Coloriasto on väriaiheisten tekstien (ja kuvien) verkkoarkisto
(Archive for colour themed articles and images)
INDEX: coloriasto.net
30.4.11
A Dictionary of Arts: Naples Yellow.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice
by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.
Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.
New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
NAPLES YELLOW (Jaune minéral, Fr.; Naepelgelb, Germ.), is a fine yellow pigment, called giallolino, in Italy, where it has been long prepared by a secret process; for few of recipes which have been published produce a good color. It is employed not only in oil painting, but also for porcelain and enamel. It has a fresh, brilliant, rich hue, but is apt to be very unequal in different samples.
The following prescription has been confidently recommended. Twelve parts of metallic antimony are to be calcined in a reverberatory furnace, along with eight parts of red lead, and four parts of oxide of zinc. These mixed oxydes, being well rubbed together, are to be fused; and the fused mass is to be triturated and elutriated into a fine powder. Chromate of lead has in a great measure superseded Naples yellow.
29.4.11
A Dictionary of Arts: Nankin.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice
by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.
Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.
New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
NANKIN is a peculiarly coloured cotton cloth, originally manufactured in the above named ancient capital of China, from a native cotton of a brown yellow hue. Nankin cloth has been long imitated in perfection by our own manufactures; and is now exported in considerable quantities from England to Canton. The following is the process for dyeing calico a nankin color.
1. Take 300 pounds of cotton yarn in hanks, being the quantity which four workmen can dye in a day. The yarn for the warp may be about No. 27's, and that for the weft 23's or 24's.
2. For aluming that quantity, take 10 pounds of saturated alum, free from iron (see MORDANT); divide this into two portions; dissolve the first by itself in hot water, so as to form a solution of spec. grav. 1° Baumé. The second portion is to be reserved for the galling bath.
3. Galling is given with about 80 pounds of oak bark finely ground. This bark may serve for two quantities, if it be applied a little longer the second time.
4. Take 30 pounds of fresh slaked quicklime, and form with it a large bath of limewater.
5. Nitro-muriate of tin. For the last bath, 10 or 12 pounds of solution of tin are used, which is prepared as follows:
Take 10 pounds of strong nitric acid, and dilute with pure water till its specific gravity be 26° B. Dissolve in it 4633 grains (10½ oz. avoird.) of sal ammoniac, and 3 oz. of nitre. Into this solvent, contained in a bottle set in cold water, introduce successively, in very small portions, 28 ounces of grain-tin granulated. This solution, when made, must be kept in a well stoppered bottle.
Three coppers are required, one round, about five feet in diameter, and 32 inches deep, for scouring the cotton; 2. two rectangular coppers tinned inside, each 5 feet long and 20 inches deep. Two boxes or cisterns of white wood are to be provided, the one for the lime-water bath, and the other for the solution of tin, each about 7 feet long, 32 inches wide, and 14 inches deep; they are set upon a platform 28 inches high. In the middle between these two chests, a plank is fixed, mounted with twenty-two pegs for wringing the hanks upon, as they are taken out of the bath.
6. Aluming. After the cotton yarn has been scoured with water, in the round copper, by being boiled in successive portions of 100 pounds, it must be winced in one of the square tinned coppers, containing two pounds of alum dissolved in 96 gallons of water, at a temperature of 165° F. It is to be then drained over the copper, exposed for some time upon the grass, rinsed in clear water, and wrung.
7. The galling. Having filled four-fifths of the second square copper with water, 40 pounds of ground oak bark are to be introduced, tied up in a bag of open canvass, and boiled for two hours. The bag being withdrawn, the cotton yarn is to be winced through the boiling tan bath for a quarter of an hour. While the yarn is set to drain above the bath, 28 ounces of alum are to be dissolved in it, and the yarn being once more winced through it for a quarter of an hour, is then taken out, drained, wrung, and exposed to the air. It has now acquire a deep but rather dull yellowish color, and is ready without washing for the next process. Bablah may be substituted for oak bark with advantage.
8. The liming. Into the cistern filled with fresh made lime-water, the hanks of cotton yarn, suspended upon a series of wooden rods, are to be dipped freely three times in rapid succession; then each hank is to be separately moved by hand through the lime bath, till the desired carmelite shade appear. A weak soda ley may be used instead of lime water.
9. The brightening is given by passing the above hanks, after squeezing, rinsing, and airing them, through a dilute bath of solution of tin. The colour thus produced is said to resemble perfectly the nankin of China.
Another kind of nankin colour is given by oxide of iron, precipitated upon the fibre of the cloth, from a solution of the sulphate, by a solution of soda. See CALICO-PRINTING.
28.4.11
A Dictionary of Arts: Malachite. Mastic. Mica.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice
by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.
Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.
New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
MALACHITE or mountain green is native carbonate of copper of a beautiful green colour, with variegated radiations and zones; spec. grav. 3.5; it scratches calc-spar, but not fluor; by calcination it affords water and turns black. Its solution in the acids deposits copper upon a plate of iron plunged into it. It consists of carbonic acid 18.5; deutoxide of copper 72.2; water 9.3.
MASTIC (Eng. and Fr.; Mastiz, Germ.) is a resin produced by making incisions in the Pistacia Lentiscus, a tree cultivated in the Levant and chiefly in the island of Chios. It comes to us in yellow, brittle, transparent, rounded tears; which soften between the teeth; with bitterish taste and aromatic smell and a specific gravity of 1.07. Mastic consists of two resins one soluble in dilute alcohol; but both dissolve in strong alcohol. Its solution in spirit of wine constitutes a good varnish. It dissolves also in oil of turpentine. See VARNISH.
MICA is finely foliated mineral of a pearly metallic lustre. It is harder than gypsum, but not so hard as calc-spar; flexible and elastic; spec. grav. 2. 65. It an ingredient of granite and gneiss. The large sheets of mica exposed for sale in London, are mostly brought from Siberia. They are used, instead of glass, to enclose the fire, without concealing the flame, in certain stoves.
The mica of Fahlun, analyzed by Rose, afforded, silica, 46.22; alumina, 34.52; peroxide? of iron, 6.04; potash, 8.22; magnesia, with oxide of manganese, 2.11; fluoric acid, 1.09; water, 0.98.
27.4.11
A Dictionary of Arts: Mosaic gold.
MOSAIC GOLD. For the composition of this peculiar alloy of copper and zinc, called also Or-molu, Messrs. Parker and Hamilton obtained a patent in November, 1925. Equal quantities of copper and zinc are to be "melted at the lowest temperature that copper will fuse," which being stirred together so as to produce a perfect admixture of the metals, a further quantity of zinc is added in small portions, until the alloy in the melting pot becomes of the colour required. If the temperature of the copper be to high, a portion of the zinc will fly off in vapor, and the result will be merely spelter or hard solder; but if the operation be carried on at as low a heat as possible, the alloy will assume first a brassy yellow color; then, by the introduction of small portions of zinc, it will take a purple or violet hue, and will ultimately become perfectly white; which the appearance of the proper compound in its fused state. This alloy may be poured into ingots; but as it is difficult to preserve its character when re-melted, it should be cast directly into the figured moulds. The patentees claim the exclusive right of compounding a metal consisting of from 52 to 55 parts of zinc out of 100.
Mosaic gold, the aurum musicum of the old chemists, is a sulphuret of tin.
Mosaic gold, the aurum musicum of the old chemists, is a sulphuret of tin.
26.4.11
A Dictionary of Arts: Mordant.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice
by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.
Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.
New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
MORDANT, in dyeing and calico-printing, denotes a body which, having a twofold attraction for organic fibres and colouring particles, serves as a bond of union between them, and thus gives fixity to dyes; or it signifies a substance which, by combining with colouring particles in the pores of textile filaments, renders them insoluble in hot soapy and weak alkaline solutions. In order properly to appreciate the utility and the true functions of mordants, we must bear in mind that colouring matters are peculiar compounds possessed of certain affinities, their distinctive characters being not to be either acid or alkaline, and yet to be capable of combining with many bodies, and especially with salifiable bases, and of receiving from each of them modifications in their color, solubility, and alterability. Organic colouring substances, when pure, have a very energetic attraction for certain bodies, feeble for others, and none at all for some. Among these immediate products of animal or vegetable life, some are soluble in pure water, and others become so only through peculiar agents. Among these immediate products of animal or vegetable life, some are soluble in pure water, and others become so only through peculiar agents. We may thus readily conceive, that whenever a dye-stuff possesses a certain affinity for the organic fibre, it will be able to become fixed on it, or to dye it without the intervention of mordants, if it be insoluble by itself in water, which, in fact, is the case with the colouring matters of safflower, annotto, and indigo. The first two are soluble in alkalis; hence, in order to use them, they need only be dissolved in a weak alkaline ley, be thus applied to the stuffs, and then have their tinctorial substance precipitated within their pores, by abstracting their solvent alkali with an acid. The colouring matter, at the instant of ceasing to be liquid, is in an extremely divided state, and is in contact with the organic fibres for which it has a certain affinity. It therefore unites with them, and, being naturally insoluble in water, that is, having no affinity for this vehicle, the subsequent washings have no effect upon the dye. The same thing may be said of indigo, although its solubility in the dye-bath does not depend upon a similar cause, but is due to a modification of its constituent elements, in consequence of which it becomes soluble in alkalis. Stuffs plunged into this indigo bath get impregnated with the solution, so that when again exposed to the air, the dyeing substance resumes at once its primitive colour and insolubility, and washing can carry off only the portions in excess above the intimate combination, or which are merely deposited upon the surface of the stuff.
Such is the result with insoluble colouring matters; but for those which are soluble it should be quite the reverse, since they do not possess an affinity for the organic fibres, which can counterbalance their affinity for water. In such circumstances, the dyer must have recourse to intermediate bodies, which add their affinity for the colouring matter to that possessed by the particles of the stuff, and increase by this twofold action the intimacy and the stability of the combination. These intermediate bodies are the true mordants.
Mordants are in general found among the metallic bases or oxydes; whence they might be supposed to be very numerous, like the metals; but as they must unite the twofold condition of possessing a strong affinity for both the colouring matter and the organic fibre, and as the insoluble bases are almost the only ones fit to form insoluble combinations, we may thus perceive that their number may be very limited. It is well known, that although lime and magnesia, for example, have a considerable affinity for colouring particles, and form insoluble compounds with them, yet they cannot be employed as mordants, because they possess no affinity for the textile fibres.
Experience has proved, that of all the bases, those which succeed best as mordants are alumina, tin, and oxide of iron; the first two of which, being naturally white, are the only ones which can be employed for preserving to the colour its original tint, at least without much variation. But whenever the mordant is itself colored, it will cause the dye to take a compound colour quite different from its own. If, as is usually said, the mordant enters into a real chemical union with the stuff to be dyed, the application of the mordant should obviously be made in such circumstances as are known to be most favorable to the combination taking place; and this is the principle of every day's practice in the dye-house.
In order that a combination may result between two bodies, they must not only be in contact, but they must be reduced to their ultimate molecules. The mordants that are to be united with stuffs are, as we have seen, insoluble of themselves, for which reason their particles must be divided by solution in an appropriate vehicle. Now this solvent or menstruum will exert in its own favor an affinity for the mordant, which will prove to that extent an obstacle to its attraction for the stuff. Hence we must select such solvents as have a weaker affinity for the mordants than the mordants have for the stuffs. Of all the acids which can be employed to dissolve alumina, for example, vinegar is the one which will retain it with least energy, for which reason the acetate of alumina is now generally substituted for alum, because the acetic acid gives up the alumina with such readiness, that mere elevation of temperature is sufficient to effect the separation of these two substances. Before this substitution of the acetate, alum alone was employed; but without knowing the true reason, all the French dyers preferred the alum of Rome, simply regarding it to be the purest; it is only within these few years that they have understood the real grounds of this preference. This alum has not, in fact, the same composition as the alums of France, England, and Germany, but it consists chiefly of cubic alum having a larger proportion of base. Now this extra portion of base is held by the sulphuric acid more feebly than the rest, and hence is more readily detached in the form of a mordant. Nay, when a solution of cubic alum is heated, this redundant alumina falls down in the state of a subsulphate, long before it reaches the boiling point. This difference had not, however, been recognized, because Roman alum, being usually soiled with ochre on the surface, gives a turbid solution, whereby the precipitate of subsulphate of alumina escaped observation. When the liquid was filtered, and crystallized afresh, common octahedral alum alone was obtained; whence it was most erroneously concluded, that the preference given to Roman alum was unjustifiable, and that its only superiority was in being freer from iron.
Here a remarkable anecdote illustrates the necessity of extreme caution, before we venture to condemn from theory a practice found to be useful in the arts, or set about changing it. When the French were masters in Rome, on of their ablest chemists was sent thither to inspect the different manufactures, and to place them upon a level with the state of chemical knowledge. One of the fabrics, which seemed to him furthest behindhand, was precisely that of alum, and he was particularly hostile to the construction of the furnaces, in which vast boilers received heat merely at their bottoms, and could not be made to boil. He strenuously advised them to be new modelled upon a plan of his own; but, notwithstanding his advice, which was no doubt very scientific, the old routine kept its ground, supported by utility and reputation, and very fortunately too, for the manufacture; for had the higher heat been given to the boilers, no more genuine cubical alum would have been made, since it is decomposed at a temperature of about 120° F., and common octahedral alum would alone have been produced. The addition of a little alkali to common alum brings it into the same basic state as the alum of Rome.
The two principal conditions, namely, extreme tenuity of particles, and liberty of action, being found in a mordant, its operation is certain. But as the combination to be effected is merely the result of a play of affinity between the solvent and the stuff to be dyed, a sort of partition must take place, proportioned to the mass of the solvent, as well as to its attractive force. Hence the stuff will retain more of the mordant when its solution is more concentrated, that is, when the base diffused through it is not so much protected by a large mass of menstruum; a fact applied to very valuable uses by the practical man. Om impregnating in calico printing, for example, different spots of the same web with the same mordant in different degrees of concentration, there is obtained in the dye-bath a depth of colour upon these spots intense in proportion to the strength of their various mordants. Thus, with solution of acetate of alumina in different grades of density, and with madder, every shade can be produced, from the fullest red to the lightest pink; and, with acetate of iron and madder, every shade from black to pale violet.
We hereby perceive that recourse must indispensably be had to mordants at different stages of concentration; a circumstance readily realized by varying the proportions of the watery vehicle. See CALICO-PRINTING and MADDER. When these mordants are to be topically applied, to produce partial dyes upon cloth, they must be thickened with starch or gum, to prevent their spreading, and to permit a sufficient body of them to become attached to the stuff. Starch answers best for the more neutral mordants, and gum for the acidulous; but so much of them should never be used, as to impede the attraction of the mordant for the cloth. Nor should the thickened mordants be of too desiccative a nature, lest they become hard, and imprison the chemical agent before it has had an opportunity of combining with the cloth, during the slow evaporation of its water and acid. Hence the mordanted goods, in such a case, should be hung up to dry in a gradual manner, and when oxygen is necessary to the fixation of the base, they should be largely exposed to the atmosphere. The foreman of the factory ought, therefore, to be thoroughly conversant with all the minutiæ of chemical reaction. In cold and damp weather he must raise the temperature of his drying-house, in order to command a more decided evaporation; and when the atmosphere is unusually dry and warm, he should add deliquescent correctives to his thickening, as I have particularized in treating of some styles of calico-printing. But, supposing the application of the mordant and its desiccation to have been properly managed, the operation is by no means complete; nay, what remains to be done is not the least important to success, nor the least delicate of execution. Let us bear in mind that the mordant is intended to combine not only with the organic fibre, but afterwards also with the colouring matter, and that, consequently, it must be laid entirely bare, or scraped clean, so to speak, that is, completely disengaged from all foreign substances which might invest it, and obstruct its intimate contact with the colouring matters. This is the principle and the object of two operations, to which the names of dunging and clearing have been given.
If the mordant applied to the surface of the cloth were completely decomposed, and the whole of its base brought into chemical union with it, a mere rinsing or scouring in water would suffice for removing the viscid substances added to it, but this never happens, whatsoever precautions may be taken; one portion of the mordant remains untouched, and besides, one part of the base of the portion decomposed does not enter into combination with the stuff, but continues loose and superfluous. All these particles, therefore, must be removed without causing any injury to the dyes. If in this predicament the stuff were merely immersed in water, the free portion of the mordant would dissolve, and would combine indiscriminately with all the parts of the cloths not mordanted, and which should be carefully protected from such combination, as well as the action of the dye. We must therefore add to the scouring water some substance that is capable of seizing the mordant as soon as it is separated from the cloth, and of forming with it an insoluble compound; by which means we shall withdraw it from the sphere of action, and prevent its affecting the rest of the stuff, or interfering with the other dyes. This result is obtained by the addition of cow-dung to the scouring bath; a substance which contains a sufficiently great proportion of soluble animal matters, and of colouring particles, for absorbing the aluminous and ferruginous salts. The heat given to the dung-bath accelerated this combination, and determines an insoluble and perfectly inert coagulum.
Thus the dung-bath produces at once the solution of the thickening paste; a more intimate union between the alumina or iron and the stuff, in proportion to its elevation of temperature, which promotes that union; an effectual subtraction of the undecomposed and superfluous part of the mordant, and perhaps a commencement of mechanical separation of the particles of alumina, which are merely dispersed among the fibres; a separation, however, which can be completed only by the proper scouring, which is done by the dash-wheel with such agitation and pressure (see BLEACHING and DUNGING) as vastly facilitate the expulsion of foreign particles. See also BRAN.
Before concluding this article, we may say a word or two about astringents, and especially gall-nuts, which have been ranked by some writers among mordants. It is rather difficult to account for the part which they play. Of course we do not allude to their operation in the black dye, where they give the well known purple-black color, with salts of iron; but to the circumstance of their employment for madder dyes, and especially the Adrianople red. All that seems to be clearly established is, that the astringent principle of tannin, whose peculiar nature in this respect is unknown, combines like mordants with the stuffs and the colouring substance, so as to fix it; but as this tannin has itself a brown tint, it will not suit for white grounds, though it answers quite well for pink grounds. When white spots are desired upon a cloth prepared with oil and galls, they are produced by an oxygenous discharge, effected either through chlorine of chromic acid.
MORDANT is also the name of sometimes given to the adhesive matter by which gold-leaf is made to adhere to surfaces of wood and metal in gilding. Paper, vellum, taffety, &c., are easily gilt by the aid of different mordants, such as the following: 1. beer in which some honey and gum arabic have been dissolved; 2. gum arabic, sugar, and water; 3. the viscid juice of onion or hyacinth, strengthened with a little gum arabic. When too much gum is employed, the silver or gold leaf is apt to crack in the drying of the mordant. A little carmine should be mixed with the above colorless liquids, to mark the places where they are applied. The foil is applied by means of a dossil of cotton wool, and when the mordant has become hard, the foil is polished with the same.
The best medium for sticking gold and silver leaf to wood is the following, called mixtion by the French artists: - 1 pounds of amber is to be fused, with 4 ounces of mastic in tears, and 1 ounce of Jewish pitch, and the whole dissolved in 1 pounds of linseed oil rendered drying by litharge.
Painters in distemper sometimes increase the effect of their work, by patches of gold leaf, which they place in favorable positions; they employ the above mordant. The manufacturers of paper hangings of the finer kinds attach gold and silver leaf to them by the same varnish.
25.4.11
A Dictionary of Arts (supplement): Madder, Ground. Madder Root. (Garancine.)
(A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice)
Recent improvements in
Arts, Manufactures, and Mines:
Being A supplement to his Dictionary
by Andrew Ure, M. D.,
F.R.S. N.G.S. M.A.S. LOND.; M. ACAD. N.S. PHILAD.; S. PH. SOC.N. GERM. HANOV.; MUHL. ETC., ETC.
Illustrated with one hundred and ninety engravings.
New York: D. Appleton & Company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
GARANCINE, an extract of madder by means of sulphuric acid, prepared in France.
MADDER, GROUND; imported for home consumption in 1839, 96,702 cwts.; in 1840, 184,179 cwts.; duty 2. per cwt.
---
MADDER ROOT; in 1839, 80,259 cwts.; in 1840, 112,714 cwts; duty 6d. per cwt.
A patent was granted in August, 1843, to Mr. F. Steiner, for the manufacture of Garancine from used madder, formerly thrown away, as being exhausted of its dyeing principle. His process is as follows: "A large filter is constructed outside the building in which the dye-vessels are situated, formed by sinking a hole in the ground, and lining it at the bottom and sides with bricks without any mortar to unite them. A quantity of stones or gravel is placed upon the bricks, and over the stones or gravel common wrappering, such as is used for sacks. Below the bricks is a drain to take off the water which passes through the filter. In the tub adjoining the filter is kept a quantity of dilute sulphuric acid, of about the specific gravity of 105, water being 100. Hydrochloric acid will answer the several purposes, but sulphuric acid is preferred as more economical. A channel is made from the dye-vessels to the filter. The madder which has been employed in dyeing is run from the dye-vessels to the filter; and while it is so running, such a portion of the dilute sulphuric acid is run in and mixed with it as changes the colour of the solution and the undissolved madder to an orange tint or hue. This acid precipitates the colouring matter which is held in solution, and prevents the undissolved madder from fermenting or otherwise decomposing. When the water has drained from the madder through the filter, the residuum is taken from off the filter and put into bags. The bagsa are then placed in an hydraulic press, to have as much water as possible expressed from their contents. In order to break the lumps which have been formed by compression, the madder or residuum is passed through a sieve. To 5 cwt. of madder in this state, placed in a wood or lead cistern, 1 cwt. of sulphuric acid of commerce is sprinkled on the madder through a lead vessel similar in form to the ordinary watering-can used by gardeners. An instrument like a garden spade or rake is next used, to work the madder about so as to mix it intimately with the acid. In this stage the madder is placed upon a perforated lead plate, which is fixed about five or six inches above the bottom of a vessel. Between this plate and the bottom of the vessel is introduced a current of steam by a pipe, so that it passes through the perforated plate and the madder which is upon it. During this process, which occupies from one to two hours, a substance is produced of a dark brown colour approaching to black. This substance is garancine and insoluble carbonized matter. When cool, it is placed upon a filter and washed with clear cold water until the water passes from it without an acid taste. It is then put into bags and pressed with and hydraulic press. The substance is dried in a stove and ground to a fine powder under ordinary madder stones, and afterward passed through a sieve. In order to neutralize any acid that may remain, from 4 to 5 lbs. of dry carbonate of soda for every hundred weight of this substance is added and intimately mixed. The garancine in this state is ready for use."
A Dictionary of Arts: Madder.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice
by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.
Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.
New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
MADDER. (Garance, Fr.; Farberröthe, Germ.), a substance very extensively used in dyeing, is the root of the Rubia tinctorum, a plant, of which two species are distinguished by Linnæus.
The best roots are those which have the size of a writing quill, or, at most, of the little finger. They are semi-transparent, and reddish; have a strong odor, and a smooth bark. They should be of two or three years' growth.
The madder, taken from the ground and picked, must be dried in order to be ground and preserved. In warm climates it is dried in the open air; but, elsewhere, stoves must be employed.
The stingy filaments and epidermis are to be removed, called mulle; as also the pith, so as to leave nothing but the ligneous fibres.
The preparation of madders is carried on in the department of the Rhone, in the following manner.
The roots are dried in a stove heated by means of a furnace, from which the air is allowed to issue only at intervals, at the moment when it is judged to be saturated with moisture. The furnace-flue occupies a great portion of the floor; above sare three close gratings, on which the roots are distributed in layers of about two decimetres (nearly 8 inches). At the end of 24 hours, those which are on the first grated floor directly above the stove are dry, when they are taken away and replaced by those of the superior floors. This operation is repeated whenever the roots over the stove are dry. The dry roots are thrashed with a flail, passed through fanners similar to those employed for corn, and then shaken upon a very coarse sieve. What passes through is farther winnowed and sifted through a finer sieve than the first. These operations are repeated five times, proceeding successively to sieves still finer and finer, and setting aside every time what remains on the sieve. What passes through the fifth sieve is rejected as sand and dust. After these operations, the whole fibrous matters remaining on the sieve are cleaned with common fanners, and women separate all the foreign matters which had not been removed before. For dividing the roots, afterwards, into different qualities, a brass sieve is made use of, whose meshes are from six to three millimetres in diameter (from ¼th to inch E.) What passes through the finest is rejected; and what passes through the coarsest is regarded as of the best quality. These roots, thus separated, are carried into a stove, of a construction somewhat different from the first. They are spread out in layers of about a decimetre in thickness (nearly 4 inches E.), on large lattice-work frames, and the drying is known to be complete, when on taking up a handful and squeezing it, the roots break easily. On quitting the stove, the madder is carried, still hot, into a machine, where it is minced small, and a sieve separates the portion of the bark reduced to powder. This operation is repeated three or four times, and then the boulter is had recourse to. What passes through the sieve, or the brass meshes of the boulter, is regarded as common madder; and what issues at the extremity of the boulter is called the flour. Lastly, the madder which passes through the boulter is ground in a mill with vertical stones, and then passed through sieves of different sizes. What remains above is always better than what goes through.
The madder of Alsace is reduced to a very fine powder, and its colouring matter is extracted by a much longer ebullition than is necessary for the lizari of the Levant. The prepared madders ought to be carefully preserved from humidity, because they easily imbibe moisture, in which case fermentation spoils their colour.
D'Ambourney and Beckman have asserted, that it is mode advantageous to employ the fresh root of madder than what has been submitted to desiccation, especially by means of stoves. But in its states of freshness, its volume becomes troublesome in the dyeing bath, and uniform observation seems to prove that it ameliorates by age. Besides, it must be rendered susceptible of keeping and carrying easily.
It appears that madder may be considered as composed of two colouring substances, one of which is dun (tawny), and the other is red. Both of these substances may combine with the stuff. It is of consequence, however, to fix only the red part. The dun portion appears to be more soluble, but its fixity on stuffs may possibly be increased by the affinity which it has for the red portion.
The different additions made to madder, and the multiplied processes to which it is sometimes exposed, have probably this separation for their chief object.
The red portion of madder is soluble, but in small quantity, in water. Hence but a limited concentration can be given to its solution. If the portion of this substance be too much increased, so far from obtaining a greater effect, we merely augment the proportion of the dun part, which is the more soluble of the two.
In consequence of the Sociétié Industrielle of Mulhausen having offered in the year 1826 large premiums to the authors of the best analytical investigation of madder, eight memoirs were transmitted to it in the year 1827. They were examined with the greatest care by a committee consisting of able scientific and practical men. None of the competitors however fulfilled the conditions of the programme issued by the society; but four of them received a tribute of esteem and gratitude from it; MM. Robiquet and Colin at Paris, Kuhlmann at Lille, and Houton-Libillardière. Fresh premiums were offered for the next year, to the amount of 2000 francs.
Every real discovery made concerning this precious root, would be of vast consequence to dyers and calico-printers. Both M. Kuhlmann, and Robiquet and Colin, conceived that they had discovered a new principle in madder, to which they gave the name alizarine. The latter two chemists treated the powdered madder with sulphuric acid, taking care to let it heat as little as possible. By this action the whole is carbonized, except perhaps the red matter. The charcoal thus obtained is pulverized, mixed with water, thrown upon a filter, and well washed in the cold. It is next dried, ground, and diffused through fifty parts of water, containing six parts of alum. This mixture is then boiled for one quarter of an hour, and thrown upon a filter cloth while boiling hot. The residuum is once more treated with a little warm alum water. The two liquors are to be mixed, and one part of sulphuric acid poured into them; when they are allowed to cool with occasional agitation. Flocks now make their appearance; the clear liquid is decanted, and the grounds are thrown upon a filter. The precipitate is to be washed, first with aciculated water, then with pure water, and dried, when the colouring matter is obtained in a red or purple state. This purple substance, when heated dry, gives out alizarine, and an empyreumatic oil, having an odor of animal matter; while a charcoally matter remains.
M. Dan. Koechlin, the justly celebrated calico-printer of Mulhausen, has no faith in alizarine as the dyeing principle of madder; and thinks moreover that, were it of value, it could not be extracted on the great scale, on account of the destructive heat which would result from the acid acting upon a considerable body of the ground madder. Their alizarine is not a uniform substance, as it ought to be, if a proximate principle; for samples of it obtained in different repetitions of the process have produced very variable effects in dyeing. The madders of Avignon, though richer in colour than those of Alsace, afford however little or no alizarine. In fact, purpurine, the crude substance from which they profess to extract alizarine, is a richer dye than this pure substance itself.
Madder contains so beautiful and so fast a color, that it has become of almost
universal employment in dyeing; but that colour is accompanied with so many other substances which mask and degrade it, that it can be brought out and fixed only after a series of operations more or less difficult and precarious. This dye is besides so little soluble, that much of it is thrown away in the dye-house; the portion supposed to be exhausted being often as rich as other fresh madder; hence it would be a most valuable improvement in this elegant art to insulate this tinctorial body, and make it a new product of manufacture.
Before the time of Haussmann, an apothecary at Colmar, the madder bath was subject to many risks, which that skilful chemist taught dyers how to guard against, by introducing a certain quantity of chalk into the bath. A change of residence led Haussman to this fortunate result. After having made very fine reds at Rouen, he encountered the greatest obstacles in dyeing the same reds at Logelbach near Calmar, where he went to live. Numerous trials, undertaken with the view of obtaining the same success in his establishment, proved that the cause of his favorable results at Rouen existed in the water, which contained carbonate of lime in solution, whilst the water of Logelbach was very pure. He then tried a factitious calcareous water, by adding chalk to his dye bath. Having obtained the most satisfactory results, he was not long of producing here as beautiful and as solid reds as he had done at Rouen. This practice became soon general among the calico-printers of Alsace, though in many dye-works the chalk is now replaced by lime, potash, or soda. But when the madder of Avignon is used, all these antacid correctives become unnecessary, because it contains a sufficient quantity of carbonate of lime; an important fact first analytically demonstrated by that accurate of chemist M. Henri Schlumberger of Mulhausen. Avignon madder indicates the presence of cabonate of lime in it, by effervescing with dilute acids, which Alsace madder does not.
M. Kuhlman found a free acid resembling the malic, in his analysis of madders. But his experiments were confined to those of Alsace. The madders of Avignon are on the contrary alkaline, as may be inferred from the violet tint of the froth of their infusions; whereas that of the Alsace madders is yellowish, and it strongly reddens litmus paper. This important difference between the plants of these two districts, depends entirely upon the soil; for madders grown in a calcareous shelly soil in Alsace, have been found to be possessed of the properties of the Avignon madder.
The useful action of the carbonate and the phosphate of lime in the madder of Avignon, explains why madders treated with acids which remove their calcareous salts, without taking away their colouring matter, lose the property of forming fast dyes. Many manufacturers are in the habit of mixing together, and with advantage, different sorts of madder. That of Avignon contains so much calcareous matter that, when mixed with the madder of Alsace, it can compensate for its deficiency. Some of the latter is so deficient as to afford colours nearly as fugitive as those of Brazil wood and quercitron. The Alsace madders by the addition of chalk to their baths, become as fit for dyeing Turkey reds as those of Avignon. When the water is very pure, one part of chalk ought to be used to be used to five of Alsace madder, but when the waters are calcareous, the chalk should be omitted. Lime, the neutral phosphate of lime, the carbonate of magnesia, oxide and carbonate of zinc, and several other substances, have the property of causing madder to form a fast dye, in like manner as the carbonate of lime.
The temperature from 50° to 60° R. (145° to 167° F.), is the best adapted to the solution of the colouring matter, and to its combination with the mordants; and thus a boiling heat may be replaced advantageously by the long continuance of a lower temperature. A large excess of the dye-stuff in the bath is unfavorable in twopoints of view; it causes a waste of colouring matter, and renders the tint dull. It is injurious to allow the bath to cool, and to heat it again.
In a memoir published by the Society of Mulhausen, in September, 1835, some interesting experiments upon the growth of madders in factitious soils are related by MM. Koechlin, Persoz, and Schlumberger. A patch of ground was prepared containing from 50 to 80 per cent. of chalky matter, and nearly one fifth of its bulk of good horde-dung. Slips of Alsace and Avignon madders were planted in March, 1834, and a part of the roots were reaped in November following. These roots, though of only six months growth, produced tolerably fast dyes, nor was any difference observable between the Alsace and the Avignon species; whilst similar slips or cuttings, planted in a natural non-calcareous soil, alongside of the others, yielded roots which gave fugitive dyes. Others were planted in the soil of Palud, transported from Avignon, which contained more than 90 per cent. of carbonate of lime, and they produced roots that gave still faster dyes than the preceding. Three years are requisite to give the full calcareous impregnation to the indigenous madders of Avignon.
As to the function of the chalk, valuable observations, made long ago by M. Daniel Koechlin, have convinced him, that the combination of two different bases with a colouring matter, gave much more solidity to the dye, in consequence, undoubtedly, of a greater insolubility in the compound. Experiments recently made by him and his collagues above named, prove that in all cases of madder dyeing under the influence of chalk, a certain quantity of lime becomes added to the aluminous mordant. In the subsequent clearing with a soap bath, some of the alumine is removed, and there remains upon the fibre of the cloth a combination of these two earths in atomic proportions. Thus the chalk is not for the purpose of saturating the acid, as had been supposed, but of forming a definite compound with alumina, and probably also with the fatty bodies, and the colouring matter itself.
The red mordants are prepared commonly in Alsace, as follows: - The crushed alum and acetate of lead being weighed, the former is put into a deep tub, and dissolved by adding a proper quantity of hot water, when about one tenth of its weight of soda crystals is introduced to saturate the excess of acid in the alum. The acetate of lead is now mixed in; and as this salt dissolves very quickly, the reaction takes place almost instantly. Care must be taken to stir for an hour. The vessel should not be covered, lest its contents should cool too slowly.
The different mordants most generally employed for madder, are detailed under Colours, in CALICO-PRINTING and MORDANT.
Much mordant should not be prepared at once, for sooner or later it will deposit some sub-acetate alumina. This decomposition takes place even in corked phials in the cold; and the precipitate does not readily dissolve again in acetic acid. All practical men know that certain aluminous mordants are decomposed by heating them, and restored on cooling, as Gay Lussac has pointed out. He observed, that by adding to pure acetate of alumina, some alum or sulphate of potash, the mixture acquires the property of forming a precipitate with a heat approaching the boiling point, and of re-dissolving on cooling. The precipitate is alumina nearly pure, according to M. Gay Lussac; but, by M. Koechlin's more recent researches, it is shown to be sub-sulphate of alumina, containing eight times as much base as the neutral sulphate.
Madder dye.- On account of the feeble solubility of its colouring matter in water, we cannot dye with its decoction; but we must boil the dyes-stuff along with the goods to be dyed; whereby the water dissolves fresh portions of the dye, and imparts it in succession to the textile fibres. In dyeing with madder, we must endeavor to fix as little of the dun matter as possible upon the cloth.
Dyeing on wool. - Alumed wool takes, in the madder bath, a red colour, which is not so bright as cochineal red, but it is faster; and as it is far cheaper, it is much used in England to dye soldiers' cloth. A mordant of alum and tartar is employed; the bath of madder, at the rate of from 8 to 16 ounces for the pound of cloth, is heated to such a degree that we can just hold our hand in it, and the goods are then dyed by the wince, without heating the bath more till the colouring matter be fixed. Vitalis prescribes as a mordant, one fourth of alum, and one sixteenth of tartar; and for dyeing, one third of madder, with the addition of a 24th of solution of tin diluted with its weight of water. He raises the temperature in the space of an hour to 200°, and afterwards he boils for 3 or 4 minutes; a circumstance which is believed to contribute to the fixation of the colour. The bath, after dyeing, appears much loaded with yellow matter, because this has less affinity for the alum mordant than the red. Sometimes a little archil is added to the madder, to give the dye a pink tinge; but this is fugitive.
Silk is seldom dyed with madder, because cochineal affords brighter tints.
>Dyeing on cotton and linen. - The most brilliant and fastest madder red is the Turkey or Adrianople. The common madder reds are given in the following way: - The yarn or cloth is boiled in a weak alkaline bath, washed, dried, and galled, by steeping the cotton in decoction of bruised galls or of sumach. After drying, it is twice alumed; for which purpose, for every 4 parts of the goods, one part of alum is taken, mixed with 1.16th of its weight of chalk. The goods are dipped into a warm solution of the alum, wrung out, dried , and alumed afresh, with half the quantity. The acetate of alumina mordant, described above, answers much better than common alum for cotton. After the goods are dried and rinsed, they are passed through the dye-bath, which is formed of 3/4 lb. of good madder for every pound of cotton; and it is raised to the boiling point by degrees, in the space of 50 or 60 minutes. Whenever the ebullition has continued a few minutes, the goods must be removed, washed slightly, and dyed a second time in the same way, with as much madder. They are then washed and passed through a warm soap bath, which removes the dun colouring matter.
Hölterfoff describes for ordinary madder red the following proportions: - 20 pounds of cotton yarn; 14 pounds of Dutch madder; 3 pounds of nut-galls; 5 pounds of alum; to which ½ lb. of acetate of lead has been first added, and then a quarter of a pound of chalk.
In the calico-print works the madder goods are passed through a bran bath first, immediately after dyeing; next, after several days exposure to the air, when the dun dye has become oxidized, and is more easily removed. An addition of chalk, on the principles explained above, in sometimes useful in the madder bath. If bran be added to the madder bath, the colour becomes much lighter, and of an agreeable shade. Sometimes bran-water is added to the madder bath, instead of bran.
Adrianople or Turkey red. - This is the most complicated and tedious operation in the art of dyeing; but it produces the fastest colour which is known. This dye was discovered in India, and remained long a process peculiar to that country. It was afterwards practised in other part of Asia and in Greece. In 1747, Ferquet and Goudard brought Greek dyers into France, and mounted near Rouen, and in Languedoc, Turkey-red dye works. In 1765, the French government, convinced of the importance of this business, caused the processes to be published. In 1808, Reber, at Mariakirch, furnished the fines yarn of this dye, and M. Köchlin became celebrated for his Turkey-red cloth.
Process of Turkey-red. - The first step consists in clearing the yarn or cloth in alkaline baths, and dipping them in oily liquors, to which sheep's dung was formerly added. This operation is repeated several times, the goods being dried after each immersion. There next follows the cleansing with alkaline liquors to remove the excess of oil, the galling, the aluming, the maddering, the brightening or removing the dun part of the dye by boiling, at a high temperature, with alkaline liquid, and the rosing by boiling in a bath of salt of tin. We shall give some details concerning this tedious manipulation, and the differences which exist in it in the principal dye-works.
At Rouen, where the process was first brought to perfection, two methods are pursued, called the gray and the yellow course or marsh. In the gray, the dye is given immediately after the cotton has received the oily mordant, the gall, and the alum, as it has then a gray colour. In the yellow course, it is passed through fresh oils, alum, and galls before the maddering, the cotton having then a yellow tint.
Different vews have been taken of the principles of the Turkey-red dye, and the object and utility of the various steps. The most ancient notion is that of animalizing the cotton by dung and blood, but experience has proved that without any animal matter the finest colour may be obtained. According to Dingler, the cotton is imbued with oil by steeping it in combinations of oil and soda; the oil is altered by repeated dryings at a high temperature; it attracts oxygen from the air, and thereby combines intimately with the cotton fibre, so as to increase the weight of the stuff. The dung, by a kind of fermentation, accelerates the oxidizement, and hence crude oil is preferable to pure. In England, the mucilaginous oils of Gallipoli are preferred, and in Malabar, oils more or less rancid. The drying oils do not answer. The subsequent treatment with the alkaline liquors removes the excess of oil, which has not been oxidized and combined; a hard drying completely changes that which remains in the fibred; the aluming which follows combines alumina with the cotton; the galling tans the fibres, producing a triple compound of oil and alum, which fixed the colouring matter. The object of the other steps is obvious.
According to Wuttich, the treatment with oil opens the cotton so as to admit the mordant and the colouring matter, but the oil and soap do not combine with the fibres. In the alkaline baths which follow, the oil is transformed into soap and removed; whence the cotton should not increase in weight in the galling and aluming; the cotton suffers a kind of tanning, and the saline parts of the blood assist in fixing the madder dye.
The German process improved, according to Dingler, consists of the following operations: mordant of an oily soap or a soapy liniment, hard drying; alkaline bath, drying, steeping, rinsing away of the uncombined mordant, drying; galling, drying; aluming, drying, steeping in water containing chalk, rinsing; maddering, airing, rinsing; brightening with an alkaline boil, and afterwards in a bath containing salt of tin; then washing and drying.
The yarn or the cloth must be first well worked in a bath of sheep's dung and oil, compounded as follows: - 25 pounds of sheep's dung are to be bruised in a solution of pure caustic potash of hydrometer strength 3°, and the mixed liquor is to be passed through a sieve. Two pounds of fine oil are now to be poured into 16 pounds of this lye, after which 30 pounds of coarse oil are to be added, with agitation for ¼ of an hour. Other 4 pounds of hot ley are to be well stirred in, till the whole is homogeneous. This proportion of mordant is sufficient for 100 pounds of cotton yarn, for 90 pounds of unbleached or 100 pounds of bleached cotton goods. The cotton stuff, after being well wrung out, is to be laid in a chest and covered with a lid loaded with weights, in which state it should remain for five days. At the end of 24 hours, the cotton becomes hot with fermentation, gets imbued with the mordant, and the oil becomes rapidly altered. The goods are next exposed freely to the air during the day, and in the evening they are dried in a hot chamber, exposed to a temperature of 158° F., for 6 or 8 hours, which promotes the oxidizement of the oil.
The goods are now passed the second time through a soapy-oil mordant similar to the first, then dried in the air by day, and in the hot stove by night. The third and fourth oil-soap steeps are given in the same way, but without the dung. The fifth steep is composed of a ley at 2°, after which the goods must also be dried. Indeed, from the first to the fourth steep, the cotton stuff should be put each time into a chamber heated to 145° F. for 12 or 15 hours, and during 18 hours after the fifth steep.
The uncombined oil must, in the next place, be withdrawn by the degraissage, which consists in steeping the goods for 6 hours in a very weak alkaline ley. After rinsing and wringing, they are dried in the air, and then put into the hot stove.
The goods are now galled in a bath formed of 36 pounds of Sicilian sumach, boiled for 3 hours in 260 pounds of water, and filtered. The residuum is treated with 190 fresh pounds of water. This decoction is heated with 12 pounds of pounded nut-galls to the boiling point, allowed to cool during the night, and used next morning as hot as the hand can bear; the goods being well worked through it. Theyr are again dried in the air, and afterwards placed in a stove moderately heated. They are next passed through a tepid alum bath, containing a little chalk; left afterwards in a heap during the night, dried in the air, and next in the stove. The dry goods are finally passed through hot water containing a little chalk, wrung out, rinsed, and then maddered.
For dyeing, the copper is filled with water, the fire is kindled, and an ounce and a half of chalk is added for every pound of madder; a pound and a quarter of madder being taken for every pound of cotton yarn. The goods are now passed through the bath, so that they penetrate to near its bottom. The fire must be so regulated, that the copper will begin to boil in the course of from 2%frac12; to 3 hours; and the ebullition must be continued for an hour; after which the yarn is aired and rinsed. Cloth should be put into the dye-bath when its temperature is 77° and winced at a heat of from 100° to122° during the first hour; at 167° during the second; and at the boiling point when the third hour begins. It is to be kept boiling for half an hour; so that the maddering lasts four hours. Dingler does not add sumach or galls to the madder bath, because their effect is destroyed in the subsequent brightening, and he has no faith in the utility of blood.
After being dyed, the goods are washed, pressed, and subjected to a soapy alkaline bath at a high heat, in a close boiler, by which the dun parts of the galls and the madder are dissolved away, and the red colour remains in all its lustre. This operation is called brightening. It is repeated in a similar liquor, to which some muriate of tin is added for the purpose of enlivening the colour and giving it a rosy tint. Last of all, the goods are rinsed, and dried in the shade.
The Elberfeld process consists for 100 lbs. of the following steps: -
1. Cleaning the cotton by boiling it for four hours in a weak alkaline bath, cooling and rinsing.
2. working it thoroughly four times over in a steep, consisting of 300 pounds of water, 15 pounds potash, 1 pailful of sheep's dung, and 12½ pounds of olive oil, in which it should remain during the night. Next day it is drained for an hour, wrung out and dried. This treatment with the dung steep, and drying, is repeated 3 times.
3. It is now worked in a bath containing 120 quarts of water, 18 pounds of potash, and 6 quarts of olive oil; then wrung out and dried. This steep is also repeated 4 times.
4. Steepingfor a night in the river is the next process; a slight rinsing without wringing, and drying in the air.
5. Bath made of a warm decoction (100° F.) of sumach and nut-galls, in which the goods remain during the night; they are then strongly wrung, and dried in the air.
6. Aluming with addition of potash and chalk; wringing; working it well through this bath, where it is left during the night.
7. Draining, and strong rinsing the following day; piling up in a water cistern.
8. Rinsing repeated next day, and steeping in water to remove any excess of alum from the fibres; the goods continue in the water till they are taken to the dyeing-bath.
9. The maddering is made with the addition of blood, sumach, and nut-galls; the bath is brought to boil in 1 hour and 3/4, and kept boiling for half an hour.
10. The yarn is rinsed, dried, boiled from 24 to 36 hours in a covered copper, with an oily alkaline liquid; then rinsed twice, laid for two days in clear water, and dried.
11. Finally, the greatest brightness is obtained by boiling for three or four hours in a soap bath, contaiining muriate of tin; after which the yarn is rinsed twice over, steeped in water, and dried.
Process of Haussmann. - He treats cotton twice or 4 times in a solution of aluminated potash, mixed] with one thirty-eight part of linseed oil. The solution is made by adding caustic potash to alum. He dries and rinses each time, and dries after the last operation. He then rinses and proceeds to the madder bath. For the rose color, he takes one pound of madder for one pound of cotton; for carmine red, he takes from 2 to 3 pounds; and for the deepest red, no less than 4 pounds. It is said that the colour thus obtained surpasses Turkey red.
The French process, by Vitalis of Rouen. - First operation. Scouring with a soda lye, of 1° Baumé, to which there is usually added the remainder of the white preparation bath, which contains of oil and soda with water. It is then washed, wrung out, and dried.
In the second operation, he states that from 25 to 30 pounds of sheep's dung are commonly used for 100 pounds of cotton yarn. The dung is first steeped for some days in a lye of soda, of 8° to 10° B. This is afterwards diluted with about 500 pints of a weaker ley, and at the same time bruised with the hand in a copper basin whose bottom is pierced with small holes. The liquor is then poured into a vat containing 5 or 6 pounds of fat oil (Gallipoli), and the whole are well mixed. The cotton is washed in this, and the hanks of yarn are then stretched on perches in the open air, and turned from time to time, so as to make it dry equably. After receiving thus a certain degree of desiccation, it is carried into the drying house, which is heated to 50° Reaumur (144° Fahrenheit), where it loses the remainder of its moisture, which would have prevented it from combing with the other mordants which it is afterwards to receive. What is left of the bath is called avances, and is added to the following bath. Two, or even three dung baths are given to the cotton, when it is wished to have very rich colours. When the cotton has received the dung baths, care must be taken not to leave it lying in heaps for any length of time, lost it should take fire; and accident which has occasionally happened.
The white bath is prepared by pouring 6 pounds of fat oil into 50 pints of soda water, at 1° or sometimes less, according as, by a preliminary trial, the oil requires. This bath ought to be repeated two, three, or even a greater number of times, as more or less body is to be given to the color.
To what remains of the white bath, and which is also styled avances, about 100 pints of soda lye of two or three degrees are added. Through this the cotton is passed as usual. Formerly it was the practice to give two, or three, or even four oils. Now, two are found to be sufficient.
The cotton is steeped for five or six hours in a tepid solution of soda, of 1° at most; it is set to drain, is then sprinkled with water, and at the end of an hour is washed, hank by hank, to purge it entirely from the oil. What remains of the water of degraissage, serves for the scouring or first operation.
For 100 pounds of cotton, from 20 to 25 pounds of galls in sorts must be taken, which are bruised and boiled in about 100 pints of water, till they crumble easily between the fingers. The galling may be done at two operations, dividing the above quantity of galls between them, which is thought to give a richer and more uniform color.
The aluming of 100 pounds of cotton requires from twenty-five to thirty pounds of pure alum, that is, alum entirely free from ferruginous salts. The alum should be dissolved without boiling, in about 100 pints of river or rain water. When the alum is dissolved, there is to be poured in a solution of soda, made with the sixteenth parts of the weight of the alum. A second portion of the alkaline solution must not be poured in till the effervescence caused by the first portion has entirely ceased - and so in succession. The bath of saturated alum being merely tepid, the cotton is passed through it, as in the gall bath, so as to impregnate it well, and it is dried with the precautions recommended above. The dyers who gall at two times, alum also twice, for like like reasons.
For 25 pounds of cotton, 25 pints of blood are prescribed, and 400 pints of water. Whenever the bath begins to warm, 50 pounds of madder are diffused through the bath; though sometimes the maddering is given at two operations, by dividing the madder into two portions.
The brightening bath is prepared always for 100 pounds of cotton, with from four to five pounds of rich oil, six pounds of Marseilles white soap, and 600 litres of soda water of 2° B.
The rosing is given with solution of tin, mixed with soap water.
The Turkey-red dye of Messrs. Monteith and Co., of Glasgow, is celebrated all over the world, and merits a brief description here.
The calico is taken as it comes from the loom without bleaching, for the natural colour of cotton wool harmonizes well with the dye about to be given; it is subjected to a fermentative steep for 24 hours, like that preliminary to bleaching, after which it is washed at the dash wheel. It is then boiled in a ley, containing about 1 pound of soda crystals for 12 pounds of cloth. The oiling process now begins. A bath is made with 10 gallons of Gallipoli oil, 15 gallons measures of sheep's dung not indurated; 40 gallons of solution of soda crystals, of 1.06 specific gravity; 10 gallons of solution of pearl-ash of spec. grav. 1.04; and 140 gallons of water; constituting a milk-white, soapy solution of about spec. grav. 1.022. This liquor is put into a large cylindrical vat, and constantly agitated by the rotation of wooden vanes, which are best constructed on the plan of the smashing apparatus of a brewery, but far slighter. This saponaceous compound is let off as wanted by a stopcock into the through of a padding machine, in order to imbue every fibre of the cloth in its passage. This impregnation is still more fully ensured by laying the padded cloth aside in wooden troughs during 16 or 18 days. The sheep's dung has been of late years disused by many Turkey-red dyers, both in England and France, but it is found to be advantageous in producing the very superior colour of the Glasgow establishment. It is supposed, also, to promote the subsequent bleaching during the exporuse on the green; which is the next process in favorable weather, but in bad weather the goods are dried over a hot-flue.
The cloth is padded again with the saponaceous liquor; and again spread on the grass, or dried hard in the stove. This alternation is repeated a third time, and occasionally, even a fourth.
The cloth by this time is varnished as it were with oil, and must be cleansed in a certain degree by being passed through a weak solution of pearl-ash, at the temperature of about 122° F. It is then squeezed by the rollers and dried.
A second system of oiling now commences, with the following liquor: - 10 gallons of Gallipoli oil; 30 gallons of soda crystals ley, of spec. grav. 1.06; and 10 gallons of caustic potash ley, of specific gravity 1.04, thoroughly diffused through 170 gallons of water. With this saponaceous liquor the cloth is padded as before, and then passed between squeezing-rollers, which return the superfluous liquor into the padding-trough The cloth many be now laid on the grass if convenient; but at any rate it must be hard dried in the stove.
These saponifying, grassing, and drying processes, are repeated three times; whereby the cloth becomes once more very oleaginous, and must be cleansed again by steeping in a compound ley of soda crystals and pearl-ash of the spec. grav. 1.012, at the temperature of 122°. The cloth is taken out, squeezed between rollers to save the liquor, and washed. A considerable portion of the mingled alkalis disappear in this operation, they entered into combination with the oil in the interior of the cotton filaments. The cloth is now hard dried.
Galling is the next great step in the Turkey-red preparation; and for its success all the oil should have been perfectly saponified.
From 18 to 20 pounds of Aleppo galls (for each 100 lbs. of cloth) are to be bruised and boiled for 3 or 4 hours, in 25 gallons of water, till 5 gallons be evaporated; and the decoction is to be then passed through a searce. Two pounds of sumach may be substituted for every pound of galls. The goods must be well padded with this decoction, kept at 90° F., passed through squeezing-rollers, and dried. They are then passed through a solution of alum of the spec. grav. 1.04, to which a certain portion of chalk is added to saturate the acid excess of that supersalt; and in this cretaceous mixture, heated to 110°, the cloth is winced and steeped for 12 hours. It is then passed between squeezing-rollers, and dried in the stove.
The maddering comes next.
From two to three pounds of madder, ground to powder in a proper mill, are taken for every pound of cloth. The cloth, as usual in maddering, is entered into the cold bath, and winced by the automatic reel during one hour that the bath takes to boil, and during an ebullition of two hours afterwards. One gallon of bullock's blood is added to the cold bath for every 25 pounds of cloth; being the quantity operated upon in one bath. The utility of the blood in improving the colour has been ascribed to its colouring particles; but it is more probably owing to its albuminous matter combining with the margarates of soda and potash condensed in the fibred.
As madder contains a dingy brown colouring matter associated with the fine red, the goods must be subjected to a clearing process to remove the former tinge, which is more fugitive than the latter. Every hundred pounds of cloth are therefore boiled during 12 hours at least, with water containing 5 pounds of soda crystals, 8 pounds of soap, and 16 gallons of the residual pearl-ash and soda ley of the last cleansing operation. By this powerful means the dun matter is well high removed; but it is completely so by a second boil, at the of 250° F., in a tight globular copper, along with 5 pounds of soap, and 1 pound of muriate of tin crystals, dissolved in a sufficient body of water for 100 pounds of cloth. The muriate of tin serves to raise the madder red to a scarlet hue. A margarate of tin is probably fixed upon the cloth in this operation.
When the weather permits, the goods should be now laid out for a few days on the grass. Some manufacturers give them a final brightening with a weak bath of a chloride of lime; but it is apt to impoverish the color.
According to the latest improvements of the French dyers, each of the four processes of oiling, mordanting, dyeing, and brightening differs, in some respects, from the above.
1. Their first step is boiling the cloth for four hours, in water containing one pound of soap for every four pieces. Their saponaceous bath of a creamy aspect is used at a temperature of 75° F.; and it is applied by the padding machine 6 times, with the grassing and drying alternations. In winter, when the goods cannot be exposed on the grass, no less than 12 lternations of the saponaceous or white bath are employed, and 8 in spring. They consider the action of the sun-beams to aid greatly in brightening this dye; but at Midsummer, if it be continued more than 4 hours, the scarlet colour produced begins to be impaired.
They conceive that the oiling operation impregnates the fibres with super-margarate of potash or soda, insoluble salts which attract and condense the alumina, and the red colouring particles of the madder, so firmly that they can resist the clearing boil.
2. Their second step, the mordanting, consists first in padding the pieces through a decoction of galls mixed with a solution of an equal weight of alum; and after drying in the hot-flue, &c., again padding them in a solution of an acetate of alumina, made by decomposing a solution solution of 16 lbs. of alum with 16 lbs. of acetate of lead, for 6 pieces of cloth, each 32 aunes long.
3. The maddering is given at two successive operations; with 4 pounds of Avignon madder per piece at each time.
4. The brightening is performed by a 12 hours' boil in water with soda crystals, soap, and salt of tin; and the rosing by a 10 hours' boil with soap and salt of tin. Occasionally, the goods are passed through a weak solution of chloride of potash. When the red has too much of a crimson cast, the pieces are exposed for two days on the grass, which gives them bright scarlet tint.
Process of M. Werdet to dye broadcloth and wool by madder: -
"Preparation for 24 pounds of scoured wool:
" Take 4¼ pounds of cream of tartar, 4¼ pounds of pure alum; boil the wool gently for 2 hours, transfer it into a cool place, and wash it next day in clear water.
"Dyeing. - 12 pounds of Avignon madder, infused half an hour at 30° R. (100° F.) Put into the bath 1 pounds of muriate of tin, let the colour rose for three quarters of an hour ar the same heat, and drain or squeeze the madder through canvass. The whole of the red dye will remain upon the filter, but the water which has passed through will be as deep a yellow as a weld bath. The boiler with the dye must now be filled up with clear river water, and heated to 100° F. Two ounces of the solution of the tartar and alum must be poured into it, and the wool must be turned over in it for an hour and a half, while the heat is gradually raised to the boiling point. The wool is then removed and washed. It must be rosed the following day.
Rosing. - Dissolve in hot water 1 pound of white Marseilles soap; let the bath cool, and pass the wool through it till it has acquired the desired shade; 15 or 20 minutes are sufficient. On coming out of this bath it should be washed.
Solution of deuto-muriate of tin: -
2 ounces of pure muriatic acid; 4 drachms of pure nitric acid; 1 ounce of distilled water. Dissolve in it, by small portions at a time, 2 drachms of grain tin, in a large bottle of white glass, shutting t after putting in the tin. This solution may be preserved for years, without losing its virtue."
I have inserted this process, as recently recommended by the French minister of commerce, and published by M. Pouillet in vol. i. of his Portefeuille Infustriel, to show what official importance is sometimes given by our neighbors to the most frivolous things.
Madders imported for home consumption.
1836 - Cwts. 106,172
1837 - Cwts. 79,228
Gross amount of Duty paid in
1836. £10,810
1837. £8,081
24.4.11
A Dictionary of Arts (supplement): Lac Dye. Logwood.
(A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice)
Recent improvements in
Arts, Manufactures, and Mines:
Being A supplement to his Dictionary
by Andrew Ure, M. D.,
F.R.S. N.G.S. M.A.S. LOND.; M. ACAD. N.S. PHILAD.; S. PH. SOC.N. GERM. HANOV.; MUHL. ETC., ETC.
Illustrated with one hundred and ninety engravings.
New York: D. Appleton & Company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
LAC DYE. Imported for home consumption in 1839, 532,881 pounds; in 1840, 644,092 pounds; 6s. per cwt. duty.
LOGWOOD; imported for home consumption in 1839, 17,209 tons; in 1840, 18,683 tons; duty 3s., foreign 4s. 6d.
A Dictionary of Arts: L. Laccic acid. Laccine. Lacquer. Lamium album. Lazulite. Ledum palustre. Litharge. Luteoline.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice
by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.
Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.
New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
LACCIC ACID crystallizes, has a wine yellow colour, a sour taste, is soluble in water, alcohol, and ether. It was extracted from stick lac by Dr. John.
LACCINE is the portion of shell lac which is insoluble in boiling alcohol. It is brown, brittle, translucid, consisting of agglomerated pellicles, more like a resin than any thing else. It is insoluble in ether and oils. It has not been applied to any use.
LACQUER is a varnish consisting chiefly of a solution of pale shell-lac in alcohol, tinged with saffron, annotto, or other colouring matters. See VARNISH.
LAMIUM ALBUM, or thedead nettle, is said by Leuchs to afford in its leaves a greenish-yellow dye. The L. purpureum dyes a reddish-grey with salt of tin, and a greenish tint with iron liquor.
LAZULITE (Eng. and Fr.; Lazulith, Germ.) is a blue vitreous mineral crystallizing in rhomboidal dodecahedrons; spec. grav. 2.76 to 2.94; scratches glass; affords a little water by calcination; fusible into a white glass; dissolves in acids with loss of colour; solution leaves an alkaline residuum, after being treated with carbonate of ammonia, filtered, evaporated, and calcined. It consists of silica 35.8; alumina 34.8; soda 23.2; sulphur 3.1; carbonate of lime 3.1. This beautiful stone affords the native ultramarine pigment, which was very costly till a mode of making it artificially was lately discovered. See ULTRAMARINE.
LEDUM PALUSTRE. This plant is employed in Russia to tan the skins of goats, calves, and sheep, into a reddish leather of an agreeable smell; as also in the preparation of the oil of birch, for making what is commonly called Russia leather.
LITHARGE (Eng. and Fr.; Glätte, Germ.) is the fused yellow protoxide of lead, which on cooling passes into a mass consisting of small six-sided plates, of a reddish yellow colour and semitransparent. It generally contains more or less red lead, whence the variations of its colour; and carbonic acid, especially when it has been exposed to the air for some time. See LEAD, and SILVER, for its mode of preparation.
LUTEOLINE, is a yellow colouring matter discovered by Chevreul in weld. When sublimed, it crystallizes in needles.
23.4.11
A Dictionary of Arts: Logwood.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice
by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.
Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.
New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
LOGWOOD (Bois de Campèche Boil bleu, Fr.; Blauholz, Germ.); is the wood of the Hæmatoxylon Campechianum, a native tree of central America, grown in Jamaica since 1715. It was first introduced into England in the reign of Elizabeth, but as it afforded to the unskilful dyers of her time a fugitive colour, it was not only prohibited from being used, under severe penalties, but was ordered to be burned wherever found, by a law passed in the 23d year of her reign. The same prejudice existed, and the same law was enacted against indigo. At length after a century of absurd prohibition, these two most valuable tinctorial matters, by which all our hats, and the greater part of our woollen cloths, are dyed, were allowed to be used.
Old wood with black bark and with little of the white alburnum, is preferred. Logwood is denser than water, very hard, of a fine compact grain and almost indestructible by the atmospheric elements; it has a sweet and astringent taste, and a peculiar not inoffensive smell.
For its chemical composition, see HEMATIN.
When chipped logwood is for some time exposed to the air, it loses a portion of its dyeing power. Its decoction absorbs the oxygen of the atmosphere, and then acquires the property of precipitating with gelatine, which it had not before. The dry extract of logwood, made from an old decoction, affords only a fugitive colour.
For its applications in dyeing, see BLACK DYE; BROWN DYE; CALICO PRINTING; DYEING; HA DYEING, &c.
The imports of logwood for home use were in 1836, 12,880 tons, 13 cwts; in 1837, 14,677 tons, 13 cwts. And the amount of duty received was, in 1836 2,480 in 1837 2,552l.
22.4.11
A Dictionary of Arts: Litmus.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice
by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.
Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.
New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
LITMUS (Tournesol, Fr.; Lackmus, Germ.) is prepared in Holland from the species of lichen called Lecanora tartarea, Roccella tartarea, by a process which has been kept secret, but which is undoubtedly analogous to that for making archil and and cudbear. The ground lichens are first treated with urine containing a little potash, and allowed to ferment, whereby they produce a purple-red; the coloured liquor, treated with quicklime and some more urine, is set again to ferment during two or three weeks, then it is mixed with chalk or gypsum into a paste, which is formed into small cubical pieces, and dried in the shade. Litmus has a violet-blue color, is easy to pulverize, is partially asoluble in water and dilute alcohol, leaving a residuum consisting of carbonate of lime, of clay, silica, gypsum, and oxide of iron combined with the dye. The colour of litmus is not altered alkalis, but is reddened by acids; and is therefore used in chemistry as a delicate test of acidity, either in the state of solution or of unsized paper stained with it. It is employed to dye marble blue.
21.4.11
A Dictionary of Arts: Lithography.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice
by Andrew Ure, M. D.;
F. R. S. M. G. S. Lond.: M. Acad. M. S. Philad.; S. PH. DOC. N. GERM. Ranow.; Mulh. Etc. Etc.
Illustrated with nearly fifteen hundred engravings on wood
Eleventh American, From The Last London Edition.
To which is appended, a Supplement of Recent Improvements to The Present Time.
New York: D Appleton & company, 200 Broadway. Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
LITHOGRAPHY. Though this subject belongs rather to the arts of taste and design than to productive manufactures, its chemical principles fall within the province of this Dictionary.
The term lithography is derived from lithos, a stone, and (grafein?), writing, and designates the art of throwing off impressions, upon paper, of figures and writing previously traced upon stone. The processes of this art are founded: -
1. Upon the adhesion to a smoothly polished limestone of an encaustic fat which forms the lines or traces.
2. Upon the power, acquired by the parts penetrated by this encaustic, of attracting to themselves, and becoming covered with a printer's in, having linseed oil for its basis.
3. Upon the interposition of a film of water, which prevents the adhesion of the ink in all the parts of the surface of the stone not impregnated with the encaustic.
4. Lastly, upon a pressure applied by the stone, such as to transfer to paper the greater part of the ink which covers the greasy tracings of the encaustic.
The litographic stones of the best quality are still produced from thae quarry of Solenhofen, a villlage at no great distance from Munich, where this mode of printing had its birth. They resemble in their aspect the yellowish white lias of Bath, but their geological place is much higher than the lins. Abundant quarries of these fine-grained limestones occur in the county of Pappenheim, along the banks of the Danube, presenting slabs of every required degree of thickness, parted by regular seams, and ready for removal with very little violence. The good quality of lithographic stone is generally denoted by the following characters: its hue is of a yellowish gray, and uniform throughout; it is free from veins, fibres, and spots; a steel point makes an impression on it with difficulity; and the splinters broken off from it by the hammer display a conchoidal fracture.
The Munich stones are retailed on the spot in slabs or layers of equal thickness; they are quarried with the aid of a saw, so as to sacrifice as little as possible of the irregular edges of the rectangular tables or plates. One of the broad faces is then dressed and coarsely smoothed. The thickness of these stones is nearly proportional to their other dimensions; and varies from an inch and two thirds to 3 inches.
In each lithographic establishment, the stones receive their finishing, dressing, and polishing; which are performed like the grinding and polishing of mirror plate. The work is done by hand, by rubbing circularly a moveable slab over another cemented in a horizontal position, with fine sifted sand and water interposed between the two. The style of work that the stone is intended to produce determines the kind of polish that it should get. For crayon drawing the stone should be merely grained more or less fine according to the fancy of the draughtsman. The higher the finish of the surface, the softer are the drawings; but the printing process becomes sooner pasty, and a smaller number of impressions can be taken. Works in ink require the stone to be more softened down, and finally polished with pumice and a little water. The stones thus prepared are packed for use with white paper interposed between their faces.
Lithographic crayons. - Fine lithographic prints cannot be obtained unless the crayons possess every requisite quality. The ingredients composing them ought to be of such a nature as to adhere strongly to the stone, both after the drawing has undergone the preparation of the acid, and during the press-work. They should be hard enough to admit of a fine point, and trace delicate lines without risk of breaking. The following composition has been successfully employed for crayons by MM. Bernard and Delarue, at Paris: -
Pure wax, (first quality) - - 4
Dry white tallow soap - - 2
White tallow - - 2
Gum lac - - 2
Lamp black, enough to give a dark tint - - 1
Occasionally copal varnish - - 1
The wax is to be melted over a gentle fire, and the lac broken to bits is the to be added by degrees, stirring all the while with a spatula; the soap is next instroduced in fine shavings; and when the mixture of these substances is very intimately accomplished, the copal-varnish, incorporated with the lamb black, is poured in. The heat and agitation are continued till the paste has acquired a suitable consistence; which may be recognized by taking out little of it, letting it cool on a plate, and trying its quality with a penknife. This composition, on being cut, should afford brittle slices. The boiling may be quickened by setting the rising vapors on fire, which increases the temperature, and renders the exhalations less offensive. When ready, it iis to be poured into a brass mould, made of two semi-cylinders joined together by clasps or rings, forming between them a cylindric tube of the crayon size. The mould should be previously smeared with a greasy cloth.
M. Lasteyrie prescribes a more simple composition, said to be equaly fit for the lithographer's use: -
Dried white tallow soap - - 6 parts.
White wax - - 6 -
Lamp black - - 1-
The soap and tallow are to be put into a small goblet and covered up. When the whole is thoroughly fused by heat, and not clots remain, the black is gradually sprinkled in with careful stirring.
Lithographic ink is prepared nearly on the same principles: -
Wax - - 16 parts.
Tallow - - 6 -
Hard tallow soap - - 6 -
Shellac - - 12 -
Mastic in tears - - 8 -
Venice turpentine - - 1 -
Lamp black - - 4 -
The mastic and lac, previously ground together, are to be heated with care in the turpentine; the wax and tallow are to be added after they are taken off the fire, and when their solution is effected, the soap shavings are to be thrown in. Lastly, the lamp black is to be well intermixed. Whenever the union is accomplished byheat, the operation is finished; the liquor is left to cool a little, then poured out on tables, and, when cold, cut into square rods.
Lithographic ink of good quality ought to be susceptible of forming an emulsion so attenuated, that it may appear to be dissolved when rubbed upon a hard body in distilled or river water. It should be flowing in the pen, not spreading on the stone; capable of forming delicate traces, and very black to show its delineations. The most essential quality of the ink is to sink well into the stone, so as to re-produce the most delicate outlines of the drawing, and to afford a great many impressions. It must therefore be able to resist the acid with which the stone is moistened in the preparation, without letting any of its greasy matter escape.
M. de Lasteyrie states that after having tried a great many combinations, he gives the preference to the following: -
Tallow soap, dried - - 30 parts
Mastic, in tears - - 30 -
White soda of commerce - - 30 -
Shellac - - 150 -
Lamp-black - - 12 -
The soap is first put into the goblet and melted over the fire, to which the lac being added fuses immediately; the soda is then introduced, and next the mastic, stirring all the while with a spatula. A brisk fire is applied till all these materials be melted completely, when the whole is poured out into the mould.
The inks now prescribed may be employed equally with the pen and the hair pencil, for writings, black-lead drawings, aqua tinta, mixed drawings, those which represent engravings on wood (wood cuts), & c. When the ink is to be used it is to be rubbed down with water, in manner of China ink, till the shade be of the requisite depth. The temperature of the place ought to be from 84° to 90° Fahr., or the saucer in which the the ink-stick is rubbed should be set in a heated plate. No more ink should be dissolved than is to be used at the time, for it rarely keeps in the liquid state for 24 hours; and it should be covered or corked up.
Autographic paper. - Autography, or the operation by which a wriitng or a drawing is transferred from paper to stone, presents not merely a means of abridging labor, but also that of reverting the writings or drawings into the direction in which they were traced, whilst, if executed directly upon the stone, the impression given by it is inverted. Hence, a writing upon the stone must be inverted from right to left to obtain direct impressions. But the art of writing thus is tedious and difficult to acquire, while, by means of the autographic paper and the transfer, proofs are obtained in the same direction with the writing and drawing.
Autographic Ink. - It must be fatter and softer than that applied directly to the stone, so that though dry upon the paper, it may still preserve sufficient viscidity to stick to the stone by mere pressure.
T compose this ink, we take -
White soap - - 100 parts
White wax of the best quality - - 100 -
Mutton suet - - 30 -
Shellac - - 50 -
Mastic - - 50 -
Lamp-black - - 30 or 35 -
These materials are be melted as above described for the lithographic ink.
Lithographic ink and paper. - The following recipes have been much commended: -
Virgin or white wax - - 8 parts
White soap - - 2 -
Shellac - - 2 -
Lamp-black - - 3 table-spoonful.
Preparation. - The wax and soap are to be melted together, and before they become so hot as to take fire, the lamp-black is to be well stirred in with a spatula, and then the mixture is to be allowed to burn for 30 seconds; the flame being extinguished, the lac is to be added by degrees, carefully stirring all the time; the vessel is to be put upon the the fire once more in order to complete the combination, and till the materials are either kindled or nearly so. After the flame is extinguished, the ink must be suffered to cool a little, and then put into the moulds.
With the ink crayons thus made, lines may be drawn as fine as with the point of the graver, and as full us can be desired, without risk of its spreading in the carriage. Its traces will remain unchanged on paper for years before being transferred.
Some may think it strange that there is no suet in the above composition, but it has been found that ink containing it is only good when used soon after it is made, and when immediately transferred to the stone, while traces drawn on paper with the suet ink become defective after 4 or 5 days.
Lithographic paper. - Lay on the paper, 3 successive coats of sheep-feet jelly,
1 layer of white starch,
1 layer of gamboge.
The first layer is applied with a sponge dipped in the solution of the hot jelly, very equally over the whole surface, but thin; and if the leaf be stretched upon a cord, the gelatine will be more uniform. The next two coats are to be laid on, until each is dry. The layer of starch is then to be applied with a sponge, and it will also be very thin and equal. The coat of gamboge is lastly to be applied in the same way. When the paper is dry, it must be smoothed by passing it through the lithographic press; and the more polished it is, the better does it take on the ink in fine lines.
Transfer. - When the paper is moistened, the transfer of the ink from the gamboge is perfect and infallible. The starch separates from the gelatine, and if, after taking the paper off the stone, we place it on a white slab of stone, and pour hot water over it, it will resume its primitive state.
The coat of gamboge ought to be laid on the same day it is dissolved, as by keeping, it becomes of an oily nature; in this state it does not obstruct the transfer, but it gives a gloss to the paper which renders the drawing or tracing more difficult, especially to persons little habituated to lithography.
The starch paste can be employed only when cold, the day after it is made, and after having the skin removed from its surface.
A leaf of such lithographic paper may be made in two minutes.
In transferring a writing, an ink drawing, or a lithographic crayon, even the impression of a copper-plate, to the stone, it is necessary, 1. that the impressions be made upon a thin and slender body like common paper; 2. that they may be detached and fixed totally on the the stone by means of pressure; but as the ink of a drawing sinks to a certain depth in paper, and adheres pretty strongly, it would be difficult to detach all its parts, were there not previously put between the paper and the traces, a body capable of being separated from the paper, and of losing its adhesion to it by means of the water with which it is damped. In order to produce this effect, the paper gets a certain preparation, which consists in coating it over with a kind of paste ready to receive every delineation without suffering it to penetrate into the paper. There are different modes of communicating this property to paper. Besides the above, the following may be tried. Take an unsized paper, rather strong, and cover it with a varnish composed of : -
Starch - - - 120 parts
Gum arabic - - - 40
Alum - - - 20
A paste of moderate consistence must be made with the starch and some water, with the aid of heat, into which the gum and alum are to be thrown, each previously dissolved in separate vessels. When the whole is well mixed, it is to be applied, still hot, on leaves of paper, with a flat smooth brush. A tint of yellow colour may be given to the varnish, with a decoction of the berries of Avignon, commonly called French berries by our dyers. The paper is to be dried, and smoothed by passing under the scraper of the lithographic press.
Steel pens are employed for writing and drawing with ink on the lithographic stones.