Dictionarium polygraphicum. To prepare for the Indigo Dye.

Dictionarium Polygraphicum:
Or, The Whole Body of Arts Regularly Digested.
Vol II.
London: Printed for C. Hitch and C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, and S. Austen in St. Paul's Church Yard. MDCCXXXV.
1735
You must first have the ground of a dye, which is to be put into the kettle, and made as Warm as you can bear it; and afterwards prepare a lye of pot-ashes.

The kettle must be first fill'd with water and made to boil, then the pot-ashes are to be put in; boil them, and then put in a bowl-full of bran, and three handfulsof madder; boil them all fora quarter of an hour; then remove the fire, and pound the Indigo in a mortar to an impalpable powder, and pour some of the lye upon it. Let it stand to settle, and then pour some of the Indigo dye into the blue dye copper, and proceed thus, till the proper quantity of Indigo is turn'd into the dye; then beat what remains a second time, and let it stand to settle, and pour the lye into the blue copper, repeating this till you have turn'd a proper quantity of Indigo to lye, which must all bepoured into the copper, then you must proceed to dye your stuffs, &c.

The Indigo dye. Allow to every quarter of a pound of Indigo a pound and a half of pot-ashes, and a quarter of a pound of madder, 3 handfuls of wheaten bran, boil these for 7 or 8 minutes, and then let it stand to settle; pour off the clear part of the suds or liquor, and pound the Indigo very fine, and mix it with a sufficient quantity of fresh woad, or stale Indigo, and then pour the fads upon it, and let it boil for 24 hours, and it will be ready to dye withal.

To prepare the dye copper. First throw in a pint of wheaten tran, next to that the woad, and after that, 2 pound of madder, then fill the copper with water, and make it boil for 3 hours; then pour it off into the vat, and let it stand till it is of a due consistence; then boil the copper full of water, and pour it into the dye suds, and cover it up warm; let it stand 2 hours to settle, and look upon it every hour, till it becomes blue.

Then, according to the quantity of stuffs to he dyed, put in 3 or 4 pound of Indigo, and 3 pound of pot-ashes, let it stand to settle and dye with this liquor; taking care always to stir it; cover it close, and let it stand 2 hours after every time you have dyed with it: after which time you may dye with it again, adding a sufficient quantity of lime, if you use it often, always let ting it stand 2 hours, and then adding lime and stirririg it.


How to prepare the INDIGO dye for the lye, in conjunction with the Provence BLUE, and make it lasting for stuffs, silks, woollen, and linnen.

If the ware is to have a deep dye, you must first prepare it in tartar and vitriol; but if of a light dye, in alum and tartar.

Boil 3 pound of brown wood in a bag, in a kettle of water, for half an hour, then take it out and dry it, and let the dye grow cool enough for you to bear your hand in it; then make use of your Indigo and Ashes (as in the direction for the blue dye) with all the rest of the useful and remedying drugs, from beginning to the end, as there directed.

When the blue dye has stood 24 hours, and the Indigo his come to its perfect strength, and begins to be blue, first dye what you would have of a deep blue, and the lightest last: and having work'd the dye half an hour, let it rest for an hour, and so on as lone as you work it.

If the lye be too weak, you may strengthen it at pleasure.



The way of mixing the Provence blue with woad for silk, woollen, and linnen ware; and to improve the BLUE.

It requires 3 waters to prepare the woad, and if you would use the Provence blue with woad and indigo, no brown wood is to be put in the first water, and then you must consider how the woad comes from the lye.

For the second water; boil a pound of brown wood in a bag; to be sure taking care that there be no bran in the water.

For the third water, use 2 pound of brown wood, but if you would have the dye deeper, then make your dye deeper in the first operation.



To dye linnen thread BLUE.

For every 6 pound of thread, take half a pound of Alum, 5 ounces of tartar, 2 quarts of sharp lye, set it over in the fire, and as soon as it boils, put in the thread, and let it soak there for 4 hours; then rinse or pass it through fresh water.

And afterwards dye it blue.

Take a pound of boiled brown wood, 3 quarters of an ounce of verdigrease powdered, one quart of sharp lye, the galls of 2 oxen or cows, half an ounce of calcin'd tartar, half an ounce of calcin'd white vitriol; put in the thread af twice, so that you may dye it light or deep at pleasure; and then the thread having first lain two hours in the woad lye, must be rinsed clean out.

If it be put into this lye when it is cold, it becomes much brighter and bluer, than if put in when boiling hot; but the most lasting dye for thread is perform'd with woad.

But if you would dye in the Indigo copper, you are not to use the same preparation suds, as in this dye, and the colour will be durable.

And lastly, the thread dyed with Indigo, ought to be rinsed through warm water, in order to give it the better lustre.