To Dye Good Black.

Scientific American 25, 8.3.1851

Rub a brass kettle with soft soap, turn upside down in a warm place twenty-four hours, then fill with soft water, rubbing the verdigris from the kettle into water. Put your logwood in a bag and soak in a warm place several hours. Put your cloth in wet, and boil gently two hours or more, airing constantly and stirring well. Wash thoroughly before dyeing. - [Exchange.

[This receipt will never dye a black, although the goods were boiled for a year in the logwood. To dye a black on wool, first have the goods clean, then boil them in an iron or copper vessel, along with three ounces of copperas and one of the sulphate of copper, to the pound of goods for about one hour. After this they should be taken out, quickly handled and dried and well dripped and boiled in a solution of logwood at the rate of half a pound to the pound of goods, for about hne hour, after which they should be taken out, well dried and washed. This makes a blue black. If some fustic is used along with the logwood, the color is made a jet black. If the color be grayish, it wants more logwood, if brown, it has too much logwood. The logwood should be in a bag, or else boiled in a separate vessel, and the liquor only used. This will dye woolen yarn and cloth. The bichromate of potash is now used in place of the sulphate of copper. It makes a good and fast black and is an excellent mordant for white goods, but is not suitable for dyeing goods that may have had some other color. The receipt we have given will re-dye old goods. The goods should be well stirred and not crowded too close in the boiler. If not quickly handled when taken out, they will be wrinkled and consequently spoiled in a measure, for wrinkles are not easily taken out. Silk and cotton cannot thus be colored black.