By Edward Hazen.
Embellished with Eighty-two Engravings.
Philadelphia: Published by Uriah Hunt.
1837.
The Dyer.
1. The art of dyeing consists in impregnating flexible fibres with any colour which may be desired, in such a manner that it will remain permanent, under the common exposures to which it may be liable.
2. The union of the colouring matter with the fibres receiving the dye, is purely chemical, and not mechanical, as in the case of the application of paints. Wool has the greatest attraction for colouring substances; silk comes next to it; then cotton; and, lastly, hemp and flax. These materials, also, absorb dye-stuffs, in different proportions.
3. Previously to the application of the dye, the greasy substance which covers the fibres of wool, and the gluey matter on those of silk, are removed by some kind of alkali. Their natural colour is, also, discharged by the fumes of sulphur. The resinous matter, and natural colour of cotton and linen, are removed by bleaching.
4. The materials used in dyeing are divided into two classes-substantive and adjective. The former communicates durable tints, without the aid of any other substance previously applied; the latter requires the intervention of some agent which possesses an attraction, both for the colouring matter and the stuff to be dyed, in order to make the colour permanent. The substances used for this purpose, are usually termed mordants.
5. Agents capable of acting, in some way, as mordants, are very numerous; but alumina, alum, the sulphate, or acetate of iron, the muriate of tin, and nutgalls, are principally employed. The mordant not only fixes the colour, but, in many cases, alters and improves the tints. It is always dissolved in water, in which the stuffs are immersed, previously to the application of the dye. Dyeing substances are also very numerous; but a few of the most important have, in practice, taken precedence of the others.
6. Blue, red, yellow, and black, are the chief colours, for which appropriate colouring substances are applied; but, by a judicious combination of these same materials, and by a proper application of mordants, intermediate hues of every shade are produced: thus, a green is communicated by forming a blue ground of indigo, and then adding a yellow, by means of quercitron bark.
7. The blue dye is made of indigo; the red dye, of madder, cochineal, archil, Brazil-wood, or safflowers; the yellow dye, of quercitron bark, turmeric, hickory, weld, fustic, or saffron; the black dye, of the oxide of iron, combined with logwood, or the bark of the common red, or soft maple, with the sulphate, or acetate of iron. The dyes made of some of these substances require the aid of mordants, and those from others do not.
8. In communicating the intermediate hues, the different dyestuffs forming the leading colours are sometimes mixed; and, at other times, they are made into separate dyes, and applied in succession.
9. In this country, the business of the dyer is often united with that of the clothier; but where the amount of business will justify it, as in manufactories, and in cities or large towns, it is a separate business. The dyers sometimes confine their attention to particular branches: some dye wool only, or silk, while others confine themselves to certain colours, such as scarlet and blue. The principal profits of the dyer, when unconnected with manufacturing establishments, arise from dyeing garments, or stuffs, which have been partly worn.
10. The origin of the art of dyeing is involved in great obscurity, as the ancients have not furnished even a fable, which might guide us in our researches. It is evident, however, that the art must have made considerable progress, long before authentic history begins. Moses speaks of stuffs dyed blue, purple, and scarlet, and of sheep-skins dyed red. The knowledge of the preparation of these colours, implies an advanced state of the art at that early period.
11. Purple was the favourite colour of the ancients, and appears to have been the first which was brought to a state of tolerable perfection. The discovery of the mode of communicating it, is stated to have been accidental. A shepherd's dog, while on the sea-shore, incited by hunger, broke a shell, the contents of which stained his mouth with a beautiful purple; and the circumstance suggested the application of the shell-fish as a colouring substance. This discovery is thought to have been made about fifteen hundred years before the advent of Christ.
12. The Jews esteemed this colour so highly, that they consecrated it especially to the service of the Deity, using it in stuffs for decorating the tabernacle, and for the sacred vestments of the high-priests. The Babylonians, and other idolatrous nations, clothed their idols in habits of purple, and even supposed this colour capable of appeasing the wrath of the gods.
13. Among the heathen nations of antiquity, purple was appropriated to the use of kings and princes, while their subjects were debarred the use of this favourite colour. In Rome, at a later period, purple habits were worn by the chief officers of the republic, and, at length, by the opulent, until the emperors reserved to themselves the exclusive privilege.
14. There were several kinds of shell-fish, from which this colouring substance was obtained, each of which communicated a shade somewhat different from the others. The kind collected near Tyre was the best; and hence the Tyrian purple acquired especial celebrity. So highly was it esteemed by the Romans, in the time of Augustus, that wool imbued with this colour was sold for one thousand denarii per pound, which, in our currency, amounts to one hundred and sixty-eight dollars.
15. After all, the boasted purple of antiquity is supposed to have been a very inferior dye, when compared with many which we now possess; and this is only one among many instances wherein modern science has given us a decided superiority over the ancients.
16. The colour second in repute with the people of antiquity, was scarlet. This colour was communicated by means of an insect called coccus, and which is now denominated kermes. Besides the various hues of purple and scarlet, several others were in some degree of favour; such as green, orange, and blue. The use of vegetable dyes appears to have been but little known to the Romans; but the Gauls had the knowledge of imparting various colours, even the purple and scarlet, with the juice of certain herbs.
17. The irruption of the northern barbarians into the Roman empire, destroyed this, with the rest of the arts of civilization, in the western parts of Europe; but, having been preserved, more or less, in the East, it was again revived in the West principally by means of the intercourse arising from the Crusades.
18. Although indigo seems to have been known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, yet it does not appear to have been used for dyeing. The first that was applied to this purpose in Europe, was brought from India by the Dutch; but its general use was not established, without much opposition from interested individuals. It was strictly prohibited in England, in the reign of Elizabeth; and, about the same time, in Saxony. Many valuable acquisitions were made to the materials employed in this art, on the discovery of America; among which may be enumerated, cochineal, logwood, Brazil-wood, and nicaragua, together with the soft maple and quercitron barks.
19. The first book on the art of dyeing was published in 1429. This, of course, remained in manuscript, as the art of printing had not then been discovered: an edition was printed in 1510. The authors to whom the world is most indebted for correct information on this subject, are Dufuy, Hallet, Macquir, and Berthollet, of France; and Henry, and Bancroft, of England; —all of whom wrote in the eighteenth century.
The Calico-Printer.
1. Calico-printing is a combination of the arts of dyeing, engraving, and printing, wherewith is produced a great variety of figures, both in regard to form and colouring. This art is applicable to woven fabrics, and chiefly to those of which the material is cotton.
2. The first object, after preparing the stuffs, as in dyeing, is to apply a mordant to those parts of the piece which are to receive the colour. This is now usually done by means of a steel or copper cylinder, on which have been engraved the proposed figures, as on plates for copperplate-printing.
3. During the printing, the cylinder, in one part of its revolution, becomes charged with the mordant, the superfluous part of which is scraped off by a straight steel edge, leaving only the portion which fills the lines of the figures. As the cylinder revolves, the cloth comes into forcible contact with it, and receives the complete impression of the figures, in the pale colour of the mordant.
4. The cloth, after having been washed and dried, is passed through the colouring bath, in which the parts previously printed become permanently dyed with the intended colour. Although the whole piece receives the dye, yet, by washing the cloth, and bleaching it on the grass in the open air, the colour is discharged from those parts not impregnated with the mordant.
5. By the use of different mordants, successively applied, and a single dye, several colours are often communicated to the same piece of cloth: thus, if stripes are first made with the acetate of alumina, and then others with the acetate of iron, a colouring bath of madder will produce red and brown stripes. The same mordants, with a dye of quercitron bark, give yellow and olive, or drab.
6. Sometimes, the second mordant is applied by means of engravings, on wooden blocks. Cuts designed for this purpose, are engraved on the side of the grain, and not on the end, like those for printing books.
7. Calico-printing, so far as chemical affinities are concerned, is the same with dyeing. The difference consists, chiefly, in the mode of applying the materials, so as to communicate the desired tints and figures. The dye-stuffs most commonly employed by calico-printers, are indigo, madder, and quercitron bark: by a dexterous application of these, and the mordants, a great variety of colours can be produced. Indigo, being a substantive colour, does not require the aid of mordants, but, like them, when other dyes are used, is applied directly to the cloth, sometimes by the engraved cylinder or block, and at others with the pencil, by hand.
8. Calico-printing was practised in India, twenty-two centuries ago, when Alexander the Great visited that country with his victorious army. The operation was then performed with a pencil: this method is still used in the East, to the exclusion of every other. The art was also practised in Egypt, in Pliny's time.
9. Calicoes were first brought to England in the year 1631. They derive their name from the city of Calicut, whence they were first exported to Europe. This branch of business was introduced into London, in the year 1676. Since that time, it has been encouraged by several acts of parliament; but it never became extensive in England, until the introduction of the machinery for spinning cotton. It is supposed, that the amount of cottons annually printed in the United States, cannot be less than twenty millions of yards.
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