The Art of Dyeing. No. 21. Buff color on wool. Madder Buff. Salmon on wool. Buff on silk. Salmon on silk.

Scientific American 36, 19.5.1855

Buff color on wool.
The goods, whether wool, silk, or cotton, must be perfectly white to receive this color. The most simple method to dye it on wool, is with quercitron bark and cochineal. The dye kettle being perfectly clean, and the water boiling, a very small quantity of the clear liquor of scalde bark (quercitron) is added, and then a snuff - a mere snuff - of ground cochineal; these are suffered to boil for five minutes, when a littlhe chloride of tin and cream of tartar are added, the goods entered, smartly handled, and boiled for twenty minutes, when the color will be complete. The peculiar shade is produced by the quantity of dye stuffs used. It is not possible to give the particular quantity, because there is such a difference in the quality of them. But is is a color that is easily dyed; only be sure to put in such a minute quantity of stuffs as will not be beyond the shade, and all will be well, for it is easy to give two or three dips - adding the stuff in driblets, until the shade is obtained. A good dyer, therefore, is always master of his dye kettle; he never allows it to master him. This is the secret of success in dyeing. Fustic may be used in place of quercitron bark, but it does not make such a clear color.

Madder Buff.
A fast buff can be produced on clear white wool, by dyeing it in a very weak solution of madder liquor, without any mordant. The madder (crop madder) is scalded in a small vessel, the grounds allowed to settle, and the clear used. The goods are carefully handled and boiled in the liquor for about twenty minutes.
A buff can also be dyed on wool with fustic and cam wood - a small quantity of each, no mordant is required.

Salmon on wool.
This color is just dyed exactly like a buff; the only difference lies in the salmon having more red in its composition, it therefore receives more cochineal and that is all. The best way to dye this color is with quercitron bark and cochineal, because it can be toned so easily to any shade with these dye stuffs. Four ounces of barn and a quarter of an ounce of cochineal will dye about 10 lbs. of wool a light buff.

Buff on silk.
This color is generally dyed on silk with annotta, and is named "cream color." By handling clean white silk in a weak liquor of annotta, a beautiful buff will be the result. No mordant is rewuired; it is an exceedingly easy color to dye.

Salmon on silk.
By giving the silk a little stronger liquor of annotta than for the buff, a common salmon color will be the result. If it is required to throw it on a still redder shade than the common color called salmon, wash the silk, and run it, after it gets annotta, through a tub of cold water, made slightly sour to the taste with sulphuric acid; then wash the goods well before drying them. Annotta colors are usually dyed in strong soap suds.

A peculiar kind of buff can be dyed on silk with nitric acid. A clean kettle is filled with water and brought up to a scalding heat, a little nitric acid is then added - about enough to give the water a sharp acidulous taste - the n the goods are entered, and handled at this heat, for about twenty minutes. This is also an easy method of dyeing buff on silk.