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.