The Dyer's Guide. Chapter V. On Dyeing Silk And Cotton Black, &c. To dye cotton red.

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.
If the cotton skein has not been cleansed since it was spun it must be cleansed by being boiled in a solution of potash, one ounce of which, if good, to a pail of water may be enough, or more than enough. The cotton must be put into bags when boiled, then washed off and passed through clean water, scoured with a little sulphuric acid, and then washed off again; then galled, washed off, and dried. The galls should be white galls: for twenty pounds of cotton five pounds of bruised galls are boiled in about one hundred and twenty quarts of water for two hours.

After galling, the cotton must be alumed: four ounces of Roche alum for every pound of cotton. When alumed it must be washed off and dried.

The cotton is now to be dyed in a copper containing six pounds and a quarter of best crop madder, with a sufficiency of water. The heat is kept under that of boiling for three quarters of an hour. After being aired, washed, &c. it is put in, worked, and boiled for twelve or fifteen minutes. Some dye it again two days after, because the longer to a certain degree between aluming, dyeing, and drying, and between one dyeing and another, the better. The second time of dyeing eight ounces of madder are used for every pound of cotton. Some dyers gall it twice, and consequently dry it as often, then dye it at once in the madder, having a proportion accordingly. This is a red full-bodied colour.