Chapter II: Application of Light-Gas (22)

The wax is to be melted over a gentle fire, and the lac broken to bits is then to be added by degrees, stirring all the while with a spatula; the soap is next introduced in fine shavings; and when the mixture of these substances is very intimately accomplished, the copal-varnish, incorporated with the lamp black, is poured in. The heat and agitation are continued till the paste has acquired a suitable consistence; which may be recognised by taking out a little of it, letting it cool on a plate, and trying its quality with a penknife. This composition, on being cut, should afford brittle slices. The boiling may be quickened by setting the rising vapours on fire, which increases the temperature, and renders the exhalations less offensive. When ready, it is to be poured into a brass mould, made of two semi-cylinders joined together by clasps or rings, forming between them a cylindric tube of the crayon size. The mould should be previously smeared with a greasy cloth.

M. Lasteyrie prescribes a more simple composition, said to be equally fit for the lithographer’s use:--

Dried white tallow soap 6 parts.
White wax 6 --
Lamp black 1 --

The soap and tallow are to be put into a small goblet and covered up. When the whole is thoroughly fused by heat, and no clots remain, the black is gradually sprinkled in with careful stirring.

Lithographic ink is prepared nearly on the same principles:--

Wax 16 parts.
Tallow 6 --
Hard tallow soap 6 --
Shell-lac 12 --
Mastic in tears 8 --
Venice turpentine 1 --
Lamp black 4 --

The mastic and lac, previously ground together, are to be heated with care in the turpentine; the wax and tallow are to be added after they are taken off the fire, and when their solution is effected, the soap shavings are to be thrown in. Lastly, the lamp black is to be well intermixed. Whenever the union is accomplished by heat, the operation is finished; the liquor is left to cool a little, then poured out on tables, and, when cold, cut into square rods.

Lithographic ink of good quality ought to be susceptible of forming an emulsion so attenuated, that it may appear to be dissolved when rubbed upon a hard body in distilled or river water. It should be flowing in the pen, not spreading on the stone; capable of forming delicate traces, and very black to show its delineations. The most essential quality of the ink is to sink well into the stone, so as to re-produce the most delicate outlines of the drawing, and to afford a great many impressions. It must therefore be able to resist the acid with which the stone is moistened in the preparation, without letting any of its greasy matter escape.

M. de Lasteyrie states that after having tried a great many combinations, he gives the preference to the following:--

Tallow soap, dried 30 parts.
Mastic, in tears 30 --
White soda of commerce 30 --
Shell-lac 150 --
Lamp black 12 --

The soap is first put into the goblet and melted over the fire, to which the lac being added fuses immediately; the soda is then introduced, and next the mastic, stirring all the while with a spatula. A brisk fire is applied till all these materials be melted completely, when the whole is poured out into the mould.

The inks now prescribed may be employed equally with the pen and the hair pencil, for writings, black-lead drawings, _aqua tinta_, mixed drawings, those which represent engravings on wood (wood cuts), &c. When the ink is to be used it is to be rubbed down with water, in the manner of China ink, till the shade be of the requisite depth. The temperature of the place ought to be from 84° to 90° Fahr., or the saucer in which the ink-stick is rubbed should be set in a heated plate. No more ink should be dissolved than is to be used at the time, for it rarely keeps in the liquid state for 24 hours; and it should be covered or corked up.

_Autographic paper._--Autography, or the operation by which a writing or a drawing is transferred from paper to stone, presents not merely a means of abridging labour, but also that of _re_verting the writings or drawings into the direction in which they were traced, whilst, if executed directly upon the stone, the impression given by it is _in_verted. Hence, a writing upon stone must be inverted from right to left to obtain direct impressions. But the art of writing thus is tedious and difficult to acquire, while, by means of the autographic paper and the transfer, proofs are obtained in the same direction with the writing and drawing.

_Autographic ink._--It must be fatter and softer than that applied directly to the stone, so that though dry upon the paper, it may still preserve sufficient viscidity to stick to the stone by mere pressure.

To compose this ink, we take--

White soap 100 parts.
White wax of the best quality 100 --
Mutton suet 30 --
Shell-lac 50 --
Mastic 50 --
Lamp black 30 or 35 --

These materials are to be melted as above described for the lithographic ink.

_Lithographic ink and paper._--The following recipes have been much commended:

Virgin or white wax 8 parts
White soap 2 --
Shell-lac 2 --
Lamp black 3 table-spoonsful.

_Preparation._--The wax and soap are to be melted together, and before they become so hot as to take fire, the lamp black is to be well stirred in with a spatula, and then the mixture is to be allowed to burn for 30 seconds; the flame being extinguished, the lac is to be added by degrees, carefully stirring all the time; the vessel is to be put upon the fire once more in order to complete the combination, and till the materials are either kindled or nearly so. After the flame is extinguished, the ink must be suffered to cool a little, and then put into the moulds.

With the ink crayons thus made, lines may be drawn as fine as with the point of the graver, and as full as can be desired, without risk of its spreading in the carriage. Its traces will remain unchanged on paper for years before being transferred.

Some may think it strange that there is no suet in the above composition, but it has been found that ink containing it is only good when used soon after it is made, and when immediately transferred to the stone, while traces drawn on paper with the suet ink become defective after 4 or 5 days.

_Lithographic paper._--Lay on the paper,
3 successive coats of sheep-feet jelly,
1 layer of white starch,
1 layer of gamboge.

The first layer is applied with a sponge dipped in the solution of the hot jelly, very equally over the whole surface, but thin; and if the leaf be stretched upon a cord, the gelatine will be more uniform. The next two coats are to be laid on, until each is dry. The layer of starch is then to be applied with a sponge, and it will also be very thin and equal. The coat of gamboge is lastly to be applied in the same way. When the paper is dry, it must be smoothed by passing it through the lithographic press; and the more polished it is, the better does it take on the ink in fine lines.

_Transfer._--When the paper is moistened, the transfer of the ink from the gamboge is perfect and infallible. The starch separates from the gelatine, and if, after taking the paper off the stone, we place it on a white slab of stone, and pour hot water over it, it will resume its primitive state.

The coat of gamboge ought to be laid on the same day it is dissolved, as by keeping, it becomes of an oily nature; in this state it does not obstruct the transfer, but it gives a gloss to the paper which renders the drawing or tracing more difficult, especially to persons little habituated to lithography.

The starch paste can be employed only when cold, the day after it is made, and after having the skin removed from its surface.

A leaf of such lithographic paper may be made in two minutes.

In transferring a writing, an ink drawing, or a lithographic crayon, even the impression of a copper-plate, to the stone, it is necessary, 1. that the impressions be made upon a thin and slender body like common paper; 2. that they may be detached and fixed totally on the stone by means of pressure; but as the ink of a drawing sinks to a certain depth in paper, and adheres pretty strongly, it would be difficult to detach all its parts, were there not previously put between the paper and the traces, a body capable of being separated from the paper, and of losing its adhesion to it by means of the water with which it is damped. In order to produce this effect, the paper gets a certain preparation, which consists in coating it over with a kind of paste ready to receive every delineation without suffering it to penetrate into the paper. There are different modes of communicating this property to paper. Besides the above, the following may be tried. Take an unsized paper, rather strong, and cover it with a varnish composed of:--

Starch 120 parts
Gum arabic 40 --
Alum 20 --

A paste of moderate consistence must be made with the starch and some water, with the aid of heat, into which the gum and alum are to be thrown, each previously dissolved in separate vessels. When the whole is well mixed, it is to be applied, still hot, on the leaves of paper, with a flat smooth brush. A tint of yellow colour may be given to the varnish, with a decoction of the berries of Avignon, commonly called French berries by our dyers. The paper is to be dried, and smoothed by passing under the scraper of the lithographic press.

Steel pens are employed for writing and drawing with ink on the lithographic stones.

LITMUS (_Tournesol_, Fr.; _Lackmus_, Germ.); is prepared in Holland from the species of lichen called _Lecanora tartarea_, _Roccella tartarea_, by a process which has been kept secret, but which is undoubtedly analogous to that for making archil and cudbear. The ground lichens are first treated with urine containing a little potash, and allowed to ferment, whereby they produce a purple-red; the coloured liquor, treated with quicklime and some more urine, is set again to ferment during two or three weeks, then it is mixed with chalk or gypsum into a paste, which is formed into small cubical pieces, and dried in the shade. Litmus has a violet-blue colour, is easy to pulverize, is partially soluble in water and dilute alcohol, leaving a residuum consisting of carbonate of lime, of clay, silica, gypsum, and oxide of iron combined with the dye. The colour of litmus is not altered by alkalis, but is reddened by acids; and is therefore used in chemistry as a delicate test of acidity, either in the state of solution or of unsized paper stained with it. It is employed to dye marble blue.

LIXIVIATION (_Lessivage_, Fr.; _Auslagen_, Germ.); signifies the abstraction by water of the soluble alkaline or saline matters present in any earthy admixture; as from that of quicklime and potashes to make potash lye, from that of effloresced alum schist to make aluminous liquors, &c.

LOADSTONE, MAGNETIC IRON-STONE (_Fer oxydulé_, Fr.; _Magneteisenstein_, Germ.); an iron ore consisting of the protoxide and peroxide of iron in a state of combination.

LOAM (_Terre-limoneuse_, Fr.; _Lehm_, Germ.); a native clay mixed with quartz sand and iron ochre, and occasionally with some carbonate of lime.

LODE, is the name given by the Cornish miners to a vein, whether it be filled with metallic or earthy matter.

LOGWOOD (_Bois de Campèche_, _Bois bleu_, Fr.; _Blauholz_, Germ.); is the wood of the _Hæmatoxylon Campechianum_, a native tree of central America, grown in Jamaica since 1715. It was first introduced into England in the reign of Elizabeth, but as it afforded to the unskilful dyers of her time a fugitive colour, it was not only prohibited from being used, under severe penalties, but was ordered to be burned wherever found, by a law passed in the 23d year of her reign. The same prejudice existed, and the same law was enacted against indigo. At length, after a century of absurd prohibition, these two most valuable tinctorial matters, by which all our hats, and the greater part of our woollen cloths, are dyed, were allowed to be used.

Old wood, with black bark and with little of the white alburnum, is preferred. Logwood is denser than water, very hard, of a fine compact grain, and almost indestructible by the atmospheric elements; it has a sweet and astringent taste, and a peculiar not inoffensive smell.

For its chemical composition, see HEMATIN.

When chipped logwood is for some time exposed to the air, it loses a portion of its dyeing power. Its decoction absorbs the oxygen of the atmosphere, and then acquires the property of precipitating with gelatine, which it had not before. The dry extract of logwood, made from an old decoction, affords only a fugitive colour.

For its applications in dyeing, see BLACK DYE; BROWN DYE; CALICO PRINTING; DYEING; HAT DYEING, &c.

The imports of logwood for home use, were, in 1836, 12,880 tons, 13 cwts.; in 1837, 14,677 tons, 13 cwts. And the amount of duty received was, in 1836, 2,480_l._; in 1837, 2,552_l._

LOOM (_Metier a tisser_, Fr.; _Weberstuhl_, Germ.); is the ancient and well-known machine for weaving cloth by the decussation of a series of parallel threads, which run lengthwise, called the warp or chain, with other threads thrown transversely with the shuttle, called the woof or weft. See JACQUARD LOOM and WEAVING.

LUBRICATION. The following simple and efficacious plan of lubricating the joints and bearings of machinery by capillary attraction, has been kindly communicated to me, by its ingenious inventor, Edward Woolsey, Esq.:--

_Fig._ 645. represents a tin cup, which has a small tin tube A, which passes through the bottom, as shown by the dotted lines. It may have a tin cover to keep out the dust.

_Fig._ 646. is a plan of the same.

_Fig._ 647. is a section of the same. Oil is poured into the cup, and one end of a worsted or cotton thread is dipped into the oil, and the other end passed through the tube. The capillary attraction causes the oil to ascend and pass over the orifice of the tube, whence it gradually descends, and drops slower or quicker, according to the length of the thread, or its thickness, until every particle of oil is drawn over by this capillary syphon. The tube is intended to be put into the bearings of shafts, &c., and is made of any size that may be wished. If oil, or other liquids, is desired to be dropped upon a grindstone or other surface, this cup can have a handle to it, or be hung from the ceiling.

_Fig._ 648. It is frequently required to stop the capillary action when the machinery is not going; and this has been effected by means of a tightening screw, which passes through a screw boss in the cover of the cup, and presses against the internal orifice of the tube, preventing the oil from passing.

_Fig._ 649. As I find when these screw cups (_fig._ 648.) are used upon beams of engines and moving bearings, that the screw is apt to be tightened by the motion; and also, as I think the action of the screw is uncertain, from the workman neglecting to screw it down sufficiently, it answers best to take out the capillary thread when the lubrication is not required; and to effect this easily, I have a tin top to the cup, with a round pipe soldered to it: this pipe has a slit in it, like a pencil case, and allows a bolt B to slide easily in it. In _fig._ 650. the bolt is down; in _fig._ 651., the bolt, which is a piece of brass wire, is drawn up, and there is no capillary action between the thread and the oil. In _fig._ 651. it will be observed, that the bolt is kept in its place by its head C, resting in a lateral slit in the pipe, and it cannot be drawn out on account of the pin E. One end of the thread is fastened to the eye-hole at the bottom of the bolt, and the other end is tied to a small wire which crosses the lower orifice of the tube at D and which is shown in plan _fig._ 652.

By this simple contrivance the capillary action can be stopped or renewed in a second, without removing the top of the lubricator.

The saving by this plan, instead of pouring oil into the bearings, is 2 gallons out of 3, while the bearings are better oiled.

“I send you the drawings of the lubricators, with a detailed
explanation. I have omitted to state, that the saving in labour is
considerable where there are many joints to keep oiled three or four
times a day; and that the workman does not, with this apparatus, run
the risk of being caught by the machinery. Perhaps your friends may be
at a loss how to tie on the cotton or worsted thread. I pass a long
thread through the eye-hole E of the bolt, and then draw the two ends
through the tube by a fine wire with a hook to it, one end on one side
of the cross wire D, and the other end on the other side. I then put
the cover on, and the bolt in the position shown in _fig._ 651.; when
by drawing the two ends of the thread, and tying them across the wire
D, you have the exact length required. When you wish to see the
quantity of oil remaining in the lubricator, the bolt must be dropped
as in _fig._ 650., and you can then lift the cover a little way off,
without breaking the thread, and replenish with oil. The cost of
_fig._ 650. in tin plate is 9_d._ The figures in the wood cuts are one
third of the full size.

“Believe me to be yours sincerely,

“E. J. WOOLSEY.”

LUPININE, is a substance of a gummy appearance, so named by M. Cussola, because it was obtained from Lupines.

LUPULINE, from _Humulus Lupulus_; is the peculiar bitter aromatic principle of the hop. See BEER.

LUTE (from _lutum_, clay; _Lut_, Fr.; _Kitte_, _Beschläge_, Germ.); is a pasty or loamy matter employed to close the joints of chemical apparatus, or to coat their surfaces, and protect them from the direct action of flame. Lutes differ according to the nature of the vapours which they are destined to confine, and the degree of heat which they are to be exposed to.

1. _Lute of linseed meal_, made into a soft plastic dough with water, and immediately applied pretty thick to junctions of glass, or stone-ware, makes them perfectly tight, hardens speedily, resists acid and ammoniacal vapours, as also a moderate degree of heat. It becomes stronger when the meal is kneaded with milk, lime-water, or solution of glue.

2. Lute of thick gum-water, kneaded with clay, and iron filings, serves well for permanent junctions, as it becomes extremely solid.

3. By softening in water a piece of thick brown paper, kneading it first with rye-flour paste, and then with some potter’s clay, till it acquire the proper consistence, a lute is formed which does not readily crack or scale off.

4. Lute, consisting of a strong solution of glue kneaded into a dough with new slaked lime, is a powerful cement, and with the addition of white of egg, forms the _lut d’ane_;--a composition adapted to mend broken vessels of porcelain and stone-ware.

5. Skim-milk cheese, boiled for some time in water, and then triturated into paste with fresh-slaked lime, forms also a good lute.

6. Calcined gypsum, diffused through milk, solution of glue or starch, is a valuable lute, in many cases.

7. A lute made with linseed, melted caoutchouc, and pipe-clay, incorporated into a smooth dough, may be kept long soft when covered in a cellar, and serves admirably to confine acid vapours. As it does not harden, it may therefore be applied and taken off as often as we please.

8. Caoutchouc itself, after being melted in a spoon, may be advantageously used for securing joints against chlorine and acid vapours, in emergencies when nothing else would be effectual. It bears the heat at which sulphuric acid boils.

9. The best lute for joining crucibles inverted into each other, is a dough made with a mixture of fresh fire-clay, and ground fire-bricks, worked with water. That cement if made with solution of borax answers still better, upon some occasions, as it becomes a compact vitreous mass in the fire. See CEMENTS.

LUTEOLINE, is a yellow colouring matter discovered by Chevreul in weld. When sublimed, it crystallizes in needles.

LYCOPODIUM CLAVATUM. The seeds of the lycopodium ripen in September. They are employed, on account of their great combustibility, in theatres, to imitate the sudden flash of lightning, by throwing a quantity of them from a powder puff, or bellows, across the flame of a candle.

LYDIAN STONE, is flint-slate.

M.

MACARONI, is a dough of fine wheat flour, made into a tubular or pipe form, of the thickness of goose-quills, which was first prepared in Italy, and introduced into commerce under the name of Italian or Genoese paste. The wheat for this purpose must be ground into a coarse flour, called _gruau_ or _semoule_, by the French, by means of a pair of light mill-stones, placed at a somewhat greater distance than usual. This _semoule_ is the substance employed for making the dough. For the mode of manufacturing it into pipes, see VERMICELLI.

MACE, is a somewhat thick, tough, unctuous membrane, reticulated or chapt, of a yellowish-brown or orange colour. It forms the envelop of the shell of the fruit of the _myristica moschata_, which contains the nutmeg. It is dried in the sun, after being dipped in brine; sometimes it is sprinkled over with a little brine, before packing, to prevent the risk of moulding. Mace has a more agreeable flavour than nutmeg; with a warm and pungent taste. It contains two kinds of oil; the one of which is unctuous, bland, and of the consistence of butter; the other is volatile, aromatic, and thinner. The membrane is used as a condiment in cookery, and the aromatic oil in medicine.

MACERATION (Eng. and Fr.; _Einweichen_, Germ.), is a preparatory steep to which certain vegetable and animal substances are submitted, with the view of distending their fibres or pores, and causing them to be penetrated by such menstrua as are best adapted to extract their soluble parts. Water, alone, or mixed with acids, alkalis, or salts; alcohol and ether, are the liquids usually employed for that purpose.

MACLE, is the name of certain diagonal black spots in minerals, like the ace of diamonds in cards, supposed to proceed from some disturbance of the particles in the act of crystallization.

MADDER (_Garance_, Fr.; _Färberröthe_, Germ.), a substance very extensively used in dyeing, is the root of the _Rubia tinctorum_, a plant, of which two species are distinguished by Linnæus.

The best roots are those which have the size of a writing quill, or, at most, of the little finger. They are semitransparent, and reddish; have a strong odour, and a smooth bark. They should be of two or three years’ growth.

The madder, taken from the ground and picked, must be dried in order to be ground and preserved. In warm climates it is dried in the open air; but, elsewhere, stoves must be employed.

The stringy filaments and epidermis are to be removed, called _mulle_; as also the pith, so as to leave nothing but the ligneous fibres.

The preparation of madders is carried on in the department of the Rhone, in the following manner.

The roots are dried in a stove, heated by means of a furnace, from which the air is allowed to issue only at intervals, at the moment when it is judged to be saturated with moisture. The furnace-flue occupies a great portion of the floor; above are three close gratings, on which the roots are distributed in layers of about two decimetres (nearly 8 inches). At the end of 24 hours, those which are on the first grated floor directly above the stove are dry, when they are taken away and replaced by those of the superior floors. This operation is repeated whenever the roots over the stove are dry. The dry roots are thrashed with a flail, passed through fanners similar to those employed for corn, and then shaken upon a very coarse sieve. What passes through is farther winnowed and sifted through a finer sieve than the first. These operations are repeated five times, proceeding successively to sieves still finer and finer, and setting aside every time what remains on the sieve. What passes through the fifth sieve is rejected as sand and dust. After these operations, the whole fibrous matters remaining on the sieve are cleaned with common fanners, and women separate all the foreign matters which had not been removed before. For dividing the roots, afterwards, into different qualities, a brass sieve is made use of, whose meshes are from six to three millimetres in diameter (from 1/4th to 1/8th inch E.) What passes through the finest is rejected; and what passes through the coarsest is regarded as of the best quality. These roots thus separated, are carried into a stove, of a construction somewhat different from the first. They are spread out in layers of about a decimetre in thickness (nearly 4 inches E.), on large lattice-work frames, and the drying is known to be complete, when on taking up a handful and squeezing it, the roots break easily. On quitting the stove, the madder is carried, still hot, into a machine, where it is minced small, and a sieve separates the portion of the bark reduced to powder. This operation is repeated three or four times, and then the boulter is had recourse to. What passes through the sieve, or the brass meshes of the boulter, is regarded as common madder; and what issues at the extremity of the boulter is called the flour. Lastly, the madder which passes through the boulter is ground in a mill with vertical stones, and then passed through sieves of different sizes. What remains above is always better than what goes through.

The madder of Alsace is reduced to a very fine powder, and its colouring matter is extracted by a much longer ebullition than is necessary for the lizari of the Levant. The prepared madders ought to be carefully preserved from humidity, because they easily imbibe moisture, in which case fermentation spoils their colour.

D’Ambourney and Beckman have asserted, that it is more advantageous to employ the fresh root of madder than what has been submitted to desiccation, especially by means of stoves. But in its states of freshness, its volume becomes troublesome in the dyeing bath, and uniform observation seems to prove that it ameliorates by age. Besides, it must be rendered susceptible of keeping and carrying easily.

It appears that madder may be considered as composed of two colouring substances, one of which is dun (tawny), and the other is red. Both of these substances may combine with the stuff. It is of consequence, however, to fix only the red part. The dun portion appears to be more soluble, but its fixity on stuffs may possibly be increased by the affinity which it has for the red portion.

The different additions made to madder, and the multiplied processes to which it is sometimes exposed, have probably this separation for their chief object.

The red portion of madder is soluble, but in small quantity, in water. Hence but a limited concentration can be given to its solution. If the portion of this substance be too much increased, so far from obtaining a greater effect, we merely augment the proportion of the dun part, which is the more soluble of the two.

In consequence of the Société Industrielle of Mulhausen having offered in the year 1826 large premiums to the authors of the best analytical investigation of madder, eight memoirs were transmitted to it in the year 1827. They were examined with the greatest care by a committee consisting of able scientific and practical men. None of the competitors however fulfilled the conditions of the programme issued by the society; but four of them received a tribute of esteem and gratitude from it; MM. Robiquet and Colin at Paris, Kuhlmann at Lille, and Houton-Libillardière. Fresh premiums were offered for next year, to the amount of 2000 francs.

Every real discovery made concerning this precious root, would be of vast consequence to dyers and calico-printers. Both M. Kuhlmann, and Robiquet and Colin, conceived that they had discovered a new principle in madder, to which they gave the name _alizarine_. The latter two chemists treated the powdered madder with sulphuric acid, taking care to let it heat as little as possible. By this action the whole is carbonized, except perhaps the red matter. The charcoal thus obtained is pulverized, mixed with water, thrown upon a filter, and well washed in the cold. It is next dried, ground, and diffused through fifty parts of water, containing six parts of alum. This mixture is then boiled for one quarter of an hour, and thrown upon a filter cloth while boiling hot. The residuum is once more treated with a little warm alum water. The two liquors are to be mixed, and one part of sulphuric acid poured into them; when they are allowed to cool with occasional agitation. Flocks now make their appearance; the clear liquid is decanted, and the grounds are thrown upon a filter. The precipitate is to be washed, first with acidulated water, then with pure water, and dried, when the colouring matter is obtained in a red or purple state. This purple substance, when heated dry, gives out alizarine, and an empyreumatic oil, having an odour of animal matter; while a charcoally matter remains.

M. Dan. Kœchlin, the justly celebrated calico-printer of Mulhausen, has no faith in alizarine as the dyeing principle of madder; and thinks moreover that, were it of value, it could not be extracted on the great scale, on account of the destructive heat which would result from the acid acting upon a considerable body of the ground madder. Their alizarine is not a uniform substance, as it ought to be, if a proximate principle; for samples of it obtained in different repetitions of the process have produced very variable effects in dyeing. The madders of Avignon, though richer in colour than those of Alsace, afford however little or no alizarine. In fact, _purpurine_, the crude substance from which they profess to extract alizarine, is a richer dye than this _pure_ substance itself.

Madder contains so beautiful and so fast a colour, that it has become of almost universal employment in dyeing; but that colour is accompanied with so many other substances which mask and degrade it, that it can be brought out and fixed only after a series of operations more or less difficult and precarious. This dye is besides so little soluble, that much of it is thrown away in the dye-house; the portion supposed to be exhausted being often as rich as other fresh madder; hence it would be a most valuable improvement in this elegant art to insulate this tinctorial body, and make it a new product of manufacture.

Before the time of Haussmann, an apothecary at Colmar, the madder bath was subject to many risks, which that skilful chemist taught dyers how to guard against, by introducing a certain quantity of chalk into the bath. A change of residence led Haussmann to this fortunate result. After having made very fine reds at Rouen, he encountered the greatest obstacles in dyeing the same reds at Logelbach near Colmar, where he went to live. Numerous trials, undertaken with the view of obtaining the same success in his new establishment, proved that the cause of his favourable results at Rouen existed in the water, which contained carbonate of lime in solution, whilst the water of Logelbach was nearly pure. He then tried a factitious calcareous water, by adding chalk to his dye bath. Having obtained the most satisfactory results, he was not long of producing here as beautiful and as solid reds as he had done at Rouen. This practice became soon general among the calico-printers of Alsace, though in many dye-works the chalk is now replaced by lime, potash, or soda. But when the madder of Avignon is used, all these antacid correctives become unnecessary, because it contains a sufficient quantity of carbonate of lime; an important fact first analytically demonstrated by that accurate chemist M. Henri Schlumberger of Mulhausen. Avignon madder indicates the presence of carbonate of lime in it, by effervescing with dilute acids, which Alsace madder does not.

M. Kuhlmann found a free acid resembling the malic, in his analysis of madders. But his experiments were confined to those of Alsace. The madders of Avignon are on the contrary alkaline, as may be inferred from the violet tint of the froth of their infusions; whereas that of the Alsace madders is yellowish, and it strongly reddens litmus paper. This important difference between the plants of these two districts, depends entirely upon the soil; for madders grown in a calcareous shelly soil in Alsace, have been found to be possessed of the properties of the Avignon madder.

The useful action of the carbonate and the phosphate of lime in the madder of Avignon, explains why madders treated with acids which remove their calcareous salts, without taking away their colouring matter, lose the property of forming fast dyes. Many manufacturers are in the habit of mixing together, and with advantage, different sorts of madder. That of Avignon contains so much calcareous matter that, when mixed with the madder of Alsace, it can compensate for its deficiency. Some of the latter is so deficient as to afford colours nearly as fugitive as those of Brazil wood and quercitron. The Alsace madders by the addition of chalk to their baths, become as fit for dyeing Turkey reds as those of Avignon. When the water is very pure, one part of chalk ought to be used to five of Alsace madder, but when the waters are calcareous, the chalk should be omitted. Lime, the neutral phosphate of lime, the carbonate of magnesia, oxide and carbonate of zinc, and several other substances have the property of causing madder to form a fast dye, in like manner as the carbonate of lime.

The temperature of from 50° to 60° R. (145° to 167° F.), is the best adapted to the solution of the colouring matter, and to its combination with the mordants; and thus a boiling heat may be replaced advantageously by the long continuance of a lower temperature. A large excess of the dye-stuff in the bath is unfavourable in two points of view; it causes a waste of colouring matter, and renders the tints dull. It is injurious to allow the bath to cool, and to heat it again.

In a memoir published by the Society of Mulhausen, in September, 1835, some interesting experiments upon the growth of madders in factitious soils are related by MM. Kœchlin, Persoz, and Schlumberger. A patch of ground was prepared containing from 50 to 80 per cent. of chalky matter, and nearly one fifth of its bulk of good horse-dung. Slips of Alsace and Avignon madders were planted in March, 1834, and a part of the roots were reaped in November following. These roots, though of only six months growth, produced tolerably fast dyes, nor was any difference observable between the Alsace and the Avignon species; whilst similar slips or cuttings, planted in a natural non-calcareous soil, alongside of the others, yielded roots which gave fugitive dyes. Others were planted in the soil of Palud, transported from Avignon, which contained more than 90 per cent. of carbonate of lime, and they produced roots that gave still faster dyes than the preceding. Three years are requisite to give the full calcareous impregnation to the indigenous madders of Avignon.

As to the function of the chalk, valuable observations, made long ago by M. Daniel Kœchlin, have convinced him, that the combination of two different bases with a colouring matter, gave much more solidity to the dye, in consequence, undoubtedly, of a greater insolubility in the compound. Experiments recently made by him and his colleagues above named, prove that in all cases of madder-dyeing under the influence of chalk, a certain quantity of lime becomes added to the aluminous mordant. In the subsequent clearing with a soap bath, some of the alumine is removed, and there remains upon the fibre of the cloth a combination of these two earths in atomic proportions. Thus the chalk is not for the purpose of saturating the acid, as had been supposed, but of forming a definite compound with alumina, and probably also with the fatty bodies, and the colouring matter itself.

The red mordants are prepared commonly in Alsace, as follows:--The crushed alum and acetate of lead being weighed, the former is put into a deep tub, and dissolved by adding a proper quantity of hot water, when about one tenth of its weight of soda crystals is introduced to saturate the excess of acid in the alum. The acetate of lead is now mixed in; and as this salt dissolves very quickly, the reaction takes place almost instantly. Care must be taken to stir for an hour. The vessel should not be covered, lest its contents should cool too slowly.

The different mordants most generally employed for madder, are detailed under _Colours_, in CALICO-PRINTING and MORDANT.

Much mordant should not be prepared at once, for sooner or later it will deposit some sub-acetate of alumina. This decomposition takes place even in corked phials in the cold; and the precipitate does not readily dissolve again in acetic acid. All practical men know that certain aluminous mordants are decomposed by heating them, and restored on cooling, as Gay Lussac has pointed out. He observed, that by adding to pure acetate of alumina, some alum or sulphate of potash, the mixture acquires the property of forming a precipitate with a heat approaching the boiling point, and of redissolving on cooling. The precipitate is alumina nearly pure, according to M. Gay Lussac; but, by M. Kœchlin’s more recent researches, it is shown to be sub-sulphate of alumina, containing eight times as much base as the neutral sulphate.

_Madder dye._--On account of the feeble solubility of its colouring matter in water, we cannot dye with its decoction; but we must boil the dye-stuff along with the goods to be dyed; thereby the water dissolves fresh portions of the dye, and imparts it in succession to the textile fibres. In dyeing with madder, we must endeavour to fix as little of the dun matter as possible upon the cloth.

_Dyeing on wool._--Alumed wool takes, in the madder bath, a red colour, which is not so bright as cochineal red, but it is faster; and as it is far cheaper, it is much used in England to dye soldiers cloth. A mordant of alum and tartar is employed; the bath of madder, at the rate of from 8 to 16 ounces for the pound of cloth, is heated to such a degree that we can just hold our hand in it, and the goods are then dyed by the wince, without heating the bath more till the colouring matter be fixed. Vitalis prescribes as a mordant, one fourth of alum, and one sixteenth of tartar; and for dyeing, one third of madder, with the addition of a 24th of solution of tin diluted with its weight of water. He raises the temperature in the space of an hour, to 200°, and afterwards he boils for 3 or 4 minutes; a circumstance which is believed to contribute to the fixation of the colour. The bath, after dyeing, appears much loaded with yellow matter, because this has less affinity for the alum mordant than the red. Sometimes a little archil is added to the madder, to give the dye a pink tinge; but this is fugitive.

Silk is seldom dyed with madder, because cochineal affords brighter tints.

_Dyeing on cotton and linen._--The most brilliant and fastest madder red is the Turkey or Adrianople. The common madder reds are given in the following way:--The yarn or cloth is boiled in a weak alkaline bath, washed, dried and galled, by steeping the cotton in a decoction of bruised galls or of sumach. After drying, it is twice alumed; for which purpose, for every 4 parts of the goods, one part of alum is taken, mixed with 1-16th of its weight of chalk. The goods are dipped into a warm solution of the alum, wrung out, dried, and alumed afresh, with half the quantity. The acetate of alumina mordant, described above, answers much better than common alum for cotton. After the goods are dried and rinsed, they are passed through the dye bath, which is formed of 3/4 lb. of good madder for every pound of cotton; and it is raised to the boiling point by degrees, in the space of 50 or 60 minutes. Whenever the ebullition has continued a few minutes, the goods must be removed, washed slightly, and dyed a second time in the same way, with as much madder. They are then washed and passed through a warm soap bath, which removes the dun colouring matter.

Hölterhoff prescribes for ordinary madder red the following proportions:--20 pounds of cotton yarn; 14 pounds of Dutch madder; 3 pounds of nut-galls; 5 pounds of alum; to which 1/2 lb. of acetate of lead has been first added, and then a quarter of a pound of chalk.

In the calico-print works the madder goods are passed through a bran bath first, immediately after dyeing; next, after several days exposure to the air, when the dun dye has become oxidized, and is more easily removed. An addition of chalk, on the principles explained above, is sometimes useful in the madder bath. If bran be added to the madder bath, the colour becomes much lighter, and of an agreeable shade. Sometimes bran-water is added to the madder bath, instead of bran.

_Adrianople or Turkey red._--This is the most complicated and tedious operation in the art of dyeing; but it produces the fastest colour which is known. This dye was discovered in India, and remained long a process peculiar to that country. It was afterwards practised in other parts of Asia and in Greece. In 1747, Ferquet and Goudard brought Greek dyers into France, and mounted near Rouen, and in Languedoc, Turkey-red dye works. In 1765, the French government, convinced of the importance of this business, caused the processes to be published. In 1808, Reber, at Mariakirch, furnished the finest yarn of this dye, and M. Köchlin became celebrated for his Turkey-red cloth.

_Process for Turkey-red._--The first step consists in clearing the yarn or cloth in alkaline baths, and dipping them in oily liquors, to which sheep’s dung was formerly added. This operation is repeated several times, the goods being dried after each immersion. There next follows the cleansing with alkaline liquors to remove the excess of oil, the galling, the aluming, the maddering, the brightening or removing the dun part of the dye by boiling, at a high temperature, with alkaline liquid, and the rosing by boiling in a bath of salt of tin. We shall give some details concerning this tedious manipulation, and the differences which exist in it in the principal dye-works.

At Rouen, where the process was first brought to perfection, two methods are pursued, called the gray and the yellow course or march. In the gray, the dye is given immediately after the cotton has received the oily mordant, the gall, and the alum, as it has then a gray colour. In the yellow course, it is passed through fresh oils, alum, and galls before the maddering, the cotton having then a yellow tint.

Different views have been taken of the principles of the Turkey red dye, and the object and utility of the various steps. The most ancient notion is that of animalizing the cotton by dung and blood, but experience has proved that without any animal matter the finest colour may be obtained. According to Dingler, the cotton is imbued with oil by steeping it in combinations of oil and soda; the oil is altered by repeated dryings at a high temperature; it attracts oxygen from the air, and thereby combines intimately with the cotton fibre, so as to increase the weight of the stuff. The dung, by a kind of fermentation, accelerates the oxidizement, and hence crude oil is preferable to pure. In England, the mucilaginous oils of Gallipoli are preferred, and in Malabar, oils more or less rancid. The drying oils do not answer. The subsequent treatment with the alkaline liquors removes the excess of oil, which has not been oxidized and combined; a hard drying completely changes that which remains in the fibres; the aluming which follows combines alumina with the cotton; the galling tans the fibres, producing a triple compound of oil and alum, which fixes the colouring matter. The object of the other steps is obvious.

According to Wuttich the treatment with oil opens the cotton so as to admit the mordant and the colouring matter, but the oil and soap do not combine with the fibres. In the alkaline baths which follow, the oil is transformed into soap and removed; whence the cotton should not increase in weight in the galling and aluming; the cotton suffers a kind of tanning, and the saline parts of the blood assist in fixing the madder dye.

_The German process improved_, according to Dingler, consists of the following operations: mordant of an oily soap or a soapy liniment, hard drying; alkaline bath, drying, steeping, rinsing away of the uncombined mordant, drying; galling, drying; aluming, drying, steeping in water containing chalk, rinsing; maddering, airing, rinsing; brightening with an alkaline boil, and afterwards in a bath containing salt of tin; then washing and drying.

The yarn or the cloth must be first well worked in a bath of sheep’s dung and oil, compounded as follows:--25 pounds of sheep’s dung are to be bruised in a solution of pure caustic potash of hydrometer strength 3°, and the mixed liquor is to be passed through a sieve. Two pounds of fine oil are now to be poured into 16 pounds of this lye, after which 30 pounds of coarse oil are to be added, with agitation for 1/4 of an hour. Other 4 pounds of hot lye are to be well stirred in, till the whole is homogeneous. This proportion of mordant is sufficient for 100 pounds of cotton yarn, for 90 pounds of unbleached or 100 pounds of bleached cotton goods. The cotton stuff, after being well wrung out, is to be laid in a chest and covered with a lid loaded with weights, in which state it should remain for five days. At the end of 24 hours, the cotton becomes hot with fermentation, gets imbued with the mordant, and the oil becomes rapidly altered. The goods are next exposed freely to the air during the day, and in the evening they are dried in a hot chamber, exposed to a temperature of 158° F., for 6 or 8 hours, which promotes the oxidizement of the oil.

The goods are now passed the second time through a soapy-oil mordant similar to the first, then dried in the air by day, and in the hot stove by night. The third and fourth oil-soap steeps are given in the same way, but without the dung. The fifth steep is composed of a lye at 2°, after which the goods must also be dried. Indeed from the first to the fourth steep, the cotton stuff should be put each time into a chamber heated to 145° F. for 12 or 15 hours, and during 18 hours after the fifth steep.

The uncombined oil must, in the next place, be withdrawn by the _degraissage_, which consists in steeping the goods for 6 hours in a very weak alkaline ley. After rinsing and wringing, they are dried in the air, and then put into the hot stove.

The goods are now galled in a bath formed of 36 pounds of Sicilian sumach, boiled for 3 hours in 260 pounds of water, and filtered. The residuum is treated with 190 fresh pounds of water. This decoction is heated with 12 pounds of pounded nut-galls to the boiling point, allowed to cool during the night, and used next morning as hot as the hand can bear; the goods being well worked through it. They are again dried in the air, and afterwards placed in a stove moderately heated. They are next passed through a tepid alum bath, containing a little chalk; left afterwards in a heap during the night, dried in the air, and next in the stove. The dry goods are finally passed through hot water containing a little chalk, wrung out, rinsed, and then maddered.

For dyeing, the copper is filled with water, the fire is kindled, and an ounce and a half of chalk is added for every pound of madder; a pound and a quarter of madder being taken for every pound of cotton yarn. The goods are now passed through the bath, so that they penetrate to near its bottom. The fire must be so regulated, that the copper will begin to boil in the course of from 2-1/2 to 3 hours; and the ebullition must be continued for an hour; after which the yarn is aired and rinsed. Cloth should be put into the dye-bath when its temperature is 77°, and winced at a heat of from 100° to 122° during the first hour; at 167° during the second; and at the boiling point when the third hour begins. It is to be kept boiling for half an hour; so that the maddering lasts four hours. Dingler does not add sumach or galls to the madder bath, because their effect is destroyed in the subsequent brightening, and he has no faith in the utility of blood.

After being dyed, the goods are washed, pressed, and subjected to a soapy alkaline bath at a high heat, in a close boiler, by which the dun parts of the galls and the madder are dissolved away, and the red colour remains in all its lustre. This operation is called brightening. It is repeated in a similar liquor, to which some muriate of tin is added for the purpose of enlivening the colour and giving it a rosy tint. Last of all, the goods are rinsed, and dried in the shade.

The _Elberfeld_ process consists for 100 libs. of the following steps:--

1. Cleaning the cotton by boiling it for four hours in a weak alkaline bath, cooling and rinsing.

2. Working it thoroughly four times over in a steep, consisting of 300 pounds of water, 15 pounds of potash, 1 pailful of sheep’s dung, and 12-1/2 pounds of olive oil, in which it should remain during the night. Next day it is drained for an hour, wrung out and dried. This treatment with the dung steep, and drying, is repeated 3 times.

3. It is now worked in a bath containing 120 quarts of water, 18 pounds of potash, and 6 quarts of olive oil; then wrung out and dried. This steep is also repeated 4 times.

4. Steeping for a night in the river is the next process; a slight rinsing without wringing, and drying in the air.

5. Bath made of a warm decoction (100° F.) of sumach and nut-galls, in which the goods remain during the night; they are then strongly wrung, and dried in the air.

6. Aluming with addition of potash and chalk; wringing; working it well through this bath, where it is left during the night.

7. Draining, and strong rinsing the following day; piling up in a water cistern.

8. Rinsing repeated next day, and steeping in water to remove any excess of alum from the fibres; the goods continue in the water till they are taken to the dyeing-bath.

9. The maddering is made with the addition of blood, sumach, and nut-galls; the bath is brought to the boil in 1 hour and 3/4, and kept boiling for half an hour.

10. The yarn is rinsed, dried, boiled from 24 to 36 hours in a covered copper, with an oily alkaline liquid; then rinsed twice, laid for two days in clear water, and dried.

11. Finally, the greatest brightness is obtained by boiling for three or four hours in a soap bath, containing muriate of tin; after which the yarn is rinsed twice over, steeped in water, and dried.