Dictionarium polygraphicum. Of dying BLUEs.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol I.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
To dye a Blue or sky colour.
Take a sufficient quantity of urine, and four ounces of indigo, pound it to powder, and then dissolve it in the urine by a gentle heat, being close covered; then try its strength with a little bit of wool or flannel, and if it does not dye well, let it stand longer, until it is of a good colour.
It will be greenish at first, but will turn blue afterwards; before you put in your wool, yarn, flannel, &c, put a pint of yeast into your liquor, and it will make the dye the better; the less indigo is put into the liquor, the better sky colour it will be, provided it be not too little.

II. To dye an excellent Blue colour.
Take of stale urine a sufficient quantity, and four ounces of rock indigo, set them to soak in a good heat, till the indigo is dissolv'd: then put to it a pint of slack'd lime, and a pint of new yeast, mix them well together, and let them stand a quarter of an hour very hot; then stir it, and enter twenty yards of broad-cloth, and handle it over and over, for the space of half an hour; then cover it up for twelve hours, and then take it out and wash it. If it is not deep enough, heat the vat and put it in again.

III. Another way of dying Blue.
Take a sufficient quantity of boiling water, put into it pot-ashes, one pound of indigo, two ounces of madder, four pints of wheat bran; mix them all together and cover it for the space of twelve hours; then open it and put in one pint of woad, stir it about very well and cover it up for an hour; after which open it, stir it about, scum it and then put in your cloth, wool, &c.
This will dye about forty pound weight.

IV. To dye another Blue colour.
Take a sufficient quantity of urine, make it hot, and put into it four ounces of indigo, finely powdered, half that quantity of madder, as much ground malt as madder, and a little yeast, two ounces of pot-ashes, cover it up and let it stand in the warmth of the fire, and try when it will make a good colour, and if it does, first wet the cloth in warm water, and keep the vat warm and work the cloth in it, till it is of a good Blue, taking care to stir it often that it may not spot; keep it thus working till the dye is as deep as you would have it.

V. To dye another Blue.
Steep ebulus or dwarf elder-berries being ripe and well dryed, in vinegar for twelve hours, then rub them with your hands, and strain them through a linen cloth, putting thereto some bruis’d verditer and allum. But take notice, that if you would have the Blue to be clear, you must put more verditer to it.

VI. Another Blue dye.
Take tincture of brasile a sufficient quantity, vinegar three ounces, copper scales one ounce, salt one dram; mix all in a copper vessel, in which put the matter to be dyed.

VII. Another singular Blue dye.
Take of calcin'd tartar three pugils, of unslack'd lime one pugil, and with a sufficient quantity of water make a lixivium, and filter it; put one pound of Flanders Blue to twelve or fifteen quarts of this lixivium, and mix them well together; set it on the fire till it is so hot, that you can scarcely endure your hand in it 3 then having first boil'd (what you would dye) in alum water, take it out and dry it; afterwards dip it in hot lye twice or thrice, and put it into the dye again.

VIII. To make a substantial Blue dye.
Take water a gallon, one pound of woad, infuse it in a scalding or almost boiling heat for twenty four hours; then put into it wool, cotton, stuffs, flannel, or cloth of a white colour.

IX. Another good Blue.
Take a sufficient quantity, heat it in a copper, and dissolve in it half a pound of indigo, then put it into the vat, and add one ounce of madder, and a little ground malt; let it stand a while, and then enter twenty yards of cloth, working it till it is deep enough.

X. Another fair Blue.
Take sal armoniack and quick lime, of each one pound, and two or three ounces of verditer, put all into a vial, and set it in a horse dunghil for forty days.

XI. Another fair Blue colour.
Infuse some turnsole all night in urine, the next day grind it, and mix it with a little quick lime, according as you would have the colour to be; if you would have it a light shining colour, add to it a little gum Arabick.

XII. To dye barley straw of a Blue colour.
Take a sufficient quantity of lixivium of pot-ashes, and a pound of litmus or logwood ground, make a decoction; then put in your straw, and boil it and it will be blue.

To make a fine BLUE staining water.
Take a weak lixivium of pot-ashes, or take lime water, and put into it a sufficient quantity of florey, and dissolve a little alum in it, and stir it well over the fire; then take it off, and throw wood ashes into it, and so you will have a fine blue.

A weaker BLUE staining water.
Dissolve a sufficient quantity of blue florey in a sufficient quantity of water, and a little alum, and it will be of a fainter colour than the former.

A staining BLUE water, weaker than the latter.
Take a quart of pure well water, two shells of florey blue; mix them well together, and lay them on thin. This will be the faintest of all the three.

To dye wood, horns, or bones BLUE.
First boil them in alum water, then put them into a dissolution of indigo in urine.

To dye bristles and feathers BLUE.
First boil them in alum water, and aster, while they are warm, put them them into a tincture of juice of elder berries.