The Dyer's Guide. Chapter VI. On Dyeing Cotton And Silk. Another process for crimson by Brazil wood

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.
The silk should be first alumed, and then passed through a strong decoction of Brazil wood, half a pail to a pound of silk, which is to be worked, and put through an additional and strengthened dye of Brazil wood, and then washed off: if in hard water this will generally crimson the Brazil wood sufficiently; but if in soft water a little pearl-ash must be added; about one pound of the clear solution of pearl-ash, or rather the clear solution of a pound of pearl-ash, as one pound of water will not, we believe, dissolve a pound of pearl-ash: this is enough for forty pounds of silk.

The decoction of Brazil wood is prepared thus: one hundred and fifty pounds of Brazil wood chips are put into a copper which holds about sixty buckets of water; the copper is then filled with water and boiled for three hours, the waste by evaporation being occasionally supplied. The fire is now damped, the clear liquor drawn off, the copper filled again, and again boiled for three hours more. This process is repeated four times in all, when the dye of the wood will be fully extracted.

Logwood and old fustic are treated in the same manner, but only two boilings are required for these.

In regard to crimson generally, see forward, observations on dyeing silk crimson and scarlet, and also some observations on the dyeing of wool scarlet, page 85.