The Dyer's Guide. Chapter III. On Dyeing Silk. To dye silk violet, royal purple, &c.

The Dyer's Guide
Being a Compendium of the Art of Dyeing
Linen, Cotton, Silk, Wool, Muslin, Dresses, Furniture, &c. &c.
With The Method of
Scouring Wool, Bleaching Cotton, &c.
And
Directions for Ungumming Silk, And For Whitening And Sulphuring Silk And Wool.
And Also
An Inttroductory Epitome of The Leading Facts in Chemistry, As Connected With The Art of Dyeing.

By Thomas Packer,
Dyer and Practical Chemist.

"Cet arte est un des plus utiles et des plus merveilleux qu'on connoisse."
- Chaptal.

"There is no art which depends so much on chemistry as dyeing."
- Garnett.

Second Edition,
Corrected and Materially Improved.

London:
Printed for Sherwood, Gilbert, And Piper,
Paternoster-Row.
1830.
Boil archil with water in a copper; the quantity of archil according to the colour required must be from two to four times the weight of the silk. When the archil has boiled about ten minutes the fire must be damped, the archil left to subside, and the clear liquor put into a vessel of a convenient size, in which the silk is to be immersed and worked with care.

You must have a small corresponding pattern that you intend for purple, which at times you must put into the blue vat to regulate the depth of the archil ground, as the purple is a compound colour, arising from the blue of the indigo and the red of the archil. When the red of the archil is deep enough, you must wash it off and put it into the blue vat with proper precaution. The fulness of the archil ground and the depth of the blue, must be regulated according to the patterns which are to be matched.