The Art of Dyeing. - No. 19. Green on Wool. Olive Green. Sulphate of Indigo Green. Fast Green. Chrome Green.

Scientific American 34, 5.5.1855

Green on Wool - In a number of works on dyeing different receipts are given for producing the same color on different kinds of goods made of the same material, such as woolen yarn, merino, camlet, & c. This is wrong, for the same drugs will dye the very same colors and shades of all fabrics made of the same material. The stuffs taht will dye green on wool, will also produce the very same color on the fines broadcloth or bombazine.

Olive Green - A very beautiful olive green may be dyed at one dip with logwood, fustic, and blue vitriol (sulphate of copper). For then pounds of goods, take three pounds of logwood, seven of fustic, and half a pound of blue vitriol. These are all brought to the boil together in the dye kettle and the goods entered, handled well, and boiled for an hour, when they may be taken out, washed, and dried. Chips of logwood and fustic may be used in the dyeing of pieces, but not for yarn or wool. The quantity of stuffsa given will make a medium green. More of these will make a dark green, and less a fine apple green. This color does not stand exposure to the sun.

By boiling the goods in the above-named dye stuffs, only adding one pound of camwood, a dark and invisible olive green is the result. Indeed, a true olive hreen cannot be colored without using a little camwood. By using these very same stuffs in very minute quantities, drabs of various shades can be dyed. Any person may color this kind of olive green in a cast iron kettle. We therefore recommed it to the attention of our farmers for domestic wearing cloth, by substituting half copperas and half alum for the blue vitriol, and always adding some camwood. This makes a very permanent olive green.

Sulphate of Indigo Green - Sulphtate of indigo and fustic make the clearest green on wool. All fancy green colors for carpets, and such like work, are dyed with these stuffs. Fustic liquor is put into a copper kettle, and one ounce of alum to the ten pounds of goods added. Sulphate of indigo is then added, in such a quantity that when stirred the color if the liquor will be of the shade you want on the goods. When the liquor is brought to boil, the goods are entered and boiled for half and hour, when they are taken out, washed, and dried. If it is desired to make the goods darker in the shade, more stuffs are added. As these colors are somewhat expensive, some camwood is added to the liquor for dark shades; indeed, very good invisible greens can be dyed in this manner by addition of camwood. The goods must be carefully handled in dyeing these colros. From the very lightest pea green up tp the darkest grass green, in fancy dyeing, all the shades are dyed with the same stuffs, but in varying qualities. The sulphtae of indigo should be at least nine days old before it is used for woolen dyeing. It should also be made of the best Bengal indigo. As good indigo as that made in the East Indies has been, and can be made again, in South Carolina, but the manufacture of it is very unhealthy.

Fast Green - This color is now only dyed on broadcloth. It is produced by dyeing the goos a blue in an ash or woad vat for a base, then washing them well, and dyeing yellow on the top with a very strong decoction of fustic, and a little alum. It will take bout a pound of fustic and an ounce of alum to the pound of goods; they should be boiled about three-fourths of an hour.

Chrome Green - Within a very few years the bichromate of potash (chrome of the dyer) has come into extensive use in woolen dyeing. It has been long used in cotton dyeing for a few colors, but it is now a very general mordant for colors on woolen goods.

Boil the goods for one hour in two ounces of chrome and one of crude tartar, to every pound of goods. Then lift them, allow them to drip for ten minutes, and enter in a clean kettle of logwood and fustic - 4 pounds of logwood and ten of fustic to every ten pounds of goods. In this bath they are boiled for one hour, when they are taken out, washed, and dried. This color is more permanent than the olive green dyed with the sulphate of copper, but it is also more troublesome to dye.

Flannels should never be dyed green with the sulphate of indigo, for however beautiful the blue produced by it, warm water and sweat will discharge it. Green cloth, unless very dark, does not look well for men's wear. Soldiers in light green uniform do not look well; but dark green with red facings makes a very showy uniform. For female dress no color is more appropriate than green; light green for young females, the depths of shade corresponding with the age. Red is the complementary color of green, and some purple trimming on some part of a person's dress is necessary to relieve the green in a frock; green trimmed with purple looks well in the dresses of children.