The Dyer's Guide. Chapter V. On Dyeing Silk And Cotton Black, &c. To dye cotton black, the London process, used by various calico printers in the suburbs.

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.
Cotton cambric piece-goods are passed through a blotching machine to receive a mordant of acetate of iron, and galled slightly; sumach is used instead when galls are dear; the cotton is then passed through logwood, or logwood and fustic, and then through sumach; so that it is possible thus to give them the mordant sufficiently in proportion to the iron liquor at first; proceed as in dyeing afterwards, at a heat approaching boiling or even boiling. You may now proceed by adding first the galling or sumach slightly; afterwards the logwood, &c.; and then the remainder of the galling or sumach may be used to finish it; and thus dye the goods black by the quickest possible process.

It should be observed respecting the last process and the process which precedes it, that in dyeing black alum is inimical to the colour. Therefore D'Alpigny's is not now esteemed. Alum for black is as improper, as it is proper and essential for red and yellow.

In regard to giving the acetate of iron for black at once, as the second, or London process directs, it may be done by having the proportions full; by full is meant that the mordant should be full enough; then, after the slight galling, as directed in giving the logwood and alder bark decoction, or logwood and fustic, be sure to have that decoction strong enough. This might be called the ground; and the most perfect judgment might be formed of it by having a part of a piece, or one piece of a batch dried in the stove: for, according to the fullness of the ground, so will the black be rich and perfect or otherwise.

The alder bark and fustic are used only to prevent the hue of the logwood from being predominant. If the ground be a full and rich brown, the second full galling or sumaching will bring it to a full and rich black; but if the ground be poor, these processes will cut or destroy the ground, and the black will be foxy, nasty, and poor and not only so, but the material dyed will soon wear rotten, because having an over-dose of iron, the iron will tend to decompose the cotton. Therefore the following process is most esteemed.