, that what 
 goes in at first is deeper than the other. There 
 are some diers who, to obviate this inconveniency 
 in making very light blues, which they call milk 
 and water, take some of the liquor of the indigo vat, 
 and dilute it m a very great quantity of luive uarm 
 water ; but this method is a bad one, for the wool 
 died in this mixture has not ntar so lasting a col- 
 our as that died in the vat ; as the altering ingredi- 
 ents which are put into the vat with the indigo, 
 serves as much to dispose the pores of the subject 
 which is dipped in, as to the opening of the col- 
 ouring fccula which is to die it, their concourse 
 being; hecessarv for the adhesion of the colour, 
 
 w* ^ 
 
 The best method of making these very light blues, 
 is to pass them either in a woad or indigo vat, out 
 of which the colour bas been worked; and begins 
 
67 
 
 to cool. The woad vat is still preferable to that 
 of the incligo» as it does not die so soon. 
 
 The blues made in vais that have been worked 
 are duller than the others ; but they ma} be pret- 
 ty sensibly roused by passing the wool or stuffs 
 in boiling water. This practice is even necessa- 
 ry to the perfection of all blue shades ; by this the 
 colour is not only made brighter, but also render- 
 ed more secure, by taking off all that is not well 
 incorporated with the wool ; it also prevents its 
 spotting the hands or linen, which commonl} hap- 
 pens, and the diers, to gain time, neglect this pre- 
 caution. After the wool is taken out of the warm 
 water, it is necessary to wash it again in the river, 
 or at least in a sufficient quantity of water for the 
 carrying off all the superfluous loose die. 
 
 The best method to render the blue die bright- 
 er, is by filling them with a thin liquor of melted 
 soap, and afterwards cleansing them from the soap 
 by warm water, and, if convenient, by rinsing 
 them in an old cochineal liquor. This method 
 is to be taken with deep blues ; but if the same 
 was taken with very light blues, they would lose 
 their bright blue lustre, and incline to grey. 
 
 I hope to have removed all difficulties on the pre- 
 paration of blue, and in the method of clieing it. 
 Some diers for the sake of gain, spare the w oad 
 and indigo, and use for blue, orchel or logwood, 
 and brazil ; this ought to be expressly forbid, 
 though this adulterated blue is often brighter than 
 a lasting and legitimate bine. 1 shall trke no- 
 tice of this in the chapters treating on the lesser 
 die. 
 
 1 shall now explain the theory of the invisible 
 change of the blue die. This colour, which I 
 
shall here only consider in relation to its use In the 
 dieing of stuffs of what kind soever, has hitherto 
 been extracted only from the vegetable world, and 
 it does not appear that we can hope to use in this 
 art the blues the painters employ : such are the 
 Prussian blue, which holds of the animal and min- 
 eral kind the azure, which is a vitrified mineral 
 substance ; the ultramarine, which is prepared 
 from a hard stone ; the earths that have a blue 
 colour, 8tc. These matters cannot, without losing 
 their colon* in whole or in part, be reduced into 
 atoms sufficiently minute, so as to be suspended 
 in the saline liquid, which must penetrate the fibres 
 of the animal and vegetable substances of which i 
 stuffs are manufactured ; for under this name lin- 
 en and cotton cloths must be comprehended, as 
 well as those wove of silk and wool. 
 
 Hitherto we know but of two plants that yield 
 blue after their preparation : the one is the isatis 
 or glaustum, which is called pastel in Languedoc, 
 and woad in Normandy. Their preparation con- 
 sists in a fermentation continued even to the putre- 
 faction of ail the parts of the plant, the root excej)t- 
 ed ; and consequently in the unfolding of all their 
 principles into a new combination, and fresh order 
 of these same principles, from whence follows an 
 union of infinite fine particles, which applied to 
 any subject whatever, reflects the light on them 
 very different from what it would be, if these 
 same particles were still joined to those which the 
 fermentation has separated. 
 
 • 1748, Mods. Macquer, of the Royal Academy of Sciences, found the 
 saeans of using the Pi ussian blue to die silk and cloth, io a hiue whoie 
 brigbtaesa £urpaesed all the blues hithertokoowa. 
 
69 
 
 The other plant is the anil, which is cultivated 
 in the East and West Indies, out of which they 
 prepare that fecula that is sent to Europe under the 
 name of Indigo. In the preparation of this plant 
 the Indians and Americans, more industrious than 
 ourselves, have found out the art of separating on- 
 ly the colouring parts of the plant from the useless 
 ones ; and the French and Spanish colonies have 
 imitated them, and thereby made a considerable 
 increase of commerce. 
 
 That the indigo, such as is imported from A- 
 merica, should deposite on the wool or stuffs the 
 colouring parts required by the dier, it is infused 
 several ways,the process of which we have already 
 given. They may be reduced to three ; the cold 
 indigo vat may serve for thread and cotton ; those 
 that are made use of hot, are fit for stuffs of any 
 kind whatever. 
 
 In the cold vat, the indigo is mixed with pearl- 
 ashes, copperas or green vitriol, lime, madder and 
 bran. The hot vats are either prepared with wa- 
 ter or urine ; if with water, pearl-ashes, and a lit- 
 tle madder must be added : if with urine, alum 
 and tartar must be joined to the indigo. Both of 
 these vats, principally intended for \\ ool, require a 
 moderate degree of heat, but at the same time 
 strong enough for the wool to take a lasting die, 
 I mean such as will withstand the destroying ac- 
 tion of the air and sun, the proof of dies. 
 
 I have prepared, as I said before, these three 
 vats in small, in cylindrical glass vessels, exposed 
 to the light, in order to see what passed before the 
 infusion came to a colour, that is, w'hether it was 
 green beneath the flurry at the surface, which is a 
 sign of internal fermentation. I have said that the 
 
7 © 
 
 green colour of the liquor is a condition absolute- 
 ly essential, and without which the colour the stuff 
 would take would not be a good die, and would 
 almost entirely disappear on the least proofs. 
 
 I shall now give a description of the cold indi- 
 go vat in small, for the changes are much better 
 seen in her, and for this reason, that what happens 
 in the two others is not very essentially different. 
 
 It is proper to take notice, that what I shall call 
 part^ in this observation of experiments, is a mea- 
 sure of the weight of four drachms, of all matter 
 either liquid or solid, and that it will be this quan- 
 tity that must be supposed, each time that 1 use 
 that word in the detail of these experiments. 
 
 I put three hundred parts of water into a vessel, 
 containing five hundred and twelve, or eight quarts, 
 in which I dissolved six parts of copperas, which | 
 gave the liquor a yellow die. Six parts of^DOt* | 
 ashes were also dissolved by themselves in thirty- 
 six parts of water. The solution made, I 
 digested in it six parts, or three ounces, of indigo 
 of St Domingo well ground ; it was left over a 
 very gentle fire three hours. The indigo swelled 
 and taking up a larger space, rose from the bottom 
 of this alkaline liquor, with which it formed a kind 
 of thick syrup, which was blue. This was a 
 proof that the indigo was only divided, but not dis- 
 solved; for had its solution been perfect, that thick 
 liquor would have been green instead of blue ; for 
 all liquor that has been tinged blue by a vegetable 
 of any kind, grows green on the admixion of an 
 alkaline salt, either concrete or in a liquid form, 
 whether it be a fixed or a volatile. 
 
 From hence the reason is discovered why indi- 
 go does not die a stuff of a lasting blue when its 
 
71 
 
 liquor is not green ; for its solution not being 
 complete,the alkali cannot act upon these first ele- 
 mentary particles ; as for example, it acts on the 
 tincture of violets, which is a perfect solution of 
 the colouring parts of those flowers, which turns 
 green in an instant, and on the first contact 
 I poured this thick blue liquor into the solution 
 of vitrioh and after well shaking the mixture, I 
 added six parts of lime that had been slacked in 
 the air ; it w^as cold weather when this experi- 
 ment was made ; the thermometer was at two de- 
 gress under the freezing point, which was a 
 cause that this was near four days coming to a co- 
 lour, and the fermentation, which must naturally 
 ensue in all vitriolic liquor, where an alkaline salt 
 has been put in, such as pot-ashes, and an alka- 
 line earth, was carried on with so much slowness 
 that very little scum appeared on the surface of 
 the liquor. In a hot season, and by making use 
 of lime newly calcined, these kind of vats are 
 sometimes fit to die in four hours. Each time 
 I stirred the mixture wdth a spatula, I observed 
 that the iron of the vitriol or copperas was the 
 first that precipitated to the bottom of the vessel, 
 and that the alkaline salt had precipitated it, 
 to join itself to the acid. Thus, in this 
 process of the cold indigo vat, a tartar of vit- 
 riol after the manner of Tachenius is formed ; 
 whereas by the common method, of preparing this 
 neutral salt, the acid of vitriol is poured on a true 
 alkaline salt, such as salt of tartar or pot-ashes. 
 This again is a cireumstanee that leads insensibly 
 to the theory of a good die. I desire the reader 
 to take notice of this, as it will occur in the sequel 
 <>f this observation, as well as in other chapters. 
 

 The earthy parts of the lime precipitated next 
 after the iron ; they are easily distinguished by 
 the whiteness, which are yet difficult to distinguish 
 when the colouring parts of the indigo are suffi- 
 ciently loosened. In short, under this white earth 
 the fecuia of the indigo deposits itstlf, and by de- 
 grees ratifies in such a manner, that this substance 
 which the first day was only the eighth of an 
 inch above the precipitated lime, rose insensibly 
 within half an inch of the surface of the liquor, 
 and the third day grew so opaque and muddy, 
 that nothing further could be distinguished. 
 
 This rarefaction of indigo, slow in winter, quick 
 in summer, and which may be accelerated in win- 
 ter by heating the liquor to fifteen or sixteen de- 
 grees, is a proof that a real fermentation happens 
 in the mixture, which opens the little lumps of in- 
 digo, and divides them into particles of an ex- 
 treme fineness ; then their surfaces being multi- 
 plied almost ad infinitum, they are so much the 
 more equally distributed in the liquor, which 
 deposits them equally on the subject dipped in to 
 take the die. 
 
 If fermentation comes on hastily, or in a few 
 hours, whether on account of the heat of the air, 
 or by the help of a small fire, a great quantity of 
 flurry ap])ears ; it is blue, and its reflection they 
 have also named coppery, because the colours of 
 the rainbow appear in it, and the red and yellow 
 here predominate ; however, this pha^uomenon is 
 noi pecuiiar to indigo, since the same reflection is 
 perceived in all mixtures that are in actual fer- 
 mentation, and particularh in those which contain 
 fat particles blended with salts, urine, soot, and 
 several other bodies put into fermentation, show on 
 their surface the same variegated colours. 
 
73 
 
 The flurry of the indigo vat appears blue, be- 
 cause exposed to the external air ; but if a small 
 : portion of the liquor which is under it be taken 
 up with a spoon, it appears more or less green in 
 : proportion as it is filled with colouring particles- 
 j In the course of this observation, I shall show the 
 I reason of this difference, or, at least, a probable 
 explication of this change of blue, which, as I 
 have said before, is absolutely necessary for suc^ 
 
 ! ceeding in the process described. 
 
 When the vat is in this state, it has already been 
 ; said that cotton, thread, cloths wovt from them, 
 
 I tkc. may be died in her, and the colours w hich 
 i they take are of the good die ; that is, this cotton 
 and thread will maintain them, even after remain- 
 ing a suitable time in a solution of white soap, ac. 
 i tually boiling. This is the proof given them pre- 
 ferable to any other, because the linen and cotton 
 cloths must be w^ashed wdth soap when dirty. 
 
 Though the indigo liquor which is in this state 
 I can make a lasting die wnthout the addition of any 
 I other ingredients ; the diers who use this cold vat 
 1 add, as in the other hot vats, a decoction of mad- 
 I der and bran in common water run through a 
 i sieve ; this is what they call beven They put 
 I madder to insure, as they say, the colour of the 
 ;i indigo, because this root affords a colour so ad. 
 
 [I hesive that it stands all proofs ; they put the bran 
 1 to soften the water, which they imagine generally 
 ! to contain some portion of an acid salt, which, 
 according to their opinion, must be deadened. 
 
 This was the opinion of French diers against in- 
 digo in the days of Monsieur Colbert ; and as this 
 minister could not spare time to see the experi- 
 I meats performed in his presence, cn the founda. 
 
 G 
 
74 
 
 tion of this report, he forbade indigo to be used a- 
 lone. But since the government has been con- 
 vinced, by new experiments made by the late Mr. 
 Dufay, that the stability of the blue die of this in- 
 gredient was such as could be desired ; the new 
 regulation of 1737 licences the diers to use it alone, 
 or mixed with woad ; so that if they continue to 
 use the madder, it is rather because this root giv- 
 ing a pretty deep red, and this red mixing with 
 the blue of the indigo, gives it a tint which ap- 
 proaches the violet, and also a fine hue. 
 
 As to the bran, its use is not to deaden the pre- 
 tended acid salts, but to disperse throughout a 
 quantity of sizey matter; for the small portion o£^ 
 flour which remains in it, dividing itself into the 
 liquor, must diminish in some measure its flu- 
 idity, and consequently prevent the colouring par. 
 tides which are suspended in it, being precipitat- 
 ed too quick, in a liquor which had not acquired 
 a certain degree of thickness. 
 
 Not withsianding this distributed throughout the 
 liquor, as well from the bran as the madder, which 
 also affords something glutinous, the colouring 
 particles will subside if the liquor remains some 
 days without being stirred ; then the top of the 
 liquor gives but a feeble tint to the body dipt in, 
 and if a strong one is wanted, the mixture must be 
 raked, and left to rest an hour or two, that the iron 
 in the copperas, and the gross parts of the lime may 
 fall to the bottom, which otherwise would mix 
 with the true colouring particles, and prejudice 
 their die, by depositing on the body to be died a 
 substance that would have but little adhesion, 
 which in drying would become friable, and of 
 
 wot I : .1 n 
 
75 
 
 where the true c ^‘ uring particle could neither in- 
 iroduce nor deposu^tself by an immediate contact 
 on the subject. 
 
 Not to deviate from the method followed by the 
 diers, I boiled one part of grape* madder and one 
 of bran, in 174 parts of water ; this proportion of 
 water is not necessary, more or less may be put, 
 but I wanted to fill my vessel which contained 512 
 parts. I passed this bever through a cloth and 
 squeezed it, putting this liquor, still hot, and which 
 was of a blood-red, into the indigo liquor, observ- 
 ing the necessary precautions to prevent the break- 
 ing of the glass vessel. The whole was well stir- 
 red, and two hours after the liquor was green, and 
 consequently fit for dicing. I died cotton of a 
 lasting blue, somewhat brighter than it was be- 
 fore the addition of the red of madder. 
 
 I shall now endeavour to find out the particular 
 cause of the solidity of this colour ; perhaps it may 
 be the general cause of the tenacity of all the rest ; 
 for it appears already, from the experiments above 
 related, that this tenacity depends on the choice 
 of salts, which are added to the decoctions of the 
 colouring ingredients, wdien the same ingredients 
 contain none in themselves. If from the conse- 
 quences \vhich shall result from the choice of these 
 salts, of their nature, and of their properties, it be 
 admitted (and it cannot be fairly denied) that they 
 afford more or less tenuity in the homogeneous 
 colouring parts of the dicing ingredients, the whole 
 theory of this art will be discovered, without hav- 
 ing recourse to uncertain or contested causes. 
 
 One may easily conceive that the salts added to 
 the indigo vats not only open the natural pores of 
 the subject to bt died, but also unfold the col- 
 ouring atoms of the indigo. 
 
76 
 
 In the other preparations of d* ^\:o be mention- 
 ed hereafter) the woolen stuiB'^art' boiled in a so- 
 lution of salts which the Dyers call preparation. 
 In this preparation tartar and alum are generally 
 used. In some hours the stuff is taken out, slight- 
 ly squeezed, and kept damp for some days in a 
 cool place, that the saline liquor which remains in 
 It may still act and prepare it for the reception of the 
 die of these ingredients, in the decoction of which 
 it is plunged to boil again. Without this prepa- 
 ration, experience shows that the colours will not 
 be lasting, at least for the greatest part; for it must 
 be owned that there are some ingredients which 
 yield lasting colours, though the stuff has not pre- 
 viously undergone this preparation, because the 
 ingredient contains in itself these salts. 
 
 It is therefore necessary, that the natural pores 
 of the fibres of the wool should be enlarged and 
 cleansed by the help of those salts, which are aL 
 -ways somewhat corroding, and perhaps they open 
 aicw pores for the reception of the colouring atoms 
 contained in the ingredients. The boiling of 
 this liquor drives in the atoms by repeatejJ 
 strokes. The pores already enlarged by these 
 salts, are further dilated by the heat of the boiling 
 water ; they are afterwards contracted by the ex- 
 ternal cold when the died matter is taken out of the 
 copper, when it is exposed to the external air, or 
 when it is plunged into cold water. Thus the col- 
 ouring atom is taken in, and detained in the pores 
 or fissures of the died body, by the springiness of 
 its fibres, which have contracted and restored 
 themselves to their first state, and have re assum- 
 ed their primary stiffness upon being exposed to 
 the cold. 
 
77 
 
 If, besides this spring of the sides of the pore, 
 it be supp( sed that iheac series have been plaister- 
 ed inwardly with a layer of die saline liquor, it will 
 appear plainly that this is another means employ- 
 ed by art to detain .he colouring atom ; for this 
 atom, having entered into the pore, while the sa- 
 line cement of the sides was yet in a state of solu. 
 tion, and consequently fluid ; and this cement be- 
 ing afterwards congealed by the external cold, the 
 atom is thereby detained ; by the spring w hich lias 
 been mentioned, and by this saline cement, which 
 by chrystalization is become hard, forms a kind 
 of mastic which is not easily removed. 
 
 If the coloured atom, (which is as small as the 
 little eminence that appears at the entrance of the 
 pore, and without which the subject would not 
 appear died) be sufficiently protuberant to be ex- 
 posed to more powerful shocks than the resistance 
 of the sides of the cement that retains it, then the 
 die resulting from all these atoms sufficiently re- 
 tained, will be extremely lasting, and in the rank of 
 the good die, provided the saline coat, can neither 
 be carried off by cold water, such as rain, nor cal- 
 cined or reduced to powder b} the rays of the sun; 
 for every lasting colour, or colour belonging to 
 the good die, must withstand these two proofs. 
 No other can reasonably be expected in stuffs de- 
 signed for apparel or furniture. 
 
 I know but of two salts in chymistry, which, be- 
 ing once crystalized, can be moistened with cold 
 water without dissolving ; and there are few be- 
 sides these that can remain several days exposed to 
 the sun, without being reduced to a flour or white 
 powder. These are tartar, either as taken from 
 the wine vessels, or purified, and tartar of vitrioL 
 
 G 2 
 
73 
 
 The tartar of vitriol may be made by mixing a salt 
 already alkalized, (or that may become such when 
 the acid is drove out with a salt whose acid is vit- 
 riolic, as copperas and alum ;) this is easily effect- 
 ed if it be weaker than the acid of vitriol, and such 
 is the acid of all essential salts extracted from ve^- 
 getables. 
 
 In the process of the blue vat which I tried in 
 small, to discover the cause of its effects, copperas 
 and pot-ash, (which is a prepared alkali) are mixed 
 together ; as soon as these solutions are united, 
 the alkali precipitates the iron of the copperas in 
 form of powder almost black ; the vitriolic acid of 
 the copperas, divested of its metallic basis, by its 
 ■union with the alkali, forms a neutral salt, called 
 tartar of vitriol^ as when made with the salt of tar- 
 tar and the vitriolic acid already separated from its 
 basis ; for all alkalis, from whatever vegetables 
 they are extracted, are perfectly alike, provided 
 they have been equally calcined. 
 
 More difficulties will occur with regard to the 
 water for the preparation of other colours, such as 
 reds and yellows. It may be denied that a tartar 
 of vitriol can result from the mixture of alum and 
 crude tartar boiled together ; yet the theory is 
 the same, and I do not know that it can be other- 
 wise conceived. The alum is a salt, consisting of 
 the vitriolic acid united with an earth ; by adding 
 an alkali, the earth is immediately precipitated, 
 and the tartar soon forms ; but instead of this al- 
 kaline salt, alum is boiled with the crude tartar 
 which is the essential salt of wine, that is, a salt 
 composed of the vinous acid, (which is more vol- 
 atile than the vitriolic) and of oil, both conccntra- 
 tcjl in a small portion of earth. 
 
79 
 
 This salt, as is known to chymists, becomes al- 
 kali by divesting it of its acid. Thus when the 
 alum and crude tartar are boiled together, besides 
 the impression which the fibres of the stdif to be 
 died receive from the first of these salts, which is 
 somewhat corrosive, the tartar is also purified, and 
 by the addition of the earth, which is separated 
 from the alum, (and which has near the same ef- 
 feet upon the tartar, as the earth of Merviels, which 
 is used at Montpellier, in manufacturing cream of 
 tartar) it becomes clear and transparent. It may 
 very probably happen, that the vitriolic acid of the 
 alum, driving out a part of the vegetable acid of 
 the tartar, a tartar of vitriol may be formed as hard 
 and transparent as the crystal of tartar. Admit- 
 ting one or other of these suppositions, consequent- 
 ly there is in the open pores of the wool a saline 
 cement which crystalizes as soon as the stuff 
 which comes out of the die is exposed to the cold 
 air, which cannot be calcined by heat, nor is solu- 
 ble in cold water, I could not avoid making this 
 digression. 
 
 This theory is common to the indigo vat, where 
 urine is used instead of water ; alum and crude 
 tartar in the place of vitriol and pot- ashes. This 
 urine vat gives a lasting die only when usedhot,and 
 then the wool must remain in an hour or two to 
 take the die equally. As soon as the vat is cold, 
 she strikes no more die ; the reason of this would 
 be difficult to discover in an opaque metal vat, but 
 glass vessel it is easily seen. 
 
 ^Klet tlijl little glass proof vat cool, and all the 
 Hl||& col^r,^ which was suspended in it while hotf 
 HpPpiUtedJlt by little to the bottom ; for then 
 w taftar crystalizing itself, and reuniting in heav;» 
 
80 
 
 icr masses than its moculas were during tlie heat 
 of the liquor, and its solution, it sunk to the bot- 
 tom of the vessel, and carried with it the colouring 
 particles. 
 
 When I restored this liquor to its former degree 
 of heat, after shaking it, and letting it settle a while, 
 I dipped a piece of cloth, which I took out one 
 hour after, with as lasting a die as the first ; so 
 that when this vat is used and fit to work, the tar- 
 tar is to be kept in a state of solution, which can- 
 not be done but by a pretty strong heat. The al- 
 kali of the urine greens it, the alum prepares the 
 fibres of the wool, and the crystal of tartar secures 
 the die by cementing the colouring atoms depos- 
 ited in the pores. 
 
 There still remains a difficulty with respect to 
 the indigo vat, in which neither vitriol, alum, or 
 tartar are used, but only pearl ashes in equal quan- 
 tity with the indigo, and which is pretty briskly 
 heated to die the wool and stuffs. But before I 
 enter into the cause of the solidity of its die, which 
 is equal to that of the other blue vats where the 
 other salts already mentioned enter, I must exam- 
 ine into the nature of pearl ashes, which are the 
 lees of wine dried and calcined : it is therefore an 
 alkaline salt, of the nature of salt of tartar, but less 
 pure, as proceeding from the heaviest parts of the 
 dregs of wine, and consequently the most earthy ; 
 besides, the alkali of the pearl ashes is never as 
 homogeneous as the alkaline salt of tartar well caj- 
 cined, and there are scarcely any .pearl ashes 
 purified, from which a considerable ^uj^ity oj 
 tar of vitriol may not be obtained ; 
 able by an experiment which I hal 
 it might at length be entirely convflP# Mit( 
 
81 
 
 neutral salt ; the same may be said of pot aslies^ 
 and of all other alkaline salts, whose basis are not 
 that of the marine salt. 
 
 The want of this homogeneous quality, is the 
 cause that pearl-ashes never fall entirely into deli- 
 quiumin the air; therefore since experience shows 
 that there is a tartar of vitriol already formed in 
 the pearl-ashes, it is evident that this indigo vat, 
 which does not give a good die until the liquor 
 has been so briskly heated as not to suffer the 
 hand without scalding, will dissolve the small por- 
 tion of tartar of vitriol that is contained in it, and 
 consequently this salt will introduce itself into the 
 pores of the wool to dense and cement them, and 
 will coagulate therein on the wool being taken 
 out of the liquor, and exposed to the air to cool. 
 
 I must now give the reason why the indigo vat 
 is green under the first surface of the liquor ; why 
 this liquor must be green that the blue die may 
 be lasting, and why the stuff that is taken green 
 out of the liquor becomes blue as'soon as it is air« 
 ed. All these conditions being of necessity com- 
 mon to all indigo vats either cold or hot, the same 
 explication will serve for them all. 
 
 1. The flurry which rises on the surface of the 
 indigo liquor when it is fit die is blue, and the un- 
 der part of this scum is green ; these two circum- 
 stances prove the perfect solution of the indigo, 
 and that the alkaline salt is united to its colouring 
 ^oms since it greens them, for without they \vould 
 fcmain blue. 
 
 Jp2. These circumstances prove that there is al- 
 the indigo a volatile urinous alkali, which 
 ^PlTxt dkali of the pot- ash, or the alkaline earth 
 0f the lime displays, and which evaporates very 
 
82 
 
 shortl}^ after the exposition of this scum to the air^ 
 The existence of this urinous volatile appears : 
 plainly by the smell of the vat during the fermen- 
 tation ; when stirred, or when heated, tlie smell is 
 sharp, and resembles that of stinking meat roas- 
 ted. 
 
 3. In preparation of the anil, in order to sepa- 
 rate the fecula, a fermentation is continued to pu- 
 trefaction. All rotten plants are urinous. This 
 volatile urinous quality is produced by the inti- 
 mate union of salts with the vegetable oil, or is 
 owing to a prodigious quantity of insects falling on 
 all sides of fermenting plants, and attracted by the 
 smell exhaling from them, wdiere they live, mul- 
 tiply, and die in them, and consequently deposit a 
 number of dead bodies ; therefore to this veget- 
 able substance an animal one is united, whose salt 
 is always an urinous volatile. This same urinous 
 quality exists also in the woad, which is prepared after 
 the same manner, viz. by fermentation and putrefac- 
 tion, and which will be further explained in the 
 abridged narrative of its preparation. 
 
 4. And lastly, if indigo or woad be distilled in 
 a retort, either alone, or (which is much better) 
 with some fixed saline or earthy alkali added to 
 it, a liquor will be obtained, which by all chymi'" 
 cal essays, produces the same effects as volatile 
 spirits of urine. 
 
 Why does not this volatile urinous quality in the 
 indigo cause it to appear green, since it must b^ 
 equally distributed through all its parts ? And 
 wliy does indigo, being dissolved in plain boiling 
 water, tinge it blue and not green ? It is becau^ 
 this volatile urinous salt is not concreted tlrat*^ 
 requires another body more active than boiling 
 
m 
 
 water to drive it out of the particles surrounding 
 it ; and the solution ot indigo is never perfected 
 by water alone ; whatever degree of heat is given, 
 it is only diluted, and not dissolved in it. Indeed 
 this decoction of indigo blues the stuffs that are 
 dipped, but the blue is not equally laid on, and 
 boiling water almost instantly discharges it. I 
 shall endeavour to answer this by an example 
 drawn from another subject. \ 
 
 Salt ammoniac, from which chy mists extract 
 the most penetrating volatile spirit, has not that 
 quick urinous smell by dissolving and boiling it 
 in w'ater ; either lime, or fixed alkaline salt, must 
 be added to disengage the urinous volatile parts. 
 
 In like manner,the indigo requires fixed saline, or 
 earthy alkalis, to be exactly discomposed, that its 
 volatile urinous salt may be discovered, and that 
 its colouring atoms may be reduced probably to 
 their elementary minuteness. 
 
 I now come to the second quality required. 
 The liquor of the indigo vat must be green, that 
 the die may be lasting ; for the indigo would not 
 be exactly dissolved, if the alkali did not act upon 
 it. Its solution not being as perfect as it ought to 
 be, its die would be neither equal nor lasting ; but 
 ns soon as the alkaline salts act upon it they must 
 green it ; for an alkali, mixed wuth the blue 
 Juice or tincture of any plant or flotver, immedi- 
 ately turns it green, when equally distributed on 
 all its colourifig parts. But if by evaporation these 
 same parts colinn cd, or colouring, have re-united 
 themselves into hard and compact masses, the alka- 
 li will not change their colour till it has penetrated, 
 divided, a*'id reduced tOem zo their primary fineness. 
 This ia tl- cose with indi'fc;, whose fecula is the 
 
 d V Cl -Le :.:dl 
 
84 
 
 With respect to the last circumstance, which is 
 that the staff must be green on coming out of the 
 liquor, and become blue as soon as it is aired, 
 without which, the blue would not be of a good 
 die, the following reasons may be given : it is ta* 
 ken out green because the liquoris green; if it was 
 not, the alkaline salt put into the vat would not be 
 equally distributed, or th^ indigo would not be ex- 
 actly dissolved. If the alk. li was not equally distri- 
 buted, the liquor contained i\\ the vat would not be 
 equally saline: the bottom of this liquor would con- 
 tain all the salt; the upper would be insipid. In this 
 case, the stuff dipped in would neither be prepared 
 to receive the die, nor to retain it ; l)ut when it is 
 taken out green at the end of a quarter of an hour’s I 
 dipping, it is a proof that the liquor was equally sa« 
 line, and equally loaded with colouring atoms ; 
 it is also a sign, that the alkaline salts have in- 
 sinuated themselves into the pores of the fibres 
 of the stuff, and enlarged them, as has been ob- 
 served, and perhaps have formed new ones. Now 
 there can be no doubt that an alkaline salt may 
 have this effect on a woolen stuff, when it is evident 
 that a very sharp alkaline ley burns and dissolves 
 almost in an instant a flock of wool or a feather. 
 
 A process in dicing, called by the Frtuch.Jbnte 
 debourrcy that is, the melting or dissolving of flock 
 or hair, is still a further example, the hair, which 
 is used and boiled in a solution of pearl-ashes in 
 urine, is so perfectly dissolved as not to leave the 
 least fibre remaining. Therefore if a lixivium, 
 extremely sharp, entirely destroys the wool, a ley 
 which shall have but a quantity of alkaline salt suf- 
 ficient to act on the wool without destroying it, 
 will prepare the pores to receive and preserve the 
 colouring atoms of the indigo. 
 
85 
 
 The stuff is aired after being taken green out 
 of the vat, and after wringing it becomes blue. 
 What is done by airing ? it is cooled ; if it is the 
 urinous volatile detached from the indigo which 
 gave it this green colour, it evaporates, and the 
 blue appears again ; if it is the fixed alkaline that 
 causes this green, not only the greatest part is car- 
 ried off by the strong expression of the stuff, but 
 what remains can have no more action on the col- 
 ouring part, because the small atom of tartar of 
 vitriol, which contains a coloured atom still less 
 than itself, is crystalized the instant of its exposi^ 
 tion to the cold air, and contracting this same col- 
 ouring atom by the help of the spring at the sides 
 of the pore, it entirely presses out the remainder 
 of the alkali, which does not crystalize as a neu- 
 tral salt. 
 
 The blue is roused, that is, it becomes brighter 
 and finer by soaking the died stuff in warm water, 
 for then the colouring particles which had only a 
 superficial adherence to the fibres of tlie wool, arc 
 carried off. Soap is used as a proof of the lasting 
 of the blue die, and it must stand it, for the soap, 
 which is only used in a small quantity in proper- 
 tion to the water, and whose action on the died pat- 
 tern is fixed to five minutes, is an alkali, mitigated 
 by the oil, which cannot act upon a neutral salt. If 
 it discharges the pattern of any part of its colour, 
 it is because its parts were but superficially ad- 
 hering ; besides, the little saline crystal which is 
 set in the pore, whose use is to cement the colour- 
 ing atom, cannot be dissolved in so short a time, 
 so as to come out of the pore with the atom it re- 
 tains. 
 
 This treatise lavs down the essay of a method 
 H 
 
86 
 
 of dicing different from any hitherto offered. I 
 appeal to philosophers, who would think little of 
 a simple narrative of processes, if I did not at 
 the same time give their theory. I shall follow 
 this method in the other experiments on reds, the 
 yellows, or other simple colours, as it is absolute- 
 ly necessary to have a knowledge of them before 
 entering on the compound, as these are general- 
 ly but colours laid on one after the other, and 
 seldom mixed together in the same liquor or de- 
 coction. 
 
 Thus having once the knowledge of what pro- 
 cures the tenacity of a simple colour, it will be 
 more easily known, if the second colour can take 
 place in the spaces the first have left empty without 
 displacing the first. 
 
 This is the idea which I have formed to myself 
 of the arrangement of different colours laid on the 
 same stuff, for it appears to me a matter of great 
 difficulty to conceive that the colouring atoms can 
 place themselves the one on the other, and thus 
 form kinds of pyramids, each still preserving their 
 colour, so that from a mixture of the whole a com- 
 pound colour shall result, and which, notwithstand- 
 ing, shall appear uniform, and as it were homoge- 
 nev)us. ToBdopt this system, we must suppose 
 a transparency in these a'oms, which it would be 
 difficult to demonstrate ; and further, that a yellow 
 atom must place itself immediately on a blue one, 
 already set in the pore of the fibre of a ^>tuff, and 
 that it must remain there strongly bound, so that 
 they must touch eac'h other with exo'c me smooth 
 surfaces, and so with every new colour laid on. 
 
 It is not easy to conceive all this, and it appears 
 more probable that the firi'st colour has only taken 
 
87 
 
 up tlie pores that it found open by the first prepa- 
 ration of the fibres of the stuff ; that on the side of 
 these pores there remains more still to be filled, or 
 at least spaces not occupied, where new pores may 
 be opened to lodge the new atoms of a second coU 
 our, by the means of a second preparation of wa- 
 ter, composed of corroding salts, which being the 
 same as those of the first preparing liquor, will not 
 destroy the first saline crystals introduced into the 
 first pores. 
 
 What has been already said with regard to the 
 indigo vat, may also serve to explain the action of 
 the woad vat on wool and stuffs ; it is only suppos- 
 ing in the woad, that salts do naturally exist, pret- 
 ty near of affinity to those that are added to the in- 
 digo vat. It appears by the description given of 
 these vats, that the woad vat is by much the most 
 difficult to conduct. I am convinced that these 
 difficulties might be removed, if an attempt was 
 made to prepare the isatis as the anil is in the 
 West Indies. I shall therefore compare their dif- 
 ferent preparations. I have taken the following 
 narrative from the memoirs of Mr. Astruc’s His^ 
 toire JVaturelle' du Languedoc. Paris^ Cavalier 
 1737, in 4to, p. 330 and 331. 
 
 “ According to the opinion ofdiers, woad only 
 ‘‘ gives feeble and languishing colours ; whereas 
 ‘‘ those of the indigo are lively and bright. This 
 opinion I grant is conformable to reason ; the 
 indigo is a fine subtle powder ; consequently 
 “ capable to penetrate tlie stuffs easily, and give 
 them a shining colour. The woad, on the con- 
 “ tran , is only a gross plant, loaded with many 
 “ earthy parts, which slacken the action and motion 
 “ of the finer parts, and prevent them from acting 
 effectually^ 
 
88 
 
 I know but one way to remove this inconven- 
 ** iency, that is, to prepare the wo.ad after the same 
 “ manner the indigo is prepared ; by this means, 
 the colours obtained from the woad would ac- 
 quire the lively and bright qualities of those 
 “ procured from the indigo, without diminishing 
 in the least the excellency of the colours pro- 
 duced by the woad. 
 
 “ I have already made in small^ experiments 
 on what I propose, and those experiments have 
 “ succeeded, not only in the preparation of the powv 
 der of woad, but also in the use of this powder 
 for dicing/^ 
 
 It is incumbent on those who have the public 
 good at heart, to cause trials at large to be made, 
 and if they have the success that can reasonably be 
 expected, it wdll be proper to encourage those who 
 cultivate w^oad, to follow this new method of pre- 
 paring it, and offer premiums to enable them to 
 sustain the expenses this new practice will engage 
 them in, until the advantage they will reap from 
 it may be sufficient to determine them to follow' it. 
 
 I shall now propose the means to succeed in 
 Mr. Astruc’s experiments, and these means natu- 
 rally result from considering the method used in 
 Languedoc for the preparation of woad, and the 
 ingenious method by which they separate the fec- 
 ula of the anil in America. I have already given 
 the preparation of this last ; those who desire a full- 
 er description may consult VHistoire des Antilles 
 dll P, du Tertre, ^ du P. Labat. The following 
 preparation of the pastel, or garden woad, is thus 
 described by Mr. Astruc. 
 
 * As this ingenious man has succeeded in small experimenp, it is probable he 
 would also in the large ones ; and then this plant easily cultivated in Englano, 
 would weQ r-ecompense tbe pains of tbe^ husbandman. 
 
89 
 
 
 Tk^ manufacturing of Pastel, or Garden W oady in 
 France, 
 
 Peasants of Abbigevois distinguish two kinds 
 of woad seed ; the one violet colour, the other yel- 
 low ; they prefer the form*, r, because the woad 
 that shoots from it bears leaves that are smooth and 
 polished, whereas those that spring from the ) el- 
 lovv are hairy ; this filU them with earth and dust, 
 which makes the woad prepared from them of a 
 worse quality. This woad is called pastelbourg, 
 or bourdaigne. 
 
 The woad at first shoots five or six leaves out 
 of the ground, which stand upright whilst green ; 
 they are a foot long, and six inches broad ; they 
 begin to ripen in June ; they are known to be ripe 
 by their falling down and growing yellow ; they 
 are then gathered, and the ground cleared from 
 weeds, w hich is carefully repeated each crop. 
 
 If there has been rain, a second crop is obtain- 
 ed in July ; rain or dry weather advances or retards 
 it eight days. The third crop is at the latter end 
 of August ; a fourth the latter end of September; 
 and the fiftli and last about tlie tenth of November. 
 This last crop is the most considerable, the inter- 
 val being longer. The plant at this crop is cut at 
 the root from whence the leaves spring. This 
 woad is not good, and the last crop is forbid by 
 the regulations. The w'oad is not to be gathered 
 in foggy or rainy w^eather, VmX in serene w'caiher, 
 when the sun has been out some time. 
 
 At each crop the leaves are brought to the mill 
 to be ground, and reduced to a fine paste ; this is 
 to be done speedily, for the leaves hen led in a 
 heat ferment, and soon rot w idi an intolerable stench, 
 H 2 
 
90 
 
 These mills are like the oil or bark- mills, that is, a . 
 mill-stone turns round a perpendicular pivot in a j 
 circular grove or trough, pretty deep, in which the i 
 woad is ground. 
 
 The leaves thus mashed and reduced to a paste, i 
 are kept up in the galleries of the mill, or in ahe i 
 l>pen air. After pressing the paste well with the 
 hands and feet, it is beat down and made smooth 
 with a shovel. This is called the woad piled. 
 
 An outward crust forms, which becomes black- 
 ish ; when it cracks, great care must be taken to 
 close it again. Little worms will generate in 
 these crevices and spoil it. The pile is opened in i 
 . a fortnight, well worked between the hands, and ; 
 the crust well mixed with the inside ; sometimes ’ 
 this crust requires to be beat with a mallet to knead 
 it with the rest. 
 
 This paste is then made into small loayes or 
 round balls, which according to the regulations, 
 must weigh a pound and a quarter. These balls 
 are well pressed in the making, and are then given 
 to another, who kneads them again in a wooden 
 dish, lengthens them at both ends, making them 
 oval and smooth. Lastly, they are given to a third, 
 who finishes them in a lesser bowl dish, by pressing 
 and perfectly uniting them. 
 
 The pastel or woad thus prepared is called 
 tel en Cocaigne ; whence arises the proverb, Pais 
 de Cocaigne ; w^hich signifies a rich country, be- 
 cause this country^ where the woad grows, en- 
 riched itself formerly by the commerce of this 
 drug. 
 
 ^L'Ahigt/ois tf 
 
91 
 
 These balls* are spread on hurdles, and ex- 
 posed to the sun in fine weather ; in bad weather 
 they are put at the top of the mill. The woad that 
 has been exposed some hours to the sun, becomes 
 black on the outside, whereas that which has been 
 kept within doors is generally yellowish, particu- 
 larly if the weather has been rainy. The mer- 
 chants prefer the former ; this makes little differ- 
 ence as to its use ; it is in general always yellow- 
 ish, as the peasants mostly work it in rainy weath- 
 er when they cannot attend their rural employ- 
 ments. 
 
 In summer, these balls are commonly dry in 
 fifteen or twenty days, whereas in autumn those 
 of the last crop are long in drying. 
 
 The good balls when broke are of a violet col- 
 our within, and have an agreeable smell ; where- 
 as those that are of an earthy colour and a bad 
 smell, are not good ; this proceeds from the gath- 
 ering of the woad during the rain, wdien the leaves 
 were filled with earth. Their goodness is also 
 known by their weight, being light when they have 
 taken too much air, or rotten by not having been 
 sufficiently pressed. 
 
 Powder of woad. 
 
 Of these balls well prepared, the powder of 
 woad is to be made ; for this purpose a hundred 
 thousand at least are required. A distant barit or 
 a warehouse must be procured, larger or smaller 
 according to the quantity intended to be made. It 
 
 • There J8 a place m India, the name I do not recollect, where the anil is 
 yrepared after the manner of the woad, and the indigo comes from it in lumps, 
 •ra^ining all the useless yarti of thw plaul. ft is Teiy difficult to prepare a 
 
92 
 
 must be paved with bricks and lined with the same 
 to the height of four or five feet : the walls would 
 be better to be of stone to that height, yet often 
 the walls are only coated with earth : this coat 
 breaking off and mixing with the woad is a great 
 prejudice to it. In this place the balls are reduc- 
 ed to a gross powder with large w^ooden mallets. 
 This powder is heaped up to the height of four feet, 
 reserving a space to go round, and is moistened 
 with w^ater ; that which is slimy ^ is best provided 
 it be clear ; the woad thus moistened, ferments,, 
 heats, and emits a very thick stincking vapour. 
 
 It is stirred every day for tw^elve days, flinging 
 it by shovels full frome one side to the other, and 
 moistening it every day during that time ; after 
 which no more water is flung on, but only stirred 
 every second day ; then every third, fourth, and 
 fifth ; it is then heaped up in the middle of the 
 place, and looked at from time to time, to air it in 
 case it should heat. This is the pastel or garden 
 woad powder fit for sale to the Diers. 
 
 Mr. Astruc, to prove that the sale of woad for- 
 merly enriched the higher Languedoc, quotes the 
 following passage from a book entitled Le Mar^ 
 chand, 
 
 “ Formerly they transported from Toulon ze to 
 Bordeaux, by the river Garonne, each year a hun» 
 dred thousand bales of woad, which on the spot 
 are worth at least fifteen livres a bale, which a- 
 mounts to 1,500,000 livres ; from whence pro- 
 ceeded the abundance of money and riches of that 
 
 * 1 can see no reason why slimy water, and yet to be clear, is preferred. 
 It appears to me that clear river water would he more secure ; with this they 
 would avoid the inconveniences that must attend a standing water, always 
 filled with filth ; or of a muddy water, which contains useless earth, and wbkb 
 must make the die uneven. 
 
93 
 
 cGuntry.” Castel in his Memoirs de H Histoire 
 iu Languedoc, in 1633, p. 49. 
 
 The comparing of these two methods of pre- 
 paring the woad and indigo, may be sufficient to 
 a person of understanding, who might be appoint- 
 ed to try, by experiments, the possibility of ex- 
 tracting a fecula from the isatis of Languedoc 
 like that of the anil. It is neither the Dier or 
 Manufacturer that ought be applied to for that 
 purpose ; both would condemn the project as a 
 novelty, and it would require many experiments, 
 which in general they are not accustomed to. 
 
 I could wish this experiment was tried in great, 
 so that at least fifty pound of this fecula might be 
 got, that several vats might be set in case the first 
 should fail. Whosoever does try it, should be 
 very careful to describe all the circumstances of 
 the process. Perhaps it might not succeed at the 
 first crop of the leaves of the woad, because the 
 heat in June is not sufficient, but probably he 
 might meet with success in August. 
 
 If this succeeds, there are without doubt seve- 
 ral other plants of the same quality as the isatis, 
 and which yields a like fecula. 
 
 It is also probable that the dark green of seve- 
 ral plants is composed of yellow and blue parts ; 
 if by fermentation the yellow could be destroyed 
 the blue would remain. This is not a chimerical 
 idea, and it is easy to prove that some use might 
 be derived from such an experiment. 
 
94 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OF RED. i 
 
 RED. as has been said, is one of the primaiy I 
 or mother colours of the diers. In the great die 
 there are four principal reds, which are the basis 
 of the rest. These are, 
 
 1. Scarlet of grain. 2. The scarlet, now in 
 use, or flame-coloured scarlet, formerly called i 
 Dutch scarlet. 3. The crimson red. And, j 
 
 4. The madder red. | 
 
 There are also the bastard scarlet and the bas- | 
 tard crimson ; but as these are only mixtures of I 
 the principal reds, they ought not to be consider- 
 ed as particular colours. 
 
 The red, or nacaret of bourrCy* was formerly 
 permitted in the great die. 
 
 All these different reds have their particular 
 shades from the deepest to the lightest, but they 
 form separate classes, as the shades of the one 
 never fall into those of the other. 
 
 The reds are worked in a different manner 
 from the blues, the wool or stuffs not being im- 
 mediately dipped in the die, but previously re- 
 ceiving a preparation which gives them no colour, 
 but prepares them to receive that of the colouring 
 ingredient* 
 
 This is called the water of preparation ; it is 
 commonly made with acids, such as sour waters, 
 
 ♦This colour is given with weld and goat’s hair boiled in pot ashes, and i»4i. 
 bright orange red. 
 
95 
 
 iliim and tartar, aqua fortis, aqua regalis, See. 
 These preparing ingredients are used in different 
 quantities, according to the colour and shade re- 
 quired. Galls are also often used, and sometimes 
 ilkalinc salts This I shall explain in the course 
 d 1 this treatise, w hen I come to the method of 
 ivorking each of these colours. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 OT SCARLET OF GRAIN. 
 
 THIS colour is called scarlet of grain, because 
 it is made with the kermes, which was long thought 
 to be the grain of the tree on which it is found. It 
 iwas formerly called French scarlet, imagining 
 to be first found out in France, and is now kno^JP 
 by the name of Venetian scarlet, being much m 
 use there, and more- made than in au} other place. 
 The fashion passed from thence into France and 
 other countries. It has indeed less lustre, and is :jg< 
 brov.ner than the scarlet now in fashion ; buf itJ'C 
 has the advantage of keepirtg its brightiiess longerj^ 
 and does not spo. by mud o; acid liquors. 
 
 Thi kermes is a gall insect, whi( h is bred, lives 
 and muiiij'lies upon the ihx accuieato cocci glan* 
 discra, C B P. Some comes fr om Nai bonne, 
 bui greater quantifies frt.m Alicant and Valentia, 
 and the pco'^ants of Languedoc yearl) bring it to 
 Montpelier and Narb«jnne. The merchants who 
 buy them to send abroad, spread them on cloths, 
 and sprinkle them with vinegar, in order to kill 
 the little insects that are witbm, which yield a red. 
 
% 
 
 powder, which is separated from the shell after 
 drying, and is then passed through a sieve ; this 
 is done particularly in Spain. 
 
 They then make it up in bales, and in the mid- 
 dle of each a quantity of this powder is inclosed in 
 a leather bag, in proportion to the whole bale. 
 Thus each dier has his due proportion of this 
 powder. These bales are generally sent to Mar- 
 seilles, from whence they are exported to the Le- 
 vant, Algiers and Tunis, where it is greatly made 
 use of in dieing. 
 
 The red draperies of the figures in the ancient 
 tapestry of Brussels, and other manufactories of 
 FiaRflers, are died with this ingredient; and some 
 that have been wrought upwards of two hundred 
 years, have scarcely lost any thing of the bright- 
 ness of the colour. I shall now proceed to give 
 th£ method of making this scarlet of grain, which 
 
 now seldom used but for wools designed for ta- 
 pestry. 
 
 Preparation of the Wool for Scarlet of Grain. 
 
 Twenty pounds of wool and half a bushel of 
 ^%fan are put into a copper, with a sufficient quan- 
 tity of water, and suffered to boil half an hour, stir- 
 ring it every now and then ; it is then taken out 
 to drain. 
 
 It is necessary to observe, that whenever spun 
 wool is to be died, a stick is passed through each 
 hank (which commonly weighs one pound) and 
 they remain on the stick during the course of the 
 work to prevent their entangling. This stick al- 
 so enables the dier to return the hanks with more 
 ease, by plunging each part successively in the Ji- 
 
97 
 
 ^uor, by which they take an equal die ; by raising 
 the hank with a stick, and drawing it hjilf way out 
 of the copper, seizing the other end of the hank 
 with the other hand, it is plunged towards the 
 bottom. If the wool be too hot, this may be done 
 with two sticks, and the oftener this is repeated, 
 the more even will be the die ; the ends of 
 the sticks are then placed on two poles to drain. 
 These poles are fixed in the wall above the cop- 
 per. 
 
 Liquor for the Kermes. 
 
 While this prepared wool is draining, the cop- 
 per is emptied, and fresh water put in, to which is 
 added about a fifth of sour water, four pounds of 
 Roman alum grossly powdered, and two pounds 
 of red tartar. The whole is brought to boil, and 
 that instant the hanks are dipped in (on the sticks) 
 which are to remain in for two hours,stirring them 
 continually one after the other after the method al- 
 ii eady laid down. 
 
 I must in this place observe, that the liquor in 
 which the alum is put, when on thepoint of boiling, 
 sometimes rises so suddenly ihat ircomes over the 
 * copper, if not prevented by addirfg cold water. 
 If, when it is rising, the spun woof is instantly- 
 put in, it stops it and produces the same effects as 
 cold water. 
 
 The liquor does not rise so suddenly when there 
 is a large quantity of tartar as in the process ; but 
 1 when the alum is used alone, sometimes above 
 I half the liquor comes over the copper when it be- 
 ' gins to boil, if not prevented by the method de- 
 i scribed. 
 
 I 
 
When the wool has boiled two hours in this li- 
 quor, it is taken out, left to drain, gently squeezed 
 and put into a linen bag, in a cool place for fivt or 
 six days, and sometimes longer ; this is called 
 leaving the wool in preparation. This is to make 
 it penetrate the better, and helps to augment the ac- 
 tion of the salts, for as a part of the liquor always 
 flies olF, it is evident that the remaining, being ful- 
 ler of saline particles, becomes more active, pro, 
 vided there remained a sufficient quantity of hu, 
 midity ; for these salts being crystahzed and dry, 
 would have no more action. 
 
 I have dwelled much longer on this preparing 
 liquor, and the method of making it, than I shall 
 in the sequel, as there are a great number of col- 
 ours for which it is prepared pretty near in the 
 same proportion, so that when this happens, I shall 
 slightly describe it, mentioning only the changes 
 that are to be made in the quantity of alum, tartar, 
 sour water or other ingredients. 
 
 After the spun wool has been covered five or 
 six days, it is fitted to receive the die. A fresh 
 liquor is then prepared according to the quantity 
 of wool to be died, and when it begins to be 
 lukewarm, take 12 ounces of powdered kermes 
 for each pound of wool to be died, if a full and well . 
 coloured scarlet is wanted. If the kermes wa^ old 
 ^nd flat, a pound of it would be required to each 
 pound of wool. When the liquor begins to boil, 
 the yarn (still moist, which it will be if it has been 
 well wrapped in the bag, and kept in a cool place) 
 is put in. If it had been boiled a long time before, 
 and grown dry, it must be lightly passed through 
 luke-warm water, and well squeezed before it IS 
 died. 
 
99 
 
 Previous to its being dipped in the copper witji 
 the kermes, a handful of wool is cast in, which is 
 let to boil for a minute : this takes up a kind of 
 black scum, which the kermes cast up, by which 
 the wool that is afterwards dipped acquires a finer 
 colour. This handful of wool being taken out, 
 the prepared is to be put in. The hanks are pass- 
 ed on sticks as in the preparation, continually 
 stirring, and airing them one after the other. It 
 must boil after this manner an hour at least, then 
 taken out and placed on the poles to drain, after* 
 wards wrung and washed. 
 
 The die still remaining in theliquPs‘inay serve 
 to dip a little fresh parcel of preparcid wool ; it 
 will take some colour in proportion ^o the good- 
 ness and quality of the kermes put into the cop- 
 per. 
 
 When different shades are wanted, a less quan- 
 tity of kermes is used, so that for twenty pounds 
 of prepared wool, seven or eight are sufficient. 
 
 The quantity of wool that is to have the lightest 
 shade is first to be dipped, and to remain no long- 
 er in than the time sufficient toturn it and make it 
 take the die equally. Then the next deepest 
 shade intended is dipped, and left to remain some 
 time longer ; after this manner the work is con- 
 tinued to the last, wdiich is left as long as is requi.. 
 site to acquire the necessary shade. 
 
 The reason of W’orking the lightest shades first, 
 is, that if the yarn is left too long in, no damage 
 is done, as that hank may serve for a deeper shade, 
 whereas, if they begin by a deeper, there would 
 be no remedy if a failure happened in some of the 
 hghter shades. The same caution is to be taken 
 in all colours whose shades are to be different. 
 
100 
 
 There are seldom more shades than one from 
 the colour now spoken of ; but as the working 
 part is the same for all colours, what has been said 
 on this subject will serve for the rest. 
 
 The yarn thus died, before bringing it to the 
 river, may be passed through lukewarm water, in 
 which a small quantity of soap has been perfectly 
 dissolved ; this gives a brightness to the colour, 
 but at the same time saddens it a little, that is, 
 gives it a little cast of the crimson. As I shall 
 often make use of the terms rotizing2C[id saddening 
 especially in the acids, it is necessary to explain 
 their meandg. 
 
 Saddening^ is giving a crimson or violet cast to 
 red ; soap and alkaline salts, such as ley of ashes, 
 pot- ashes, lime, sadden reds ; thus they serve to 
 bring them to the shade required when too bright 
 and that they are too much rouzed. 
 
 Rouzing, is doing quite the reverse ; it is giving 
 a fire lo the red, by making it border on the yel- 
 low or orange. I'his is performed on wool by the 
 means of acids, as red or white tartar, cream of 
 tartar, vinegar, lemon juice, and aqua fortis. 
 These acids are added, more or less, according to 
 the depth of the orange colour required. For ex- 
 ample, if the scarlet of grain w^as w^anted to be 
 more bright, and approach somewhat nearer to 
 commoii scarlet, a little of the scarlet composition 
 which shall be spoken of, must be poured into the 
 liquor after the kermes is put in, and the brown 
 colour of thatliquor would immediatel} be brighten- 
 ed by the acid, and become of a brighter red ; the 
 wool dipped in would be more liable to be spot- 
 ted by mud and acid liquors ; the reason will ap- 
 pear in the next chapter# 
 
101 
 
 I have made various experiments on this colour, 
 in order to make it fitter and brighter than what 
 it generally is, but I never could extract a red 
 that was to be compared to that of cochineal. 
 
 Of all the liquors which I made for the prepa- 
 ration of the wool, that winch was made with the 
 preparations just mentioned succeeded best. By 
 changing the natural die of the kermes, by difier- 
 ent kinds of ingredients of mctalic solutions, &c. 
 various colours are made, which I shall immedi- 
 ately speak of, 
 
 I shall say but little about dicing stuffs with this 
 red, as the proportion cannot be prescribed for 
 each yard of stuff, on account of their breadth 
 and thickness, or the quantity of wool entering 
 their composition ; practice alone will teach the 
 necessary quantity for each sort of stuff ; however 
 not to work in the dark, or to try experiments at 
 random, the surest way will be to weigh the stuffs, 
 and todiminishabout yne fourth part ofthe colour* 
 ing ingredients laid dowai for spun wool, as stuffs 
 take up less colour inwardly, their texture being 
 more compact, prevents its penetration, whereas 
 yarn or wool in the fleece receives it equally with- 
 in and without. 
 
 The aluni and tartar for the liquor of prepara- 
 tion for the stuffs must be diminished in the same 
 proportion, and they are not to remain in the pre- 
 paring liquor as long as the wool. It may be died 
 the next day after boiling. 
 
 If wool in the fleece is died with the red of the 
 kermes, either to incorporate it with cloths of a 
 mixed colour, or to make full cloths, it will have 
 a much finer effect than if the wool had been died 
 in the red of madder. I shall mention this in d€- 
 
 12 
 
102 
 
 scribing the compound colours in which the ker- 
 mes is used, or ought at least to be used in prefer- 
 ence to madder, which does not give so fine a 
 red, but, being cheaper, is commonly substituted 
 'for it. 
 
 Half grain scarlet, or bastard scarlet is that 
 which is made of equal parts of kermes and mad- 
 der. This mixture affords a very holding colour, 
 not bright, but inclining to a blood red. It is 
 prepared and worked in the same manner as that 
 made of kermes alone. This die is much cheap- 
 er, and the diers commonly make it less perfect 
 by diminishing the kermes and augmenting the 
 madder. 
 
 By the proofs that have been made of scarlet of 
 grain or kermes, whether by exposingitto the sun 
 or by different proofs, it is certain there is not a 
 more holding or a better colour ; yet the kermes 
 is no where in use but at Venice. The mode of 
 this colour has been entirely out since the making 
 of flame-coloured scarlets. This scarlet of grain 
 is now called a colour of bullock’s blood ; ne\er- 
 theless, it has great advantages over the other, for 
 it neither blackens nor spots, and grease may 
 be taken out without prejudice to its colour ; but 
 it is out of fashion and that is sufficient, 'fhis 
 has entirely put a stop to the consumption of ker- 
 mes in France. Scarce a dier knows it, and 
 when Monsieur Colbert wanted a certain quanti- 
 ty for the experiments above related, he was obli- 
 ged to send for it to Languedoc, the merchants of 
 Paris keeping only a sufficiency for medicinal pur- 
 poses. 
 
 When a Dier is obliged to die a piece of cloth, 
 known yei under Uie name of scarlet of grain, as 
 
105 
 
 he has neither the knowledge of the kermes, nor 
 the custom of using it, he makes it of a cochineal, 
 as I shall relate in the following chapter ; it comes 
 dearer, and is less holding than that made of kcr- 
 mes. The same is done in regard to spun wool 
 designed for tapestries, and as this shade is pretty 
 difficult to hit with cochineal, they commonly 
 mix brazil wood, which hitherto has been a false 
 ingredient, permitted only in the lesser die. For 
 this reason all these kind of reds fade in a very 
 short time, and though they are much brighter 
 than required, coming out of the hands of the 
 workman, they lose all their brightness ; before the 
 expiration of a year,, they whiten or become ex- 
 ceeding grey ; it is therefore to be wished that 
 the use of kermes was again established. 
 
 It is also certain, that if some Dier set about 
 u sing it, there are several colours that might be ex- 
 tracted from it with more ease and less expense 
 than the common method ; for these colours 
 would be better and more holding, and he would 
 thereby acquire a greater reputation. I have 
 made above fifty experiments with the kermes, 
 from which some use in practice may arise; I shall 
 only relate such as have produced the most sin- 
 gular colours. 
 
 By mixing the kermes with cream of tartar^ 
 without alunii, and as much of the composition 
 as would be used for the making of scarlet with 
 cochineal, you have in one liquor an exceeding 
 bright cinnaniCMi, for nothing but the acid enter- 
 ing in the mixture, the red parts of the kermes 
 , become so minute that they almost escape the 
 sight But if* this cinnamon colour be passed 
 trough a liquor oi Roman alum, part of this red 
 
104 
 
 appears again ; whether it be by the addition of the 
 alum, that drives out a part of the acid of the com- 
 position, or the earth of the alum precipitated by 
 the astriction of the kermes, \vhich has the effect 
 of galls, I know not ; but this red thus restored is 
 not fine. 
 
 With cream of tartar (the composition for scar- 
 let) and alum, in greater quantity than tartar, the 
 kermes gives a lilac colour, which varies ac- 
 cording as the proportion of ingredients are 
 changed. 
 
 If/^h the place of alum and tartar, ready pre- 
 pared tartar of vitriol is substituted, which is a 
 very hard salt, resulting from the mixture of the 
 vitriolic acid and a fixed alkali, such as the oil of 
 tartar, pet ashes, &c, and if, Isay, after boiling 
 the kermes in a solution of a small quantity of this 
 salt, the stuff be dipped in and boiled one hour, it 
 acquires a tolerable handsome agath grey, and in 
 which very little red is seen, for the acid of the 
 composition having too much divided the red of the 
 kermes, and the tartar of vitriol, not containing 
 the earth of the alum, it could not re-unite these 
 red atoms dispersed by precipitation. These a- 
 gath greys are of the good die, for, as I have ob- 
 served in the chapter treating of indigo, the tar- 
 'tar of vitriol is a hard salt, which is not calcined 
 by the sun, and is indissoluble in rain water. 
 
 Glauber salts mixed with the kermes entirely 
 destroy its red, and give an earthy grey that does 
 not stand the proof, for this salt neither resists cold 
 water nor the rays of the sun, which reduce it into 
 powder. Vitriol or green copperas, and blue vi- 
 friol separated substituted for alum,, but joined 
 
105 
 
 to the crystal of tartar, equally destroy or veii 
 the red of the kermes, which in these two exper- 
 iments produce the same effect as if galls or su- 
 mach had been made use of; for it precipitates 
 the iron of the green vitriol, and dies the cloth of 
 a grey brown, and the copper of the blue vitriol 
 dies it of an olive. 
 
 Instead of blue vitriol, I used a solution of cop- 
 per* in aque fortis, which also prduced an olive 
 colour ; a convincing proot that the kermes has 
 the precmitating quality of the galls, since it pre- 
 cipitates the copper of the vitriol as a decoction of 
 gall-nut would. 
 
 There is great probability that what renders the 
 red of the kermes as holding as that of madder, 
 is from the insects feeding on an astringent shrub, 
 which notwithstanding the changes made by the 
 digestion of the juices of the plant, still retains 
 the astringent quality of the vegetable, and 
 consequently the virtue, and so gives a great- 
 er spring to the pores of the wool to contract 
 themselves quicker and with greater strength, 
 when it comes out of the boiling water, and is ex- 
 posed to the cold air ; for I have observed that 
 all barks, roots, wood, and other matters thai have 
 some astriction, yield colours of the good die. 
 
 Violets without Blue, 
 
 The white vitriol of glosar, whose basis is the 
 zinck, being joined with the chrysial of tartar, 
 changes the red of the kermes into violet. Thus 
 with one colouring ingredient, and simple chaR- 
 
 “^erdigrise. 
 
106 
 
 gcs, violets are made without a blue ground ; for 
 this compound colour, hitherto only obtained 
 by putting a blue on a red, or a red on a blue, is 
 made as well with cochineal, or even with mad* 
 der, as shall be shown treating of these two ingre- 
 dients. White vitriol being extracted from a 
 mine, containing lead, arsenic, and several other 
 matters, whose recrements melted afterwards with 
 sand and alkaline salts, vitrifies into a blue mass, 
 called safre» I suspected the white vitriol might 
 contain a portion of this blue, which, with the red 
 of the kermes might have changed to a violet and 
 consequently that the mine of the bismuth, which 
 really contains this blue matter, and the bismuth 
 itself would produce the same effect as white vi- 
 triol ; neither was I mistaken in my conjecture ,• 
 for having put some of the extract of the mine of 
 bismuth in the liquor of kermes, and some of the 
 solution of the bismuth itself upon another decoc- 
 tion of the same ingredient, they both died cloth 
 of a violet colour. I shall not here give the pro^ 
 cess of extracting the mine of bismuth, for it is a 
 difficult operation for a dier. However if the 
 reader is desirous to know what I mean by the 
 extraction of the mine of bismuth, he will find the 
 process in the Royal Academy of Sciences for 
 the year 1737, where there is a memoir on sym- 
 pathetic inks. As to the solution of bismuth, 
 which produces almost the same effect, it is made 
 after the following manner: 
 
 Take four parts of spirits of nitre, and four parts 
 of very clear water, which mix together, and dis- 
 solve therein one part of bismouth, or tin glass, 
 broken in small pieces, put the last little by little 
 into the liquor, lest they should occasion too vio- 
 
107 
 
 lent a fermentation. Acids put in too great abun- 
 dance in the liquor of the kermes, whether it be 
 spirits of vilriuL aqua fortis, vinegar, lemon juice, 
 even sour water, so greatly divide the red colour- 
 ing particles, that the cloth receives but a cin- 
 namon colour, bordering on the aurora, if there 
 is too much acid, and a little redder if there is 
 less. 
 
 Fixed alkaline salts, mixed with sour water and 
 cream of tartar, in the place of alum, do not de- 
 stroy the red of the kermes as acids do, but sad, 
 dens and muds it if too much be put in, so that the 
 clolh receives only a faded lilac colour. 
 
 Other experiments, still more diversified than 
 those here related, presented an infinite variety of 
 colours, but nothing more beautiful than what may 
 be done with cheaper drugs than the kermes ; I 
 shall therefore pass them over. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 yLAME-COLOUR£D SCARLET. 
 
 FLAME coloured scarlet, that is, bright-coL 
 ©ured scarlet, known formerly under the name of 
 Dutch scarlet, (the discovery of which Kunkel at- 
 tributes to Kuster, a German chymist) is the finest 
 and brightest colour of the die. It is also the 
 most costly, and one of the hardest to bring to 
 perfection. It is not easy to determine the point 
 of perfection, for independent of different tastes 
 •onceming the choice of colours, there are also 
 general i^cie^ which make certain colours more 
 
108 ’ 
 
 in fashion at one time than another ; when this 
 happens, fashionable colours become perfect ones. 
 Formerly scarlets were chosen full, deep, and of a 
 degree of brightness which the sight easily bore. 
 
 At this time they must be on the orange, full of fire, 
 and of a brightness which dazzles the eye, 1 shall | 
 not decide which of these two fashions deserve the ' 
 preference, but shall give the method of making 
 them both, and all the shades which hold a medi- 
 um between these extremes. 
 
 Cochineal, which yields this beautiful colour, 
 and is also called mesiick> or tescalle, is an insect 
 that is gathered in great quantities in Mexico. 
 The natives and wSpaniards, who have but small 
 establishments there, cultivate them, that is, care- 
 fully gather them from the plant on which they 
 feed before the rainy season. They kill and dry 
 those designed for sale, and preserve the rest to 
 multiply when the bad season is over. This in- 
 sect feeds and breeds upon a kind of prickly opun- 
 tia, which they call topal. It may be preserved 
 in a dry place for ages without spoiling. 
 
 The cochineal sv Ivestre, or campessiane, is also 
 brought from Vera Cruz. The Indians of old 
 and New Mexico gather this kind in the woods ; 
 it feeds, grows and generates there, on the wild 
 uncultivated opuntins ; it is there exposed in the 
 rainy season to all the humidity of the air, and dies 
 naturally. This cochineal is always smaller than 
 the fine or cultivated ; the colour is more holding 
 and better, but has not the same brightness, nei- 
 ther is it profitable to use it, since it requires four 
 parts, and sometimes more, to d(^ what may be 
 done with one of fine. 
 
 Sometimes they have damaged cochineal at 
 
10!) 
 
 Cadiz ; this is fine cochineal that has been wetted 
 with salt water, occasioned by some shipwreck or 
 leakage. These accidents considerably diminish 
 the price, the sea salt saddening the die. This 
 kind serves only to make purples, and even those 
 ar^ot the best. However, a person in 1735 found 
 ihesecret to turn this to almost as much advantage 
 for scarlet as the finest coc hineal. The discovery 
 of this secret is easy, but let him that possesses it 
 enjoy it, 1 shall not deprive him of the advantage 
 he might have in it. 
 
 Every dier has a particular receipt for dicing 
 scarlet, and each is fully persuaded that his own 
 is preferable to all others ; yet the success depends 
 on the choice oF the cochineal, of the tvater used 
 in the die, and on the manner of preparing the so- 
 lution of tin, which the diers call composition of 
 scarlet. 
 
 As it is this composition evhich gives the bright 
 flame colour to the cocifmeal die, and which witli- 
 out this acid liquor would naturally be of a crim- 
 son colour, 1 shall describe the preparation that 
 succeeded best with me. 
 
 Com posh ion Jar Scarlet, 
 
 Take eight ounces of spirit of nitre, (wl)icb is 
 always purer than the common aqua fortis mostly 
 used by the diers) and* be certain that it contains 
 
 •Dissolve in a small quantity of spirit of nitre as much silver as it will take ; 
 jxita few drops of this into some of tne spirit of nitre that is to be proved : 
 if this spirit remains transparent, it is pnrej but if a white clojid be perceirea 
 which will afterwards form a sedi:uent, it is a sign. that there is a comuiiscture 
 of vitriol or spirit of salt. In order therefore to render the spirit of nitre al>- 
 soluply pure, drop the solution of silver gradually into it, so long as it shall 
 produce the least turbidness, time being given for the spirit to become clear 
 •betwixt each addttioc. The spirit of nitre being then poured off from tiese4- 
 
110 
 
 no vitriolic acid ; weaken this nitrous acid by put- 
 ting it into eight ounces of hitered river water; dis- 
 solve in it, little by little, halt'un ounce of very white 
 salt ammoniac, to make it an aqua regia, because 
 spirits of nitre alone will not dissolve block- tin. 
 Lastly, add two drachms of salt- petre; thismigh»l:)e 
 emitted, but I observed that it was of use in making 
 the die smooth and equal. In this aqua regia thus 
 weakened, dissolve one ounce of the bestbiock- 
 tin, which is first granulated or made small while 
 melted by casting it from a height into a vessel 
 of cold water. These small grains of tin are put 
 into the dissolvent one by one, letting the first 
 ■dissolve before putting in others ; this prevents 
 the loss of the red vapours, w^hich would rise in 
 great abundance, and be lost if the dissolution of 
 the metal was niiide too hastily ; it is necessary 
 to preserve these vapours, and asKunkel observed, 
 they greatly contribute towards the brightness of 
 the colour, either because these vapours are acids 
 that evaporate and are lost, or contain a sulphur 
 peculiar to saltpetre, which gives a brightness to 
 the colour. This method is indeed much longer 
 tlian that used by the diers, who immediately 
 pour the aqua fortis upon the tin reduced to small 
 pieces, and vvait till a strong fermentation ensues, 
 and a great quantity evaporates before they weak- 
 en it with common water. When the tin is thus 
 dissolved, this scarlet composition is made, and 
 the liquor is of the beautiful colour of dissolved 
 ,gold, without any dirt or black sediment, as I 
 used very pure tin without allay, and such as 
 
 iment, will be perfectly pure ; and if this sediment which is the silver precip- 
 itate, be evaporated to dryness, and then infa^nd in a crucible with a small 
 quantity ofaity alVaJlf iait,itinUbe reduced to its proper metalline 
 
Ill 
 
 runs from the first melting of the furnaces of 
 Cornwall. This solution of tin is very transpa- 
 rent when newly made, and becomes milky and 
 opaque during the great heat of summer ; the 
 greatest part of the diers are of opinion, that it is^ 
 then changed and good for nothing ; yet mine, 
 notwidistanding this defect, made as bright scar» 
 let as if it had i emained clear ; besides, in cold 
 weather, what I made recovered its first transpa- 
 rency. It must be kept in a glass bottle with m- 
 stopper, to prevent the evapoiation of the voliuile 
 parts. 
 
 As the diers do not attend to this, their compo* 
 sition often becomes useless at the end of twelve 
 or fifteen days. I have laid dow n the best meth. 
 od, and, if they seek perfection, they will abandon 
 their old practice, which is imperfect. 
 
 The diers in France first put into a stone vessel 
 with a large opening, two pounds of salt ammoni- 
 ac, tw'o ounces of refined sait-petre, and two 
 pounds of tin reduced to grains by water, or, which 
 is still preferable, the filings of tin ; for when it 
 it has been melted raid granulated, there is always 
 a small portion converted into a calx which does 
 not dissolve. They weigh four pounds of w^ater 
 in a separate vessel, of which they pour about two 
 ounces upon the mixture in the stone vessel ; they 
 then add to it a pound and a half of common aqua 
 fortis,, which produces a violent fermentation. 
 When the ebullition ceases, they put in the same 
 - quantity of aqua for.tis, and an instant after they 
 add one pound more. They then put in the re- 
 mainder of the four pounds of water they had set 
 aside ; the vessel is then close covered, and the 
 Gomposkion let to stand till the next day# 
 
112 
 
 The saltpetre and salt ammoniac are sometimes 
 dissolved in the aqua fortis before the tin is. put 
 in ; they practise both methods indiscriminatMva 
 though it is certain that this last method is best. 
 Others mix the water and aqua fortis together, 
 and pour this mixture on the tin and salt am- 
 moniac. In short, every dier follows his own 
 method. 
 
 JFater for the Preparation of Scarlet. 
 
 The day after preparing the composition, the 
 water for the preparation of scarlet is made, which 
 differs from that made in the preceding chapter. 
 
 Clear the water well. For each pound of spun 
 wool, put twenty quarts of very clear river water 
 (hard spring water will not do) into a smallcopper. 
 When the water is a little more than lukewarm, 
 two ounces of the cream of tartar finely powdered, 
 and one drachm and a half of pow^dered and sifted 
 cochineal is added. The fire is then made a little 
 stronger, and when the liquor is ready to boil 
 two ounces of the composition are put in. This 
 acid instantly changes the colour of the liquor, 
 w^hich, from a crimson, becomes of the colour of 
 bLcod. 
 
 As soon as this liquor begins to boil, the wool 
 is dipped in, which mtist have been previously 
 wetted in warm ^^'ater and wrung. The wool 
 is continually worked in this liquor, and left to boil 
 an hour and a half; it is then taken out, slightly 
 wrung, and w’ashed in fresh water. The wool 
 coming out of the liquor is of a lively flesh colour, 
 or even some shades deeper, according to the 
 goodness of the cochineal, and the strength of the 
 
r 
 
 us 
 
 composition. The colour of the liquor is then 
 entirely passed into wool, remaining almost as 
 clear as common water. 
 
 This is called the water of preparation for scar- 
 let, and the first preparation it goes through before 
 it is died ; a preparation absolutely necessary, 
 without which the die of the cochineal would net 
 be so good. 
 
 Reddening. 
 
 To finish it, a fresh liquor is prepared with clear 
 water, the goodness of the water, being of the 
 greatest importance towards the perfection of the 
 scarlet. An ounce and a half of starch is put in,^ 
 and when the liquor is a little more than lukewarm, 
 six drachms and a half of cochineal finely powder- 
 ed and sifted is thrown in. A little before the li- 
 quor boils, two ounces of the composition is 
 poured in, and the liquor changes its colour as in 
 the former. It must boil, and then the wool is 
 put into the copper, and continually stirred as in 
 the former. It is likewi^ie boiled an hour and a 
 half ; it is then taken out, wrung, and washed. 
 The scarlet is then in its perfection. 
 
 One ounce of cochineal is sufficient for a pound 
 of wool, provided it be worked with attention, and 
 after the manner laid down, and that no die re- 
 mains in the liquor. For coarse cloth less would 
 do, or half as much for worsted. However, if it 
 was required, to be deeper of cochineal, a drachm 
 or two might be added, but not more, for it would 
 then lose its lustre and brightness. 
 
 Starch softens-it. 
 
 K 2 
 
114 
 
 Though I have mentioned the quantity of the \ 
 composition, both in the water of the preparation 
 and the die. yet this proportion is not to be te^ken 
 as a fixed rule. 
 
 1 he aqua iortis, used by the diers, is seldom | 
 of an equal strength ; if, therefore, it be always i 
 mixed with an equal quantity of water, the com- ^ 
 position would not produce the same efiect ; but j 
 there is a method of ascertaining the degree of a- I 
 cidity of aqua foi tis. For example to use that on- j 
 ly, two ounces of which would dissolve (me ' 
 ounce of silver. This would produce a compo- 
 sition tliat would be always equal, but the quality, 
 of the cochineal would then produce new varie- 
 ties, and the trifling difierence that this commonly 
 causes in the shade of scarlet is of no great signi- 
 fication, as more or less may be used to bring it 
 precisely to the colour desired. If the composi- 
 tion be weak, and the aforesaid quantity not put in, 
 the scarlet will be a deeper and fuller in colour. 
 
 On the contrary, if a little more is added, it will 
 be more on the orange, and have what is called 
 more fire ; to rectify which, add a little of the 
 composition, stirring it w'ell in the copper, hav- 
 ing first taken out the wool ; for if it was to touch 
 any part before it w^as thoroughly mixed, it W’ould 
 blot it. If on the contrary, the scarlet has too 
 much fire, that is, too much on the orange, or too 
 much rouzed, it must be passed through clear 
 warm water ; when finish^, this sadd^is it a lit- 
 tle, that is diminishes its bright orange ; if there 
 still remained too much, a little Roman alum 
 must be mixed with the hot w^atcr. 
 
 For spun wool that is to have all the various 
 shades of scarlet, about half the ccchineah and 
 
115 
 
 half the composition for full scarlet is sufHcient. 
 The cream of tartar must also be diminished pro- 
 portionably in the water of preparation, 'fhc 
 wool must be divided into as many hanks or 
 skains as there are to be shades, and when the li- 
 quor is prepared, the skains that are to be light- 
 est are first to be dipped, and to remain in but a 
 very short space of time ; then those that are to 
 be a little deeper, which must remain in some- 
 what longer, and thus proceeding to the deepest , 
 the wool is then to be w^ashed, and the liquor pre- 
 pared to finish them. In this liquor, each of these 
 shades are to be boiled one after the other, begin- 
 ning alway s with the lightest, and if they are per- 
 ceived not to be of the proper shade they must 
 be passed again through the liquor. The eye of 
 a dier, will readily judge of the shades, and a lit- 
 tle practice will bring this to perfection. 
 
 The diers are divided in opinion of what metal 
 the boiler should be made. In Languedoc they 
 use those made of the finest block tin, and sever- 
 al diers in Paris follow the same method. Yet 
 that great dicr, M. de Julienne, w^hose scarlets 
 are in great repute, uses brass. The same is us- 
 ed in the great manufactory at St. Dennis. M. 
 de Julienne, to keep the stuffs from touching the 
 boiler, makes use of a large rope net w ith close 
 meshes. At St. Dennis, instead of a rope net, 
 they have large baskets, made of willow stripped 
 of the bark, and not too close worked. 
 
 As so much had been said concerning the met- 
 al of the boiler, I tried the experiment. I took 
 two ells of white sedan cloth, which 1 died in two 
 separate boilers of equal size ; one was of brass, 
 itted with a rope net, the other of block tin* The 
 
(S)chineal, the composition, and other ingredients, 
 were weighed with the utmost accuracy and boil- 
 ed precisely the same time. In short, I took, all 
 possible care that the process should be the same 
 in both, that if any difference arose it might be only 
 attributed to the different metals of the boil- 
 er. After the first liquor, the t wo pieces of doth 
 were absolutely alike only that which had been 
 boiled in the tin vessel appeared a little more 
 streaked and uneven, which, m ail iikeliho-jd, pro- 
 ceeded from these two ells of doth being less 
 scoured at the mill than the two others ; the two 
 pieces were finished each in the separate boilers, 
 and both turned out very fine ; but that which had 
 been made in the tin boiler had a little more fire 
 than the other, and the last was a little more sad- 
 dened. It would have been an easy matter to 
 have brought them both to the same sh.ide, but 
 that was not my intention. 
 
 From this experiment, I conclude, that W'hen 
 a brass boiler is used, it requires a little more of 
 the composition than the tin one ; but this addi- 
 tion of the composition makes the doth feel rough; 
 to avoid this defect, the Diers who use brass ves- 
 sels put in a little turmeric, a drug of the die, but 
 which gives to scarlet that shade which is now in 
 fashion ; I mean that flame -colour, which the eye 
 is scarce able to bear. 
 
 This adulteration is easily discovered by cutting 
 a piece of the cloth ; if there is no turmeric, the 
 web will be of a fine white, but yellow if there is. 
 When the web is dyed the same as the surface, it 
 is said that colour is webbed, and the contrary^, 
 when the middle of the weaving remains white. 
 The lawlui scarlet is never dyed in the web : the 
 
117 
 
 adulterated, where the turmeric or fustic has been 
 made UbC of, is more liable to change its colour in 
 the air than the other. But as the brightest scar- 
 lets are now in fashion, and must have a yellow 
 ©ast, it is better to tolerate the use of turmeric, than 
 to use too great a quantity of the composition to 
 bring the scarlet to this shade ; for in this last 
 ©else, the cloth would be damaged by it, would be 
 sooner spotted by dirt from the quality of the 
 acid, and would be more easily torn, because acids 
 stiffen the fibres of the wool, and render them brit- 
 tle. 
 
 I must also take notice, that if a copper vessel 
 is used it cannot be kept too clean. I have failed 
 several times with my patterns of scarlet, by not 
 having the copper scoured. 
 
 I cannot help condemning the common practice 
 of some diers, even the most eminent, who pre- 
 pare their liquor over niglit, ^ and keep it hot till 
 next morning, when they dip in their stuffs ; this 
 they do, not to lose time, but it is certain that the 
 liquor corrodes the copper in that space, and by 
 introducing particles of copper in the cloth, pre- 
 judices the beauty of the scarlet. They may say 
 they only put in their composition just at the time 
 when the cloth is ready to be dipt in the copper ; 
 hut the cream of tartar, or the white tartar, which 
 they put in over night, is an acid salt sufficient to 
 corrode the copper of the vessel, and form a ver- 
 digrise, although it dilutes itself as it forms, .still 
 has not a less effect. 
 
 It would therefore be better to make use of tin 
 boilers, a boiler of this metal must contribute to 
 the beauty of scarlet; but these boilers of a suffi- 
 cient size cost much, and may be melted by the 
 
118 
 
 ! 
 
 ©egligence of the workmen, and there is a difficui- ! i 
 ty in casting them of so great a size without sand- ■ iX 
 flaws, which must be filled. Now if these sand^ d 
 holes are filled with solder, there must of necessi- v 
 ty be places in the boiler that contain lead ; this | j 
 lead in time being corroded by the acid of the com- i 
 position, will tarnish the scarlet. But if such a 
 boiler could be cast without any sand-holes, it is 
 certain such a one w^ould be preferable to all oth- 
 ers, as it contracts no rust, and if tlte add of the 
 liquor detaches some parts, they cannot be hurt- I 
 ful. 
 
 Having laid down the manner of dicing spun 
 wool in scarlet, and its various shades, which arc | 
 so necessary for tapestry and other work, it is 
 proper to give an idea of the dicing of several pieces 
 of stuff at one time. I shall relate this operation 
 as it is pract’sed in Languedoc. I made the trial ‘ 
 on some ells of stuff, which succeeded very well, ' 
 but this scarlet was not so fine as the flame- col- 
 oured. 
 
 'Fhere are two reasons why the wool is not died 
 before it is spun (for fine colours) first in the 
 course of the manufacturing, that is, either in the 
 spinning, carding, or weaving, it would be almost 
 impossible in a large workshop, where there are 
 many workmen, but that some particles of w^hite 
 wool, or some other colour would mix, which 
 would spoil that of the stuff by blotting it ever so 
 little ; for that reason, the reds, the blues, the 
 yellows, the greens, and all other colours, that are 
 to be perfectly uniform, are never died before they 
 are manufactured. 
 
 The second reason, which is peculiar to scarlet, 
 or rather to cochineal, is, that it will not stand the 
 
119 
 
 milling, and as the greatest part of high stuffs must 
 be milled after they are taken from the loom, the 
 cochineal would lose part of its colour, or at least 
 would be greatly saddened by the soap, which 
 produces this effect by the alkaline salt which de- 
 stroys the brightness given to the red by the acid. 
 These are the reasons that the cloths and stuffs arc 
 not died in scarlet, light red, crimson, violet, 
 purple, and other light colours, but after being en, 
 tirely milled and dressed. 
 
 To die, for example, five pieces of cloth at one 
 timeof five quarters breadth, and containing fifteen 
 or sixteen ells each, the following proportions are 
 to be observed. Put into a stone or glazed earthen 
 pot twelve pounds of aquafortis, and twenty pounds 
 of water, to which add a pound and a hall of tin, 
 made in grains by running it in water, or filed. 
 The dissolution is made quicker or slower, ac- 
 cording to the greater or lesser acidity of the aqua 
 fort is. Idle whole is left to rest twelve hours at 
 least, during which time a kind of black mud set- 
 tles at the bottom of die vessel ; what swims oyer 
 this sediment is poured off by inclination ; this 
 liquor is clear and yellow, and is the composition 
 which is to be kept by itself. 
 
 This process differs from the first in the quan- 
 tity of water mixt with the aqua fortis, and in tiic 
 ^mall quantity of tin, liule of which must remain 
 in the liquor, since aqua fortisalone cannot dissolve 
 it, but only corrodes it, and reduces it to a calx, 
 as there is neither salt petre, nor salt ammoniac 
 which would form an aqua regia. However, the 
 effect of this composition differs from the first on. 
 ly to the eyes accustomed to judge of that colour. 
 
 This composition made wiihguisait ammouiac, 
 
and which hasbeen of Icrp' use amongst a great miui- 
 ber of manufacturers at Carcassone, who certainly 
 imagined that its effect was owing to the sulphur 
 of the tin, can only keep thirty-six hours in winter 
 without spoiling, and twenty four hours in sum- 
 mer ; at the expiration of which it grows muddy, 
 and a cloud precipitates to the bottom of the ves-. 
 sel, which changes to a white sediment. This is 
 the small quantity of tin, which was suspended in 
 the acid, but an acid .not prepared for that metal ; 
 the composition which ought to be yello\v becomes 
 at that time as dear as water, and if used in that 
 state would not succeed ; it would Iiave the same 
 effect as that which would become milky. 
 
 The late M. Baron pretended to have been the 
 first discoverer at Carcassone of the necessity of 
 adding salt ammoniac to hinder the tin from pre- 
 cipitating. If so, there was no one in that town 
 that knew that tin cannot be really dissolved but 
 by aqua regia. 
 
 Having prepared the composition as I have des- 
 cribed itafter M. de Fondriers, about sixty cubic- 
 al f( et of W’ater are put into a large copper for the 
 five pieces of doth before mentioned, and when 
 the water grows warm, a bag with bran is put in, 
 sometimes also sour waters are used ; the one 
 and the other serve to correct the water, that is, to 
 absorb the earthy and alkaline matters which may 
 be in it, and which, as I have already said, saddens 
 the dye of the cochineal, for the effect of the w ater 
 ought to be well known, and experience will teach 
 whether such expedients should be used, or wheth- 
 er the water, being very pure and denulattd of 
 salts and earthy partidcs, can be used w ithoiit 
 such helps, 
 
121 
 
 Be that as it will, as soon as the water begins to 
 be little more than luke- warm, ten pounds of pow- 
 dered cream of tartar is flung in, that is, two pounds 
 for each piece of cloth. The liquor is then raked 
 strongly, and when it grows a little hotter, half a 
 pound of powdered cochineal is cast in, which is. 
 well mixt with sticks ; immediately after, twenty^ 
 seven poundsof the composition very clear is pour- 
 ed in, which is also well stirred, and as soon as 
 the liquor begins to boil, the cloths are put in, 
 whidy are made to boil strongly for two hours, 
 stirring them continually by the help of the wynch; 
 they are then taken out upon the scray, and well 
 handled three or four times from end to end, by 
 passing the lists between the hands to air and cool 
 them. They are afterwards washed. 
 
 After the cloth has been washed, the copper is 
 emptied and a fresh liquor prepared, to which if 
 necessary, a bag with bran or some sour water is 
 added, but if the water is of a good cjuality, these are 
 to be omitted, when the liquor is ready to boil, eight 
 pounds and aquartcrof powder ed and siftedcochine'al 
 is put in, which is to be mixed as equally as possible 
 throughout the liquor, and haviiig left off' stirring, 
 it is to be observed when the cochineal rises on the 
 surface of the water, and forms a crust oi'lhe col- 
 our of the lees of wine ; the instant this crust opens 
 ofitself in several places, eighteen or twenty pounds 
 of the composition is to be added, A vessel with 
 ^old W'ater must be at hand to cast on the liquor in 
 case it should rise, as it sometimes does, after the 
 composition is put in. 
 
 As soon as the compostiif>n is In the coppcr,a!'d 
 equally distributed ihroaghont the whole he 
 cloth is cast in, and the wynch strongly turneci 
 
122 
 
 two or three times, that all the pieces may equally 
 take the dye of the cochineal. Afterwards it is 
 turned slowly to let the water boil, which it must 
 do very fast for one hour, always turning the wynch 
 and sinking the cloth in the liquor with sticks, 
 when by boiling it rises too much on the surface. 
 The cloth is then taken out, and the lists passed 
 between the hands to air and cool it ; it is then 
 washed, after which it is to be died and dressed. 
 
 In each piece of the Languedoc scai let cloth 
 there is used, as has been shewn, one pound and 
 three quarters of cochineal in the die and prepara- 
 tion ; this quantity' is sufficient to give the cloth 
 a very beautiful colour. If more cochineal was 
 added, and a deeper orange colour required, the 
 quantity of the composition must be augmented. 
 
 When a great quantity of stuffs are to be died 
 in scarlet, a considerable profit arises by doing 
 them together, for the same liquor serves for the 
 second dip which was used for the first. For ex- 
 ample ; when the five first pieces are finished, there 
 always remains in the liquor a certain quantity of 
 cochineal, which in seven pounds may amount to 
 twelve ounces ; so that if this liquor be used to 
 die other stuffs, the cloths dipped in it will have 
 the same shade of rose colour as if they had been 
 died in a fresh liquor with twelve ounces of coch- 
 ineal ; yet this quantity may vary pretty much, 
 according to the quality or choice of the cochin- 
 cal, or according to the fineness it has been reduc- 
 cd to when powdered. I shall say no more of this 
 before I finish this chapter ; but whatever colour 
 may remain in the liquor, it deserves some atten- 
 tion on account of the highpiice of this drug. The 
 same liquor is then made use of for other five pie^ 
 
®es, and less cochineal and composition arc pu 'in 
 proportion to what may be judged to remain ; fire 
 and time are also saved by this, and rose colour 
 and flesh- colour may also be produced from it ; 
 but if the diers have no leisure to make these dif- 
 ferent liquors in twenty -four hours, the colour of 
 the liquor corrupts, grows turbid, ^d loses the 
 rose colour entirely. To prevent this corruption 
 some put in Roman alum, but the scarlets which 
 are prepared after that manner are ill saddened. 
 
 When cloths of different qualities, or any other 
 stuffs are to be died, the surest method is to weigh 
 them, and for each hundred weight of cloth add 
 about six pounds of chrystal or cream of tartar, 
 eighteen pounds of composition in the water of pre- 
 paration, as much for the reddening,and six pounds 
 and a quarter of cochineal. Thus in proportion 
 for ©ne pound of stuff use one ounce of cream of 
 tartar, six ounces of composition, and one ounce of 
 cochineal ; some eminent diers at Paris put two 
 thirds of the composition and a fourth of the co» 
 chineal in the water of preparation, and the other 
 third of the composition with three fourths of the 
 cochineal in reddening. 
 
 It is not customary to put cream of tartar in the 
 reddening, yet I am certain by experience, that 
 does not hurt, provided the quantity does not ex- 
 ceed half the weight of the cochineal, and it ap- 
 peared to me to make a more lasting colour. Some 
 diers have made scarlet with three dippings : 
 namely, a first and second water for preparation, 
 and then the reddening ; but still the same quan- 
 tity of drugs is always used. 
 
 I observed in the foregoing chapter, that the 
 little use made of kermes for the brown or VeJte- 
 
124 
 
 ti§n scarlets, obliges most diers to make them 
 with cochineal ; for this purpose a water of prepa- 
 ration is made as usual ; and for the reddening, 
 eight pounds of alum are added for each hundred 
 weight of stuff ; this alum is dissolved by itself 
 in a kettle, with a sufficient quantity of water, then 
 poured into the liquor before the cochineal is put 
 in. The remainder is performed exactly as in the 
 common scarlet; this is the Venetian scarlet, but 
 it has not near the same solidity as if made with 
 the kermes. 
 
 There are no alkaline salts which do not sadden 
 scarlet ; of this number are the salt of tartar, pot- 
 ash, pearLashes calcined, and nitre fixed by fire ; 
 therefore alum is more generally used ; and if 
 these alkaline salts be boiled with the stuffs, they 
 would considerably damage them, for they dis^ 
 solve all animal substances. If the alum be cal- 
 cined, it is still the more secure. 
 
 The redder the scarlet is the more it has been 
 saddened; from thence it appears that thesecolours 
 lose in the liquor -that browns them a part of their 
 ground ; however one cannot browm in the good 
 dye but with salts. The late M. Baron observes, 
 in a memoir he gave some time ago to the Roy- 
 al Academy of Sciences, that of all the salts he had 
 made use of for browning, making the colour 
 smooth, and preserving its brightness and deep- 
 ness, he had succeeded best with salt of urin, but, 
 as he observes, it is too troublesome to make this 
 salt in any quantity. 
 
 I said in the beginning of this chapter that the 
 choice of the water for dying of scarlet was very 
 material, as the greatest part of common water 
 saddens it, for they mostly contain a chalky, calca- 
 
. 125 
 
 reou3 earth and sometimes a sulphureous or vitri- 
 olic acid ; these are commonly called hard waters, 
 that is, they will not dissolve soap or boil vegeta- 
 bles well. By finding a method of absorbing or 
 precipitating these hurtful matters, all waters may 
 be equally good for this kind of die ; thus, if aL 
 kaline matters are to be removed, a little sour wa- 
 ter produces this effect ; for if five or six buckets 
 of these sour waters are mixed with sixty or sev- 
 enty of the hard water before it comes to boil, 
 these alkaline earths rise in a scum, which is easi- 
 ly taken off the liquor. 
 
 All that I have hitherto said in this chapter is 
 for the instruction of diers ; I shall now make an 
 attemj)t to satisfy the philosopher how these differ- 
 ent effects are produced. 
 
 Cochineal, infused or boiled by itself in pure wa- 
 ter, gives a crimson colour bordering on the pur- 
 ple ; this is its natural colour ; put it into a glass 
 and drop on it spirits of nitre ; this colour will 
 become yellow, and if you still add more, you will 
 scarcely perceive that there was originally any red 
 in the liquor ; thus the acid destroys the red“by 
 dissolving it and dividing its parts so minutely that 
 they escape the sight. If in this experiment a 
 vitriolic, instead of a nitrous acid be used, the first 
 changes of the colour wdll be purple, then purpled 
 lilac, after that a light lilac, then flesh.colour, and 
 lastly, colourless This bluish substance, w^hich 
 mixes with the red to form a purple, may proceed 
 from that small portion of iron from which oil of 
 vitriol is rarely exempt. In the liquor of prepara- 
 tion for scarlet, no other salt but cream of tartar 
 is used, no alum is added as in the common pre- 
 paring water for other colours, because it would 
 L 2 
 
126 
 
 sadden the dye by its vitriolic acid ; yet a calx or 
 lime is required, which with the red parts of the 
 cochineal, may form a kind of lake like that the 
 painters use, which may set in the pores of the 
 wool by the help of the crystal of tartar. 
 
 This white calx is found in the solution of very 
 pure tin, and if the experiment of the die is made 
 in any small glazed earthen vessel, immediately on 
 the cochineal’s communicating its tincture to the 
 water, and then adding the composition drop by 
 drop, each drop may be perceived with a glass or 
 lens, to form a small circle, in which a brisk fer- 
 mentation is carried on ; the calx of the tin will 
 be seen to separate, and instantaneously to take 
 the bright die, which the cloth will receive in the 
 sequel of the operation. 
 
 A further proof that this white calx of tin is ne- 
 cessary in this operation, is, that if cochineal was 
 used with aqua fortis, or spirits of nitre alone a 
 very ugly crimson would be obtained ; if a solu- 
 tion of any other metal was made use of in spirits 
 of nitre, as of iron or mercury, from the first would 
 be had a deep cinder grey, and from the second, a 
 chesnut colour with green streaks, without being 
 able to trace in the one or other any remains of the 
 red of the cochineal. Therefore, by what I have 
 laid down, it may be reasonable to suppose, that 
 the white calx of the tin, having been died by 
 the colouring parts of the cochineal, rouzed by 
 the acid of the dissolvent of this metal, has form- 
 ed this kind of earthy lake, whose atoms have 
 introduced themstlve* into the pores of the wool, 
 which were opened by the boiling water, that 
 they are plaistered by the crystal of tartar, and 
 these pores, suddenly contracting by the immedi- 
 
12 ? 
 
 ate cold the cloth was exposed to by airing, that 
 these colouring particles are found sufficiently set 
 in to be of the good die, and that the air will take 
 off the primitive brightness, in proportion to the 
 various matters with which it is impregnated. In 
 the country, for example, and pa'iicularly if the 
 situation be high, a scarlet cloth preserves its 
 brightness much longer than in great cities where 
 the urinous and alkaline vapours are moreabund^ 
 ant. h’or the same reason, the country mud, which 
 in roads is generally but an earth diluted by rain 
 water, does not stain scarlet as the mud of toW' ns 
 where there are urinous matters, and often a great 
 deal of dissolved iron, as in the streets of g eat 
 cities, for it is well known that any alkaline n:at- 
 ter destroys the effect which an acid has produc- 
 ed on any colour whatsoever. And for the like rea- 
 son if a piece of scarlet is boiled in a ley of pot- 
 ash, this colour becomes purple, and by a contin- 
 uation of boiling it is entirely taken out ; thus 
 from this fixed alkali, and the crystal of tartar, a 
 soluble tartar is made, which the water dissolves 
 and easily detaches from the pores of the wool ; 
 all the mastic of the colouring parts is then de- 
 stroyed, and they enter into the leys of the salts. 
 
 I have tried several experiments on the die of 
 cochineal, to discover what might be produced 
 from the union of its red with other different mat- 
 ters, which generally are not esteemed colouring ; 
 but I shall only relate here such as had the most 
 singular efi'ects. 
 
12B 
 
 T Experiments on Cochineal liquorl 
 
 Zinc dissolved in spirit of nitre changes the red 
 ©f cochineal to a slaty violet colour. 
 
 The salt of lead used instead of cream of tartar, 
 makes a lilac somewhat faded ; a proof that some 
 portion of lead is joined to the colour of the cochi- 
 neal. 
 
 Vitriolated tartar made with pot -ash and vitriol 
 destroys its red, and there only remains an agath 
 grey. 
 
 Bismuth dissolved in spirit of nitre, weakened 
 by an equal part of common water, and poured 
 on the liquor of cochineal, gives the cloth a dove- 
 grey, very beautiful and very bright. 
 
 A solution of copper in spirit of nitre not weak- 
 ened, gives to the cochineal a dirty crimson. 
 
 Cupullated silver, a cinnamon colour, a little 
 on the brown. 
 
 Arsenic added to the liquor of cochineal, gives 
 a brighter cinnamon than the preceding. 
 
 Gold dissolved in aqua regia gave a streaked 
 chesnut, which made the cloth appear as if it had 
 been manufactured with wool of different colours. 
 
 Mercury dissolved with spirit of nitre, produces 
 pretty near the same effect. 
 
 Glauber’s salts alone destroys the red, like the 
 vitriolated tartar, and produces like that an agath 
 grey, but not of the good die ; because this salt 
 easily dissolves even in cold water, and besides it 
 calcines in the air. 
 
 The fixed salt of urine gives a cinder- grey coL 
 our, where not the least tincture of red is perceiv- 
 ed, and like the foregoing is not of a good die, for 
 it is a salt that cannot foriB a solid cement in the 
 
129 
 
 pores of the wool, as it is soluble by the moisture 
 ©f the air. 
 
 w 
 
 Violet without Blue. 
 
 Lastly, the extract of bismuth changes the co- 
 chineal red to a purple, almost violet, as beautiful 
 as if this red had been put on a cloth that had been 
 previously died of a sky-blue. 
 
 From these experiments it is evident, that the 
 salts and metallic solutions yield particles which 
 unite themselves with the particles of the colour- 
 ing ingredients used in dicing, and which salts and 
 particles contribute greatly to the tenacity of the 
 colours. 
 
 Before I finish this chapter on scarlet, I must 
 add some observations which perhaps the reader 
 may be glad to know. 
 
 Neither the mud of the streets nor several acid 
 matters can stain scarlet, if the spotted part is im- 
 mediately washed with plain clean water and a 
 clean cloth ; but if the mud has had time to dry, 
 then the spot appears of a violet black ; this can- 
 not be taken off but by a vegetable acid, such as 
 vinegar, lemon-juice, or a warm solution of white 
 tartar slightly loaded with salts ; but if these aeids 
 are not made use of with precaution and skill in 
 takingoffthe black spot, a yellow one will succeed, 
 because as has been said before, the acids rouze 
 and even destroy the red of the cochineal. 
 
 But there are some for w^hich the colour must 
 be discharged, and the stuff died again. There 
 are other salts besides alkalis which w ill discharge 
 the colour of scarlet ; for if a piece of scarlet cloth 
 be put into the water of preparation for that colour 
 
150 
 
 it will lose a great part of its colour, insomuch, 
 that if it was sewed with two or three pieces of 
 white clothf*it would be difhcult after one hours 
 boiling to distinguish which was the scarlet from 
 the others ; but if it was boiled afresh in a liquor, 
 of cochineal or in the reddening, it would regain 
 its first colour. 
 
 Scarlets abvays lose some part of their bright- I 
 ness in the dressing, for the dressing lays the hair, 
 and forces the fibres to be almost parallel to the i 
 web. In this case the cloth has numerically i 
 less surface, and consequently less rays of light are 
 reflected from it. Besides the extremity of the 
 hair is always most penetrated with the die which 
 causes the brightness, and when it is laid on the 
 cloth, the greatest part of these points appear no 
 more. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 OF CRIMSON. 
 
 CRIMSON, as I have already observed, is the 
 natural colour of the cochineal, or rather, that 
 which it gives to wool boiled with alum and tartar, 
 which is the usual water of preparation for all 
 colours. This is the method which is common- 
 ly practised for spun wool ; it is almost the same 
 for cloths, as will be seen hereafter. 
 
 For each pound of wool, two ounces and a half 
 of alum, and an ounce and a half of white tartar, 
 are put into the copper. When the whole boils^ 
 the wool is put in, well stirred, and left to boil for 
 
131 
 
 two hours ; it is afterwards taken out, slightly 
 wrung, put into a bag, and k-ft thus with its water, 
 as for the scarlet in giain, and for all other colours. 
 
 For the die a fresh liquor is made, in which 
 three fourths of an oiuice of cochineal is added for 
 each ptnind of wool. When the liquor is little 
 more than luke-warm, the cochineal is put in, and 
 when it begins to boil, the wool is cast in* which 
 is to be well stirred with sticks ; it is to remain 
 thus for an hour ; when taken out, wrung and 
 washed. 
 
 If degrees of shades are required, (whose names 
 are merely arbitral y) proceed, as has been already 
 related for the scarier, using but half the cochineal 
 at first, and beginning with the lightest. 
 
 The beauty of crimson consists in its border- 
 ing as much as possible on the grisdelin, a colour 
 between a grey and a violet. I made several tri- 
 als to bring crimson to a higher perfection than 
 most diers have hitherto done, and indeed I suc- 
 ceeded so as to make it as fine as the false crimson, 
 which is always brighter than the fine. 
 
 This is the principle on which I worked. As 
 all alkalis sadden cochineal, I tried soap, barrilla, 
 pot-ash, pearl-ashes ; all these salts brought the 
 crimson to the shade I wanted, but at the same 
 time, they tarnished and diminished its brightness, 
 I then bethought myself to make use of volatile 
 alkalis, and I found that the volatile spirit of salt 
 ammoniac produced a very good effect ; but this 
 spirit instantly evaporated and a pretty considera- 
 ble quantity was used in the liquor, which greau 
 ly augmented the price of the die. 
 
 I then had recourse to another expedient which 
 SHCceeded better, the expense ©f which is trifling. 
 
132 
 
 This was to make the volatile alkali of the salt 
 ammoniac enter into the liquor, at the very instant 
 that it eomes out of its basis ; and to effect this, 
 after my crimson was made after the usual man- 
 ner, I passed through a fresh liquor, in which I 
 had dissolved a little of the salt ammoniac. As 
 soon as the liquor was a little more than luke- 
 warm, I flung in as much pot ash as I had before 
 of salt ammoniac, and my wool immediately took 
 a very brilliant colour. 
 
 This method even spares the cochineal ; for 
 this new liquor makes it rise, and then less may 
 be used than in the common process ; but the 
 greatest part of diers, even the most eminent, sad- 
 den their crimsons with archil, a drug of the false 
 die. 
 
 Very beautiful crimsons are also made by boil- 
 ing the wmol as for the common scarlet, and then 
 boiling it in a second liquor, wdth two ounces of 
 alum and once ounce of tartar, for each pound of 
 wool, leaving it one hour in the liquor. A fresh 
 liquor is then prepared, in which six drachms of 
 cochineal is put for every pound of wool. After 
 it has remained an hour in this liquor, it is taken 
 out, and passed immediately thiongh a liquor of 
 barilla and salt ammoniac. By this method 
 gradations of very beautiful crimson shades are 
 made by diminishing the quantity of the cochineal. 
 It is to be observed, that in this process there are 
 but six drachms of cochineal to die each pound of 
 wool, because inthc first liquor a drachm and a half 
 of cochineal is used for each pound. It is also 
 necessary to remark, that, to sadden the se t rim- 
 sons, the liquor of the alkaline salt and salt am- 
 moniac be not made too hot, because the separa- 
 
tioft of the volatile spirit of this last salt would be 
 too quick, and the crystal of tartar of the first li- 
 quor would lose its proper effect by being chang- 
 ed, as I have already said into a soluble tartar. 
 
 The same operation may be done by using one 
 part of the cochineal sylvtstre instead of the fine 
 cochineal, and the colour is not less beautiful, for 
 commonly four parts of sylvestre have not more 
 effect in dyeing than one part of fine cochineal. 
 The sylvestre may also be used in dying scarlet, 
 but with great precaution ; it should only be used 
 in bastard scarlets and half crimsons. I shall speak 
 of this when I treat of these colours in partic- 
 ular. 
 
 When a scarlet is spotted or spoiled in the op- 
 eration by some unforeseen accident, or even 
 when the die has failed, the common remedy is to 
 make it a crimson, and for that purpose, it is dipt 
 in a liquor where about two pounds of alum are 
 added for each hundred weight of wool. It is im- 
 mediately plunged in this liquor, and left there 
 until it has acquired the shade of the crimson de- 
 sired. 
 
 Languedoc Crimson* 
 
 I shall notv shew the method they follow in 
 Languedoc to make a very Ix^autiful sort of crim- 
 son, or the cloths exported to the Levant, but 
 which is not so much saddened as that which I 
 have just spoken ©f, and which resembles much 
 more the Venetian scarlet. For five pieces of 
 cloth the liquor is prepared as usual, puuing bran 
 ifnecessary. When it is more than lukewarm, 
 ten pounds of sea. salt are put, instead of ervstai 
 
 M 
 
134 
 
 of tartar, and when it is ready to boil, twenty- sev- 
 
 pounds of the scarlet composition, made after 
 the manner of carcassine already described, are 
 poured in, and without adding cochineal the cloth 
 is passed through this liquor for two hours, keep- 
 ing it always turning with the wynch, and contin- 
 ually boiling. It is afterwards taken out, aired 
 and washed ; then a fresh liquor is made, with 
 eight pounds and three quarters v4cochineal pow- 
 dered and sifted, and when it is ready to boil, twen- 
 ty one pounds of composition are added ; the 
 cloth is boiled for three quarters of an hour wnth 
 the common precautions, after v/hich it is taken 
 out, aired and washed ; it is of a very fine crim- 
 son, but very little saddened ; if it is required to 
 be more saddened, a greater quantity of alum is 
 put into the first liquor of preparation, and in 
 the second less of the composition, the sea salt is 
 also added to this second liquor ; a little practice 
 in this method will soon teach the dier to make all 
 the shades that can properly be derived from crim- 
 son. 
 
 Whenever cochineal has been used, there is 
 found at the bottom of the reddening liquor a 
 quantity of very brown sediment, which is flung 
 away with the liquor as useless. I examined it 
 and found, that the liquor for the reddening of 
 scarlet contained a precipitated calx of tin : I uni- 
 ted this metal with a great deal of trouble ; the re- 
 maining parts of this sediment are the dross of 
 the white tartar, or of the cream of tartar, united 
 with the gross parts of' the bodies of the cochineal, 
 which is, as has already been said, a small insect, 
 I washed these little animal parts in cold water, 
 and, by shaking this w’ater, I collected with a 
 
13*5 
 
 small sieve, what the agitation caused to rise on 
 the surface. 
 
 After this manner I separated these light parts 
 from the earthy and metallic ; I dried them sepa- 
 rately, then levigated them with equal weight of 
 fresh crystal of tartar ; I boiled a portibn with a 
 little alum, and put in a pattern of white cloth, 
 which boiled for three quarters of an hour, at the 
 end of which it was died of a very beautiful crim- 
 son. 
 
 This experiment having convinced me, that by 
 powdering and sifting the cochineal as is common- 
 ly practised, all the profit that might be extracted 
 from this dear drug is not obtained, I thought 
 proper to communicate this discovery to the diers, 
 that they might avail themselves of it by the meth- 
 od following. 
 
 Take one ounce of cochineal powdered and sift- 
 ed as usual ; mix with it a quarter of its weight 
 of very white cream of tartar very crystalline and 
 very airy; put the whole on a hard levigating stone 
 and levigate this mixture till it is reduced to an 
 impalpable powder ; make use of this cochineal 
 thus prepared in the liquor and in the reddening, 
 subtracting from the cream of tartar, which is to 
 be used in the liquor, the small quantity before 
 used With the cochineal. What is put to the red- 
 dening, although mixed with a fourth of the same 
 salt, does not piejudice its colour, it even appear- 
 ed to me that it was more solid. Those that 
 will follow this method will find that there is abofet 
 a fourth more profit to be obtained by it. 
 
136 
 
 The natural Crimsoir hi grain. 
 
 In proportion for every pound of cloth or other 
 things, take two ounces of tartar pure, and two 
 ounces of alum ; boil them with the goods an 
 hour and a half ; then rince the goods very well 
 from the boiling. The kettle must be filled again 
 with clear water and a fevv handfuls of bran put in, 
 in order to take out the filth of the water, as well 
 as to soften it. Scum the scurf off when it begins 
 to boil, and put in an ounce of well powdered 
 grain, with one dram of red arsenic and one 
 spoonful of burnt wine lees ; this gives a pretty 
 lustre ; then wash and rince it well, and you have 
 a most beautiful colour. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SCARLET OF GUM-LACqUE. 
 
 THE red part of the gum-lacque may be also 
 used for the dicing t>f scarlet, and if this scarlet 
 has not all the brightness of that made of fine co- 
 chineal alone, it has the advantage of being more 
 
 lasting. 
 
 The gum Jacque, which is in branches or small 
 sticks and full of animal parts, is the fittest for dic- 
 ing. It must be red v\ ithin, and its external parts, 
 of a blackish brown ; it appears by a particular 
 examination made of it by M. Geoffroy some 
 years since, that it is a sort of hive, somewhat like 
 that of bees, wasps, &c. 
 
 Some diers make use of it powdered and tied 
 
157 
 
 in a linen bag; but this is a bad method, for there 
 alw^ivs passes through the doth some resinous 
 portion ot the gum, which melts in the boiling 
 water of the cop[)er, and sticks to tlie cloth, where 
 it becomes so adherent svhen cold, that it must be 
 scraped off with a knife. 
 
 Others re'Uict it to powder, boil it in water, and 
 after it has given ail its colour, let it cool, and the 
 rc::.irK)us parts fall to the bottom. The water -is 
 poured out, and evaporated by the air, where it 
 often becomes stinking, and when it has acquir- 
 ed the consistence of thick honey, it is put up 
 into vessels for use. Under this form it is pret- 
 t} difficult justly to determine the quantity that is 
 used ; this induced me to seek the means of 
 obtaining this tincture separated from its resinous 
 gum, without being obliged to evaporate so great 
 a quantity of water to have it dry, and to reduce it 
 to powder. 
 
 1 tried it with weak lime water, with a de- 
 coction of the heart of agaric, with a decoc- 
 tion of comfre} root, recommended in an ancient 
 book of physic ; in all these the water leaves a 
 pirt of the die, and it still passes too full of colour, 
 and it ought to be evaporated to get all the dve ; 
 this evaporation I wanted to avoid, therefore I 
 tnade use of mucilaginous or slimy roots, which 
 of themselves gave no colour, but whose mucilage 
 might retain the colouring parts, so that the^^ 
 might remain with it on the filter. 
 
 The great comfrey root has as yet the best an- 
 swered my intention ; I use it dry and in a gross 
 powder, pulling half a dram to each quart of wa- 
 ter, which is boiled a quarter of an h ur, passing 
 it through a hair sieve. 1 1 immediately extract's. 
 
 M 2 
 
from it a beautiful crimson tincture ; put the ves- 
 sel to digest in a moderate heat for twelve hours 
 shaking it seven or eight times to mix it wdth the 
 gum that remains at the bottom, then pour off 
 the water that is loaded with colour in a vessel 
 sufficiently large, that three-fourths may remain 
 empty and fill it wdth cold water ; then pour a 
 very small quantity of strong solution of Roman 
 alum on the tincture ; the mucilaginous or slimy 
 die precipitates itself, and if the water w'hich ap« 
 pears on the top appears still coloured, add some 
 drops of the solution of alum to finish the precipi- 
 tation, and this repeat till the w^ater becomes as 
 clear as common water. 
 
 When the crimson mucilage or slime is all sunk 
 to th^ bottom of the vessel, draw off the clear wha- 
 ler, and filter the remainder ; after w’hich, dry it 
 in the sun. 
 
 If the first mucilaginous water has not extract- 
 ed all the colour of the gum lacque, (which is 
 known by the remaining being of a weak straw 
 colour) repeat the operation until you separate all 
 the die the gum-lacque can furnish ; and as it is 
 reduced to powder when dry, the quantity to be 
 used in the die is more exactly ascertained than 
 by evaporating it to the consistence of an extract. 
 
 Good gum-lacque, picked from its sticks, yields, 
 dried and powdered, but little more die than one- 
 fifth of its weight. Thus at the price it bears at 
 present, ther€ is not so great an advantage as many 
 may imagine in using it in the place of cochineal ; 
 but to make the scarlet colour more lasting than 
 it commonly is, it may be used in the first liquor 
 or preparation, and cochineal for reddening. 
 
 If scarlet is made of gum-lacque, extracted 
 
139 
 
 cording to the method here taught, and reduced 
 to powder, a caution is to be taken in dissolving it, 
 which is useless when cochineal is used ; that is, 
 if it was put into the liquor ready to boil, the dier 
 would lose three-quarters of an hour, before it 
 would be dissolved entirely j therefore for despatch, 
 put the dose of this dry tincture into a large earthen 
 vessel, or into one of tin, pour warm water on it, 
 and when it is well moistened, add the necessary 
 dose of the composition for scarlet, stirring the 
 mixture w^ell with a glass pestle. This powder, 
 which was of a dirty deep purple, as it dissolves 
 takes fire- coloured red extremely bright ; pour 
 the dissolution into the liquor, in which was pre- 
 viously put the crystal of tartar, and as soon as this 
 liquor begins to boil, dip the cloth in, keeping it 
 continually turning. The remaining part of the 
 operation is the same as that of scarlet with cochi- 
 neal : the extract of gum-lacquc, prepared accord- 
 ing to my method, yields about one ninth more 
 of die than cochineal, at least than that which I 
 made use of for this comparison. 
 
 Ifinstead of the crystal of tartar and the com- 
 position of some fixed alkaline salt or lime water 
 is substituted, the bright red of the gum lacque 
 is changed into the colour of lees of wine, so 
 that this die does not sadden so easily as that of 
 eoehineal. 
 
 If instead of these alteratives, salt ammoniac is 
 used by itself cinnamon or clear chescut colours 
 are obtained, and that according as there is more 
 or less of this salt. I have made twenty other ex- 
 periments on this drug, which I shall not relate 
 here, because they produced none but common 
 colours, and which may be easier had from ingre- 
 
140 
 
 dients of a lower price. My experiments were I 
 with a view of improving the red of the lucque, : 
 and the method 1 have here laid down to extract 
 its colouring parts answers extremely well ; the 
 more ingredients that are discovered for scarlet, 
 the less will be the cost ; for, although these ex- 
 periments made on cochineal, lacque, and other 
 drugs, may appear useless to some diers, they 
 will not be so to others who study to intprove this ; 
 art.^ 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ©F THE coccus POLOXICUS, A COLOURING IN- 
 SECT. 
 
 THE coccus polon'icus is a little round iiisect, 
 somewhat less than a coriander seed ; it is found 
 sticking to the roots of \\'\^ poly^oimm coccifcruin 
 incanam flore majore perenni of Rav, and which 
 M. T oLirnefort has named alchymilli gr amine o fo^ 
 Us majore fiore. According to M. Breyn, it a- 
 
 bounds in the palatinate of Kiovia, bordering the 
 Ukrania, towards the towns of Ludnow, Piatka, 
 Stobdyzeze, and other sandy places of Ukrania 
 and Bodolia, of Volhinia, of the grand duchy of 
 Lithuania, and even in Prussia, towards Thorn. 
 
 Those that gather them say, that immediately 
 after the summer solstice the coccus is ripe, and 
 full of its purple juice. They hold in their hand 
 
 * The colouring parts of the Mm-lacque may be extracted by common 
 river water, by making it a litue more thaa lukeTfarm, jjacloeiug tite 
 
 powdered lacque in a coarse woollen bag« 
 
141 
 
 a small hollow shade, made in the shape of a shep- 
 herd’s crook which has a small handle. With 
 one hand they hold the plant, raising it out of the 
 ground wdth the other, armed with this instru- 
 ment ; they then shake off these little insects, and 
 place the plant in the same hole in order to pre- 
 serve it. 
 
 Having separated the coccus from the earth, 
 which they do by a riddle made for that purpose, 
 their chief care is, that it should not change into 
 a small worm ; for this purpose they sprinkle it 
 with vinegar, and sometimes with very cold wa- 
 ter ; they then bring them to a warm place, 
 or else expose them to the sun to dry ; without 
 this, these insects would destroy themselves, and 
 if they were dried too precipitately, they would 
 lose their beautiful colour. Sometimes they sep- 
 arate these small insects from their vesicles or 
 bladders with the ends of their fingers by a gentle 
 pressure, which they form into small round cakes. 
 The diers pay dearer for this die when in lump 
 than when it is in grain. 
 
 Bernard de Bernitz, from whose book I have 
 taken this, adds, that the great marechal Konits- 
 poliki, and some other Polish noblemen, w ho had 
 lands in the Ukrania, set this gathering of the coc- 
 cus to the Jews at a considerable profit, and caused 
 it to be gathered by their vassals ; that the Turks 
 and Arminians, who bought this drug of the 
 Jews, used it for the dicing of wool, silk, the 
 manes and tales of their horses ; that the Turk- 
 ish w^omen made use of it to paint their fingers’ 
 ends of a beautiful carnation colour ; and that 
 formerly the Dutch used to buy the coccus at a 
 high price, and ^lixed it with an equal quantity 
 
142 
 
 of cochineal ; that with the die of this insect and 
 chalk, a iacque for the painters might be made as 
 fine as the Florence Iacque ; and that a beautiful 
 red was prepared from it lor the toilet of the ladies 
 in France and Spain. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV, 
 
 CJ THE RED OP MADDER, 
 
 THE root of madder is the only part of this 
 plant which is used in dicing. Of all the reds 
 this is the most lasting, when it is put on a cloth 
 or stuff that is thoroughly scoured then prepared 
 with the salts with which it is to be boiled two or 
 three hours, without which, this red, so tenacious 
 after the preparation of the subject, would scarce- 
 ly resist more the proofs of the reds than any other 
 ingredients of the false die. This is a proof that 
 the pores of the fibres of the wool ought not only 
 to be well scoured from the yolk or unctuous 
 transpiration of the animal, which may have re- 
 mained, notwithstanding the scouring of the wool 
 after the common manner with water and urine ; 
 but it is also necessary, that these same pores be 
 plaistered inwardly with some of those salts which 
 are called hard, bec.mse they do not calcine in the 
 air, and cannot be dissolved by rain water, or by 
 the moisture of the air in rainy weather. Such is 
 as has been said before, the white crude tartar, the 
 red and the crystal of tartar, of which, according 
 to common custom, about a fourth is put into the 
 preparing liquor, with two-thirds or three- four ilis 
 of alum. 
 
145 
 
 The best madder roots come generally from 
 Zealand, where this plant is cultivated in the islands 
 of Tergoes, Zerzee, Sommerd} ke, and Thoolen. 
 That from the first of these islands is esteemed 
 the best ; the soil is clay, fat, and somewhat salt. 
 The lands that are deemed the best for the cultiva- 
 tion of this plant are new lands, that only served 
 for pasture, which are always fresher and moister 
 than others. The Zealanders are beholden to the 
 refugees of Flanders for the cultivation and great 
 commerce of this root. 
 
 It is known in trade and dicing under the names 
 of grape madder, bunch madder, &c. It is how- 
 ever the same root ; all the difference in regard to 
 its quality is, that the one kind contains pith and 
 root, and the other has the small fibres from its 
 principal root adhering to it. 
 
 Both are prepared by the same work, which I 
 shall nor. relate the particulars of here, as it would 
 only serve to lengthen this treatise to no purpose. 
 
 They choose the finest roots for the first sort, 
 drying them with care, grinding them and separa- 
 ting the rind at the mill, and preserving the middle 
 of the root ground in hogsheads, where it remains 
 for two or three years ; for after this time, it is 
 better for dicing than it would have been coming 
 from the mill ; for if madder was not kept close 
 after this manner, the aii would spoil it, and the 
 colour would be less bright. It is at first yellow 
 but It reddens and grows brown by age ; the best 
 is of a sf fPron colour, in hard lumps, of a strong 
 smell, and yet not disagreeable. It is also cultivat- 
 ed a boud_. isle in Flanders, and several other places 
 of the ki hgdoai, where it was found to grow 
 spoBtaneousiy, 
 
lU 
 
 The madders which are made use of in the Le- 
 vant and in India, for the dicing of cottons, arc 
 somewhat different from the kinds used in Eu- 
 rope, it is named chat on the coast of Coromandel. 
 This plant thus called, grows abundantly in the 
 woods on the coast of Malabar, and this chat is the 
 wild sort. The cultivated comes from Vasur and 
 Tuccorin, and the most esteemed of all is the chat 
 of Persia, named (lianas. 
 
 They also gather on the coast of Coromandel| 
 the root of another plant called ray de chaye^ of? 
 root of colour, and which was thought to be a kind 
 cAruhia tinctorum, but is the root of a kind of 
 gtilliiim jlore albo» as it appeared by observations 
 sent from India in 1748. It has a long slender 
 root, which dies cotton of a tolerably handsome 
 red, when it has received all the preparations pre- 
 vious to the die. 
 
 At Kinder, in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, 
 and in the countries of /\kissar and of Yordas,they 
 cu tivate another kind of madder, which is called 
 in the countrv chioc boy a ekme hazala. This of 
 all the madders is the best for the red die, by the 
 proofs that have been made of it, and far more es- 
 teemed in the l.evant than the finest Zealand mad- 
 der the Dutch bring there. This madder so much 
 valued is called bv the modern Greeks lizari^ and 
 by the Arabs foiioy ^ 
 
 "^rhere is another kind of madder in Canada cal- 
 led tyssa voyana. It is a very small root, which 
 produces pretty wear the same effect as our Euro- 
 pean madder. 
 
 * These kinds of madders give brighter reds tlian the bc>-t grape madder of 
 Zealand, for they are dried in the air and not in a stove, The madder of Lan- 
 guedoc, even that of Poitou eucceeds a€ weH as that of when it is dried 
 
145 
 
 The water of preparation for madder red is pret- 
 ty near the same as for kermes, that is composed 
 of alum and tartar. The diers do not agree as 
 to the proportions ; but the best appears to be four 
 ounces of alum and one of red tartar to each pound 
 of spun wool, and about one twelfth part of sour 
 water, and let the wool boil in it for two hours. 
 If it is spun wool, leave it for seven or eight days, 
 that it may be well moistened by the dissolution 
 of these salts ; and if it is cloth, finish it the fourth 
 day. 
 
 To die wool with madder, prepare a fresh li- 
 quor, and when the wetter is come to a heat to bear 
 the hand, put in half a pound of the finest grape 
 madder for each pound of wool ; let it be W’ell 
 raked and mixed in the copper before the wool 
 goes in, keep the wool in an hour, during which 
 time it must not boil.^ Shades from madder are 
 obtained after the manner laid down for other col- 
 ours, but these shades are little used, except in a 
 mixture of several colours. 
 
 When several pieces of cloth are to be died at 
 once in madder red, the operation is the same, on- 
 ly augmenting the ingredients in proportion ; and 
 let it be remarked that in small operations the 
 quantity of ingredients must be somewhat greater 
 than in great, not only in madder red, but in ail 
 other colours. 
 
 These reds are never so beautiful as thb'se' W 
 the kermes, and much less so than those of the 
 lacque or cochineal, but they cost less, and are 
 made use of for common stuff's whose low prices 
 would not dearer die. Most of the reds 
 
 ^ IfniadderisboiJed, its red becomes obscure, and of a brick colr^- 
 
 N 
 
146 
 
 for the army are of madder, saddened with archil 
 or brazil, (though these drugs be of the safe die) 
 to make them finer, and more on the velvet, which 
 perfection could not be procured to them even 
 with cochineal, without considerably augmenting 
 the price. 
 
 I have already said that madder put on stuffs not 
 being prepared to receive it by the alum and tar- 
 tar- water, did in fact give its red colour, but that 
 which it died was blotted and not lasting, it is 
 therefore the salts that secure the die ; this is com- 
 mon to all other colours red or yellow, which 
 cannot be made without a preparing liquor. Now 
 the question is, whether these act by taking off the 
 remains of the oily and fat transpiration of the 
 sheep, or whether that of the two salts, particular- 
 ly that which even cannot be carried by luke- warm 
 water, remains to catch, seize and cement the col- 
 ouring atom, opened or dilated by the heat of wa- 
 ter to receive it, and contracted by the cold to re- 
 tain it. 
 
 To determine which, use any alkaline salts, such 
 as pot- ash, the clarified lays of oak-ashes, or any 
 other pure lixivial salt instead of alum and tartar, 
 put in a due proportion so as not to dissolve the 
 wool, and afterwards dip the stuff in madder li- 
 quor. This stuff will come out coloured, but 
 will not last, even boiling water will carry off 
 three fourths of the colour. Now it cannot be 
 said that a fixed alkaline salt is unfit to extract 
 from the pores of the wool the yolk or fat of the 
 sheep, since lixivial salts are used with success 
 in several cases, to take the greasQ,^ut of stuffs of 
 what kind soever they be, whilP water alone 
 could not take off. It is also well known* that 
 
147 
 
 with fats foreign to the stuff, and an alkaline salt, 
 a kind of soap is formed which water easily car- 
 ries off. 
 
 Again, take a piece of stuff died in madder red, 
 according to the usual method, boil it some time 
 in a solution of fixed alkaline salts, a small quanti- 
 ty will also destroy the colour, for the fixed alkali, 
 attacking the small atoms of the crystal of tartar, 
 or crude tartar, which lines the pores of the wool, 
 forms a soluble tartar, which w^ater dissolves very 
 easily, and consequently the pores being opened 
 in the hot water of the experiment, the colouring 
 atom came out with the saline atom that sheath- 
 ed it. 
 
 This stuff being washed in w^ater, the remaining 
 red colour is diluted, and a colour half brown and 
 half dirty remains. If, instead of an alkaline salt, 
 soap is substituted, (which is an alkaline salt, mit« 
 igated by oil) and another piece of cloth died also 
 in madder, be boiled for a few minutes, the red 
 will become finer, because the alkali which is in 
 the soap being sheathed with oil, it could not at- 
 tack the vegetable acid, and the boiling only car., 
 ried off the colouring parts ill stuck together, and 
 their numbers diminishing, what remains must ap- 
 pear deeper or clearer. 
 
 1 must also add, for further proof of the actual 
 existence of salts in the pores of a stuff prepared 
 with alum and tartar, before dicing it with mad- 
 der, that more or less tartar gives an infinite vari- 
 ety -of shades with this root only ; for if the quan- 
 tity of alum be diminished, and that of the tartar 
 augmented, a cinnamon will be had, and even if 
 nothing but tartar alone be put into the liquo;*^ 
 the red is lost, and a deep cinnamon or brown 
 
148 
 
 root colour is obtained, though of a very good 
 die ; for the crude tartar, which is an acid salt, has 
 so much dissolved the part which should have 
 produced the red colour, that there only remain- 
 ed a very small ([uanlity, with the ligneous fibres 
 of the root, which, like all other common roots, 
 does then yield but a brown colour, more or less 
 deep according to the quantity used. I have al- 
 ready proved that the acid wdiich brightens tlie 
 red, dissolves them if too much is used, and di- 
 vides them into particles so extremely minute, 
 that they aie not perceptible. 
 
 If in the place of tartar, any salt which is easily 
 dissolved be put with the alum in the liquor, to 
 prepare the stuff for the madder die, such as salt- 
 petre, the greater part of the madder red becomes 
 useless, it disappears, or does not slick on, and 
 nothing is got but a very bright cinnamon, which 
 “Will not sufficiently stand the proof, because the 
 two salts used in the preparing liquor are not of the 
 hardness of the tartar. 
 
 Volatile urin(jus alkalis which are obtained from 
 certain plants, such as the perilla, the archil of the 
 Canaries, and other mosses or lichens, destroy al- 
 so the madder red, but at the same time communi- 
 cate another to it, for on experiment, madder pre- 
 pared after the manner of archil with fermented 
 urine and quick lime, produced only nut-colours, 
 but wdiicli nevertheless are lasting ; because there 
 cnleredjnto the liquor only the little portion of u- 
 rinous volatile that moistened the madder which 
 the boiling was sufficient to evaporate, and be- 
 sides, the cloth was sufficiently furnished with the 
 salts of the liquor made as usual, to retain the 
 colouring parts of the die. 
 
149 
 
 When a pure red, that for cochineal an exam- 
 ple, is laid upon a cloth first died in blue, and af- 
 terwards prepared with the liquor of tartar, and 
 alum to receive and retain this red, a purple or vi- 
 oleT is produced according to the quantity of blue 
 or red. The red of madder has not this effect, for 
 it is not a pure red like that of the cochineal, and 
 as I said above, it is altered by the brow n ligneous 
 fibres of its root, and makes on the blue a chesnut 
 colour, more or less deep according to the prece- 
 ding intensity of the blue first laid on. If this 
 chesnut colour is w^antcd to have a purple cast, a 
 little cochineal must be added. 
 
 In order to avoid this brown of the root, the 
 diers w^ho make the best reds of madder take great 
 heed to use the liquor of madder a little more 
 than lukewarm ; the madder tarnishes consider- 
 ably by the heat of the water, extracting the partL 
 cles which die brown, and unite themselves vvith 
 the red. 
 
 This inconveniency might be remedied, if at 
 the time that the madder root is fresh a means 
 could be found to separate from the rest of this 
 root the red circle whit^h is underneath its brown 
 pelicle, and which surrounds the middle pith ; but 
 this work would augment its price, and even then 
 it would not afford so good a red as cochineal. 
 However, it might be attempted to die cottons 
 red, whose price m g it bear the expenses of this 
 prepaiation. 
 
 Madder being of ail ingredients the cheapest of 
 any that die red and of the good die, it is mixt 
 with others to diminish the price. It is with 
 madder and kermes that the bastard scarlets of 
 grain are died, otherwise called half grain scar- 
 
150 
 
 Jets, and with madder and cochineal the half- 
 common 'scarlets, and the half-crimsons are made. 
 
 To make the half grain scarlet, the water of 
 preparation, and all the rest of the operation is to 
 be performed after the same manner as scarlet 
 made of the grain of kermes, or the common Ve- 
 netian, only the second liquor is composed of half 
 kermes and half grape madder. 
 
 For the half-scarlet and flame-colour, the com- 
 position and preparation is as usual, nothing but 
 pure cochineal being put in, but in the reddening, 
 half cochineal and half madder is used : here also 
 the sylvestre may be made use of, for after having 
 made the preparation with cochineal, for redden- 
 ing, use half a pound of cochineal, a pound and a 
 half of sylvestre, and one pound of madder instead 
 of cochineal alone. 
 
 That the wool and stuffs may be died as equally 
 as possible, it is necessary that the two kinds of 
 cochineal be well rubbed or sifted, as also the mad- 
 der, with which they must be well incorporated 
 before they are put into the liquor. This must 
 be observed in all colours, where several ingredi- 
 ents are mixt together. This half scarlet is finish- 
 ed liked the common scarlet, and it may be sad- 
 dened after the same maiiKcr, either with boiling 
 water or alum. 
 
 The half-crimson is made like the common 
 crimson, only using half madder, and half coebi*. 
 neal, the cochineal sylvestre may be used here al- 
 so, observing only to retrench half of the common 
 cochineal , and to replace it with three times as much 
 of .the sylvestre. If a greater quantity of the syl- 
 vestre was used, and more of the other taken off, 
 the colour would not be so fine. Various shades 
 
151 
 
 Biay be produced by augmenting or lessening the 
 madder or cochineal. 
 
 Purple with Madder without Blue. 
 
 I shall finish this chapter with an experiment 
 which afforded a pretty fine purple without cochi- 
 neal, or without the cloth being first died blue. 1 
 boiled a piece of cloth weighing half an ounce, 
 wfith ten grains of Roman alum, and six grains of 
 crystal of tartar ; half an hour after I took it out, 
 wrung it, and let it cool ; then added to the same 
 liquor twenty four grains of grape madder ; after 
 it had furnished its die to this liquor, still impreg- 
 nated with salts I dropt in twenty four drops of a 
 solution of bismuth, made with equal parts of wa- 
 ter and spirit of nitre, and then dipt my doih 
 again. Half an hour after, I took it out, wrung 
 and washed it ; it was almost as fine a crimson 
 as if it had been done with cochineal, it liad even 
 a sufficient ground to have remained in that 
 state. ' 
 
 I dipt it again in the same liquor, and boiled it 
 for a quarter of an hour ; it came out a pretty bright 
 purple ; this purple, tried by the proof of alum, 
 rouses and embellishes itself, and by the proof of 
 soap it remained of a much finer red than the com- 
 mon reds of madder. 
 
 If the cloth be kept for several days moistened 
 in its liquor of tartar and alum, and afterwards 
 died in fresh madder liquor, plain and without salts, 
 according to the common method till it has taken 
 a bright cinnamon colour, and to this liquor be add- 
 ed the same solution of bismuth, a chesnut colour, 
 and no purple will be obtained. Thie 
 
152 
 
 what exactness is required in describing the pro- 
 cesses of dicing, for want of which, all books hith- 
 erto published on this art have been useless, as 
 they neglected to point out the necessary cir- 
 cumstances for the success of the desirsed col- 
 our. 
 
 In this second experiment, the cloth did at first 
 take too much salts, they remained too long in it, 
 and there was none in the liquor of the die ; for 
 want of alum the purple did not a[>pear, because 
 the white earth of this salt could not precipitate it- 
 self with the dissolved parts of the bismuth, which 
 as has been said in the chapter of the kermes, car. 
 ry with them the blue parts of the smalt, which is 
 always found in the mine of bismuth, and a portion 
 of which very probably unites itself to this half 
 metal during the melting. This mutual precipi- 
 tation IS performed in operation of dieing, by the 
 help of the astringent parts of the ligneous fibres 
 of the madder root. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 or YELLOW. 
 
 HITHERTO ten sorts of drugs have been 
 named for dieing, yellow, but by the proofs that 
 have been made it ^ certain there are but five that 
 are sufficiently lasting to be used in the good die. 
 Sever^fgiore might be added to these five, as yel- 
 lows arit*"easily obtained. I shall therefore first 
 speak of these five, which are the weld or wold, 
 savory, green wood, the yellow wood, and the fen- 
 
ligreek, bec^Sle these only are of the good die. 
 The three first are very common plants inlilurope, 
 the yellow wood comes from the Indies, and fen- 
 ugreek is fownd every where. Weld is most 
 commonly used, as it gives the brightest die. The 
 savory and the green wood are best for wools that 
 are to be made greens, because their natural 
 colour borders a little on tlie green ; the two 
 others give shades of yellow somewhat different. 
 
 The yellows most known in the art of dicing 
 are the straw yellow, the pale yellow, and the lem* 
 on yellow. The orange yellows commonly made 
 are not simple colours, therefore I shall not speak 
 of them here. 
 
 For dicing yellow, the common preparing wa- 
 ter with tartar and alum is used for wool or stuffs, 
 in the proportion of four ounces of alum for each 
 pound of wool, or twenty five pounds for the hun- 
 dred, and one ounce of tartar, and the method of 
 boiling is the same as before. For welding, after 
 the wool or stuff is boiled, put five or six pounds 
 of weld in a fresh liquor for each pound of stuff ; 
 let the weld be inclosed in a linen bag, that it may 
 not mix with the stuff, and that the bag may not 
 rise to the top of the copper, it must be kept dow% 
 with a heavy cross of wood. Others boil the weld 
 till it has furnished all its die, and sinks itself to 
 the bottom of the copper, at which time thev place 
 on it a cross or iron circle fitted with a net of cords. 
 Others take it out with a rake when it is sufficient- 
 ly f^oiled : sometimes yellow wood and other in- 
 gredients are mixed with the weld, according to 
 the shade required, by altering the quantities and 
 the proportions of the salts in the preparation -and 
 the time of boiling. I know by experience, that 
 
154 
 
 V 
 
 these shades may be obtained ad injinitum. This 
 proof I have had in the essays I made with the 
 flower of the virga, a very great acquisition in the 
 art of dieing, if this plant was improved, which 
 may be easily done, since it shoots a great many 
 stems, and whose small ones may be easily trans- 
 planted, and produce quantities in the course of 
 one year. 
 
 Light shades of yellow are obtained in the same 
 manner as all others spoken of, only the preparing 
 liquor for these light yellows must be weaker. I 
 recommend twelve pounds and a half of alum for 
 each hundred pounds of wool, and the tartar in 
 proportion ; but these light shades do not resist 
 the proofs as deeper shades do, made with the full 
 proportion of tartar. 
 
 Some diers endeavouring to help this, leave the 
 wool and stuffs for a longer time in the die, because 
 they take it slower in proportion to the weakness 
 of the liquor ; but if they put at the same time in 
 the colouring liquor, wools whose preparation 
 shall have been different, they shall take at the 
 same time different shades. These liquors more 
 or less strong are called half preparing liquors, or 
 quarter- preparing liquors, and they make great 
 use of them in light shades of wool died in the 
 fleece, that is, before being spun, and which are 
 intended for the manufacturing of cloths and other 
 mixed stuffs ; because the more alum there is in 
 the liquor of the wool, the more it is harsh and 
 ditticult to spin, and it must spin thicker, and con- 
 sequently the stuff is coarser. This observation 
 is not of great consequence for spun wool which 
 is intended for tapestry or for stuffs. I only men- 
 tion it to shew that the quantity of ingredients may 
 be sometimes varied without danger. 
 
155 
 
 The yellow wood is used in chips, or in coarse 
 shavings ; by this means it is more divided, and 
 yields its die the better, and a less quantity will 
 do ; which way soever it is used, it is put into a 
 bag, that it may not mix with the wool or stuffs. 
 The same precaution is necessary for the savory 
 and green wood, when they are mixed with the 
 weld to change its shade. 
 
 I refer to the lesser die the five other ingredients 
 hitherto known which die yellow, and shall only 
 observe here in regard to the good die, that the 
 root of the dock, the bark of the ash tree, particu- 
 larly that which is raised after the first sap, the 
 leaves of almond, peach and pear trees ; in short, 
 all leaves, barks and roots, which by chewing shew 
 some little astriction, give yellows of the good die 
 more or less fine, according to the time they are 
 boiled, and in proportion to the tartar and alum 
 used in the liquor : a proper quantity of alum 
 brings these yellows to the beautiful yellow of the 
 weld. If the tartar is in greater quantity, these 
 yellows will border on the orange ; and lastly, if 
 these ingredients are too much boiled, let them be 
 roots, barks, or leaves, the yellow obscures itself, 
 and takes browm shades. 
 
 Although son\e diers use tumeric in the good 
 die, which gives an orange yellow, this practice is 
 to be condemned, for it is a colour that soon passes 
 in the air, unless it be secured by sea- salt, which 
 some diers do, w'ho take care to keep this imposi- 
 tion to ihemselvcs. Those who make use of it in 
 common scarlets, to spare cochineal, and to give 
 to their stuff a red bordering on the orange, are 
 blameable, for the scarlets that have been died after 
 this manner lose in a short time that bright orange, 
 
 / 
 
156 
 
 as I have already said, they brown considerably I 
 in the air. Yet these falsifications are obliged to 1 
 be in some measure tolerated ; for at this time that ■ 
 bright orange being in fashion, it would be im- 
 possible to give it to scarlet, without putting alarg- j 
 er dose of composition, whose acids would greatly | 
 hurt the cloth. The fustic wood is now preferred | 
 in scarlet. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 OF BROWN. 
 
 BROWN is the fourth of the primary colours. 
 
 It is placed in this rank, because it enters in the j 
 composition of a great number of colours- I'he I 
 working it is different from others, for commonly 
 no preparation is given to wool to be died brown, 
 and, like the blue, it is only dipped in hot wa- 
 ter. 
 
 The rinds and roots of walnut, the rind of the 
 alder, santal, sumach, roudoul or sovic, soot, &c. 
 are used in this die. 
 
 The rind of the walnut is the green part that 
 covers the nut ; they arc gathered when the nuts 
 are entirely ripe, then filled into great casks and 
 moistened with water ; they are thus preserved 
 until the ensuing year and longer if required. 
 
 The santal or saunders is a hard W’ood brought 
 from the Indies ; it is commonly used ground 
 to a very fine powder, it is preserved for some 
 time in this state in bags, to excite (as is imagined) 
 a slight fermentation, which they pretend makes 
 
it the better for use, but I could find no differ- 
 ence. 
 
 This wood is most commonly ground with a 
 third part of cariatoiir wood, which softens it ac- 
 cording to those who sell it. It is greatlv inferior 
 to walnut rinds, for it hurts the wool by harden- 
 ing it considerably if used in large quantities, 
 therefore it is better not to use it for fine wools and 
 stuffs, or at least to dra\v but the lightest shades, 
 for then its effect will be of less consequence. It 
 is generally mixed with galls, alder, bark, and su- 
 mach ; it is only by this means that it gives its 
 colour when used alone, and unmixed with the 
 cariatour wood. It yields but very little with the 
 liquor 5f alum and tartar unless it be rasped. Not- 
 withstanding this defect, it is tolerated in the good 
 die, on account r,f the solidhv of its colour, which 
 naturally is a yellow red- brown : it browns and 
 grows deep in the air, it lightens with soap, but 
 looses less by the proof of alum, and still less by 
 that of tartar. 
 
 Of all the ingredients used for the brown die, 
 the walnut rind is the best ; its shades are finer, 
 its colour is lasting, it softens the wool, renders it 
 of a belter quality, and easier to work. To make 
 use of this rind, a copper is half filled, and w hen 
 it begins to grow luke warm, the rind is added 
 in proportion to the quantities of stufis to be died 
 and the colour intended. The copper is then 
 made to boil, and w hen it has boiled a quarter of 
 an hour, the stuffs, which were before dipped in 
 warm water, are put in. They are to be stirred 
 and turned until they acquire the desired colour. 
 If it is spun wool, and that the shades required are 
 to be matched with great exactness, a sniaiiouan- 
 
158 
 
 tity of rind is to be put in first, and the lightest are 
 first made ; more rind is then put in, and then the 
 deepest are made : but to work with stuffs, the 
 deepest are generally made first, and as the colour 
 of the liquor diminishes, the lightest are dipped ; 
 they are aired as usual to cool them, dried, and 
 dressed. 
 
 Next to the walnut rind is the root ; it gives a 
 great number of shades and pretty near the same ; 
 thus they may be substituted the one for the other, 
 according to the facility of obtaining them, but 
 there is a difference in the manner of usincr the 
 root. A copper is filled three quarters full of riv- 
 er water ; the quantity of root that is thought con- 
 venient is cut into small pieces, and added in pro- 
 portion to the quantity of wool to be died and the 
 {^ade required. 
 
 When the liquor is hot, so as not to bear the 
 hand, the stuffs are put in and turned, until they 
 have the desired shade, carefully observir-g to air 
 them from time to time, and to pass them between 
 the hands by the lists, to make the small pieces of 
 roots ..hat stick fall off to prevent their blotting ; 
 but this may be remedied by inclosing the cut 
 root in a bag, as has been said of the yellow root# 
 The stuffs that are to be of lighter shades are then 
 to be dipped, and to be thus continued until the 
 root gives no more die. If it is spun wool, the 
 lightest are to be made first to match them the 
 better, as 1 have already said in speaking of other 
 colours; but above all, care must be taken not to 
 boil the liquor at first, for then this root would 
 give all its colour to the first piece of stuff, 
 and there would not remain sufficient for the 
 rest# 
 
159 
 
 The method of dicing wool with roots is not 
 very easy, for if great care is not taken to bring the 
 die to a proper degree of heat and to stir the wool 
 and stuffs so that they may be equally soaked in 
 the copper, they run the hazard of being made too 
 deep or of being blotted, which cannot be reme- 
 died but by giving them a chesnut, prune, or coffee 
 colour, as I shall show when I treat of the colours 
 and shades arising from the mixture of black and 
 brown. 
 
 To avoid this inconvenience, the stuffs must be 
 continually turned round the wynch, and dipped 
 piece after piece, and great care must be taken not 
 to boil the roots too much, but always to leave 
 some dicing substance in them. When the wool 
 or stuffs are died after this method, they are aired, 
 washed, and dried* 
 
 The method of treating the alder bark differs 
 not from that of the walnut root before de- 
 scribed, except that there is less danger in boiling 
 it at the beginning, as it gives less ground of col- 
 our to the stuff, it is commonly used for thread, 
 and for colours that are to be saddened with green 
 copperas ; it has, however a good effect on wool 
 for colours that are not very deep, and it perfectly 
 resists the action of the air and sun. 
 
 The sumach is pretty near the same ; it is used 
 after the same manner as the green shells or inward 
 coats of walnuts ; it still gives less ground of col- 
 our, and borders somewhat on the green ,* it is 
 often substituted for galls in colours that are to be 
 saddened, and it answers perfectly well, but must? 
 be used in larger quantities. 
 
 These different matters are often mixed togeth- 
 GT, andas they are equally good, and produce 
 
160 
 
 pearly the same effect, they readily afford a vari- 
 ety of shades ; and yet there is nothing but 
 practice can teach this variety of brown shades, 
 for they entirely depend on the eye of the di- 
 er. 
 
 To use these ingredients mixt, and ground 
 saunders together, put four pounds of this last 
 into a copper, half a pound of powdered galls, 
 twelve pounds of elder bark, and ten pounds of 
 sumach ; this quantity will die twenty five or 
 twenty seven ells of cloth ; the whole is boiled, 
 and having slackened the boil by means of a lit- 
 tle cold W'ater, the cloth is put in, turned and well 
 stirred for two hours ; after which it is taken out, 
 aired and washed ; other stuffs that are to be 
 of a lighter shade are then put in, and thus 
 continued as long as the liquor affoads any col- 
 our. 
 
 The quantity of these ingredients is augmented 
 or diminished in proportion to the height of the 
 §hade, and the stuffs or wool are boiled more or 
 less accordingly. 1 have already observed that 
 by this means only the colour can be extracted 
 from the sannders. 
 
 I liave lierc treated of the sannders and the 
 manner of using it, although it should have been 
 classed with the lesser dies, as this woad oueht 
 only to be used for stuffs of low prices, because 
 of the defects before spoken of ; yet as it is work- 
 ed almost after the same manne r as the other in- 
 grt:dients for dicing brown, and in several places 
 is even tolerated in the good die, as it resists the 
 sun and air as w’ell as the others, I thought it 
 would not be improper here to give the method 
 of working it ; for the same reason I shall now 
 
Ul 
 
 describe the method of dieing with soot, though^ 
 permitted only in the lesser die, having less solidi- 
 ty than the rest, besides hardening the wool, and 
 giving a disagreeable smell \o the stuffs. 
 
 The soot (wood soot) is commonly put into the 
 copper the same time as the water, and the whole 
 is well boiled together ; the stuff is then dipt in, 
 which is to boil more or less, according to the 
 shade required ; after vvhich it is taken out and 
 aired, and those put in which are to be lighter ; 
 they are then to be well washed and dried, but it 
 is better to boil the soot in the water for two hours 
 then let it settle and empty the liquor into anoth- 
 er copper, without mixing the soot ; the wool and 
 stuffs are put into this liquor, and are less harden- 
 ed av d dried than when they have been mixt with 
 the soot itself, but the colour is not solid, and it 
 is better not to make use of it for dieing stuffs 
 that bear a price, and more so as all its shades 
 may be had by the foregoing ingredients, vvhich 
 are better, more lasting, and also soften the 
 W'ooi. 
 
 The diers of the lesser die usually employ the 
 rinds of the nut and the root of the walnut tree 
 for their brown colours ; the working of these 
 two ingredients being common to diers of the 
 greater or lesser die ; but there arc places where 
 it is difficult to obtain them, and then the saim- 
 ders and even soot are obliged to be used in their 
 stead. 
 
 What I have hitherto said to account for the 
 solidity of the colours of the good die, may seem 
 not to agree with brown colours spoken of in this 
 ehaptci, since these are firmly applied on the wool 
 without any preparation to receive them by the 11^ 
 
m 
 
 <|Uor of alum and tartar, and consequently without 
 first introducing into the pores of the fibres a salt 
 capable of hardening itself in the cold, and to 
 cement the atoms that colour the brown ; but if 
 on a chymical analysis the green shell of walnuts, 
 the root of the walnut-tree, the rind of alder, 
 should be proved to contain, besides their astrin- 
 gent properties, a vitriolated tartar, which is a salt 
 that does not calcine in the sun, and that is only 
 dissolved by boiling water ; this I say will con- 
 vince that these ingredients are sufficient of them- 
 selves to produce on the stuffs, without any foreign 
 help, the same effect as the other drugs, whose 
 colours are not set in with solidity, but by the 
 help of a salt capable of cementing the colouring 
 atoms. 
 
 The soot does not give so lasting a brown, be- 
 cause it only contains a volatile and an earthy salt 
 easily dissolved, and in fact the soot being only 
 composed of the lightest and most volatile parts 
 of combustible bodies, which have served as food 
 for the fire, it could not raise tartar of vitriol along 
 with it, which is a salt that does not rise by heat, 
 and which is also seldom found in the wood which 
 we commonly burn in our chimnies. 
 
 As I am not willing to omit any thing within 
 the limits of my knowledge, on the article of 
 woollen dicing, I shall give two or three hints on 
 the acid of vitriol. 
 
 If you would have a beautiful claret on wool, 
 stuffs, or cloih, boil in a copper of a good size, red 
 wood or saunders in proportion to the shade you 
 want, and two pounds of logwood, for fi;rty 
 pounds of wool previously scoured. When the 
 ingredients have boiled half an hour, put a pint of 
 
163 
 
 oil of vitriol into a pail of cold water, and add it 
 to the liquor, when the wool must be put in, and 
 gently boiled for two or three hours. It is then 
 to be taken up on a scray, that is, set across the 
 copper to drain, and five or six pails of water pour- 
 ed over it. The copper must be then run down 
 and filled as before with fair water, and when it is 
 hot, ten pounds of copperas and four ounces of 
 pearl-ashes must be added, and the wool returned 
 and well worked with a long pole to make it 
 even. 
 
 The ashes (which are a fixed alkali) act upon 
 the logwood, and give it a fine lustre at the same 
 time. It weakens the acid of the vitriol, and 
 makes way for the copperas to do its part, which 
 would otherwise be kept at a distance ; the vitri- 
 ol does not obstruct the cloth in the fulling-mill, 
 for the vitriol, which some suppose to be a great 
 enemy in the mill,isdivestedofitsacid by the strong 
 alkali contained in the chamber ley in securing, 
 and the colour remains perfectly vivid. If for for- 
 ty pounds of w'ool, &c ten pounds of nut galls 
 were bruised and boiled with the above ingredi- 
 ents, the acid therein contained would produce as 
 brilliant a colour, and, if possible, more holding 
 than the former ; but if galls are used, the same 
 liquor will do the same business when the coppe- 
 ras is added without ashes as a fresh water would 
 when vitriol is used. If forty pounds of cloth, stuff, 
 or worsted were boiled in a sufficient quantity of 
 redwood or saunders, and one pint of prepared 
 aqua fortis be added to the liquor after the goods 
 have boiled an hour and a half, and then turned 
 well for half an hour, the colour will be vivid and 
 fine ; the copper must be well cooled when the 
 spirits are put in. 
 
164 
 
 When cloth or stuffs are died claret with oil of 
 vitriol, great care must be taken to turn them con- 
 tinually over the vvynch, and particularly in taking 
 OUT, observe the instant the last end comes up to 
 take off iiito a large tub of cold water, that all 
 parts may cool alike, or the colour will be very 
 uneven, as the vitriol when hot will not bear the 
 air. 
 
 Oil of vitriol is so useful a thing in dicing, that 
 any colour, save woaded blue or green, niay, by 
 the help of its acid, be brought to a fine claret^, 
 black not excepted. 
 
 CHAPTER XVlh 
 
 OF BLACX. 
 
 BLACK is the fifth of the primary colours. To^ 
 die the best and most lively shade a vessel sulfi* 
 ciently large is filled with soft water, and for ev- 
 ery hundred weight of cloth, thirty pounds of log- 
 wood in chips must be put in, with half a pail (;f 
 elder bark and six pounds of sumach ; boil these 
 ingredients together half an hour, when the cloth 
 may be entered (the copper being first cooled by 
 the addition of cold water) and broiled an hour and 
 a half, being instantly turned on the wynch to pre- 
 vent an unevenness of die. This operation being 
 ended, which is called a preparation or stuffing the 
 blacks, I shall proceed to the finishing. 
 
 A pmall tub is to be placed at the side of the 
 copper, out of which it must be filled with hot li- 
 Uuor, in which put ten or fourteen pounds of cop- 
 
165 
 
 peras to dissolve ; the cloth is then kept turning, 
 whilst a man with a piggin is lading the copperas 
 water into the copper ; the cloth is turned here at 
 a boiling heat one hour, then taken out and cooled 
 well in all parts alike ; when thoroughly cold, 
 return it into the copper, with two handfuls of 
 eopperas,and boil it gently as before for two hours, 
 then cool it again* 
 
 Whilst the second cooling is carrying on, six 
 pounds of logwood, ten pound of bark, and two 
 pounds of argil, with ten pounds of soda or com- 
 mon ashes, and three pounds of copperas, must be 
 added to the liquor ; these ingredients must be 
 made to boil one hour, when the goods must be 
 turned and worked one hour. Keep the wynch 
 continually turning, always observing that the small 
 portion of air w hich the goods receive by turning 
 on the wynch, contributes much to the beauty of 
 the colour. Some diers instead of ashes use cham- 
 ber ley, but this is a bad custom. If they tvculd 
 become good black diers, they must abandon their 
 old practice, and by mixing their natural genius 
 with reason and good sense, they will soon find by 
 experience, that the acid of the argil acts only on 
 the vitriolic acid of the copperas, and prevents a 
 brown or rusty hue that will unavoidably proceed 
 from the logwood ; the alkaline power of the ash- 
 es at the same time farces it to asume its natural 
 violet colour ; that if too great a quantity of log- 
 wood is not used, (which would certainly preju- 
 dice the colour) and this rule carefully observed, 
 the black would resemble a raven’s feather ; they 
 must be well washed at the fulling mill. 
 
 I shall not entertain the reader with a tedious 
 recital of the manner of treating those goods whose 
 
166 
 
 superior quality renders it needful that they should 
 previously be died blue. It is sufficient to know, 
 that they must have a less proportion of ingredi- 
 ents, though the operation is the same as that of 
 the common black. 
 
 When fine cloth is to be died black, great care 
 must be taken not to let it hang on the wynch one 
 minute ; it must be thrown oft the instant the last 
 comes up ; otherwise its own weight when wet 
 and hot would fill it with wrinkles that would nev- 
 er remove. The same caution must be taken 
 when the cloth is on the floor, to draw it between 
 two men over a long stick by the lists, each tak- 
 ing hold of one end with their left hand, to be con?- 
 tinned till cold before it be returned. 
 
 Remarks on the Black Die. 
 
 The most essential thing to be remarked is, thal 
 it prejudices and weakens the goods ; for this rea- 
 son those that are died black are soonest worn 
 out ; they are however in all other respects equal 
 to those that are died other colours. This delect 
 is chiefly to be attributed to the vitriolic acid of 
 the copperas, which is only imperfectly saturated 
 by the iron ; as iron united to any other acid, 
 and even to vegetable acids, is capable of produ- 
 cing black with astringent vegetables. There is 
 great cause to think that by substituting other 
 combinations of this metal for the copperas, this 
 inconvenience might be remedied. 
 
 These are certainly good and useful essays to 
 attempt- It is not without cause that the blacks 
 are directed to be aired between the dippings, as 
 it’' infinitely contributes to the beauty of the die j 
 
167 
 
 for it is certain that this die is different from most 
 others which lose of their colour in drying ; this 
 on the contrary acquires a great deal ; it is univer- 
 sally known, that good writing ink does notap- 
 pear any thing near so black when fresh and re- 
 cently used, as w^ en dry and that even it grows 
 more black during a certain s[>ace of time. The 
 same happens to the black die. The cloth is in 
 some measure of a grey blackish colour immedi- 
 ately afterthe first dip ; it only acquires the beau- 
 tiful black on being exposed to the air ; this is 
 not the only example of the influence of the air 
 on colours ; the blue vat exhibits something 
 like it. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 OF THE MIXTURE OF BLUE AND RED. 
 
 IN speaking of the red I observed that there 
 were four different kinds in the good die» We 
 shall now explain the tfi’cct of these different reds 
 placed on a sfuff that has been previously died 
 blue. If a blue stuff is boiled in alum and tartar, 
 after the maimer and proportion taught in the ar- 
 ticle of red, and which is afterwards to be died 
 with kermes, the following colours will result, 
 viz. The king’s colour, the prince’s colour, the 
 pansy, the violet, the purple, and several other 
 like colours ; but the keimes is seldom used 
 for these colours, on account of its high price 
 and the quantity which would be required, but 
 more so, because cochineal yields a liner colour 
 
168 
 
 for this purpose, and with greater ease. I have \ 
 alre.icly observed that kermes is seldom used, i 
 though there are several compound colours in i 
 which it produces a very good effect, as will be i 
 more particularly described. 
 
 When the kermes is used to lay a red on blue, 
 it is indifferent what ground of blue is first given, 
 or v/hether it be given before or after the stuff' is 
 died red, because the colour of the kermes is too j 
 solid to be changed by the lime of the vvoad vat, 
 (unless the vat be over-loaded)or by the pearl-ash- -i 
 es Hi the indigo. Thus if the woad vat is not too { 
 old, it may be begun by either of these two coL ! 
 ours at pleasure, or by that which is most conven- 
 ient to match the shade. Although I named but 
 a small number of colours, a great many may be 
 draw n from these two principal ones, according 
 as the one or the other may be more predomi- 
 nant. 
 
 The mixture of blue with fire colour scarlet is 
 never usf d in any of theit shades. To convince 
 myself by experience I took a piece of cloth died 
 in scarlet, and dipt it in the blue vat, and died a 
 second piece according to the method of dieing 
 scarlet, having previously died it blue. The one 
 and the other succeeded very badly, and made a 
 kind ol dull spotted violet, so it appeared that the 
 two colours did not unite, but that they were laid 
 each on different parts of the wool. This no 
 doubt is caused by the acids which enter the 
 composition of the scarlet. But without entering 
 here upon the physical reason of this operation, 
 which might occasion too long a dissertation, and 
 tedious rep'etition of what I have already said, the 
 fact appears sufficient here j it prove^s that no 
 
169 
 
 beautiful colour can be had from the mixture of 
 blue and scarlet ; ii must be crimson. 
 
 From the mixture of blue and crimson, the co- 
 lumbine, the purple, the amaranth, the pansy, and 
 the violet are formed ; these colours have also a 
 great number of shades which depend upanthe 
 shades of the other colour, from whence they are 
 derived. 
 
 I have said so much on the primary colours, 
 that no difficulty can remain in the execution of 
 the compound colours. 
 
 Stuffs or spun wool are first made of one col- 
 our, and then died of the other, precisely as if it 
 was white ; but it must be observed in this case, 
 that the stuff be first died blue before it is made 
 into crimson, for the reason before given, that 
 the alkali of the one or the other vat greatly 
 obscures the brightness of the red of the cochu 
 neal. 
 
 To make violets, purples, and other like shades, 
 what I have already said on crimson is to be fol- 
 lowed, because these colours will lutvc neither 
 brightness nor lustre, but by following the precau- 
 tions necessary for fine crimsons. 
 
 From blue, and the red of madder, proceeds al- 
 so the king’s colour, the prince’s colour, (but in- 
 finitely less beautiful than when the kermes is made 
 use of ; for the red of the madder is always obscur- 
 ed by the brown of its ligneous parts) the minime, 
 the tan colour, the amaranth, the dry rose, ahr avs 
 less bright than when the kermes is made use of. 
 Nevertheless it is sometimes mixed with madder, 
 as I have already said, to make halfigrained scar- 
 lets, and the colours which proceed from it arc 
 always finer than when madder alone is used on a 
 P 
 
170 
 
 stuff died blue ; madder is also mixed with cochi- 
 neab as in the half crimsons, and a great number 
 of very fine shades are drawn from them, which 
 cannot have paiiicular names, but which border 
 on those I have just mentioned. Some of these 
 may be made as fine as if dearer ingredients were 
 made use of. It is the business and profit of the 
 dier not to use the dearest, when the same effects 
 may be produced by the cheapest ingredients. It 
 is impossible for me to give any instructions on 
 this article, since use alone can teach it. The 
 old liquor of madder and cochineal is often used, 
 whose colours have not been entirely extracted, 
 which makes a considerable saving, and the colour 
 ’is not less good. I can say nothing positive on this, 
 since the effect which will result from it depends 
 on what colour may remain in the liquor, and on 
 the shade intended. 
 
 chapter XIX. 
 
 OF THE MIXTURE OF BLUE AND YELLOW. 
 
 FROM the mixture of blue and yellow but one 
 colour is produced, which is green ; but there are 
 a variety of shades ; the principal ones are, the 
 yellow green, the light green, the gay green, the 
 grass green, the laurel green, the molequin green, 
 the deep green, the sea green, the celadon S*’^^*’* 
 the parrot green, the cabbage green, and I shall 
 add the duck wing green, and the celadon green 
 without blue. All these shades, and the interme- 
 diate ones, are made after the same manner and 
 
171 
 
 f 
 
 with the same ease. The stuff or wool died blue, 
 light or dark, is boiled in alum and tartar, as is 
 usually done to make a white stuff yellow, and 
 then with weld, savory, or greening wool. All 
 these ingredients are equally good as to solidity, 
 but as their yellows differ a little, so do the greens 
 that arise from their mixture. The weld and the 
 savory are the two plants that afford the finest 
 greens. 
 
 To make the green shades which border on the 
 yellow, the stuff* must be of a very light blue, and 
 boiled with the common quantity of tartar and al- 
 um to receive the yellow ; for without these salts 
 it would not be lasting, (but for a parrot or cabbage 
 green the blue must be very deep) and as it is on- 
 ly to have a light yellow, the stuffs must have but 
 a half preparation ; I have already mentioned this, 
 sometimes even a quarter of the water for the 
 common preparation is sufficient. 
 
 When the workmen make these colours, they 
 often use the salts without weighing them, and 
 guess at the quantity which they think necessary 
 for the shade intended ; a long practice may in 
 some measure make them pretty exact, but it 
 would be still better if they did not trust to it. 
 
 I know by repeated experiments thatthese green - 
 blue shades are as wqll made by giving the stuff 
 the common preparation. The yellow which is 
 afterwards applied to it is the more lasting, but 
 on this occasion less weld is to be put into the li» 
 quor of the die, or any other colouring matter, 
 and the stuff must remain less time in the liquor, 
 notwithstanding two reasons induced to the con- 
 trary ; the first and most interesting to the dier is, 
 that they would consume a greater quantity of 
 
172 
 
 drugs than is necessary ; and the second, that the 
 less alum used in the preparation, the more the 
 softness and the quality of the wool is preserved, 
 and the less the first die of blue is damaged ; for 
 the alum always greys the blues a little. Thus it 
 is better to leave the dier to his custom of regula- 
 ting the strength of his preparation to the necessa- 
 ry pitch to give these colours. 
 
 I have said that to die green it was necessary 
 that the wool should be previously blue ; because 
 I think that the two colours laid on in this order 
 hold better, and that the colour would not be so 
 good if otherwise done. Of this I assure myself 
 by making the greens, of which I have spoken, 
 with the five colouring matters already known, 
 which make a yellow of the good die ; 1 have tried 
 a yellow of the same materials, the contrary, hav- 
 ing dipped five yellow pieces in the woad vat, and 
 have had as fine greens as the first. I exposed 
 both to the summer’s sun, and they have resisted 
 sufficiently to be esteemed of the good die ; but 
 those which had received the blue before the yel- 
 low lost the least, so that in particular circumstan- 
 ces the dier must be allowed to begin first with 
 yellow. But greens which have the blue colour 
 last, will sully the linen more than the others ; for 
 if the blue has been first died, all that could be 
 taken off was done by the alum liquor, which hap» 
 pens on the contrary when the blue was put on 
 last ; the only remedy for this, is to scour the green 
 well after it comes out of the copper. 
 
 Cloth died king’s blue, and greened with the 
 flower of the virga aurea Canadiensis^ make a very 
 fine green, provided it has been boiled in a liquor 
 with three times the weight of alum to one of 
 
white tartar ; the green is not inferior to that made 
 of weld. 
 
 I have also greened blues with ash bar^ povw 
 dered ; they are of a very good die, but hot of a 
 fine colour, and only fit for liveries. The- leaves 
 of almond, peach and pear trees, &c. give yellows, 
 which serve to make green shades, that are rather 
 difficult to hit on at first. ' 
 
 A stuff died in the king’s blue, well scoured, 
 then boiled with four parts of alum, and one of 
 tartar, takes a fine deep green of the shade of a 
 duck's wing; but it must be boiled for two hours 
 in a liquor, with a sufficient quantity of the root of 
 sharp pointed dock grossly bruised. 
 
 This root, which grows in every hedge and field, 
 is a good acquisition to the art of dicing ; for with 
 it, and without any other addition but the prepar- 
 ing liquor for the stuffs, it produces an infinity of 
 shades, from the straw colour to a pretty fine olive ; 
 only putting more or less to the liquor, and boil- 
 ing it from half an hour to three hours. These 
 shades stand all manner of proof. I strongly re- 
 commend the cultivation of this dock in damp pla- 
 ces, for its use in dicing. 
 
 The celadon green (a particular colour] is much 
 admired by the inhabitants of the Mediterranean, 
 and may in strict business be made in the good 
 die, by giving a blue ground to the stuff. But 
 this shade of blue must be so weak, that it is only 
 a milk and water colour, which is very difficult to 
 give smooth and equal. When this shade has 
 been happily h‘t, it is easier to give the yellow die 
 that suits it, with the virga aurea than w ith the 
 weld, rhe v'lrga aurea is not known to the di- 
 ers of Languedoc, who make most of these kind 
 P 2 
 
174 
 
 of colours, and as the necessary blue shades arc 
 difficult to die, they are sometimes permitted to 
 die celadons with verdigrise, although this colour 
 be in the rank of the lesser die^ 
 
 The Dutch make this colour perfectly, and ren- 
 der it more lasting than it commonly is with the 
 verdigrise. Here follows their method. 
 
 Two coppers are set a little distance the one 
 from the other. In the first is put for two pieces 
 of cloth of forty-five or fifty ells long, eight or ten 
 pounds of white soap cut small and perfectly melt- 
 ed. When the liquor is ready to boil, the cloths 
 are dipped in, and boil for half an hour. Another 
 liquor is prepared in the next copper, and when it- 
 is scalding hot a cloth bag is put in containing eight 
 or ten pounds of Cyprus or blue vitriol, and ten 
 or twelve pounds of lime, both powdered and 
 well mixt ; this mixture must be as equal as pos- 
 sible. The bag is moved about in the hot water, 
 -but not boiling, till all the blue vitriol is dissolved 
 in the liquor ; then a wynsh is put up, surround- 
 ed by a clean linen cloth, and well fastened on ; 
 one end of the two cloths is put on the wynch, 
 which is turned swiftly that the cloths may quick- 
 ly pass through the soap liquor to that of the vit- 
 riol ; then the wynch is worked more gently, that^ 
 the cloth may have time to charge itself with the 
 parts of copper,, which the lime has scattered in 
 the liquor, by separating and precipitating them 
 from the vitriol which contained them. The 
 cloths are left in this liquor, which must not boil 
 until they have taken the shade of the celadon that 
 was wanted ; then they arc taken out and well air- 
 ed : they must be entirely cold before they arc 
 washed, and must touch no wood before they 
 
175 
 
 are, for the wood spots them ; for this reason the? 
 wynch and the horse are surrounded with cloth. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 OF THE MIXTURE OF BLUE AND BROWN. 
 
 LITTLE use is made of the shade which arises 
 from the mixture of blue and brown ; these are 
 greenish greys, or a kind of olives, which are on- 
 ly tit to match shades for tapestries ; these colours 
 are easily made when wanted, and it is equal to 
 begin by the blue or the brown colour to the spun 
 wool ; but care must betaken that it be well scour- 
 ed, as is done for the blue and the compound coh 
 ours which are finished by dipping them in the vat.^ 
 Any substance that dies brown may be equally 
 made use of for these colours, and some give tha_ 
 shade required better than, others. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 or THE MIXTURE OF BLUE AND BLACK. 
 
 NO particular shade arises from this mixture, 
 except by the mixture of blue and grey, (which 
 are shades of the black). In this case the blue 
 must not be very deep, and is afterwards worked 
 the same as the black, excepting that the colour 
 not being so dark less copperas enters in ; but I 
 repeat again that this colour ought only to be es- 
 
17 ^ 
 
 teefned a shade of the black. Thus it may be 
 said that no shades are made from blue and black 
 used by themselves, and very few from blue and 
 brown. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 OF THE MIXTURE OF RED AND YELLOW. 
 
 FROM scarlet of pjrain or kermes and theyel- 
 low are formed the aurora, the marigold, and the 
 orange. The wool is first boiled in alum and tar- 
 tar, and died in one of these colours, and then 
 dipped in the second, or by mixing in the same li- 
 quor the kermes, the weld, the savory, &c. and so 
 dieing it at once. Yet it is easier to attain the ex- 
 act shades by dieing it at twice ; for this reason, 
 the wool or the stuff may be alternately passed in 
 the one or other liquor, till it be precisely of the 
 desired colour. 
 
 The lobster and pomegranate colours are done 
 exactly as scarlet is, that is, boiled with cream of 
 tartar, cochineal, and the composition, after 
 whcih they are taken ? out, aired and washed. 
 For the finishing, a fresh liquor is prepared as for 
 the scarlet, but without cochineal ; in its stead, a 
 little yellow wood ground substituted ; this de- 
 pends on the colour the stuff is intended to be of. 
 The more it borders on the orange, the more yel- 
 low wood is added, diminishing the quantity of 
 the cochineal. 
 
 I endeavoured to make this colour after three 
 
 different methods, and succeeded in all ; the first 
 
177 
 
 2 s that which 1 have described : the second is by 
 putting fustic instead of yellow wood, and this 
 saves a great deal of cochineal, and the shade of the 
 fustic is a great deal more on the orange than the 
 yellow wood, but these ingredients are not last- 
 ing, and ought not to be used but in the lesser die. 
 The method is with cochineal alone, by augment- 
 ing the quantity of the composition, which rous- 
 es the cochineal, and turns it to orange as much as 
 is desired ; but this is attended with very great 
 inconvenience. 1st, The colour becomes very 
 expensive,because it requires more cochineal than 
 common scarlet, as the great quantity of the com- 
 position, which is an acid, makes it lose part of its 
 ground. 2d, For the same reason the colour al- 
 ways looks starved, it appears as if the cochineal 
 had been spared, the composition having dissolv- 
 ed part of it. 3d, This large quantity of compo- 
 sition hardens the wool, and makes it more liable 
 to be spotted by dirt and sharp liquor, and conse- 
 quently this method is the worst. I mentioned 
 that the inconveniency of the second was using the 
 fustic, which is a wood forbid in the good die ; 
 consequently the first ought to have the preference, 
 if it give the lobster colour as bright as the se- 
 cond. But this colour made by the yellow wood 
 has not all the solidity that might be desired, as I 
 have tried by exposing it to the sun ; this at first 
 appears extraordinary, since the ingredients used 
 have all the solidity possible. But the reason why 
 they are not so good in the present case is, that 
 the cochineal used in the scarlet composition and 
 the cream of tartar are too solid ; thus the lobster 
 colour loses nothing in the air. But the case is 
 Otherwise with the yellow wood, though it be very 
 
178 
 
 lasting on the wool boiled in alum and tartar, es- 
 pecially when a little allum is added to the liquor 
 of its die ; it is not the same as when the wool or 
 stuff has received the water for the scarlet prepa- 
 ration in which no alum can enter, and conse- 
 quently when these sort of colours are exposed to 
 the air, they sadden in a short time, that is, they 
 lose part of their orange colour, produced by the 
 mixture of the yellow with the red, and the effect 
 of the air upon this colour is the same, though it 
 appears different from that on all others, &c. that 
 it commonly turns them pale ; yet this one dark- 
 ens and browns them by taking away part of its 
 bright orange. For it is demonstrated by several 
 chymical experiments, that there is a vitriolic acid 
 in the air like unto that which may be extracted 
 from alum. Now if a stuff died lobster colour 
 was to be passed through alight solution of alum, 
 the acid of the salt would immediately sadden it, 
 and the red of the cochineal would eclipse the 
 orange die ; the same thing must then happen 
 when such a colour is exposed to the air, which 
 is impregnated with the same acid. 
 
 Very few shades are made from the crimson 
 and yellow, because of the price of the first, and 
 that pretty near the same shades are made with 
 madder and kermes, yellow and half scarlet of 
 grain, as well as from the yellow and half crimson. 
 It is with these different mixtures, that marigold, 
 orange, gold yellow, and other like shades are 
 made, which are simply produced by the mixture 
 of the yellow and red, and sometimes by yellow 
 alone. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 OF THE MIXTURE OF RED AND BROWN. 
 
 THE reds of the kermes and cochineal are not 
 used in this mixture, for madder has as good an 
 effect on those which cannot become bright be- 
 cause of the dark obscure colour of the browm, 
 but after they are maddered, they are dipt in the 
 old liquors of cochineal or kermes ; yet a liquor 
 in those ingredients is seldom purposely prepared, 
 being too dear for such common colours which 
 are as easily made with madder. The stuff is to 
 be boiled wdih a quantity of alum and tartar, pro- 
 portioned to the red shade of madder intended ; 
 it is then passed through a liquor of this root, and 
 afterwards dipped and worked in a liquor ofw’al- 
 nut roots or walnut rinds ; the following colours 
 will be produced, viz. cinamon, tobacco, chesnut, 
 musk, bear’s hair, and numberless others, by va- 
 rying the ground of the madder from the brown- 
 est to the lightest, and keeping them longer or 
 shorter in the liquor of the root. The process 
 may begin within any one of these colours, but 
 the red is commonly died first, as the liquor proper 
 for the madder might hurt the brown, therefore 
 they are not to be mixt as the red and yellow^ are 
 sometimes. 
 
180 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 OF THE MIXTURE OF YELLOW AND BROWN. 
 
 FROM this mixture are produced the shades 
 of feulemort and bears hair. 
 
 Soot is commonly used in these colours instead 
 of the rinds of walnuts, or the root of the walnut 
 tree, as it makes them finer, but care must be 
 taken that the wool or stuff be well scoured after 
 it is died, to take off the bad smell of the liquor ; 
 for only the clear liquor of the soot is to be used, 
 as has already been said. The walnut rinds are 
 preferable to the soot, unless obliged to match a 
 pattern of feulemort with the greatest exactness, 
 and which may sometimes be done with the wal- 
 nut. 
 
 These are the only two browns resulting from 
 these shades, the sumach and the alder bark not 
 giving sufficient ground. 
 
 Wool must be boiled in alum and tartar to die 
 it yellow before it is made brown ; but if it should 
 not have a sufficient ground of yellow, it might 
 be passed afresh through the yellow die, notwiih- 
 standing it has been browned, though in fact this 
 method of seeking exactly the shade does not make 
 so lasting a colour as when the yellow was at first 
 sufficiently died ; for when the yellow is died first, . 
 the brown is a great deal bright^er. 
 
181 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 OF THE MIXTURE OF BROWN AND BLACK, 
 
 FROM this mixture a great number of colours 
 may be extracted, as coffee, chesnut, prune, musk, 
 thorn and several like shades, whose numbers are 
 almost infinite, and of great use. The method 
 of working them is this : 
 
 After the wool or stuffs have been made brown, 
 as already described, and that several shades have 
 previously been given ; as for example, a stronger 
 brown for the coffee, chcsnut, &c. galls, sumach, 
 and elder bark are put into a copper in proportion 
 to the quantities of stuff to be died ; the whole is 
 boiled for one hour, after which green copperas is 
 to be added. I'he stuffs that are to be lightest, 
 as the thorn, are first dipped in this liquor, then 
 taken out, and others that are to be browner are 
 put in, observing to add copperas to the liquor 
 each time, and as occasion may require, which 
 is known by its not browning tlie stuff quickly, 
 thus continuing until all the stuffs are browned ; 
 the liquor must not boil, nor be of a greater de- 
 gree ^ heat than the hand can bear. 
 
 When the galls and other ingredients are boil- 
 ed, cold water is added to refresh the liquor before 
 the stuff is put in : this is a precaution that is ab- 
 solutely necessary, as I have often said. The 
 stuffs arc first to be dipped in lukc warm water 
 before they are put into the copper, lest since they 
 were browned they should have dried ; and they 
 
182 
 
 must be aired when they have remained some time 
 in the browning, by passing them between the 
 hands by the lists, without which they would per- 
 haps spoil, blot, and be unequally died, and the 
 brown, for want of airing, would not be lasting, , 
 as there would not be a successive congelation of 
 the saline parts of the vitriol. 
 
 1 have now shown all the necessary colours or j 
 shades w'hich may be produced by the mixture i 
 of the primitive colours taken two by two, and j 
 • have given a minute description both of their ef- I 
 fects and the method of producing them. There 
 being but few colours which may not be greatly 
 varied, it depends on the judgment of the dier to 
 choose the easiest, provided the colour be equally | 
 fine. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 OF THE MIXTtTRE OF THE PRIMITIVE COLOURS, ! 
 
 TAKEN THREE BY THREE. 
 
 FROM blue, red, and yellow, the red olives ^ 
 and greenish greys are made, and some other like I 
 shades of little use only for spun wool designed I 
 for tapestry. It would be a repetition to give j 
 the method of using these colours, having suffi- | 
 ciently explained it in the preceding pages. j 
 
 In the mixture, where blue is a shade, it isusu- i 
 al to begin with it ; the stuff is afterward boiled i 
 to give it the other colours, in which it is dipped 
 alternately one after the other ; notwithstanding 
 tliey are sometimes mixed together, and are 
 
183 
 
 as good, provided they are colours which require 
 the same preparation ; for example, the madder- 
 red and the yellow* As to the cochineal and kcrmes 
 they are seldom used in these common colours, 
 but only light colours which have a bloom or vi- 
 nous hue, and which must be bright and brilliant, 
 and then they are not used in the last liquor, that 
 is, the stuff is only dipped in when it has receiv- 
 ed the other colours, unless they are to be greyed 
 a little, which is lastly done by passing them 
 through the browning. It is impossible to give 
 any precise rules for this work, and the least prac- 
 tice of these rules will teach more than I could say 
 in many volumes. 
 
 Olives are made from blue, red, and brown, 
 from the deepest to the lightest, and by giving a 
 little shade of red, the slated greys, the lavender 
 greys, and such like. 
 
 ^ From the blue, the red, and the black, an infi- 
 nite number of greys of all shades are made, as the 
 sage grey, the pigeon grey, the slate grey, the lead 
 grey, the king’s and prince’s colour, browner than 
 usual, and a variety of other colours almost in- 
 numerable. 
 
 From ydlow, blue, and brown, are made the 
 greens, goose dung, and olives of all kinds. 
 
 From brown, blue, and black, are produced the 
 brown olives and the green greys. 
 
 From the red, yellow, and brown, proceed the 
 oraijge, gold colour,, marigold, feuleraort, old 
 carnations, burnt cinnamon, and tobacco of all 
 kinds. 
 
 From the red, yellow, and black pretty near the 
 same as the last, and the deep feulemort ; as also 
 the ox hair and brov;n nut, and others of the like 
 
 kind- 
 
184 
 
 I give this list of colours only as a table to show 
 in general what ingredients are made use of to make 
 these sort of colours, which also partake of several 
 others. 
 
 Four or five of these colours may be mixed to- 
 gether ; however this is rarely done ; a minute 
 detail on this subject would be useless, because 
 all that may be done is oftentimes superfluous. ^ 
 shall now only relate the manner in which I have 
 seen about forty different shades of carnations 
 made in spun wool ; this example will show what 
 may be done in all other cases. There were none 
 of those bright shades of scarlet in these which are 
 made as in the chapter oa that colour. 
 
 Variety of Carnation colour 
 
 All these flesh or carnations were old carnations, 
 or shades of it, so that they were all obliged to be 
 taken from the mixture of the red of kermes, yel- 
 lovv» brown, and Iflack. 
 
 An unequal preparation was first given to the 
 wool, reserving for the lighter shades those whose 
 preparing liquors had been weakest. When they 
 had remained as usual four or five days in the li- 
 quor, the lighter shades were died ; these colours 
 were disposed in four different vessels, which 
 were always kept sufficient!) hot without boiling. 
 A skain of w’ )ol was immediately dipped in the 
 liquor of the kermes for a minute, it was taken 
 out, wrung, and passed through a liquor of weld, 
 and an instant after through a brown one, and it 
 became of the colour required by the dier ; he 
 immediately dipped another, which remained a lit- 
 tle longer in each liquor : he went on after this 
 
manner, and when, after being strongly wrung, 
 and sec med to want a little rt d or any other col- 
 our, he dipped it in the liquor which it appeared 
 to want. By tnis nitihod he brought all his col- 
 ours to the desired shade, and passed ihrough ihe 
 brown those that were required to be deeper. I 
 was fully persuaded by this method of working, 
 that only patience and practioe were wanting to 
 make all the colours which can be conceived. 
 
 Too much cauth’n cannot be given in this kind 
 of work, to begin abvays with the lightest shades j 
 for it often happens that they arc kept too long in 
 some of these iiquots, and then that skain must 
 be made into a darker shjde. But when once the 
 lighter shades are matched, and in a right degra- 
 dation, the rest are easily made. 
 
 What 1 iiave been speaking of, relates only to 
 v/ooi intended for tapestry, when it is necessary 
 that the shades be carried on with the greatest 
 degree of precision, without which it would be 
 iinpossibletu imitate the flesh colours of the painter. 
 
 With regard to stuffs, it seldom or never hap- 
 pens that they are made in these gradations of 
 shades, or that so many colours are mixed togeth- 
 er ; two or three arc generally sufficient, since it 
 has been shown what a variety of colours arose, 
 from their combination, that even names cannot 
 be found for them. 
 
 I think I have omitted nothing regarding the 
 dicing of wool or woollen stuffs in the great and 
 good die, and I make no doubt but that by exact- 
 ly following what I have laid down, tach colour 
 and all the shades maybe exeegted to the greatest 
 perfection, as well in fleece wool, spun wool, as or. 
 stuffs manufactured in white. 
 
 Q2 
 
18d 
 
 I think it yet necessary to add something in re- 
 gard to mixed stuffs, that is, whose wool is mixed 
 before the manufacturing of the stuff, and to teach 
 the method by which this mixture of died wool 
 is performed, to be afterwards carded and spun 
 to form a colour resulting from those different 
 wools. 
 
 It may be objected, that this article rather re- 
 lates to the manufacturing of stuffs than their dies; 
 but to this 1 answer, that sometimes colours are 
 made by mixing wool of different shades, whose 
 colours would not easily be imitated by dying the 
 stuff of a compound colour ; some of these dif- 
 ferent shades composedof ingredients which would 
 require a different preparation ; whereas by dic- 
 ing ever} part of the wool separately, the mixture 
 is made without any difficulty ; it cannot there- 
 fore be improper .here to give the manner of mix- 
 ing together wool of different colours, and I shall 
 also give the man net of making mixtures for an 
 essay or proof in small, (which is always nectssa- 
 ty) to choose that which produces the most agree- 
 able effect. 
 
CHAPTER XXYIL 
 
 OF THE MANNER OF MIXING WOOL OF DIF- 
 FERENT COLOUBS FOR CLOTHS OR 
 MIXED COLOURS. 
 
 Colours mixed in the Loom, 
 
 ONE example of the method of mixing (after 
 the most exact manner possible) wool of different 
 colours, will be sufficient, and it will be easily ap- 
 plied in ail other cases required. Suppose a mix- 
 ed cloth of a coffee colour to be made, the follow- 
 ing is the method of the manufacturers of Lan- 
 guedoc, and pretty near the same is practised in 
 all other manufactories. 
 
 Three hundred and fifty pounds of wool are first 
 died coffee colour, which is called the ground 
 wool, that is, that which prevails in the stuffs ; af- 
 ter which are taken five pounds of wool died in 
 madder red or kermes, and two pounds died in 
 king’s blue ; ihese last are called the wool of mix- 
 ture. This wool is distributed to diff rent per- 
 sons placed in a ring in a large room. The factor, 
 or he that has the care of the mixture, stands with 
 a stick in his hand in the centre of this circle, the 
 men being at six feet distance from him ; eight 
 or ten arc generally employed at this work, and all 
 the wool is given to them. In the present case^ 
 for example, six will be employed in bearing the 
 prevailing wool or coffee colour, one the blue. 
 
and another the red ; but they must be so situat- 
 ed that there may be three together who have the 
 cofiee coloured wool, then he that has the red, 
 then three with the cofiee colour, and lastly he 
 that has the blue. When there is a greater num- 
 ber of colours, they are thus equally distributed^ 
 observing to divide them as much as possible, 
 the one from the other. 
 
 The men thus disposed walk slowly round the 
 factor, keeping an equal distance, and each step 
 they take they cast at the feet of the factor a small 
 lock of the wool they carry, with this difference, 
 that those that have the red or the blue, having but 
 a small quantity to distribute, fling but little each 
 time, whereas the others must fling much more. 
 The factor stirs the wool with his stick whilst 
 the men are flinging it, and that the mixture 
 should be perfect, they must ail have distrib- 
 uted their wool at one and the same time. The 
 factor then mixes it again, and gives it to the car- 
 ders. 
 
 The carding makes a perfect mixture, so that 
 no particular colour is to be distinguished, and it 
 appears of one uniform colour ; it is afterwards 
 spun, the cloth manufactured and brought to the 
 mill. The importance of this mixture being ex- 
 actly made is easily conceived, for if these colours 
 were unequally distributed, the cloth would ap- 
 pear full of blots. 
 
 As in the composition of these mixtures it is 
 not possible to judge exactly of the efiect which 
 may be produced by the combination of all these 
 colours in difierent proportions^ I shall give a meth- 
 od of mciking a proof in small, that a colour form- 
 after this manner by a known proportional 
 
189 
 
 mixture, it may be executed in great, and be cer- 
 tain that the colour of the stuff' will be equal to 
 that of the pattern. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVm. 
 
 OP THE METHOD OF PREPARING IHE PAT- 
 
 TERN FELTS, OR MIXTURE FOR AN ESSAY. 
 
 THIS little work is very simple and very 
 useful, as it will show in an hour what a mixt cloth 
 will be after it is manufactured^ and even when it 
 is entirely dressed. For this purpose, wool of 
 different colours are taken, and alter having weigh- 
 ed each exactly, the mixture is made whh the 
 fingers in the proportion which is judged suffi- 
 cient, but the whole in a very small quantity ; so 
 that the mixture being made, it may not exceed 
 the bigness of the fist. This wool is then 
 moistened with a little oil, and carded several 
 times with small cards, till all these colours are 
 well incorporated together and perfectly well mix- 
 ed. This wool, which is extremely open and of 
 the square form of the card, is folded four times, 
 and gently pressed between the h mds. It is then 
 plunged into a strong soap wxUer, and putting it 
 again between the hands, it is strongly pressed at 
 different times, striking sometimes one hand on 
 the other. It is then gently rubbed betu ixt the 
 two hands, which hardens the wool by contracting 
 it all manner of ways, and making it occupy less 
 space. It is then dipped <>gain in the soap water, 
 and continued to be felted, until it has acquii ed 
 
190 
 
 some consistence, and that it becomes like felt ! 
 and pretty near the same consistence as the com- 
 mon cloth. This felt is then a true copy of what ‘ 
 the cloth will be after its manufacturing ; for 
 when it has been well felted, that is, that the wool 
 has been equally and carefully extended under j 
 the hand coming from the card, it is as equal and i 
 as smooth as the cloth itself can be. To finish it | 
 also as perfectly as the cloth, after it has been 
 washed to take off the soap, it is dried and put 
 between two papers, and pressed with an iron 
 somewhat hot : by this means it acquires a lustre i 
 which makes it appear like a cloth which has been j 
 entirely dressed. ' 
 
 If the colour of the felt is approved of, the 
 mixture in great is made for the cloth, by follow- 
 ing the same proportions exactly, and it will cer-. 
 tainly be like the pattern, for not only the wool 
 of different colours are as entirely mixed and 
 closed one to the other in the felt as in the cloth, 
 but the soap which has been made use of to felt 
 it, has produced the same effect as that which 
 happens to the cloth in the fulling mill, for there 
 are several colours and particularly those that have 
 been browned, that is, in whose compositions 
 there are shades of black and grey, which lose in 
 the mill part of :heir browning, so that it must 
 alwa} s be died of a deeper colour than intended 
 to be after finishing : this defect of solidity in tiie 
 browning does not hinder it from standing very 
 w^ell the action of the air, but it is easily spotted 
 by acid liquors, as has been before said. The 
 colours that have been saddened in the woad or 
 indigo vat are not liable to this, they scarce lose 
 any thingin the mill. The felt produces the same 
 
151 
 
 efFect, and it is certain that the stiiiF will not lose 
 more in great at the mill than the felt did with 
 soap ; consequently this preliminary operation of 
 the felt may be looked upon as a sure guide for 
 the choice and assortment of wool in mixt cloths. 
 
 These patterns are made still better with black 
 soap, but it gives them a . disagreeable smell, 
 which is not easily taken off by repeated wash- 
 ings. 
 
 The felts, when made, may be died for stuffs, 
 in which it is required that one colour should cov- 
 er the other, for then, after the stuff should have 
 been mixed with the same colours as the felt, it 
 might be di|)ped in the same die through which 
 that had been passed, and by this means it w’ould 
 be of the same colour as the felt , but this is not 
 to be done to the stuff till it comes from the mill, 
 has been sheered, and nothing remains but to dress 
 it. This method will be of great use when it is 
 a mixed cloth in which cochineal has been used, 
 for it saddens too much and spoils at the mill ; so 
 that when it is used in mixed stuffs, a fresh liquor 
 must be made, in which the cloth must be dipped, 
 when it requires no more dressing than that which 
 is given to cloth died white after it is come out of 
 the die. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 POLISH RED. 
 
 BEFORE I enter upon the colours of the lesser 
 die, 1 shall give the process of a very excellent 
 colour, called Polish red. 
 
192 
 
 If yon would die forty pounds of wool this bright 
 and lK;Idlng colour, boil ten pounds of nut galls, 
 in a copper sufficiently large, an hour and a half ; 
 then cool the liquor witir cold water about ten de- 
 grees uiider a boiling heat, because the madder 
 sl ould not boil, and add best madder in propor- 
 tion to the shade required, from fourteen to twen- 
 ty pounds. Work these ingredients with the wool 
 for two hours with long poles, that it may die in 
 all parts alike. Rince it well, and you have the 
 true polish red. If you would have a dark colour, 
 use a little ashes. Observe to have the wool well 
 scoured This process will hold good in cloth 
 and other things. 
 
193 
 
 THE 
 
 DIER’S ASSISTANT. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 • F THE DIEING OF WOOL BY THE LESSER Dl^ 
 
 I OBSERVED in the beginning of this trea- 
 tise, that the dicing of wool, or woollen stuffs 
 manufactured from it, were distinguished b}^ the 
 great and lesser die. The French regulations 
 have fixed what the quality of the wool and stufts 
 are to be, which are to be died by the greater or 
 lesser die. This distinction has been founded on 
 this principle, that stuffs of a certain value, and 
 which generally constitute the upper part of cloth- 
 ing, should receive a more solid and lasting col- 
 our than stuffs of a low price, . which w’ould be 
 dearer and become less saleable, were they oblig- 
 ed to be died by the good die, as the good die is 
 a great deal more expensive than the lesser, a^nd 
 that stuffs of low price, which arc permitted to be 
 died by the lesser die, are generally used to make' 
 
 R 
 
194 
 
 linings, so that they are little exposed to the action 
 of the air, and if they are put to other uses they 
 are soon worn out, on account of the weakness 
 of their texture ; and consequently there is none, 
 cessity for their colours being so lasting as that of 
 a stuff of a much longer duration. 
 
 I have related in the preceding treatise, wdth 
 the greatest exactness and precision in my power, 
 the method of executing by the good die all ima- 
 ginable colours ; I shall do the same in that which 
 concerns the lesser die, and shall lay^ down the 
 method of making the same colours with other 
 ingredients than I have hitherto spoken of, and 
 which though they have not the solidity of the 
 first, often have the advantage of yielding more 
 lively colours ; besides which, the greater part 
 give a smoother colour, and are worked with 
 greater facility than the ingredients of the good 
 die. 
 
 These are the advantages of these substances 
 which are called false ingredients, and though it 
 is to be wished that their use was not so general, 
 it must be agreed that they have their utility for 
 stuffs less exposed to the air, or whose colour 
 dots not stand in need of a long duration. I 
 might also add that the colours are most com- 
 monly sorted with greater ease, and with more 
 expedition, in the lesser die than can be done in 
 the great. 
 
 I shall not follow the same order for this kind 
 of die as J did for the good, since in this no pri- 
 mary colours are known. Few serve as a ground 
 for others ; the greatest part do not arise frr-m a 
 combination of two or several simple colours. 
 In short, there are colours, such as tlie blue, &c. 
 
195 
 
 which are seldom or never made in the lesser 
 die. 
 
 This is the order which I propose to follow, 
 and shall first set forth the names of all the ingre- 
 dients which particularly belong to the lesser die, 
 and then give the method of using each of these 
 ingredients, and the extraction of all the colours 
 they can yield. It will be found that several of 
 these ingredients produce similar colours, so that 
 it would have been impossible to have treated of 
 them separately, without tiring the reader with te- 
 dious and troublesome repetitions. 
 
 The ingredients are flock or goat’s hair mad- 
 dered, archil, logwood, brasil, fustic, roncou, 
 grains of Avignon^ turmeric, or terra merrita. I 
 shall not here speak of the sanders or soot, though 
 these ingredients particularly belong to the lesser 
 die ; 1 have already given the manner of using 
 these last. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE niEING OF FLOCK OR COAT’S HAIR. 
 
 THERE are two preparations very diiferent 
 one from the other in the dieing of flock ; the 
 first is with madder, and belongs to the great and 
 good die ; the second is to dissolve it arid make 
 use of it ; this belongs to the lesser die. The dic- 
 ing with flock was formerly permitted in the good 
 die, but was rather on account of its being extract 
 ed from madder, than by any experiment that 
 ha<} been made concerning its durability. I tried 
 
196 
 
 it with great attention, and found it beyond any | 
 doubt that there is no colour that resists the air 1 
 less. It is certainly for this reason that it was re- , 
 strained to the lesser die in the new regulation of i 
 France in 1737. Yet, as by the same regulation, 
 it is not permitted to the diers of the lesser die to 
 use madder, nor even to keep it in their houses ; 
 it has been enacted, that only the diers of the 
 great die should be suffered to madder flock, , 
 and those of the lesser die to dissolve and use i 
 it. 
 
 This maddering of flock ought to have found I 
 a place in the foregoing treatise, but that I chose 
 rather to class together all operations that have any 
 necessary connection, than to stick too scrupulous* 
 ly to that distinction of the great and lesser die, 
 which is the particular object of the civil govern, 
 ment of that art, and which upon some occasions 
 might have made me fall into some obscurities, or 
 run into continual repetitions ; besides, the gov- 
 ernment of dicing is not the art considered in it- 
 selfl 
 
 To madder the flock or Goat’s hair, four pounds 
 of either of them is cut and well separated, that 
 the die may penetrate the better. It is boiled 
 two hours in a sufficient quantity of sour water ; 
 then it is drained for an hour, and put into a mid- 
 dling copper, half filled with water, with four 
 pounds of roach alum, two pounds of red tartar, 
 and one pound of madder. The whole is boiled 
 for six hours, putting in hot water as the liquor 
 wastes ; it is left ail r.ight and next day in this li- 
 quor ; the third day it is taken out and drained 
 in a basket. Some diers let it remain eight days, 
 but it often happens that by this delay in a copper 
 
m 
 
 vessel it is tarnished by the liquors corroding a part 
 of the copper ; a middling copper is then filled 
 to the two thirds with half sour water, and half 
 common water and when theliqouris ready to boil, 
 eight pounds of madder, well cut and crushed be- 
 tween the hands, is added. When the madder 
 is well mixed in the liquor, four pounds of flock 
 or hair is put in and boiled for six hours ; it is 
 then well washed, and the next day it is madder- 
 ed a second time alter the same manner, only 
 putting in four pounds of madder instead of 
 eight, which were before used. After this se^ 
 cond maddermg, it is well washed and dried ; it 
 is then almost black and fit for use. 
 
 It appears by this operation, that four pounds 
 of flock or hair is loaded with thirteen pounds of 
 the die of madder, yet there still remains some 
 die in the liquor, which is then called an old mad- 
 dering, and uhich is preserved for use on certaia 
 occasions, as in tobacco, cinnamon colour, and 
 several others. 
 
 Wh en the flock is thus maddered by the diec 
 of the great die he sells it to diers of the lesser^ 
 who have then the iiloerty to dissolve and use it ; 
 this is the common method, which has many dif- 
 ficuliies, and is known but to few diers. The 
 madder is hereby made fine. 
 
 About half an hour after seven in the mornings 
 six pails full of clear water are put into a middling 
 copper, and when the water is luke-warm, five 
 pounds ot pearl ashes are put in *, the whole 
 boiled till eleven, and the liquor is then consider- 
 ably diminished, so to be held in a lesser cop- 
 per, into which it is emptied, observing first to 
 kt the dregs of the pearl-ashes subside, that none 
 but the clear may be used. 
 
 K 2 
 
198 
 
 A pail full of this liquor is afterwards put into 
 the middling copper, having first scoured it well, 
 and a little fire made under it ; the four pounds 
 of maddered flock are scattered in by degrees, 
 and at the same time a little of the luke-warm and , 
 saline liquor of the small copper is added to keep 
 down the boiling, which rises from time to time 
 to the top of the copper, in -which the operation 
 is performing. i 
 
 When all the flock and the liquor of the litt’e 
 copper are put into the middling one, a pail lull 
 of clear water is put on the dregs of the pearl-ash- < 
 es remaining in the little copper, 'riiis water serves i 
 to fill the middling one as the liqour in it evap- i 
 orates. All this flock melts, or is dissolved by ' 
 the action of the pearl-ashes, and alter the first 
 half hour, not the least hair is to be perceived, 
 the liquor is then of a very deep red The whole ’ 
 is then boiled without any addition, till three in 
 the afternoon, that the whole dissolution of the 
 flocks may be the more exactly performed. Then 
 a stick is placed upon the copper, and upon this 
 stick is placed a pail of fermented urine, in which 
 pail a small hole has been previously made towards 
 its lower part, and a little straw put into it, that 
 the urine may very slowly run into the copper ; 
 whilst it is running, the liquor is made to boil 
 strongly, and this urine m .kes good what may be 
 lost by evaporation. This operation continues 
 five hours, during w hich time three pa Is full of 
 urine are discharged into the copper, being made 
 to run faster when the boil is stronger, than when 
 moderate. It is here to be observed, that, on ac- 
 count of the small quantity of flock in the exper- 
 iment which I lay down here, five pounds only of 
 
199 
 
 pearl-ashes are ordered ; for when thirty pounds 
 of flock are dissoU td at one time, which is the 
 comiiion custom of the French diers, thev jmt 
 twelve ounces of pearl ashes to each pound of 
 flock 
 
 During the whole time of this operation, a strong 
 volatile smell of urine is emitted, and there swims 
 on the suriace of liquor a brown scum, but 
 much more so after the addition of the urine. 
 The liquor is known to ne sufficiently done when 
 this rises no more, and that the boil rises but 
 genth , that is what happened to the operation now 
 related, at eight in the evening. The fire is then 
 raked out, the copper covered, and thus left to tlie 
 next day . Patterns had been taken at different times 
 of the colours of the liquor from three to eight 
 in the evening, by dipping in small pieces of pa- 
 per ; the first were very brown, and they became 
 continually lighter, and united themselves more 
 and more, in proportion as the volatile part of the 
 urine acted on the colouring parts of the liquor. 
 
 Nothing now remained but to die the wool in 
 the liquor thus prepared, and which is called 
 melting of flock ; this is the easiest work belong- 
 ing to the dier. A quarter of an hour before the 
 dicing is begun, a little piece of very clean roach 
 alum is put in, and the copper is well rakt d to 
 melt it. As this liquor which was in the mid- 
 dling copper had been covered the whole night, 
 and the fire had not been put out, the licpior was 
 still so hotasnt t to suffer the hand. TIk dear- 
 est was taken out and brought into a small copper, 
 with a sufficient quantity ol lukewarm v\ Jter\sume 
 wool died yellow with weld was dipped m it ; it 
 immedkieiy became of a fine orange, Dordering 
 
200 
 
 @n the flame colour, that is of the colour called 
 nacaret^ and known to the dkrs by the name of 
 nacartt of Jiock^ because it is commonly made 
 with melted Hock. 
 
 T wenty hanks of white wool were dipped one 
 after the other in the same liquor, beginning by 
 those that were to have the deepest ground, and 
 leaving them longer or shor ty in the liquor ac- 
 cording to the shade requir* An assortment 
 was made after this manner from the nacarer, or 
 bright orange red, to the cherry colour. It ought 
 to be observed, that in proportion as the liquor 
 was consumed, fresh was taken from the middle 
 sized copper, great care being taken not to stirtho 
 sediment at the bottom ; a little fire was also 
 kept under the small copper, to kee[) the liquor 
 always in the same degree of heat. The wool 
 is thus dipped until the whole liquor is used, and 
 all the colour drawn out. But the lighter colours 
 could not be died in it ; for when the colour of 
 the liquor is once weakened, as it ought to be for 
 these colours, it is generally loaded with filth, 
 which would take off the brightness required in 
 these shades. 
 
 The following is the method of making shades 
 lighter than the cherry colour. A copper is filled 
 with clear water, and five or six hanks of wool 
 died of the deepest die from the fi >ck, that is, 
 from the shade that immediately follows the na- 
 caret, are put in. As soon as the water boils, it 
 takes out all ihe.colour the wool had, and it is in 
 this fresh liquor that the other wool that is to be 
 died is dipped, from the cherry colour to the 
 palest flesh colour, observing always to begin by 
 tiae deepest shades. 
 
201 
 
 Most of the diers who do not know how to melt 
 the flock, or who will not give themselves that 
 trouble, buy some pounds of this scarlet of flock, 
 which they use after this manner, to make all the 
 lighter shades, which, as has been said, is done 
 with mach ease. This operation shows what 
 little dependance can be put on the solidity of a 
 colour that passes 90 quickly in boiling water. 
 And in fact, it is one of the worst colours there 
 is in dicing, and on that account the new regu- 
 lation has taken it from the great die, and per- 
 mits it in the lesser for the reasons above men- 
 tioned. 
 
 ■ Thus a very bad colour may be had from an 
 ingredient which, of all those that are used in dic- 
 ing, is perhaps the best and the most durable ; yet 
 when this hair, died wdth all the necessary precau- 
 tions to insure the colour as much as possible, 
 comes to be dissolved or melted in a liquor of 
 pearl-ashes, its colour, by acquiring a new lustre, 
 loses all its solidity, and can only be ranked in the 
 number of the falsest dies. 
 
 It may appear that the little solidity of this col- 
 our proceeded from the wool having no prepara- 
 tion, and retaining no salt before its being dipped 
 in the dissolved flock ; but I found that this was 
 not the cause ; for I dipped in this liquor wool boil- 
 ed as usual, and other wool differently prepared, 
 without finding that the colour of the latter had 
 acquired any more solidity ; the lustre was less, 
 that is, it came out more saddened than the wool 
 that had been died in it without any preparation. 
 
 Though I have said that wool receives no pre- 
 paration before its being died in a dissolution of 
 flock, it is nevertheless necessary to sulphur those 
 
202 
 
 that are to ‘make clear shades, for that gives them 
 a great brightness and lustre, as the dissolved flock 
 is applied on a ground a great deal whiter than it 
 Would be without the vapour of the sulphur, 
 which cleanses it of all its filth. The same thing 
 is done for the light blues, and for some other 
 colours ; hut this operation is seldom made 
 use of but for wool intendqj|^ for samples or 
 pestry. 
 
 Sulphuring of Wool. 
 
 The diers do not do this, because of the stink 
 of the sulphur, or rather to avoid the trouble. 
 Nevertheless, to give an idea of it, the white wool 
 is suspended on hoops or perches in a close room, 
 and under this wool chaffing dishes are placed 
 with lighted coals, on which powdered sulphur is 
 cast. The room door is afterwards shut, that the 
 smoke may be the longer retained and act on the 
 wool, which is to remain till it is entirely whiten- 
 ed ; it is then called sulphured wool ; and this is 
 the preparation it must receive to give a brightness 
 to the rose, cherry, and flesh colours, which are 
 made from the dissolution of flocks. 
 
 The Theory of the Dissokition of Flock. 
 
 The reason why from an ingredient, such as 
 the root of madder, perishable colours are produc- 
 ed from dissolved flock, is not difficult to assign. 
 In the first operation of maddering the flock, the 
 red of the madder was fixed in the hair by the pre- 
 paration of alum and tartar as much as possible, 
 but as it is overloaded with this colour, it is ea- 
 
203 
 
 sy to conceive that the superfluous colouring at^ 
 oms being only applied on those which already 
 filled the pores of this hair, these alone are really 
 retained in the pores, and are cemented by the 
 salts. The hair thus reddened by the madder so 
 as to become almost black, would lose a great 
 deal of the intensity of its colour, il‘ it was boiled 
 in any liquor, was it even common water ; but to 
 this water, pearl-ashes are added in equal weight 
 wkhth.e flock already died, which is to be melted 
 in it ; consequently there is a ver) strong iixivi- 
 um of fixed alkaline salts made. I have already 
 said in am ther place, in the foregoing treatise, that 
 very strong alkaline ley sdestroy the naturaltexture 
 of almost all animal substances, as also gums and 
 resins ; in short, that an alkaline salt is their dissol- 
 vent. In the present operation, the lixivium or the 
 pearl-ashes is very concentrated, and very acrid, 
 and consequently in a state to melt the hair, which 
 is an animal substance, which it does very quick, 
 ly, and with a strong fermentation, which, shows 
 itself by the strong and violent elevation of the li- 
 quor ; consequently it destroys the natural text- 
 ture of each of these hairs, and the sides of the 
 pores being at the same time broken and reduced 
 to very minute parts, these sides having neither 
 consistence nor spring to retain these salts, and the 
 colouring particles that were sticking to them. 
 Therefore the animal particles of the hair, the 
 colouring parts of the madder, the saline parts of 
 the liquor,and the alkali of the pearl ashes, are all 
 confounded together, and form a new mixture 
 which cannot afford a lasting die, because from 
 these saline parts mixed together, there cannot be 
 foritied a sufficient quantity of salts capable of 
 
204 
 
 chrystalization, and producing moleculas, which 
 can resist cold water and the rays of the sun. In 
 short, it could not form a tartar of vitriol, because 
 the alkaline salt is in too great a proportion. 
 
 To roLize the deep and overloaded die of the 
 madder first applied on the flock, and after coi\-, 
 founded by the melting of this hair in the mixture 
 already spoken of, pu trifled urine is added in a 
 considerable quantity ; this is a further obstacle 
 to chrystalization ; consequently wool not pre- 
 pared by other salts, and dipped in a liquor thus 
 composed, can only be covered by a superficial 
 colour, which finds no prepared pores, or any 
 thing saline in those pores, which may cement the 
 colouring atoms ; therefore such a die must quit 
 its subject on the least effort of what nature soev- 
 er it be. 
 
 But wool prepared by the liquor of tartar and 
 alum, does not take a more lasting colour, in the 
 liquor of the melted flock, than wool not prepared 
 by these salts ; fora liquor which abounds with 
 fixed alkaline salts attacks the tartar left of the pre- 
 ceding preparation in the pores of the wool. This 
 tartar changes its nature, and from being hard to 
 dissolve, as it was before, it becomes a soluble 
 tartar, that is, a salt that dissolves very easily in 
 the coldest w'ater. 
 
 It may perhaps be objected, that particles of 
 alum remain in the pores of the prepared wool, • 
 that from these particles of alum, as well as from 
 a portion of the same salt which is put into the li- 
 quor, reddened by the melting of the flock, the 
 ^kali of the pearl-ashes must form a tartar of 
 vitriol, which, according to my principles, ought 
 to secure the die. 
 
2.05 
 
 To this I answer, that the urine hinders the 
 combination of these two salts, which is neces- 
 sary for the formation of the tartar of vitriol i 
 if even this hindrance did not exist, the quanti- 
 ty of this salt, which I have named /uird in an- 
 other place, could not be sufficient to cement 
 the colour in the pores of the wool, or put them 
 in a state to retain the colouring atoms. Fur- 
 ther, the sharpness of the alkaline salts in this 
 liquor, which is capable of entirely dissolving 
 the hair boiled in it, would equally be able to 
 dissolve the wool, were it boiled as the flock 
 was. But yet, though a degree of heat is not 
 given to the liquor, which would be necessary 
 for this total destruction, it is easily conceived, 
 that if the sum of the destroying action is not the 
 same, at least a part exists, which is still sufficient 
 to corrode the sides of the pores of the wool, to 
 enlarge them greatly, and to render them unfit 
 to retain the colouring atoms ; to this may be ad- 
 ded, that the hair is melted in the liquor, and con- 
 sequently mixed with the colouring parts of the 
 madder in a great quantity ; that these are hete- 
 rogeneous parts, which prevent the immediate 
 contact of the same colouring parts, and that from 
 all these obstacles taken together, the colour must 
 be rendered less durable and less holding than any 
 of the lesser die. "I'his, experience sufficiently 
 proves, for if a skain of red wool died in this man- 
 ner, be put into boiling water, the colour will be 
 laken off entirely. 
 
 S 
 
206 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE MANNER OF USING ARCHIL.’ 
 
 ARCHIL is a soft paste, of a deep red, which 
 being simply diluted in hot water affords a num- 
 ber of different shades ; there are two kinds, the , 
 most common, which is not so fine or so good, ' 
 is generally made in Auvergne, of a ichen or j 
 sort of moss, very common on the rocks of that 1 
 province ; it is known under the name of Archil ( 
 of Auvergne, or Land Archil. The other is a 
 great deal finer and better ; it is called the Ar- , 
 chil of Herb, or of the C’anaries, or Cape Verd Ar- i 
 chil ; it is prepared in France, England, Holland, 
 and other places. 
 
 The workmen who prepare this herb Archil, 
 make a secret of the preparation, but the particu* 
 lars may be found, well related in a Treatise of 
 J£. Pierre Antoine fdicheli, which bears for title, 
 Nova Planturum Genera^ therefore 1 shall not here 
 give the method of preparing it. 
 
 When a dier wants to assure himself that the 
 Archil will produce a beautiful effect, he must ex- 
 tend a piece of this paste on the back of his hand 
 and let it dry, afterwards washing his hand with 
 cold water. If this spot remains with onh a lit- 
 tle of Its colour discharged, he may judge the 
 Archil to be good, and be assured it will suc- 
 ceed. 
 
 1 shall now give the method of using the pre- 
 pared archil, but I shall only treat of that of the 
 
207 
 
 Canaries, and just mention the difference between 
 it and that of Auvergne. A copper is fiikd with 
 clear water, and when it begins to be lukewarm, 
 the proper quantity of archil is put in and well 
 stirred : the liquor is afterwards heated almost to 
 boiling, and the wool or stuffs are dipped without 
 any preparation, only keeping those longer in that 
 are to be deeper. 
 
 When the archil yields no more colour at this 
 degree of heat, the liquor is made to boil to ex., 
 tract the remainder ; but if it is archil of Auverg- 
 ne, the colours drawn after this manner will be 
 sadder than the first, on account of the boiling of 
 the liquor. The Canary archil, on the contrary, 
 wnll lose nothing of its brightness, if even the li- 
 quor boiled from the beginning. This last, though 
 dearer, yields much more die, so that there is. 
 more profit in making use of it, besides its supe- 
 riority over the other in beauty and goodness of 
 colour. The natural colour w’hich Is drawn both 
 from the one and the other archil, is a fine gris^de* 
 lin^ bordering on the violet. Tl)e violet, the pan- 
 sy, the amaranth, and several like colours are ob- 
 tained from it, by giving the stuff a ground of blue 
 more or less deep before it is passed through the 
 archil. 
 
 It must here be observed, that to have the clear 
 shades of these colours as bright as they ought to 
 be, the wool ought to be sulphured, as was said 
 in the foregoing chapter, either before it is dipped 
 in the archil, for griSrde Im. or before it is died 
 blue for the violet and other like colours. 
 
 This way of using archil is the simplest, but the 
 colours that proceed from it are not lasting. It 
 may be Lmagined thgi the colours would be better 
 
208 
 
 by giving a preparation to the wool previous t© 
 its being died, as i:> practised in the great die, 
 when madder, cochineal, weld, Sec. are used ; but 
 experience shews the contrary, and I have used 
 the archil on wool boiled in alum and tartar, which 
 did not resist the air more than that which had re- 
 ceived no preparation. 
 
 There is, notwithstanding, a method of using 
 the Canary archil, and giving it almost as much 
 duration as the most part of the ingredients of the 
 good die; but then its natural colour of gris-cle-lin 
 is taken off, and it acquires a red or scarlet, or 
 rather a colour known under the name of bastard 
 scarlet. The colours of the kermes or Venetian 
 scarlet, and several other shades that border on the 
 red and the orange may also be drawn from it. 
 These colours are extracted from the archil by 
 the means of acids, and all those that are thus 
 made may be looked upon as much more lasting 
 than the others, though strictly speaking, they are 
 not of the good die. 
 
 rniere are two methods of extracting these red 
 colours from the archil. The fiisl is by incorpo- 
 rating some acid in the composition itself that is 
 made use of to reduce this plant to a paste (such 
 as is known to the diers under the name of archil.) 
 I have been assured that it may be made violet 
 and even blue, which probably is done by the 
 mixture of some alkalis, but I must conless I 
 could not succeed in it, although I made above 
 twenty trials for that purpose. I shall now pro- 
 ceed to the second method of extracting from ar- 
 chil, a beautiful and pretty lasting red, and which 
 I executed four times with success. 
 
209 
 
 Bustard Scarlet by Archil* 
 
 Prepared archil jron^ the ('anaries is diluted as- 
 usual in warm water, and a bmaU quantity of the 
 common conipobition for bcarlei is added, which 
 has been shoun in the preceding treatise, a 
 solution ot Un in aqua regia, w eakent d w itti water ; 
 tho> acid ciears tlic nquor immediatth anci gives 
 it a scarlet coioar. The wool or slidF is then to 
 be dipped in this liquor, and left till it has received 
 the siiade required. If the colour should not have 
 brjghiness enough, a little more of the composi- 
 ti- must be put in, and pretty near the same 
 method must be followed as i • the dicing of com- 
 m( Ji scarlet : I tried to makv; it in two liquors as 
 the srariet, that is, to boil the stuff with ihe com- 
 position, a!id a small quantity of archil, and af» 
 tervvards to finish it with a greater quantity^ of 
 both, and 1 siKceeded equally ; but the operation 
 is longer after this manner, and I have sometimes, 
 made as fine a colour in one liquor. Thus the 
 dier may take his choice of either of these meth- 
 ods. 
 
 1 cannot exactly fix the quantity of ingredients 
 in this opeiation. First, as it depends on the 
 shade that is to be given to the stuff. Second, as 
 it is a new process in dicing, I have not had suf- 
 ficient experiments to know wfith exactness the 
 quantity^ ofaiehii and composition which ought to 
 be used : the success also depends on the greater 
 or lesser acidity of the c( nip^^sition. in short, 
 this method of dicing with archil is so easy, that 
 by making two or three trials in small, more 
 knowledge will be acquired from it than 1 could 
 teach in a large volume ; I must only add, tbat- 
 S2 
 
210 
 
 the more the colour drawn from this ingredient 
 approaches the scarlet, the more lasting it is. I .• 
 have made a great number of shades from the ^ 
 same archil, and which consequently only differed ^ 
 by the greater or less quantity of the composition, ] 
 and I always found that the more the archil w^ent i 
 from the natural colour, the more lasting it became, 
 so that when I brought it to the shade known by j 
 the name of bastard scarlet, it withstood the action | 
 of the air and essay proof almost as well as that . 
 which is commonly made with cochineal or madder. 
 
 If too much composition be put in the liquor, 
 the wool will become of an orange colour, and dis- 
 agreeable. The sanie thing also happens with co- 
 chineal, so that this is not an inconvenience pecuU 
 iar to this die ; besides it is easily avoided by 
 proceeding gradually in the addition of the com- 
 position. and by putting a small quantity at first. 
 
 1 have tried the different acids in this scarlet 
 composition, but none succeeded well ; vinegar 
 did not give a sufficient redness to the liquor, and 
 the stuff died in it only took a colour of lees of 
 wine, which even was not more lasting in the air 
 than that of the archil in its natural state, and oth*. 
 er acids saddened the colour. In short, it appears 
 that (as in scarlet with cochineal) a metallic base 
 extremely white must be united to the red of the 
 archil, and this basis is the calx oi tin I have 
 repeated the same operation with the archil of Au- 
 vergne, but the colours were nut near su fine or 
 so good. 
 
211 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF LOGWOOD OR CAMPEACHY. 
 
 THE campeachy wood, known under the 
 name of logwood, is of great use in the lesser 
 die, and it were to be wished that it was not used 
 in the good die, for the colour which that wood 
 produces loses its brightness in a short time, and 
 even disappears in some places on being exposed 
 to the air ; the low price of this drug in some 
 measure tolerates its use ; but the pi incipal reason 
 of using it is, that by the means of different prep- 
 arations and salts it affords a great number of col- 
 ours and shades, which are not easily made by the 
 ingredients of the good die alone. Yet it is pos- 
 sible, as I have said before, to make all these col- 
 ours without the help of logwood ; therefore it 
 was proper to forbid the use of this ingredient in 
 the good die. 
 
 Logwood is necessary to soften and velvet the 
 blacks ; it is this velvet hue that gives that excel- 
 lency to the Sedan blacks. I shall now add some 
 little matter concerning the other colours in which 
 this wood is used, and 1 shall observe, that when 
 any wood whatsoever is used in dieing, it must 
 be cut into small shavings or chips, and put into a 
 bag, that it may not stick to the wool or stuffs ; 
 for the rough chips will not only tear the goods, 
 but blot them in those places to which they 
 stick. 
 
 Logwoodi is us^d with galls and copperas for all 
 
212 
 
 the shades of grey which border on the slate or 
 lavender, the pigeon grey, the lead grey, and such 
 like. To make these, a copper is filled v\ith 
 clear water, and a proper quantity of galls is add- 
 ed ,* this must be proportioned to the quantity of 
 stuffs to be died, and to the depth of the shade re- 
 quired. A bag of logwood is put into this liquor, 
 and when the whole has boiled and cooled., the 
 stuff is dipped in it, adding by little and little 
 some copperas previous!} dissolved in water. I 
 cannot fix any exact proportion of ingredients, as 
 the diers of the lesser die are not accustomed to 
 weigh them ; they work by the eye, and their bu- 
 siness being to match low-priced stuffs for linings 
 of cloths for which they have the patterns, they first 
 make them lighter than is wanted, and sadden them 
 by adding copperas till they are come to the shade 
 required. If they find there is not logwood suf- 
 ficient, they add more ; they do the same when 
 they have several stuffs to pass through the same 
 liquor, when they find the v/ood they have given 
 has yielded all its die. This work is not difficult, 
 and only requires practice to judge pretty nearly 
 the quantity of ingredients to be used, and to 
 judge by the stuff, while wet, whether, when dry, 
 it would have the intended colour, which is done 
 by strongly wringing the end, and blowing on it 
 strongly : by this means, the greatest part of the 
 humidity, which has by twisting been brought to 
 the surface of the stuff, is driven off ; then for an 
 instant the colour is seen pretty nearly such as it 
 will be when dry ; but this must be done by a 
 quick eye, for in a moment after the adjacent mois- 
 ture is communicated to this dry place, and then 
 you may be deceived* 
 
213 
 
 A pretty fine violet is also made with logwood, 
 by first boiling the wool as usual with alum and 
 tartar, and afterwards passing it through a li- 
 quor of logwood in which a little alum is dis« 
 solved. But it is made much finer by bluing 
 and aluming the stuff first, then dipping it in a 
 liquor of Brazil mixt with a little logw’ood ; this 
 violet, though of the lesser die, is much better 
 than the former, because the blue ground al- 
 ways sustains the colour, and makes it more 
 holding. 
 
 The logwood also affords a blue colour, but it 
 lasts so ill that this wood is seldom used for dic- 
 ing blue. Y et if from curiosity you wish to make 
 a trial, you need only prepare a liquor with log- 
 wood, and mix a little Cyprus or blue vitriol in it, 
 and dip the stuffs in this without any other prepa- 
 ration, and you have a fine blue. 
 
 By the same means, green may be made in the 
 same liquor. For this purpose, logwood, French 
 berries, or grains of Avignon and verdigrise are 
 put into a copper. This mixture gives the li- 
 quor a beautiful green colour ; the wool may be 
 then dipped to the height desired, and may be of 
 any desired shade, by putting in more or less of 
 the logwood and Avignon grains. But this col- 
 our is not better than the blue, and both ought to 
 be excluded the art of dicing ; I have given 
 the process, merely that I might omit nothing 
 which came to my knowledge conceriiing the 
 art. • 
 
 The use to which logwood is most commonly 
 applied in the lesser die is for plumb, prune coL 
 ours, purples and their shades. 
 
 This wood joined with galls, readily gives »11 
 
214 
 
 its colours to wool that has a ground of blue ; it is 
 saddened with a little green copperas, which 
 browns them, and by this means some shades 
 may be easily obtained which are much more dif- 
 ficult to hit in the great die, as the different de- 
 grees of saddening are much more difficult to 
 match in a blue vat, than by the help of the iron 
 of the copperas. But these colours fade away 
 very soon in the air, and in a few days a 
 great difference is seen between the parts that 
 were exposed to the air and those that were cov- 
 ered 
 
 Having experienced, as I said in the preced- 
 ing chapter, that the scarlet composition changed 
 the colour of the archil, and made it more last- 
 ing, 1 tried what effect it might produce on the 
 logwood ; but what appeared singular to me was, 
 that whatsoever quantity of composition I put 
 into this liquor, it never lost its violet colour. 
 Being desirous to put this to a further trial, I 
 died a piece of cloth with logwood, and put in^ 
 to the liquor a quantity of composition, pretty 
 near equal to that which I would have put for 
 an equal dose of archil ; the cloth took a pretty 
 good violet colour. This cloth was put in the 
 weather for twelve summer days, and the colour 
 proved no laetter than if no composition had been 
 used. By adding a small quantity of crystals of 
 tartar to another liquor composed as the former, I 
 had a more lasting colour, but considerably dif- 
 ferent. 
 
215 
 
 The Raven Grey. 
 
 The raven grey on worsted or stuffs is perform- 
 ed in the following manner. 
 
 In a copper sufficiently large for sixty pound 
 weight, dissolve eight ounces of alum, and work 
 the worsted on sticks very quick for the space of 
 half an hour at a boiling heat ; then take it up, 
 and add to the same liquor three or four pounds of 
 copperas, and work it at boiling heat for half an 
 hour longer ; while this is performing the worst- 
 ed must be washed, and one pail full of logwood 
 chips must be boiled in another copper about 
 twenty minutes ; the worsted must then be turn- 
 ed very quick in the logwood decoction about 
 half an hour, when it must be taken out, and re- 
 turned about ten or fifteen minutes in the decoc- 
 tion of alum and copperas, as at first. This last 
 operation is absolutely necessary, as it contributes 
 much to the beauty and lustre of the colour, by’ 
 discharging the gross particles of the logwood, 
 and leaves a beautiful raven grey. This process 
 will hold good for thin goods and coarse cloth, 
 but a less proportion of logwood will do. 
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 
 OF SAXON BLUE AND GREEN.’ 
 
 I PLACE here among the lesser dies that call- 
 ed Saxon blue and green, which has been for 
 some time greatly in fashion, being finer and 
 brighter than any blue or green hitherto known 
 
216 
 
 either in the greater or lesser die, but it bears no 
 pn -vr ai-d in uveive days exposition to the sun, it 
 loses a great part of its colour. 
 
 Blue on Cloth, Stuff, or Yarn. 
 
 Pat into a gL zed earthen-pot four pounds of 
 gO''*d oil of vitrivd with twelve ounces of choice 
 indigo, very finety ground and silted ; stir this 
 chv niical mixture very hastily and frequently in 
 order to excite a ft rmentation, and break the 
 lumps with a stick whose bark has been stripped 
 off. It is customary with some diers to put into 
 this composition a little ar.timony or saltpetre, 
 tartar, chalk, alum, or other things ; but 1 find it 
 sufiicient to mix the oil and indigo alone, and the 
 colours will be finer, for those neutral salts destroy 
 the acid of the vitriol and sully the colour. In 
 twenty-four hours it is fit for use ; then a copper 
 of a good size is to be fided with fair water, (into 
 which one peck of bran is put in a bag) and made 
 pretty warm ; the bran, after yielding its flour, 
 must be taken out, and the ch) mic mixed well 
 with water, in a piggin, is put iu according to the 
 shade required, having first put in a harmful of 
 powdered tartar ; the cloth, &.c. is to be well wet, 
 and worked very quick over the wynch for half 
 an hour. The liquor must not be made hotter 
 than that for madder red. Observe, .the hot acid 
 of the vitriol would cause the blue to incline to 
 green if too much heat was given The cloth, 
 stuff, or yarn must be turned in this liquor very 
 quick for half an hour, and having been previously 
 very well scoured, the colour will be brilliant and 
 fine ; it is best after washing to dry this colour 
 in the shade. 
 
2L7 
 
 Chymic for Green, 
 
 Eight ounces of indigo is sufficient for four 
 pounds of oil for green, because this mixture 
 works green (and would even die apea^green if 
 used very hot) and therelore would not do for blue. 
 The indigo is better suspended in this mixture 
 than in the former, and is supposed to go further 
 in green. The goods being well scoured are to 
 be alumed ; for every twenty pound weight, two 
 pounds of alum is to be put into a copper with 
 fair v/ater, and the goods boiled gently an hour 
 and a half ; whilst this is performing, another 
 copper is got ready, in which fustic chips are put 
 to boil ; if there are any to die pea green it is best 
 to die them first, not as practised in some die^hous- 
 es, for this great reason, that when several parcels 
 of goods have been through the same liquor, 
 there remains a scurf which the acid extracts, and 
 that is sure to stick to the next parcel that goes in ; 
 and if pea- green vvas the last, the colour would be 
 dulled thereby. The greens ([)ea' green except- 
 ed) are to be turned about ten mujutes m the afuru 
 liquor after ^hey are died, in order to deai tix nt 
 of the stuff, and render the colour brighter, 'i'he 
 alum liquor is not to be hotter than tb-t the hcUK.l 
 may be borne in. Observe, if the alum was ['ut 
 in fas is customary in some die-honser) with the 
 fustic, it would retard its workitig so well ; for 
 alum, being an acid, would discha* gc if used wiiii, 
 as well as prepare for fustic. 
 
 The reader will perhaps think me too tedious 
 in this process, and Sriy (because he is not used 
 to this method) it is a sup'eifiuous woik ; but be 
 
 T 
 
218 
 
 assured that the time lost in the process will be 
 saved in the fustic, if attention is paid. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OF BRAZIL WOOD. 
 
 UNDER the general name of Brazil wood is 
 comprehended that of Fernambouc, St. Martha, 
 Japan, and some others which I shall n<n here dis- 
 tinguish, since they are all used alter the same 
 manner for dicing. Some give greater variety 
 of colours than others, or finer ; but this often 
 proceeds from the parts of the wood being more 
 or less exposed to the air, or that some parts of it 
 may be rotted. The soundest or highest in col- 
 our are to be chosen for dieing. 
 
 All those woods give a tolerable good colour, 
 either used alone, mixt with logwood, or with 
 other colouring ingredients. It has been shewn, 
 that, in the false or bastard violet, a little Brazil 
 was added to the logwood ; but in uie vinous 
 greys, or those which have a cast of the red, a 
 great deal more is used. Sometimes only, a small 
 quantity of galls is put with the Brazil, and it is 
 saddened with copperas ; often also with logwood, 
 archil, or some other ingredient, it is added ac- 
 cording to the shade, from whence it is not possi- 
 ble to give any fixed rule for this kind of work, 
 on account of the infinite variety of shades 
 which are obtained from these different mixtures. 
 
 The natural colour of the Brazil, and for which 
 it is most used, is the false scarlet, which appears 
 
219 
 
 fine and bright, but far inferior to the brightness 
 of the cochineal or gum lacque. 
 
 To extract the colour from this wood, the hard- 
 est water, such as will not dissolve soap, must 
 be made use of, for river water has not nearly so 
 good an effect ; it must be cut into chips, and 
 boiled for three hours ; the water is then taken 
 out and put into a large vessel, and fresh well wa- 
 ter put on th.e wood and boiled again for three 
 liours ; this water is added to the first. 
 
 This liquor, which is called juice of Brazil, 
 must be old and fermented, and rope like an oily 
 wine, before it is fit for use. To extract a bright 
 red from it, the stuff must be filled with the salts 
 of the common liquor of preparation, but the alum 
 must predominate, for the tartar alone, and also 
 sour water, great! spoils the beauty of this coL 
 our : in short, acids are hurtful to it, and dissolve 
 its red colouring part. Four ounces of alum for 
 each pound of stuff' is to be added to the liquor, 
 and only two ounces of tartar, or even less. The 
 wool is to be boiled in it for three hours ; it is 
 then taken out and gently wrung, and thus kept 
 moist for eight days at least, that by the salts be- 
 ing retained it may be sufficiently prepared to re- 
 ceive the die. To die with this, one or two pails 
 full of the old juice of Brazil is put into a conven- 
 ient copper, and well scummed. Dip the stuff 
 which has remained eight or ten days moistened 
 in the preparing liquor, and it must be well work* 
 ed in it without making the liquor boil too 
 strongly, until it be smoothly and equally died. 
 Care must be taken to wring a corner of this stuff 
 now and then, as 1 have already said to judge of 
 its colour, for, whilst wet, it appears at least three 
 
220 
 
 sliades deeper than when dry. By this method, 
 which is somewhat tedious, very bright reds are 
 made, perfectly imitating certain colours the Eng- 
 lish sell under the name of Campeachy scarlets, 
 which, by the proof of dies, are not found to be 
 better than this, only that they seem to have been 
 lightly maddered. 
 
 This red, of which I have given the process, 
 and which is no where else described, withstands 
 the weather three or four months in the winter, 
 without losing any of its shade ; on the contrary, 
 it saddens and seems to acquire a ground, but it 
 docs not stand the proof of tartar. 
 
 Some diers of the great die use Brazil to height- 
 en the red of madder, either to save this root, 
 or make its red more bright than usual. This is 
 done by dipping in a Brazil liquor a stuff, begun 
 wdth the madder, but this kind of fraudulent die 
 is expressly forbid by the French regulations, as 
 well as any mixture of the great die with the les- 
 ser, because it can only serve to cheat, and to 
 pass for a fine madder red, a colour which in a 
 few days loses all its brightness along with the 
 shade, which has been drawn from the Brazil, 
 prepared in the common manner. 
 
 The first colour extracted from this wood is 
 not of a good die, probably because it is an indi- 
 gested sap, and whose colouring particles have 
 not been sufficiently attenuated to be retained and 
 sufficiently fixed in the pores of the wool died in 
 it. When these first gross parts of the colour 
 have been carried off, those that remain in small 
 quantity are finer, and mixing themselves to the 
 yellow parts, which are furnished by the pure 
 w^oody parts, the red resulting from it is more 
 lasting. 
 
221 
 
 0 
 
 By ihe means of acids, of what kind soever, all 
 the red colour of this wood is carried off or dis- 
 appears ; then the stuff that is died by it takes a 
 hind colour, more or less deep in proportion to 
 the time it is kept in the liquor, and this colour is 
 of a very good die. 
 
 It is said that the diers of Amboise have a 
 method of binding the Brazil colour in this man^ 
 ner ; after their stuft^ lightly maddered have been 
 passed through a liquor of weld, and consequent- 
 ly boiled twice in alum at id tartar, they put arse- 
 nic and pearl ashes in the juice of Br. zil, and it is 
 asserted that this colour thon resists the proofs ; I 
 tried this process, but it did not succeed 
 
 When a very bright rtd is required from the 
 Brazil, I know by experience that it is possible to 
 insure the colour drawn from it alter such a man- 
 ner that, having exposed it thirt} days to the 
 rays of the summe ’s sun, it will not change; 
 but tliese kind of colours are coffee and chesnut 
 purples. 
 
 ’ro make these, 1 keep the stuff moistened in 
 its liquur in a cellar for hiuen days ; this liquor 
 is prepared as for the reds, of which I have 
 heretofore spoken ; 1 fill a copper to tu o-thirds 
 with well water, and the remaining third up with 
 Brazd juice, to which I add about one oz of 
 Alep, o galls in very hue powder to every pound 
 of stuff, and then boil it one or two hours, as I 
 want the shade to be in deepness : the stuff is 
 aired from time to time, and when it has taken 
 the colour desired, it is well cooled befoie it is 
 washed. 'Fhis stuff being brushed the nap lay- 
 ed, and cold pressed, comes out very fine and ve- 
 ry smooth. 
 
 T 2 
 
m 
 
 222 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 . OF FUSTIC. 
 
 THE fustic gives an orange colour that is not 
 lasting ; it is commonly used in the lesser die, 
 like the roots or husks of walnuts, without boil, 
 ing the stuff, so that it is easily managed. It is 
 often mixed with walnut husks and weld ; to 
 make tobacco and cinnamon colours, and other 
 like shades. But this wood is a very bad ingre- 
 dient, for its colour being exposed to the air for 
 a very short time loses all its brightness and the 
 greatest part of its yellow shade. 
 
 If a stuff died with fustic is dipped in the woad 
 vat, a disagreeable olive ensues, which does not 
 resist the air, but soon loses its colour. 
 
 I have already said that fustic was made use 
 of in Languedoc for making of lobster colours 
 for foreign markets, as it greatly saves coch- 
 ineal. For this purpose they mix weld, fustic, 
 and cochineal, with a little cream of tartar, in the 
 same liquor, and the stuff boiled in this liquor 
 comes out of a lobster colour, and accordingly, 
 to the quantity of these different ingredients, it 
 becomes more or less red, tending to the or- 
 ange. Although the method of mixing together 
 ingredients of the good with those of the lesser 
 die ought to be condemned, yet in this case, and 
 for this colour onh , w hich is in considerable de- 
 mand in the Medil'crrancan, it appears that the 
 fustic may be tolerated ; for having attempted to 
 
223 
 
 make the same colour, with only the ingredients 
 of the good die, I did not get a more lasting co- 
 lour. 
 
 The change which the air produces in the lob- 
 ster colour made with fustic is very sensible, but 
 it is not so disagreeable as the changes incident to 
 several other colours ; for all the shade goes off 
 and weakens at once, so that it is rather dimiiAi- 
 tion than a change of colour ; whereas the li^b- 
 ster colour made with the yellow wood becomes 
 of a cherry colour. ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 or Roucou; 
 
 THE roucou or racourt is a kind of dry paste 
 brought from America ; this ingredient gives an 
 orange colour pretty near the same as fustic, and 
 the die is not more lasting. However it is not 
 by the proof alum that the quality of the roucou 
 is to be judged, for this does not in the least alter 
 its colour ; on the contrary, it becomes finer and 
 brighter, but the air carries it off, and eftaces it 
 in a short time ; soap has the same effect, and it 
 is by this it must be tried according to the instruc- 
 tions on these kind of proofs. The place of this 
 ingredient is easily supplied in the good die by 
 weld and madder mixed together, but roucou is 
 made use of in the lesser die after the following 
 manner. 
 
 Pearl-ashes are dissolved in a copper with a 
 sufficient quantity of water ; it is well boiled for 
 
2U 
 
 one hour, that the ashes may be totally dissolved ; 
 then as many pounds of roucoti as there are of 
 asly-s, are added ; the liquor is well raked and 
 suffered to boil for a quarter of an hour ; the 
 wool or stuffs that are to be died are then dipped 
 without any preparation, except dipping them lu 
 luke warm water, that the colour may spread it- 
 self equally. 
 
 l"hty are left in this liquor, working them con- 
 tinually until they are come to the desired shade, 
 after which they are washed and dried. 
 
 The roucou is often mixed with other ingredi- 
 ents of the lesser die, but I cannot give an} in- 
 structions on these mixtures, as they depend on 
 the shades you wish to make, and are in themselves 
 attended with no difficult v. 
 
 I have boiled the stuff in alum and tartar before 
 I died it with roucou, but though the colour was 
 more lasting it was not sufficieniiy so to be deem- 
 ed of the go{)cl die. On the whe le, the roucou 
 is a very bad ingredient for dicing of wool, and is 
 not made much use of, for it is dear, and other 
 ingredients, that are cheaper and hold better, are 
 used in its stead 
 
 Wool died with roucou, and aftcru ards dipt 
 in the indigo or woad vat, takes a reddish olive, 
 whi h in a very short time becomes almost blue 
 in the air, the colour given by the roucou disap- 
 pearing. 
 
2i25 
 
 CHx\PTER IX. 
 
 OF THE GRAINS OF AVIGNON. 
 
 THE grains of Avignon are but little used in 
 dicing, they give a pretty good \ello\v, but not 
 lasting, no more than the green, produced by 
 dipping in the same liquor, a stiiif that has a 
 ground of blue. To work it, the stuff must be 
 boiled in alum and tartar as for weld. Then a 
 fresh liquor is made with these grains, and the 
 stuft'is dipt, and must lie in it longer or shorter, 
 according to the shade that is wanted. There is 
 no difficult} in working of it, so I need only ob- 
 serve that it ought nt ver to be used but when 
 all other ingredients for dieing yellow are wanting ; 
 this must seldom happen, as they are neither 
 scarce nor dear. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 OF TURMERIC. 
 
 THE turmeric is a root that is brought from 
 the East Indies ; that which comes from Patna is 
 most valued. The Indian diers call it haldi ; it 
 is also called concome in the regulations of M. 
 Colbert, it is reduced to a very line powder, and 
 used pretty near the same way as the grain of A- 
 vignon, but in much less quantity, on account of 
 
226 
 
 its yielding a great deal of die. It is somewhat 
 belter than the other yellow ingredients spoken of 
 in the preceding chapter, but, as it is dear,-it is a 
 sufficient reason for seldom or never using it in 
 the lesser die. 
 
 It is sometimes used in the great die to gild the 
 yellows made with weld, and to brighten and or- 
 ange the scarlets ; but this jiractice is to be con- 
 demned ; for the air carries off all the colour of 
 the turmeric in a short time, so that the gilded 
 yellovvs return to their first state, and the scarlets 
 brown considerably ; when this happens to these 
 sort of colours, it mav be looked on as certain 
 that they have been falsified tvith this ingredient, 
 which is not lasting 
 
 I omit speaking of saffron, which may also be 
 made use of to die yellow, but which 1 believe is 
 not used ; first, on account of its being dear ; and 
 secondly, because its yellow is still worse than 
 those of the two preceding ingredients. 
 
 This is all that remains for me to say on the in- 
 gredients of the lesser die, they are only to be 
 Used for common and low priced stuffs. It is 
 not (hat I think it impossible to extract lasting 
 colours from tlicm, but then those colours will not 
 strictly be the same which these ingredients yield 
 naturally, or by the ordinary methods, as that 
 gum and astriction which is wanting in them 
 must be added, and then they are no more of the 
 same quality ; consequent!} the ravs of light will 
 be differently reflected, and the colour will be ciiL 
 ferent, 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 OF SILVER GREY. 
 
 FOR pearl colour or silver grey, to die forty 
 pounds (T woollen cloth or worsttch bt;il in a small 
 copper four pounds of logwood chips for half an 
 hour, add to it six ounces of [learl ashes, and mix 
 them well together; while this is performing, 
 (having the worsted well scoured and parcelled 
 in hanks on the die sticks) heat a great copper 
 with clean water, and put one peck of wheat bran 
 in a bag into the copper ; let it remain with often 
 stirring about an hour ; when the water begins to 
 boil, put in three ounces of alum, which will throw 
 the filth of the water to the top, when it must be 
 taken off with the bowl ; w^ash the worsted in 
 this liquor about forty minutes, when it must 
 be taken up, and three ©r four pails of the log-, 
 wood liquor added to the alum water. The goods 
 must then be w'orked very quick for forty min- 
 utes, when you may add more logwood liquor if 
 you see occasion. Great care must be taken after 
 washing to dry this colour in the shade, or it will 
 perhaps change. 
 
 Some die this colour in one liquor and boil the 
 logwood in a bag. This process is less tedious, 
 but I prefer the former. It will be well for the 
 dier to take notice, that if too great quantity of 
 alum or ashes are used herein, the colour will be 
 imperfect ; for the alum, if used in a right pro« 
 portion, gives that bloom jto the goods which is 
 
228 
 
 necessary for a pearl ; if too much, the contrary 
 would happen. The ashes also, if used in too 
 great quantity, would make the colour too red ; 
 this mav seem a contradicti >n, because the ashes 
 are in alkali, but practice w ill teach the truth. 
 
 Another excellent Silver Die, 
 
 ^ For twenty pounds weight of cloth or worsted, 
 eight ounces of alum and twelve pounds of fenu- 
 greek must boil with the goods l^alf an hour; 
 then take it up, and add one pound of pearl ashes 
 and eight ounces of Brazil wood ; boil them gent- 
 ly with the gf)ods half an hour ; rince it and you 
 have a beautiful colour. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 ON THE PROOF 
 
 OF DIED WOOL AND WOOLEN 
 STUFFS. 
 
 AS it has been found that the methods pre- 
 scribed for the proof of dies, by the thirty-seventh 
 article of the French regulations for the diers in 
 the good die^ of cloth, serges, and other vvoollt n 
 stuffs made in 1659, and by article 220 of the 
 general iristruct ons for the dieing of wool of ill 
 colours, and for the culture of drugs a id ingredi- 
 ents therein used made in 157 «, were insufficient 
 f( r an exact judgment of the goodness or falsi- 
 ty of sever J colours, that they might sometimes 
 lead into error, and leave room for disputes, di^ 
 
229 
 
 ferent experiments have been made by the French 
 king’s order on wool designed for the manufac- 
 ture of tapestry to ascertain the degree of good- 
 ness of each colour, and the most convincing 
 proofs of each. 
 
 For this purpose, fine wool was died in differi’ 
 ent colours both in the great and lesser die, and 
 exposed to the air and sun during a proper time / 
 the good colours kept themselves perfectly, and 
 the false ones were carried off more or less ac- 
 cording to their bad quality ; and as a colour 
 is only to be accounted good inasmuch as it re- 
 sists the action of the air and sun, this proof serv- 
 ed as a rule to decide the goodness of different 
 colours. 
 
 After this, several proofs were made on the 
 same wool whose patterns had been exposed to 
 the air and sun, and it was immediately found 
 that the same trials could not be indifferently used 
 in proving of all colours ; for it often happened 
 that one colour, known to be good by exposition 
 to the air, was considerably changed by the es- 
 say proof, and that a false colour stood the same 
 proof. 
 
 These experiments exploded lemon juice, vin- 
 egar, sour waters, and strong waters, as it was 
 impossible to ascertain the degree of acidity of 
 these liquors ; and it appeared that the surest 
 method is to use ingredients with common water, 
 whose effects are always equal. 
 
 In following this plan, it has been judged ne- 
 cessary to divide into three classes all the colours 
 in wdiich w^ool is died, either in the great or lesser 
 die, and to fix the ingredients that are to be 
 
 U 
 
230 
 
 made use of in the essay proofs of the colours, 
 comprehended in each of these three classes. 
 
 The colours comprehended in the first class are 
 to undergo the proof of Roman alum, those of 
 the second with white soap, and those of the third 
 with red tartar. 
 
 But it is not sufficient to be assured of the good- 
 ness of a colour by using in the proof, ingredients 
 whose effect may always be equal ; it is also ne- 
 cessary, that not only the duration of this trial be 
 exactly determined, but even the quantity of water 
 fixed ; for the proportion of water considerably 
 augments or diminishes the activity of the ingre^ 
 dients which are put into it. The method of pro- 
 ceeding in these different proofs shall be set forth 
 in the following articles : 
 
 Article I. 
 
 The proof of Roman Alum must be made as 
 follows : 
 
 One pound of water and half an ounce of alum 
 are to be put in an earthen vessel or pan. The 
 vessel is to be placed on the fire, and when the 
 water boils strongly, the wool is put in and left 
 to boil for five minutes, after which it is to be ta- 
 ken out and washed in cold water ; the weight 
 of the pattern of wool must be a drachm or there- 
 abouts. 
 
 II. — When several patterns are to undergo the 
 proof together, the quantity of water and alum is 
 to be doubled, or even trippled, which will no 
 
231 
 
 ways change the strength or effect of the proof, if 
 you observe the same proportion of water and al- 
 um, so that for each pound of water there may be 
 one ounce of alum. 
 
 III. — To render the effect of the proof more 
 certain, care must be taken not to try together 
 wool of different colours. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Ihe Proof with White Soap is to be made after 
 the following manner. 
 
 To one pound of water add two drachms of 
 white soap, and place the vessel on the fire ; stir 
 it with a stick that the soap may be thoroughly 
 dissolved ; when it is so, and the water boils 
 strongly, the woollen pattern is put in, which is 
 to boil for five minutes. 
 
 V. — When several patterns are to undergo this 
 proof, the same method is to be observed as in the 
 second article, that is, to put to each pound of 
 water two drachms of soap. 
 
 VI — The proof with red tartar must be exact- 
 ly the same, with the same proportions as the 
 proof with alum, taking care that the tartar is fine- 
 ly powdered and well dissolved in the water be- 
 fore ihe pattern is put in. 
 
 Vn. — The following colours are to be proved 
 with Roman alum, viz. crimson of all shades, 
 Venetian scarlet, flame colour or common scarlet, 
 cherry colour and other shades of scarlet, violets 
 and gris de lin of all shades, purples, lobster, 
 
‘232 
 
 pomegranate, slate greys, lavender greys, vio- 
 let greys, vinous greys, and all other like shades. 
 
 VI II. — If, contrary to the orders of the regu- 
 lations on dicing, any ingredients of the false die 
 have been made use of for fine wool died in crim- 
 son, the cheat will be easily found out by the proof 
 of alum, for it changes the fine crimson a little on 
 the violet, that is, makes it border a little on 
 the gris de Im, but it destroys the highest shades 
 of the bastard crimson ; thus this proof is a 
 sure method to distinguish false crimson from 
 fine. 
 
 IX. — Scarlet of kermes or grain, commonly 
 called Venetian scarlet, is no wise prejudiced b^ 
 this proof ; it raises the fire colour scarlet to a 
 purple, and gives a violet colour to the lighter 
 shades, so that they border on the de lin, but 
 it carries off, the greatest part of the false Bra- 
 zil scarlet, and brings it to an onion peel colour ; 
 it has yet a more sensible effect on the lighter 
 shades of this false colour. 
 
 I'he same proof carries off almost entirely the 
 scarlet of flock and its shade. 
 
 X. — Though the violet is not a simple colour, 
 but formed of blue and red shades, it is never- 
 theless of so much consequence as to merit a par- 
 ticular inquiry. 
 
 The same proof with Roman alum has scarce- 
 ly any effect on the fine violet, whereas it con- 
 siderably alters the false ; but it must be observ- 
 ed, that it does not always equally carry off a 
 great part of the shade of the false violet, because 
 this colour has sometimes a ground of woad or 
 
233 
 
 indigo : now this ground being of the good die, 
 is not carried off by the proof) but the redness 
 goes off, and the brown shades become almost 
 blue, and the pale ones of the colour of lees of 
 wine. 
 
 XI. — With regard to half fine violets, forbid- 
 den by the present regulations, they must be rank- 
 ed in the class of false violets, and do not stand 
 the proof. 
 
 Xil. — The fine gris-de-lin may be known from 
 the false by the sanie method, the difference is but 
 trifling ; the gris de lin of the good die loses a lit- 
 tle less than that of the false. 
 
 XIII. — Fine purples entirely resist the proof 
 with alum, whereas the false entirely lose the great- 
 est part of their colour. 
 
 Xi V. — Lobster colours and pomegranate strike 
 on the purple after the proof, if they have been 
 made with cochineal, whereas they will pale great- 
 ly if fustic has been used ; the use of which is 
 prohibited. 
 
 XV. — Blues of the good die w ill lose nothing 
 in the proof, whether of w oad or indigo ; but those 
 of the lesser die w ill lose the greatest part of their 
 colour. 
 
 X\T. — The slate greys, lavender greys, violet 
 greys, and vinous gre}s. lose almost all their col- 
 our if they are of the false die ; whereas they per- 
 fectly maintain it, if of the good. 
 
 XV H --The proofs of the following colours 
 are to be made with white soap : yellow^, jonquill . 
 
 V2 
 
2S4 
 
 or lemon colour, orange, and all the shades of 
 yellow ; all green shades from the yellow green 
 or light green, to the cabbage or parrot green, the 
 reds of madder, cinnamon, tobacco, and such 
 like. 
 
 XVIII — This proof perfectly shows if the yel- 
 lows and other shades derived from it are of a 
 good or false die ; for it carries off the greatest 
 part of their colour if they have been made with 
 grains of Avignon, roucou, turmeric, fustic, or 
 saffron, whose use is prohibited for line dies, but 
 it no ways impairs the yellows made with savo» 
 ry, dier’s wood, yellow wood, weld, or fenu- 
 greek. 
 
 XIX. — The same proof will also show the 
 goodness of greens, as those of the false die lose 
 most of their colour, or become blue if they have 
 a ground of woad or indigo ; whereas those of the 
 good die lose almost nothing of their shade, but 
 remain green. 
 
 XX. — The reds of pure madder lose nothing 
 by the soap proof, on the contrary become liner, 
 but if Brazil wood has been used, they lose their 
 colour in proportion to the quantity ol it in the 
 composition of the die. 
 
 XXL — Cinnamon, snulF colours, and others 
 of this cast, are scarcely altered by this proof, if 
 of the good die, but they lose considerably if rou- 
 cou, fustic, or dissolved flock has been made 
 use of. 
 
 XXII. — The proof of alum would be of no 
 use, and might even lead us into errors with re- 
 
2S5 
 
 gard to several colours belonging to this second 
 class, for it no ways alters the fustic nor the rou- 
 cou, \vhich nevertheless do not withstand the 
 action of the air ; on the other hand, it car- 
 ries oflf a great part of the savory and of the 
 diet’s wood, which are very good yellows and 
 greens. 
 
 XXIIL — All the brown or root colours should 
 undergo the proof with red tartar. The diets 
 call by this name all colours that are not derived 
 from the five primary colours ; they are made with 
 rinds and roots of walnut, alder- bark, sumach or 
 roudoul, santal and scot ; each of these ingredi- 
 ents gives a great variety of shades, which are 
 all comprehended under the general name cf 
 brown or root colour. 
 
 XXIV. — The above named ingredients in the 
 preceding article are good, except the santal and 
 soot, which are not quite so good, and make 
 the wool stiff when too great a quantity is used, 
 so that all this proof can show on these kind of 
 colours, is, whether too much santal or soot has 
 been put into them ; in this case they lose con- 
 siderably by the proof with tartar but if made 
 with other ingredients, with only a moderate 
 quantity of santal or soot, they stand a great deal 
 better. 
 
 XXV. — Black is the only colour which can- 
 not be comprehended in any of the three clas- 
 ses above mentioned, and a much more active 
 proof must be made use of. To know if the 
 wool has had a deep ground of blue, conform- 
 able to the regulations, the proof is to be made 
 
236 
 
 in the following manner : take a pint or pound 
 of water, one ounce of tartar, and the same 
 quantity of Roman alum well po \clcred ; boil 
 it, and then put in the pattern ; let it boil strong- 
 ly for a quarter of an hour, and afterwards 
 wash it in cold water ; you will then easily 
 know if it has had the proper blue ground, for 
 if so, the wool will remain of a dark blue almost 
 black ; if not, it will turn very grey. 
 
 XXVI. — It is common to brown certain co- 
 lours with galls and copperas ; this operation is 
 called browning, which is to be permitted in 
 the good die ; but as this may cause a particu- 
 lar effect in proving of these colours, it is to 
 be observed that although the proof liquor ap- 
 pears loaded with die as the browning is carried 
 off, the wool must be reputed of a good die if 
 it still preserves its ground ; if on the contrary 
 it loses it, it is then deemed to be of the fidse 
 die. 
 
 XXVII. — Although the browning w'hich is 
 made of galls and copperas, is of the good die, 
 yet, as it hardens the wool, it is better to make 
 use of the indigo or woad vat in preference. 
 
 XXVIII. — Common greys made with galls 
 and copperas are not to undergo any of these 
 proofs, because these colours are of the good die, 
 and are not otherways made ; but it is to be ob- 
 served that they a re first to be passed through 
 the liquor of galls, and afterwards through a 
 second liquor, containing the copperas, which 
 must be much cooler than the first, for by this 
 method they are made finer and more lasting* 
 
237 - 
 
 THE 
 
 DIER’S ASSISTANT. 
 
 PART III. 
 
 ADDITIONAL ARTICLES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 or fLOWEHS. 
 
 AMONG the infinite variety of colours which 
 glow in the flowers of plants, there are very few 
 which have any durability, or whose figurative 
 beauty can be arrested by art, so as to be applied 
 to any valuable purposes. The only permanent 
 ones are the yellow. The red, the blue, and all 
 the intermediate shade of purples, crim sons, vi* 
 olets, &c. are extremely perishable. Many of 
 these flowers lose their colour on being barely 
 dried ; especially if they are dried slow'ly, as has 
 been usually directed, in a shady and not warm 
 place. The colours of all of them perish on keep- 
 ing, even in the closest vessels. The more hasti- 
 ly they are dried, and the more perfectly they are 
 secured from the air, the longer they retain their 
 
238 
 
 beauty. The colouring matter, extracted and ap- 
 plied on certain bodies, is still more perishable / 
 often times it is changed or destroyed in the hand 
 of the operator. 
 
 Of Blue Flowers. 
 
 The colour of many blue flowers is extracted 
 by infusion in water, but there are some from 
 which water gains only a reddish or a purplish hue. 
 Of those that have been tried, there is not one 
 which gives any blue tincture to spirituous li- 
 quors ; some give no colour at all, and some a 
 reddish one. The juice prcst out from the fresh 
 flowers is for the most part blue. 
 
 The blue juices and infusions arc changed red 
 by all acids ; the marine acid seems to strike the 
 most florid red. I’he flowers themselves, macc-^ 
 rated in acid liquors, impart also a deep red tinct- 
 ure. Alkalis, both fixed and volatile, and lime 
 water, change them to a green. Those infusions 
 or juices, which have nothing of the native colour 
 of the flower, suffer the same changes from the ad- 
 dition of acid and alkaline liquors ; even when the 
 flowers have been kept till their colour is lost, in- 
 fusions made from them acquire still a red colour 
 from the one, and a green from the other, though 
 in a less degree than when the flowers are fresh. 
 
 The red colour produced by acids is scarcely 
 more durable than the original blue ; applied up- 
 on other bodies, and exposed to the air, it gradu- 
 ally degenerates into a faint purplish, and at length 
 disappears, leaving hardly any stain behind. The 
 green produced by alkalis changes to a yellow, 
 which does not fade so soon# The green by lime 
 
water is more permanent and more beautiful. 
 Green lakes, prepared from these flowers by lime 
 water, have been used as pigments by the painU 
 er. 
 
 The flowers of cyanus have been greatly re- 
 commended, as i flR.rdingelej^’ant and durable blue 
 pigments ; but I have never been able to extract 
 from them any Irlue colour at all. They retain 
 their colour ii.deid, when hastily dried, longer 
 than some oiher blut flowers, but they communi- 
 cate nothing of it to any kind of menstrum. fi3gp 
 fusions of theni in watery, spirituous, and oily 
 liquors- are all more or less of a reddish cast, with., 
 out any tendency to the blue. Alum, which is 
 said to heighten at d preserve their blue colour, 
 changes it like that of other blue flowers, to a purp- 
 lish red ; acids to a deep red ; alkalis and lime 
 water to a green. 
 
 Solution of tin, added to the watery infusion, 
 turns it to a fine crimson ; on standing, a beauti- 
 ful red fecula subsides, but it loses all its colour 
 by the time it is dry. The watery infusion in- 
 spissated to the consistence of an extract made 
 with rectified spirit, is of a purplish colour. The 
 colour of bf)th extracts, spread thin and exposed 
 to the air quickly fides. 
 
 The flowers employed in these experiments 
 were those of the common blue bottle of the corn 
 field; cyanis se^efum B centaur ea catycihus 
 serratis ; foholts iineartbus integerritnis ; trmmi 
 dentutis linn, spec. 
 
240 
 
 Bed Flowers, 
 
 Red flowers readily communicate their own red 
 colour to Water menstrua : among^ those that have 
 been tried there is not one exception. Those of a 
 full red colour, give to rectified spirit also a deep 
 red tincture brighter, though somewhat paler than 
 the watery infusion ; but the lighter red flowers, 
 and th> se that have a tendency to the purplish, 
 impart very little colour to spirit, and seem to par- 
 take more of the nature of the blue flowers than 
 of the pure red. 
 
 Infusions of red flowers are supposed to be 
 heightened by acids, and turned green by alkalis, 
 like those of the blue ; but this is fai from being 
 universal. Among those I have exaniincd, the 
 rose colours and purplish reds were all changed 
 nearly in the same manner as the blues, but the 
 full deep reds were not. The deep infusion of 
 red poppies is turned by alkalis, not to a green but 
 to a dusky purple. 
 
 Yellow Flowers, 
 
 The colours of yellow flowers, whether pale or 
 deep, are in general durable. Many of them are 
 as much so perhaps as any of the native colours of 
 vegetables. The colour is extracted both by wa- 
 ter and by spirit ; the watery infusions are the 
 deepest. Neither acids nor alkalis alter the spe- 
 cies ofcolour, though boihcf them var\ its shades; 
 acids rendering it paler, and alkalis deeper ; al- 
 um likewise considerably heightens it though not 
 so much as alkalis. 
 
 Wool or silk impregnated with a solution of 
 
241 
 
 alum and tartar, receives, on being boiled with 
 the watery infusion, or decoction, adorable yel- 
 low die, more or less deep according as the li- 
 quor is more or less saturated with the colouring 
 matter. 
 
 An infusion of the flowers made in alkaline ley, 
 precipitated by alum, gives a durable yellow Lke. 
 Some of these flowers, particularly those of the 
 chr} santhenmm, or corn marigold, appear (from 
 the jirs I'inctora Fundamentalist published by 
 Stahl) to be made use of by the German Diers. 
 
 In some of the deep reddish ) ellow, or orange- 
 coloured flowers, the yellow matter seems to be 
 of the same kind with that of the pure yellow 
 flowers, but the red to be of a diflerentkind from 
 the pure red ones ; watery menstrua take up on- 
 ly the yellow and leave the red, which may after- 
 wards be extracted by rectified spirit of wine, or 
 by water actuated with fixed alkaline salt. Such 
 particularly are the saffron-coIoured flowers of 
 carthamus. These, after the yellow matter has 
 been extracted by water, are said to give a red 
 tincture to ley ; from which, on standing at rest 
 for some time, a deep bright red fecula subsides, 
 called, from one of the names of the plant which 
 produces it, saf flower, and from the countries 
 whence it is commonly broiiglu to us, Spanish 
 red, and China lake ; this pigment impregnates 
 spirits of w’ine with a beautiful red tincture, but 
 communicates no colour to water. 
 
 I have endeavoured to separate by the same 
 treatment, the red matter of some of the other red- 
 dish yellow flowers, as those of the garden nian- 
 gold, but without success- Plain water extract- 
 ed a yellow colour, and cdkaline ley extracted af- 
 W 
 
242 
 
 tervvards only a paler yellow; though the diges- 
 tions were continued till the flowers had lost their 
 colour, the tinctures were no other than yellow, 
 and not so deep as those obtained from the pure 
 yellow flowers. 
 
 The little yellow flosculi, which in some kinds 
 of flowers are collected into a compact round disc, 
 as in the daisy and corn- marigold, agree so far as 
 they have been examined with the expanded yel- 
 low petala. Their colour is affected in the same 
 manner by acids, by alkalis, and by alum, and c- 
 qually extracted by water and by spirit. 
 
 But the yellow farina or fine dust lodged on the 
 tips of the stamina of flowers, appears to be of a 
 difierent kind. It gives a fine bright yellow to 
 spirit, and a duller yellow to water ; the undissolv- 
 ed part proving in both cases of a pale yellowish 
 white. Both the watery and spiritous tinctures 
 were brightened by alkaline liquors turned red by^ 
 acids, and again a deep yellow on adding more 
 of the alkali. I know no other vegetable y ellow 
 that is changed red by acids. 
 
 White Flowers* 
 
 White flowers are by no means destitute of co- 
 louring matter. Alkaline lixivia extract from 
 some of them a green tincture, and change their 
 colourless expressed juices to the same colour. 
 But I have not observed that they arc turned red 
 by acids. The flowers of the common wild con- 
 volvulus or bind weed, which in all their parts are 
 white, give a deep yellow or orange tincture to 
 plain water, which like the tincture of flowers 
 which are naturally of that colour, is rendered 
 
243 
 
 paler by acids, heightened a little by alum, and 
 more considerably by alkaline salts. The vapours 
 of the volatile vitriolic acid, or of burning sul- 
 phur, which whiten or destroy the colour of the 
 coloured flowers, makes no change in the white. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF FRUITS. 
 
 THE red juices of fruits, as red currants, mul- 
 berries, elder berries, and morello and black cher-' 
 ries, &c. gently inspissated to dryness, dissolve 
 ^ again almost totally in water, and appear nearly of 
 the same red colour as at first. Rectified spirit 
 extracts the tinging particles, leaving a considera- 
 ble portion of mucilaginous matter undissolved i 
 and hence the spirituous tincture proves of a 
 brighter colour than the watery. " The red solu- 
 tions and the juices themselves are sometimes 
 made dull, and sometimes more florid, by 
 acids, and generally turned purplish by alkalis. 
 
 The colours of these juices are for the most 
 part perishable. They resist indeed the power of 
 fermentation, and continue almost unchanged 
 after the liquor has been converted into wine. But 
 when the juice is spread thinly on other bodies, 
 exsiccated, and exposed to the air, the colour 
 quickly alters and decays : the bright lively reds 
 change the soonest. The dark, dull red strain 
 from the juice of the black cherry, is of consid- 
 erable durability. The fruit of the American 
 opuntia or prickly pear, the plant upon which the 
 
244 
 
 cochineal insect is produced, is perhaps an ex» 
 ception : this bright red fruit according to Labat, 
 gives a beautiful red die. Some experiments, 
 however, made upon the juice of that fruit, as 
 brought into England, did not seem to promise 
 any great advantage from it ; but the particulars I 
 cannot now recollect. 
 
 The ripe berries of buckthorn stain paper of a 
 green colour. From these is prepared the sub- 
 stance called sap-green, a pigment sufficiently du- 
 rable, readily soluble in water, but not miscible 
 vdth oil. The berries dried whilst green, and 
 macerated in alum water, are said to yield a yellow 
 pigment ; and when they have grown over- ripe, 
 so as to fall off spontaneously, a purple one. 
 Woollen cloth, prepared with alum and tartar, 
 receives, on being boiled with the berries, a per- 
 ishable yellow die. The French berries, or grain- 
 ed Avignon of the French Diers, one of the most 
 false, that is, the most perishable of the yellow 
 dies, is the berry of a species of buckthorn smaller 
 than that which grows wild among us. 
 
 It is said that the berry of the Heliotr opium trt. 
 coccum^ which grows wild about Montpelier, 
 stains paper of a green colour, and that this green 
 turns presently to a blue ; that the common blue 
 paper receives its colour from this juice ; and that 
 the red rags, called turnsoL employed for colour- 
 ing wines and other liquors, are tinctured by the 
 same juice, turned red by acids. According to 
 M, Nissolle of the French academy of sciences 
 (as quoted by Savary in his Dictionaire de Com. 
 merce J the colouring juice is obtained, not from 
 the berries, bu’ from the tops of the plant, gather- 
 ed in August, ground in mills, and then commit- 
 
245 
 
 ted to the press. The juice is exposed to the sun 
 about an hour, the rags dipped in it, dried in the 
 sun, moistened by the vapour which arises during 
 the slacking of quick lime with urine, then dried 
 again in the sun, and dipped again in the juice. 
 The Dutch and others are said to prepare turn- 
 sol rags, and turnsol in the mass, from different 
 ingredients, among which archil is a principal 
 one. 
 
 In some plants, peony for instance, the seeds 
 at a certain point of maturity are covered Vv'ith a 
 fine shining red membrane ; the pellicles of the 
 seeds of a certain American tree afford the red 
 masses brought into Europe under the names of 
 annotto, orlean, and roucou. The red seeds, 
 cleared from the pods, are steeped in water for 
 seven or eight days or longer, till the liquor be- 
 gins to ferment ; then strongly stirred, and stamp« 
 ed with wo^*den paddles and beaters, to promote 
 the separation of the red skins; this process is 
 repeated several times till the seeds are left white. 
 The hquor passed through close cane selves is 
 pretty thick, of a deep red colour and a very ill 
 smell. In boiling it throws up its colouring mat- 
 ter to the surface in form of scum, which is after, 
 wards boiled down by itself to a due consistence, 
 and made up, while soft into balls. 
 
 The annotto commonly met with among us, is 
 moderately hard and dry, of a brown colour on 
 the outside, and a dull red within. It is with dif- 
 ficulty acted on by water, and tinges the liquor 
 only of a pale brownish yellow colour. In recti- 
 fied spirit of wine it readily dissolves, and com- 
 municates a high orange or yellowish red. Hence 
 it is used as an ingredient in varnishes, for giving 
 
246 
 
 i 3 fiore or less of an orange cast to the simple yel- 
 lows Alkaline sails render it perfectly soluble 
 in boiling water, without altering its colour. 
 Wool or silk boiled in the solution, acquire a 
 deep but not a very durable orange die. Its col- 
 our is not changed b) alum or by acids any more 
 than by alkalis ; but when imbibed in cloth, it is 
 discharged by soap and destroyed by exposure to 
 the air. 
 
 Mr. Pott, in the Berlin memoirs for the year 
 1752, mentions a very extraordinary property of 
 this concrete. With the vitriolic acid, it pro- 
 duces a blue colour, ol extreme beauty, but with 
 this capital defect, that all salts and liquors, even 
 common water destroy it.** 
 
 The specimen of annotto w hich I examined, 
 was not sensibl} acted on by spirit of vitriol. It 
 received no change in its own colour, and com- 
 municated none to the liquor. Nor did any 
 visible change ensue upon dropping the acid 
 into tinctures of annotto made in water or in 
 spirit. 
 
 Labat informs us, that the Indians prepare an 
 annotto greatly superior to that which is brought 
 to us, of a bright shining red colour, almost equal 
 to carmine ; that for ihi^ purpose, instead of steep- 
 ing and fermenting the seeds in water, they rub 
 them wiih the hands previously dipt in oil, till the 
 pellicles come oflF, and are reduced into a clear 
 paste, which is scraped off from the hands with 
 a knife, and laid on a clean leaf in the shade to dry. 
 De Lacet^ in his ik tes on Maregrave’s Natural 
 History of Brazi l mentions also two kinds of an- 
 notto, one of a permanent crimson colour, (coc- 
 cineus) used as a fucus \ and another which gives 
 
247 
 
 a colour inclining more to that of saffron. This 
 last, which is our annouo, he supposes to be 
 a mixture of the first sort wiih certain resinous 
 matters, and with the juice of the root of the 
 tree. 
 
 Ximenes relates, that annotto with urine stains 
 linen of such a permanent colour that it can never 
 be washed out Perhaps tht first sort is meant. 
 Our annotto boiled in urine, imparted to linen 
 a deep yellowish red : the stained linen, hung 
 out in the air in summer, in seven or eight 
 days'lost all its colour and became white again. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 or LEAVES. 
 
 THE green colour of the leaves of plants is ex- 
 tracted by rectified spirit of wine and by oils. 
 The spirituous tinctures are generally of a fine 
 deep green, even when the leaves themselves arc 
 dull coloured, or yellovvish, or hoary. The col- 
 our however, seldom abides long even in the li- 
 quor ; much less when the tinging matter is sep- 
 arated in a solid form and exposed with a large 
 surface to the air. The editor of the fVirtemberg 
 Fharmacopddia observes, that the leavt s of acan- 
 thus bran k ursine or bears breech, give a more du- . 
 Table green tincture to spirit than th >se of any ^ 
 otner herb. Alkalis heighten the colour both of i 
 the tinctures and green juices. Acids weaken, 
 desiniv, or change it to a browmish. Lime wa- 
 ter improves both the colour and the durability. 
 
248 
 
 By means of lime, not inelegant green lakes are 
 procurable from ihe leaves of acanthus, liliy of the 
 valley, and several other plants. 
 
 There are very fevv herbs which comnuiuicatc 
 any sh ire of their green colour to water ; perhaps 
 noiie that give a green of any considerable deep- 
 ness. It is said how ever, that the leaves of some 
 ■plants give a green die to woollen, without the 
 addition of any other colouring matter ; particu- 
 larly those of the wild chervil or cow. weed [AJyrr- 
 his sylvestris. semhiibus Isevthus, C\ B J the com- 
 mon ragw'urt, and devil’s bit. The process with 
 this last as described by Linnaeus (in the Sve^tsca 
 jicad. Handle ars, 1742) is pretty remarkaoie. 
 The peasants, he informs us in some of the Swe- 
 dish provinces, stratify the fresh leaves with wool- 
 len yarn, and boil them about as long as it is cus- 
 tomary to boil fish. 
 
 The whole is suffered to stand in the vessel 
 for a night. The wool, taken out in the morning 
 does not appear to have received any colour. 
 The pot is again made hot, and the yarn hung over 
 it upon a stick, covered w ith an inverted dish to 
 confine ihe steam, for this steam is supposed to 
 be essential to the colour. The yarn is afterwards 
 wrung, the leaves taken out <if thi. b( iling liquor, 
 a little fresh water added to the decoction, and 
 the wool frequently dipt therein, till it appears 
 sufficiently coloured. 
 
 The leaves of many kinds of herbs and trees 
 give a yellow die to wool or woolen cloth that has 
 been previously bf)ik d ui h a solution of alum and 
 tartar; weld in particular affjrds a fine vellow,cind 
 is commonlv made u .e of tor this purpose by the 
 diers, and cultivated in large quantities in some 
 
249 
 
 parts of England. There is no colour for which 
 w*e have such plenty of materials as for yellow". 
 Mr. Hellot observes in his de I'eindre, that 
 all leaves, barks, and roots which on being chew ed 
 discover a slight astringency, as the leaves of the 
 almond, peach, and pear trees, ash bark, (espe- 
 cially that taken off after the first rising of the sap 
 in spring) the roots of wild patience, &c. yield 
 durable yellows, more or less beautiful according 
 to the length of time that the boiling is continued, 
 and the proportions of alum and tartar in the pre. 
 paratory liquor .* that a large quantity of alum 
 makes these yellows approach to the elegant yel- 
 low of weld ; that if the tartar is made to prevail, 
 it inclines them to an orange : that if the roots, 
 barks, or leaves be too long boiled, the yellow 
 proves tarnished, and acquires shades of brown ; 
 that for dying with weld, the best proportions of 
 the salts are, f )ur parts of alum and one of tartar 
 to sixteen of the wool ; and that the wool prepar- 
 ed with these is to be boiled again with five or 
 six times its quantity of w eld ; that for light shades 
 it is<:ustomary to diminish the alum and omit 
 the tartar ; and that in this case the colour is more 
 slowly imbibed, and proves less durable. 
 
 Of all the colours of the dier, w^e have the few"- 
 est materials for blue ; the mineral and animal 
 kingdoms afford none, excepting perhaps Prus- 
 sian blue, w hich Mr Macquer hus lately attempt “ 
 ed to introduce in this art. The vegetable ields 
 but tw o, w’hich are both produced from the leave® 
 of plants, indigo and woad. 
 
250 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MR. lewis’s history OF MADDER, AND MAN- 
 NER OF TREATING IT. 
 
 MADDER f Rabia iinctoriim saflva, C, B,J 
 is one of the asperifoiious steiiatcd pianiSj or of 
 those which have rough narrow leaves, set in form 
 of a star at the joints of the stalks. The root, 
 which is the only part made use of, is long and 
 slender, of a red colour both on the outside and 
 within, excepting a whitish pith which runs along 
 the middle. 
 
 This plant was formerly cultivated among us 
 in great quantity for the use of the diers.who for 
 some time past have been supplied fiom H«)liand 
 and Zealand. Its culture is now again set on foot 
 in this kingdom, under the laudable encourage* 
 ment of a public society Madder is not like al- 
 kanet,and other exotic plants the colour of which 
 degenerates in our climates, for ihiglish madder 
 is equal to the best that is brought Irom abroad. 
 
 Madder root gives out its colour both to water 
 and to rectified spirit ; the watery tincture is of a 
 dark dull red, the s[)irituous ol a deep bright one. 
 Taken internally (for it has someumes been used 
 medicinally as an aperient and diuretic) it tinges 
 the urine red. In the Philosophical Transactions, 
 and in the memoirs of the French Academy, the re 
 are accounts of i's producing a like efiect upon 
 the bones of animals, m whom it hid been given 
 with their food. Ail the bones, particuUrly 
 
251 
 
 more solid ones, were changed both externally 
 and internaily to a deep red, but neither the car- 
 tilagmous nor fleshy parts suffered any alteration. 
 Some of those bones, macerated in water for many 
 weeks together, and afterwarus steeped anci bc/il- 
 ed in sj)irit of wine, lost nothing of their colour, 
 nor communicated any tinge to the liquors. 
 
 The dealers in this commodity make three 
 sorts of it : madder in the branch, madder in the 
 bunch or in the bundle, and madder unbundled. 
 
 M *dder in the branch is the entire root dried. 
 This ground in mills to a gross powder is the 
 unbundled madder. The bundled or bunch mad~ 
 der is a powder of the finer roots, fretd from the 
 outrer bark and from the pith. It is said that by 
 keeping for tv\o or three years in close casks the 
 colnur is improved ; in open vessels it decays. 
 
 Madder imparts to woollen cloth, prepared with 
 alum ar»d tartar, a very durable, though not a very 
 beautiful red dye. As it is the cheapest of all 
 the red drugs that give a durable colour, it is the 
 principal one commonly made use offer ordina- 
 ry stuffs. Sometimes its die is heightened by the 
 addition of Brazil wood ; and sometimes it is em- 
 ployed in conjunction with the dearer reds, as 
 cochineal, for demi- scarlets and demi crimsons. 
 Mr. Hellot informs us, that those who die the 
 best madder reds are particularly cartful to keep 
 the liquor of a heat considerably below boiling, 
 increasing the fire only towards the end, so as to 
 make it boil for a minute or two just before the 
 cloth is taken out to confirm the die ; a boiling 
 heat enables water to extract not only red, but 
 a tawny or brownish matter, which debases the 
 red to a dull brick colour. 
 
252 
 
 The proportion of madder is about half 
 the weight of the cloth. The best proportion 
 of salts for preparing the cloth to receive 
 the die, seems to be five parts of alum and one of 
 red tartar for sixteen of the stuff ; which is to be 
 boiled with these for two hours or longer, then 
 kept m‘.)ist for some days, and afterwards digest- 
 ed wdth the madder. 
 
 A variation in the proportion of the salts, va- 
 ries the colour communicated by the madder, and 
 not only the shade, but the species of colour. 
 
 If the alum be diminished, and the tartar in- 
 creased, the die proves a red cinnamon ; if the 
 alum be entirely omitted, the red is destroyed, 
 and a very durable tawny cinnamon is produced. 
 
 On boiling the died cloth in weak alkaline ley, 
 great part of the colour is destroyed, and the re- 
 mainder appears a very dirty or a kind of sallow 
 hue. Solution of soap, on the other hand, dis- 
 charges a part, and leaves the remaining red 
 more lively than before. 
 
 V olatile alkalis heighten the red colour of mad- 
 der, but at the same time render it fugitive like 
 themselves. Madder prepared with lime and urine, 
 after the manner practised for archil, lost its red 
 colour on attempting to die with it, and commu- 
 nicated to the cloth only permanent nut colours. 
 
 If a pure red, as that of cochineal, be applied 
 on cloth which has been previously died blue, and 
 afterwards prepared for receiving this red by 
 boiling with alum and tartar, a purple or violet 
 will be produced, according as the blue or the red 
 prevail. The madder red has not ibis effect, for 
 as its colour is no^ a I'ure red, but is tarnished by 
 the tawny matter which its woody fibres have in 
 
2B3 
 
 common wiih other roots. It gives upon blue only 
 a chesnut die, more or less deep according to the 
 deepness of the blue applied first. 
 
 There are, however, means of obtaining from 
 madder a fine purple, without the addiiion of any 
 other colouring drug. A piece of white woollen 
 cloth, weighing half an ounce, was boiled for half 
 an hour with ten grains of roman alum and six 
 grains of crystals of tartar, and then taken out, 
 squeezed, and suffered to cool. Twenty four 
 grains of bunch madder were added to the same 
 liquor ; and after the madder h id given out its 
 colour, twenty drops of a solution of bismuth 
 (made in spirit of nitre, dilated with equal its 
 weight of vvater) were dropped in. 'fhe cloth 
 was now dipped again, and in half an hour taken 
 out, squeezed and tvashed. It appeared of a crim- 
 son colour, nearly as beautiful as if it had been 
 died wid>sr::;5chineal. To try the effect of loading 
 it further with the colouring matter, it was re- 
 turned into the liquor and boiled for a quarter of 
 an hour longer : it had now acquired a purple 
 colour sufficiently vivid. 
 
 On varying this experiment by keeping tlie 
 cloth moist for some days after the preparaiion 
 with alum and tartar, then dipping it in a pl-.un 
 decoction of madder made as usual without salts, 
 and adding, when it had gained a bright cinnamon 
 colour, the same solution of bismuth, the die in- 
 stead of purple proved only a chesnut. 
 
 - 1 
 
 X 
 
254 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF FUSTIC, 
 
 FUSTIC is the wood or species of mulberr}’- 
 tree, growing in Jamaica and Bri zil, called by 
 Sir Hans Sloane, Moi us Fructu F iridi Ligno SuU 
 phureo linctorio. It is of a deep sulphur yel« 
 iow colour, which it readily gives out both to wa- 
 ter and spirit. The watery decoction dies pre- 
 pared woollen of a very durable orange yellow ; 
 the colour is imbibed by the cloth in a moderate 
 warmth without boiling. 
 
 The fustet or fustel of the French is a yellow 
 wood or root very different fronr*. our fustic It 
 gives a fine orange die to woollen, but the colour 
 is extremely perishable in the air. 'i'hc plant 
 grows wild in Italy and Provence, and is cultiva- 
 ted with us in gardens on account of the beauty 
 of its flowers. It is called Ft^nice Sumach, co~ 
 tinus cotiaria,coccigria ; cotinus matthiolU 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 nephritic wood. 
 
 THIS wood is brought from the eastern coun- 
 tries in large pieces, covered with a dark blackish 
 bark. The wood is hard, heavv , compact, of a 
 fine grain, of a whitish or pale yellow colour on 
 
255 
 
 the outside, and a dusky reddish brown in the 
 heart. Of the tree we have no very certain ac- 
 count. 
 
 This wood, particularly the outer pale part, 
 gives out both to water and to rectified spirit a 
 deep tincture appearing, when placed between the 
 eye and the light, of a golden colour ; in other 
 situations, blue. Hence it is named by Caspar 
 Baiihino^ lignum peregrinum, aqiiatn coeruleam 
 redden. 
 
 By this mark it is easily distinguished from pie- 
 ces of a different kind of wood, which are some- 
 times mixt with it, and which give only a yellow 
 tincture to water. 
 
 It is remark able,- that the blue colour of the in- 
 fusion of nephritic wood is destroyed by acids, 
 the liquor after the admixture of these appearing 
 in all situations yellow ; and that the addition of 
 alkalis, either of the fixt or volatile kind, in quan- 
 tity sufficient to neutralize the acid, restores the 
 blueness. No other woody matter is known 
 that gives any degree of blue tincture, and no oth- 
 er vegetable blue is knotvn that is thus destructi- 
 ble by acids. 
 
 This wood is at present rarely met with in the 
 shops ; nor is it applied to any use, except that 
 some have employed it medicinally, and expected 
 from it diuretic virtues^ whence its name nephritic 
 wood. 
 
2^6 
 
 4 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 MR. PERGirSON’s HISTORY OF LOGWOOD AS A 
 colouring drug. 
 
 LOGWOOD or Campeachy.wood' f Lignum 
 Lrazilo simile i coetuleo tingem, J, B J the 
 Wfod of a low prickly tree, which grows plenti- 
 fuily about Campeachy or the Bay of Honduras, 
 and has of late been introduced into some of the 
 warmer of the British plantations, particularly 
 Jamaica. It is a native of the low marshy places. 
 The wood comes over in pretty large logs cleared 
 from the bark. It is very hard, compact, heavy, 
 and of a red colour. 
 
 Logw'ood gives out its colour both to watery 
 and spirituous menstrua, bur not readily to either. 
 
 It requires to be rasped and ground into fine pow'- 
 der, and boiled in several fresh parcels of the li- 
 quors. Rectified spirit extracts the colour more 
 easily, and from a larger proportion of the wood 
 tbnn water does. 
 
 'I'he tinctures both in water and in spirit arc 
 efa fine red, with an admixture, particularly in 
 the watery one, of a vhdetor purple. Volatile al- 
 kaline salts or spirits incline the colour more to 
 purple. The vegetable and nitrous acids ren- 
 der it pale, the vitriolic and marine acids deep- # 
 en it. 
 
 The w’atcry decoction, wrote with on paper, 
 loses its redness in a few^ days and becomes wholly 
 violet. This colour it communicates also to 
 
I 
 
 257 
 
 woollen cloth previously prepared by boiling with 
 a soliuion of alum and tartar. The die is beauti- 
 ful, but very perishable. It is often used by the 
 diers as an ingredient in compound colours, for 
 procuring certain shades which are not easily hit 
 by other materials.. 
 
 With chalvbeate solutions it strikes a black. 
 H «.nce it is employed in conjunction with those 
 liqueurs for staining wood black for picture frames, 
 and with the addition of galls for dying cloth 
 and hats black. The black dies in which thi& 
 wood is an ingredient, have a particular lustre and 
 softness, far beyond those made with vitriol and 
 galls alone. The beauty however which it here 
 imparts is not permanent, any more than its owa 
 natural violet die. 
 
 On the same principle It improves also the lus- 
 tre and blackness of writiiig ink. Ink made with 
 vitriol and galls does not attain to its full blackness 
 till after it has lain some time upon the paper. 
 A due addition of Logwi)od renders it of a deep 
 black as it flows from the pen, especially when 
 vinegar or white wine is used for the menstruum. 
 
 Decoctions and extracts made from logwood, 
 have an agreeable sweetish taste, followed by a 
 slight astringency. They have lately been intro- 
 duced into medicine, and given with success in 
 cases where mild restringents are required. They 
 often tinge the stools, and sometimes the urine ©f 
 a red colour. 
 
 xa 
 
25S 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PROCESS OP PRUSSIAN BLUE. 
 
 PRUSSIAN blue is prepared by precipitating 
 a solution of green vitriol and alum with a lixivi- 
 um drawn from fixed alkaline salt that has been 
 calcined with animal coals. Commonly about 
 three parts of alkali and two of dried ox- blood are 
 calcined so long as any flame appears, then thrown 
 into boiling water, and the strained decoction 
 poured into a hot mixture of solutions of four 
 parts of alum and one or less of vitriol. The li- 
 quor becomes instantly thick or curdly, and looks 
 at first of a greyish colour, which changes to a 
 brown and in a little time to a bluish green. The 
 matter, being well stirred together, and mixed 
 with a quantity of hard spring water, a green pre- 
 cipitate subsides ; spirit of salt poured upon the 
 edulcorated powder dissolves a part and leaves 
 the rest blue. 
 
 Mr. Geofirey is the first who has given any 
 plausible theory of this process', or any rational 
 means for improving it. He observes that the 
 Prussian blue is no other than the iron of the vit« 
 riol revived by the inflammable matter of the alka- 
 line lixivium, and perhaps brightened by an ad- 
 mixture of the white earth of alum ; that the green 
 colour proceeds from a part of the yellow ferru- 
 gineous calx or ochre unrevived, mixing with the 
 blue, and that the spirit of salt dissolves this ochre 
 more readily than the blue part, though it will dis- 
 
255 
 
 solve that also by long standing, or if used in too 
 large quantity. From these principles he was 
 led to increase the quantity of inflammable matter, 
 that there might be enough to receive the whole 
 of the ferrugineous ochre, and produce a blue 
 colour at once without the use of the acid spirit. 
 In this he perfectly succeeded, and found at the 
 same lime that the colour might be rendered 
 of any degree of deepness or lightness at pleas- 
 ure. 
 
 If the alkali is calcined with twice its w^eight of 
 dried blood, and the lixivium obtained from it, 
 poured into a solution of one part of vitriol to six 
 of alum, the liquor acquires a very pale blue col- 
 our, and deposits as pale a precipitate. On add- 
 ing more and more of a fresh solution of vitriol, 
 the colour becomes deeper and deeper, almost 
 to blackness. He imagines with great probabili- 
 ty, that the blue pigments thus prepared will 
 prove more durable in the air, mingle more per- 
 fectly with other colours, and be less apt to injure 
 the lustre of such as are mixed with or applied to 
 its neighborhood, than that made in the com- 
 mon manner ; the tarnish and other inconvenien- 
 ces to which the common Prussian blue is sub- 
 ject, seeming to proceed from the acid and spirit, 
 which cannot be totally'^^parated by any ablu- 
 tion. 
 
 He takes notice also of an amusing phenome- 
 non which happens upon mixture. When the li- 
 quors are well stirred together, and the circular 
 motion as soon as possible stopt ; some drops 
 of solution of vitriol (depurated by long settling) 
 let fall on different parts of the surface, divide, 
 spread, and form curious representations of 
 
260 
 
 flowers, trees, shrubs, flying insects, See. in 
 great regularity and perfection. These contin- 
 ue ten or twelve minutes, and on stirring the 
 liquor again, and dropping in some more of the 
 solution of vitriol, are succeeded by a new pic- 
 ture. 
 
 Mr. Macquer has ingeniously applied the prep- 
 aration of this pigment to the dicing of wool 
 and silk, and found means of fixing the blue 
 fecula in their pores. By dipping cloth first in 
 a diluted solution of vitriol and alum, then in 
 the ley dilated, and afterwards in water acidu- 
 lated with spirit of vitriol, it acquires a light 
 blue colour, which becomes deeper and deeper 
 on repeating the dippings alternately in the same 
 order as before ; adding to the liquors each time 
 a little more of the respective saline matters. 
 The blue die, he says, in beauty and lustre ex- 
 ceeds that of indigo and woad, as far as scarlet 
 does the madder red, and penetrates the whole 
 substance of fulled cloth without weakening it. 
 The colour is durable in the air, and stands 
 boiling with alum water, but is discharged by 
 soap, and, without certain precautions, liable to 
 be specky or unequal. See Memoirs of the French 
 Academy for the year 1749. 
 
 # 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ALKANET-ROOT. 
 
 THE roots of alkanet in many respects very 
 much resemble saunders wood, but differ from it 
 
261 
 
 remarkably in others. They impart an elegant 
 deep red to pure spirit of wine, to oils, to \\ax, 
 and to unctuous substances : I do not know of 
 any red drug that tinges oil of so fine a colour. 
 To water they give only a dull brownish red. 
 The spirituous liquor, on being inspissated to 
 the consistence of an extract, instead of preserv- 
 ing its fine red like that of saunders, changes to 
 an unsightly brown. 
 
 Volatile spirits have been said to gain from this 
 root a beautiful violet or amethyst colour ; but I 
 have not found that they extract any colour but a 
 dull reddish brown. 
 
 Thealkanet plant is a species of bu gloss, named 
 by Toutnefort bu^lossum raclice^ rubra sive an- 
 ehusa vulgcitior Jlonbu& ccerultu. It is a native of 
 the warmer parts of Kurope, and cultivated in 
 some of our gardens The greatest quantities are 
 raised in Germany and France, particularly about 
 Montpelier, from whence W'e are chitfly supplied 
 with the roots. 
 
 The alkanet root produced in Flngland is much 
 inferior in colour to that brought from abroad ; 
 the former being only lightly reddish, the latter 
 of a deep purplish red. This has induced some 
 to suspect that the foreign roots owe part of their 
 colour to art, but a chymical examination teaches 
 otherwise. The colouring matter is found upon 
 experiment to be of the same kind in both, and 
 to differ in several of its properties from that of 
 all the other known red drugs ,* so that no artifice 
 appears to be practicable without discovery un- 
 less it was concentrating the colour of two roots 
 into one, or supersaturating one root with the col- 
 our extracted from another. 
 
262 
 
 The principal use of alkanet-root is for col- 
 ouring oils, unguents, lip salves, plaisters, &c* 
 Wax tinged with it, applied on warm marble, 
 stains it of a flesh colour, which sinks deep into 
 the sk^ne. The spirituous tincture gives a deep 
 red stain. 
 
 The colour of this root is confined to the corti- 
 cal parr, the pith being whitish ; hence as the small 
 roots have more bark in proportion to their bulk 
 than the larger ones, those also contain most col- 
 our. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 or ALUM. 
 
 NATURE produces no perfect alum, but af- 
 fords the materials for it in sundry ores, pyritcc, 
 stones, slate earth, waters and bitumens as pit 
 coal. Some late experiments by Mr. Geoffrey 
 and Mr. Pot have shewn that the earth of alum is 
 contained in clay, and that a true alum may be 
 prepared by digesting clay in the vitriolic acid. 
 Both of these gentlemen imagine that only a par- 
 ticular part of the clay is here extracted. 
 
 Whether it existed originally in the clay, pos- 
 sessed of the same properties which it is found 
 to have when extracted, or whether it has suffer- 
 ed a change in the operation, they have not deter- 
 mined. From the ex|>eriments I have made, the 
 latter seems to be the case. Powdered tobacco- 
 pipe* clay, being boiled in a considerable quantity 
 of oil of vitriol; and the fire continued to dryne^s^ 
 
265 
 
 the matter, eicamined when .s^rown cold, discov- 
 ers scarcely any tasre, or only a slight acidulous 
 one. (Jn exposure to the air for a few days, the 
 greatest part of it is found changed into lanugi- 
 nous efflorescences in taste exactly like alum : 
 the remainder treated with fresh oil of vitriol in 
 the same manner, exhibits the same phenomena, 
 and this repeatedly, till nearly the whole of the 
 day is converted into an astringent salt. 
 
 If the earth be separated again from the acid, 
 (by dissolving the salt in water, and precipitating 
 with any alkaline salt) it is now found to dissolve 
 with ease in every acid ; to form with the vitriol- 
 ic alum again ; with the nitrous, a compound 
 resembling alum in taste ; with the vegetable 
 acids, a substance less astringent and less ungrate- 
 ful. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 CHYMICAL HISTORY OF SAUNDERS, AND 
 ITS DIFFERENCE FROM OTHER RED- 
 WOODS. 
 
 RED saunders is a hard, compact, ponderous 
 wood, of a dark blackish red on the outside, and 
 a light red colour within ; of no particular smell 
 or taste. It is brought from the Coromandel 
 coast and from Golconda. Of the tree we have 
 no certain account. Its principal use is as a 
 colouring drug. Those whose business it is to 
 rasp and grind it into powder, probably employ 
 certain saline* or other additions to improve tlie 
 
264 
 
 colour ; whence the remarkable dlffbreiices in the 
 colour of powdered saunders prepared in differ^ 
 ent places. 'Phat of Strasburgh is of the deepest 
 and liveliest red. Some sorts are of a dead dark 
 red, and some of a pale brick red ; some incline 
 to purple or violet, and some to brown. 
 
 The colour of this woocT resides wholly in its 
 resin, and hence is extracted bv rectified spirit, 
 whilst- water though it takes up a porii m of mu- 
 cilaginous matter, gains no tinge, or only a slight 
 yellowish one F. ^m two ounces of the wood 
 were obtained by spirit of wine three drachms 
 and a lulf of resinous extract, and afterwards by 
 water, a scruple of mucilage. By appl}ing wha- 
 ler at first, I obtained from two ounces, two 
 drachms and six grains of a tough mucilaginous 
 extract, which could not easily be reduced to dry- 
 ness. The remainder sti'l \ ielded, with spirit, 
 tw'o drachms of resin. The indissoluble matter 
 weighed in ihr first cise, an ounce and a half and 
 fifteen grains ; in the latter, nineteen grains less. 
 Neither the distilled water nor spirit had any re- 
 markable taste or smell. 
 
 The red colour of s unders appears to be no 
 other than a concentrated yellow, for by bare dilu- 
 tion it becomes yellow. A grain of the resinous 
 extract, dissolved in an ounce of rectified spirit, 
 tii\ges its red, but this solution mixt with a quart 
 of fresh spirit, gives only a yellow hue. Hoffman 
 reports that this resni docs not give a tincture to 
 any kind of oil. I have tried five oils, those of 
 amber, turpentine, almonds, annlseeds, and laven- 
 der. It gave no c(dour to the tw'o first, but a deep 
 red to the last, and a paler red to the other two. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OF VERDIGRISE. ' 
 
 IT may not be amiss to give the reader a chym- 
 ical hint of verdigrise. 
 
 Vegetable acids dissolve copper slowly, but in 
 considerable quantity ; the solution shoots into 
 bluish green chrystals, similar to the verdigrise, 
 arugo or viride csris, of the shops. This prep- 
 aration is made in large quantities in France, par- 
 ticularly about Montpelier, by stratifying copper 
 plates with the husks of grapes remaining after 
 the juice has been prest out. These soon become 
 acid and corrode the copper. 
 
 Verdigrise should be chosen in cakes, not 
 moist or unctuous, but dry, compact, and of an 
 uniform texture, of a lively green colour through- 
 out, as free as possible from white and black 
 specks, and seeds or stalks of the grape. It is 
 purified b} solution in distilled vinegar, and crys- 
 tallization, and then called, improperly, distilled 
 verdigrise or flowers of copper. The Dutch who 
 prepare these crystals in large quantities, after 
 duly evaporating the solution, set it to shoot, not, 
 as is customary in a cold but in a warm place, as 
 practised in making sugar- candy. 
 
 If rectified spirit of wine be added to the solu.. 
 tion, or if volaliic alkalis be added to a solution of 
 copper and spirit of wine to this mixture, spiall 
 blue cr\ s-als w ill be immediately foi^. :d. These 
 are called by some antepileptic crystals of copper. 
 
266 
 
 Highly rectified spirit of wine, digested on half 
 an ounce, or twelve scruples of powdered verdi- 
 grise, dissolved three scruples and a half ; ordi- 
 nary rectified spirit, four scruples ; common malt 
 spirits four and a half, and French brandy seven 
 and a half. Water dissolved, out of the same 
 quantity, five scruples. Common wine vinegar 
 dissolved all but fifteen grains, and distilled vine- 
 gar all but ten grains. The whole quantity of 
 verdigrise dissolved in either kind of vinegar, could 
 not be recovered again in a crystalline form. 
 
 From the common vinegar only two scruples 
 and five grains crystallized, and from the distilled 
 vinegar three scruples. The residuum in the first 
 case continued softish, in the latter dry. With 
 French brandy there was no crystallization at all ; 
 the whole that the spirit had taken up remaining 
 uniformly raixt into the consistence of an extract. 
 
 
A HINT 
 
 TO THE 
 
 Diers and Cloth-Makers, 
 
 AND WELL WORTH THE NOTICE OF 
 
 THE MERCHANT. 
 
 BY JAMES HAIGH, 
 
 LATE SILK AND MUSLIN-DIER, LEEDS 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE Author of the Dier’s Assistant thinks it his duty., 
 ih gratitude to the professors in that noble art, to sub- 
 scribe bis hearty thanks for their approbation of, and en- 
 couragement given to that work, in this and every part 
 ot England. It is well known by that body ol people, and 
 felt too by some, that the price for dicing woollen gooda 
 hath been much reduced of late. Many circumstances 
 having determined me, long since, to acquire all possi- 
 ble knowledge in the practice of dicing, 1 am tlierefore 
 constrained once more to recommend a strict inquiry into 
 the original quality of all the drugs they use, that there- 
 by, if possible, they may discover some of the many 
 hidden advantages that may justly be expected therefrom. 
 
 I am astonisned that no artist has ever attempted to 
 improve this most ingenious art on chymical principles. 
 I begun the work in hopes that my master-piece would 
 undertake to improve it, but in vain do I expect it, 
 
 A WORD TO THE THINKING PART OF DIERS. 
 
 If you were sensible of the double advantage that might 
 be acquired in the use of m.my of your vegetable drugs, 
 which must be first grounded on chymical experiments 
 in miniature, which will be a certain rule to the practice 
 at large, I am certain you would not rest till you had made 
 some improvement. 
 
 If after you have been dicing with that resinous drug, 
 saunders, when emptying the vessel you take up a hand- 
 ful, dry it and digesi it in a phial vvHli some pure spirits 
 of wine, and It will afford you an excellent red water be- 
 ing insufficient to dissolve the resin, and let out Uic prime 
 partofihe colour. Many others might be discovered if 
 an unwearied attention was paid. 
 
 Y2 
 
270 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Many will censure and despise this, for no other reason 
 than because they cannot see into it; nor will they be at 
 any pains to learn and improve their talents They seem 
 rather to choose the old round, like a horse in a mill, 
 having no spirit or courage to improve, but content with 
 each knowing the other’s method, without striving to ex- 
 cel, and discover more complete and less expensive ways 
 of working, and using the drugs to the best advantage. 
 
 I know not how men can sit still when there is more to 
 learn. Let it not be said of you, as of one of old, “ he liv- 
 ed and died and did nothing perhaps he worked with 
 his hands, but his head was asleep ; and therefore he 
 was an unprofitable servant, and when dead, his memory 
 was no more. Sure it is, the invitation I have to write 
 and publish this small pamphlet is not so much to please 
 others, or to shew any thing I have is capable ol the 
 name of parts, but to communicate my good wishes for 
 improvement to my brethren the Diers, and to show 
 them my willingness to help to perfect one of the most 
 useful arts in the world. 
 
 I shall leave all to itself, and to every man’s just liber- 
 ty to approve, or disapprove, as he pleases. And how- 
 ever it be, the author shall not be much troubled, for he 
 is certain no man can have a lighter esteem for him, than 
 he has for himself ; who, however, will be best pleased, 
 if any man shall find benefit by what he^ has written. If 
 any should alledge a general acceptation, that, to the 
 author, will be no prevailing argument ; for the multi 
 tude, though most in number, are the worst and most 
 partial judges. He does not plead the importunity of 
 friends for the publication of this. If it is wort;'.y, it 
 needs no apology ; it not, let it be despised ; and I re- 
 main the same friend to trade. 
 
 JAMES HAIGH. 
 
271 
 
 A HINT TO THE DIERS, &c. 
 
 BLACK being a primitive colour, and one of 
 the most difficult to perfect, deserves a few re- 
 marks. If I ask a Dier what ingredients com- 
 pose a black, the answer will be this ; Logwood, 
 sumac, bark, and copperas ; and if he know^s it, 
 he will add a little ashes and argol in the last wet. 
 If I ask him which of these drugs contain an acid, 
 which an alkaline and which a neutral quality, he 
 cannot give me an answer ; so you see he knows 
 the effect, but a stranger to the cause, and every 
 thing else separate from fact and custom. 
 
 What a pity it is that men will not search things 
 to the bottom, when they might be able to fiiid 
 out the cause of miscarriages, for which goods 
 are frequently thrown aside to be died other col- 
 ours, greatly to the Dicr’s loss. In conversing 
 with a sensible Dier, 1 simply asked him, What 
 part does logwood act in the black die ? the hon« 
 est man as simply answered, “ It helps to make 
 it black.** No other proof was wanted to know 
 that he also followed his forefathers in the old 
 round. But the reader, by now, thinks it time 
 to be informed of the business of logwood; which 
 is (if used in a right proportion) to soften the 
 goods and give lustre to the colour. Logwood 
 being possessed of a most excellent astrifigent 
 quality, fixes itself in the pores of the goods, and 
 give s them a velvet like feel and gloss. 
 
 Some will object to this asseftio>5 and say, but 
 our blacks have not that velvet, like feeling and 
 gloss. True, sir, but don’t you know the reason \ 
 
272 
 
 you die your blacks without scouring, forgetting, 
 or not knowing, that when the goods enter the 
 boiling die liquor, they grow harsh, and the oil 
 eontained in them forms a sort of resin, which be- 
 comes as fixed as if it w as pitch or tar. This is 
 one great cause why blacks are so liable to soil 
 and dirty linen, because the die is in some sense 
 held in an outside or superficial state. Think 
 then, is it possible these goods should finish 
 soft like velvet, or shine like a raven’s feather f 
 No, on the contrary they spoil the press papers, and 
 come out stilFand hard like buckram, (not velvet) 
 and are often three-parts perished in rhe finishing. 
 No greater cause can be assigned fi>r it than that 
 of not scouring. This is the reason of the great 
 difference so much spoken of, between the Lon- 
 don blacks and those died at Leeds. If the 
 Leed’s Diers would take the same pains as the 
 Londoners do, I think they would excel, in fact, 
 if not in name. 
 
 The finishing shops in London are not more 
 than half so well furnished with tools as those at 
 Leeds arc ; and therefore let iht Leeds Diers be 
 equally tight and clean in their peTormance, aiid 
 there is nf>thing to prevent their suptrioi itv. But 
 the master diers give a very reasonable answer to 
 the foregoing. 'Bhey say, die price is too low, 
 and they cannot afford to take so much pains. 
 What a pity that the merchants do not consider 
 this 1 if ihree pence a piece was added to the 
 price for dicing thin goods black, it would about 
 pa\ for the scouiing. and the goods would be 
 finished with a briUiam lustre, and yet soft like a 
 russel. 
 
I should speak a little to the nature and business 
 of the other drugs, which enter the composition 
 of black, had I not done it before {^see the article 
 blacky Dier'^s Assistant, p, 184.^ 
 
 1 am astonished at the ignorance of the poor 
 cloth. makers, many of whom have applied to me 
 frequently for instructions ; one of them, on be- 
 ing asked what sort of ware, and how much he 
 used to die such a colour, shewing him a pattern, 
 he answered, when 1 have a pattern given me by 
 a merchant, I go to the salter, shew him the or- 
 der, and he serves me with what is wanted. I con- 
 versed with him some time, and would have in- 
 structed him, but alas ! he had left his capacity at 
 home, and 1 might as well have read the newspa- 
 per to him. What a pity it is that so many hun- 
 dreds of that noble branch of business work, as it 
 were, blindlblded, and poverty bitten too, for 
 Want of instructions, which they have no spirit to 
 seek : who, when they bring a cloth to the mar- 
 ket, are glad to sell it for one and sixpence, or two 
 shillings in the pound profit, when they might as 
 easily gain five or six shillings, if they knew how 
 to use their drugs. But I despair of doing that 
 for them, which nature has left undone ; for, with- 
 out I could teach them to see with a dier’s eye, I 
 might talk and write forever in vain. 
 
 But there is another class of cloth-makers, to 
 whom 1 will give a useful hint and have done. 
 
 The article sky blue deserves our notice. This 
 colour is often substituted, (e\en on fine cloth) by 
 the Saxon blue, on account of its brilliancy and 
 line lustre ; but like a fugitive it only stays for a 
 season. A little experience has taught me, that 
 if a parcel of fine wool be well scoured, then sul- 
 
274 
 
 phured or stoved, than which nothing can make it 
 whiter, and then died in a weak vat, it will have 
 all the beauty of the Saxon blue, without its im- 
 perfections. The vat used for this purpose should 
 be set with a small quantity of indigo, on purpose 
 for light shades, when the shades will be always 
 brighter than when died in an old vat that has 
 been weakened by dying dark colours. But the 
 diers tell you that blues bear so low a price, and 
 indigo is so dear, that they cannot afford lo set 
 fresh vats for light shades. Here is a sufficient 
 cause, and one very great reason of retarding the 
 perfection of many colours It the wool before- 
 mentioned should be obstructed in the milling, 
 by means of the sulphur, (of which I have not had 
 experience) I would commend the dicing of the 
 wool after scouring only, and stove it after it is 
 milled, which I think will answer the same pur- 
 pose ; and the beauty of the colour will amply 
 pay for every superfluous work. 
 
 I would recommend to the diers, after washing 
 the dark blues wc 11 at the river, to turn the cloth 
 very quick through a warm vessel of w'ater, in 
 which has been dissolved a little alum, and they 
 will see a surprising change in the lustre from that 
 simple process. 
 
 I am not willing to omit any thing worth notice 
 in the course of my experiments. I will there- 
 fore, lightly touch the properties of common wa- 
 ter. By a great number of experimt nts, I am 
 thoroughly convinced, that different waters with 
 the same ingredients strike different colours, 
 I find that the purest and lightest water strike the 
 best light ccjlours. 
 
 All the die* houses at a distance from the river 
 
275 
 
 in London are furnished with wood cisterns which 
 hold perhaps from one to two hundred hogsheads 
 of water, which is supplied from the waterworks 
 and isal\\a}s impure, and frequently muddy; 
 when on standing a considerable time, as is the 
 case at some seasons of the year, it becomes putrid 
 and emits a letid smell ; if suffered to stand long- 
 er, it purifies itself, and bect»mes sweet and clear, 
 as well as considerably lighter. I have sometimes 
 filled a vessel when the water has been all of a 
 ferment, and stunk almost beyond bearifig. which 
 at a boiling heat was no more felt; by adding a 
 handful of common starch and a small bit of alum 
 all the filth is made to rise, and is taken off with 
 a ladle for that purpose. The superior goodness 
 of the waiei obliges us to ascribe an advan^^ge 
 to the London diers of light colours ; add to this 
 their remarkable cleanliness. When a vessel is 
 boiling, they watch it carefully ; and with a mop, 
 ke^A for that purpose, they rub oft' the scum all 
 round at the water’s edge, so that the liquor is 
 perlectly clear. 
 
 A short remark on the die of Brazil ivoodm 
 
 It is impossible to wear a red, a dove colour, 
 a ciimsoii, pui j le, light or deep vii-k or any oth- 
 er colour, ihc }>roducc ot Brazil od used re- 
 cenilv man} weeks, without fading, spotting, or 
 soiling. If there colours were died in grain they 
 would indeed cost something more, but you have 
 tlien a colour which will continue beautiful as long 
 as ihe sti.ff or cloth v' ill last ; and if spotted with 
 dirt or grease, can casil} be scoured and clean- 
 od without danger of losing or injuring the coiouri 
 
276 
 
 I boiled fifty pounds of Brazil chips one hour, 
 in a copper of the hardest spring water I could 
 find, and carefully took off the scum, turned this 
 liquor over into a large tub, and re- heated the cop. 
 per to boil the chips a second time, when the coL 
 our was all extracted. I then put both liquors 
 together, and let it stand six months, when it was 
 ropy and thick like oil. Now having prepared a 
 small piece of fine cloth in alum and sour bran« 
 water, and kept it moist five days unwashed out 
 of the alum, I boiled one nut-gall and one quart 
 of Brazil liquor ten minutes, then rinsed my 
 piece of cloth, and died it a very beautiful ma- 
 ronc. But the chief remark I intend to make 
 here, is, that I hung this piece of cloth in the 
 open dir night and day during four severe winter 
 months, and it had rather gained in beauty of 
 colour, and was grown rather deeper. This is a 
 sufficient proof that ch} mistry hath a power of 
 securing the fine particles of those vegetables 
 which are now called bastard drugs. Experi- 
 ments (which are the best guides in natural phi- 
 losophy, as well as in arts) plainly shew that a 
 great advantage might arise in favour of the stu- 
 dious practitioner, who is not wearied if he miss 
 his design after twenty or thirty trials, but still 
 pursues his plan till he has hit it ; for nothing of 
 the kind seems to be impossible. 
 
 A Experimental Observations on the Die of 
 CochinsaL 
 
 After all the common processes of dicing with 
 cochineal, there is found at the bottom of the ves- 
 sel a deep brown sediment. This sediment ap- 
 
277 
 
 pears to consist of the impurities of the tartar, 
 and the grosser parts of the powdered cochineal. 
 This being lighdy washed with clear cold water, 
 dried and ground on a marble, with one fourth 
 its weight of fine tartar, into an impalpable pow- 
 der, and then put into water with a little alum, a 
 piece of white cloth boiled in this liquor three 
 quarters of an hour acquired a very beautiful 
 crimson die. 
 
 This experiment evinces, that, by reducing 
 cochineal into a powder of moderate fineness as 
 commonly jiractised, we do not gain all the ad- 
 vantage which this valuable commodity is capa- 
 ble of yielding. 
 
 If the cochineal, when taken from the vessel, 
 (after the scarlets are died) is treated as above, 
 the saving in the cochineal, whether for scarlet or 
 crimson, will be about one- third. Though less 
 tartar is usuall) employed in the die liquor, yet 
 this quantity here directed does no harm ; it ap- 
 pealed on trial that the colour was rather the more 
 solid for it. All urinous and alkaline liquors or 
 substances stain scarlet of a crimson, by destroy- 
 ing the t ffect of the acid. Hence, in purecoui*. 
 try air, scarlet retains its lustre much longer than 
 in cities and towns, w here alk tline and urinous 
 vap(jiirs are more abundant. The dirt of roads 
 and sundry substances of the acrid kind, leave 
 no stain on scarlet, if the part be washed imme- 
 diately in pure water, and wrung in a clean linen 
 cloth. If the dirt is suffered to dry, a blackish 
 vit>let spot will remain, w hich can only be dis^ 
 ch irged by mild vegetable acids, as vinegar cit- 
 ron juice, a warm dilute solution of cream of 
 tartar, or sour bran water ; ii' these acids, hov;- 
 Z 
 
278 
 
 ever, be not applied with a good deal of address, 
 whilst they take out the blackish stain they leave 
 a yellow one, by dissolving the colouring parti- 
 cles of the cochineal itself. 
 
 After at least a thousand experiments, I am 
 obliged to conclude, that the dicing of wool is the 
 most extensive branch of this art, it may be con- 
 sidered as its basis ; but the dicing of silk, thread, 
 and cotton, deserves also our attention. 
 
 The great diiTerence between those substances, 
 and that of wool, is well known to the calico 
 printers, whose grand care it is to find means of 
 making linen receive the same dies as wool does. 
 The physical cause oi the difterence seems yet un- 
 known ; and indeed, as before observed of dies 
 in general, we know as yet very little. Are ani- 
 mal filaments tubular, and the colouring atoms 
 received within them ? are vegetable filaments 
 solid, and the colour deposited on the surface ? 
 or, does not their different susceptibility of colour 
 depend rather on the different intrinsic properties 
 of the two ? An answer to this would doubtless 
 prove of great utility. 
 
 » I should be happy to find some artist undertake 
 <' to improve what I have in a poor way begun. . I 
 long to see the art in perfection, one half of which 
 is yet in oblivion. 
 
 The reader may be assured, that what is here 
 recited is purely the result of the author’s own 
 experience, (not theory) and part of the effects 
 of many years’ study. 
 
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