The Dyer's Guide. Chapter V. On Dyeing Silk And Cotton Black, &c. To dye silk black, the London process

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.
Take of wove silk, twilled sarsenet, one hundred and fifty yards. Boil, for three hours, of alder bark one bushel and a half; of logwood fourteen pounds; and of iron filings one pound. Then let the fire be damped; dissolve four ounces of sulphate of copper in water; wet out the silk in hot water; after which put the solution of sulphate of copper into the liquor and stir it only; then put the silk into the copper, and work it from end to end four times; after which take it out in the air; now put it in again and work it as before; take it out again and let it be aired on the floor, opening it from time to time till it is cold; repeat the same thing twice more, in all four times. This is termed four wets. While the last wet is cooling and airing, dissolve and put into the copper three pounds of sulphate of iron, and then give the silk two more wets, which make the number of wets six. The drugs are now left to boil as much as they will during the night, being left so to do, because in a large business, this part of the process would close the day's work.

The next morning give the silk four or five wets more, and leave it in the copper all the following night, observing when it is left in, and always when it is worked in, that the heat must be considerably under the boiling point, and the silk kept covered by the liquor: for if any part be exposed to the air it will be marked.