The Practical Ostrich Feather Dyer. Alexander Bartlett Paul
DYEING RECIPES.
WHITE.
BLEACHING, OR WHAT IS COMMONLY CALLED CLEANING.
After stringing your feathers and marking your tickets, prepare luke warm soap-water and wash thoroughly between the hands to remove all dirt and grease. Rub the soap on the feathers, rinse thoroughly in luke warm water two or three times for the purpose of removing all particles of soap, which is very important; just as much so as removing the dirt. For one to one hundred feathers you can use a common porcelain wash bowl. Prepare bath by using one gallon of clear cold water, add to that a small handful of starch, powdered or lump starch will answer. Enter feathers, rubbing them thoroughly between the hands to expand the flues and get them in condition to receive the color, so as to insure an even shade; after which add about one-half teaspoonful of oxalic acid and a drop of diluted violet, just enough to give your bath a pale lavender tint. Enter feathers, and let remain in bath about one minute, keeping them under the surface and agitating by rubbing them between the hands; after which squeeze feathers out of bath and dry. The quickest method for a few feathers is to have a small quantity of clean, powdered starch, and rub them around in it. The starch will immediately absorb all moisture, and you have but to beat it out of the flues, as it dries either on a clean board or between the hands. It is but the work of a few seconds. This method of drying insures an unsoiled color, as the feathers are dry a few seconds after leaving the bath.
Great care should be used to bring your violet diluted thoroughly, so that no particles may enter the bath and spot your goods. In diluting your violet use boiling water, and shake well in bottle, and let it stand for a time, when all sediment will settle at the bottom, and will not again mix with your color.
It is very important to use only the amount of oxalic acid mentioned in recipe, as a greater quantity would destroy your color by turning the violet a dirty blueish green, and much less than the quantity mentioned would have a tendency to cast a lavender tint on your goods. Should you, by mistake or carelessness, spoil your white, proceed to rinse off all the starch in cold water first; then in luke warm water to remove all the acid from feathers, and then use soap and hot water, and wash well, and rinse. Mix a fresh white bath as directed in the recipe, and proceed this time with more care.
BLEACHING LIGHT COLORS WHITE.
Old faded light colors, such as blue, pink, ecru, corn, drab, etc., that you are desirous of bleaching white, can be accomplished in the following way. Wash feathers thoroughly in warm water, using soap. Add a small pinch of soda, after which rinse in about three warm waters to insure the removal of every particle of soap. Dilute in clean bowl or basin one-quarter ounce of permanganate of potash in one gallon of boiling water. The water must be as hot as steam or fire can make it. Enter feathers, and let remain in bath about one minute, a few seconds more or less will do no harm, nor will it make any material difference in the result; continually agitating in bath with clean stick, after which you will notice that the feathers have assumed a light, full brown color. Take out of the bath, but do not rinse them; let the loose color drain off for a few seconds, meantime empty bath and rinse your bowl thoroughly; then dilute half an ounce of oxalic acid or sulphurous acid in one gallon of boiling water. The water must be absolutely clean. Enter feathers, and let remain in until all the color has entirely disappeared, gently agitating while in bath. After the bath has become transparent and the feathers white, which will take about two minutes, empty out about two-thirds of the bath, and add cold water to reduce to hand heat; then add a small handful of starch and a drop of diluted violet, and enter your feathers, and let them remain in about one minute, squeeze out and dry in starch. Blue you will generally find the hardest of all light colors to remove for white, the soda and permanganate seeming apparently to decompose the color. The moment it enters the oxalic bath, it generally, to a more or less extent, develops the color again. Such being the case, after rinsing in luke warm water to remove acid, return to a weak soda bath for a minute, and then rinse and return to permanganate bath, rather weaker than the first one; in other words, repeat the first operation all through, only in weaker solutions.
This process can be used successfully in bleaching all light colors white. In bleaching natural blacks, however, it would not be practicable. A recipe for bleaching natural black will be found in another portion of the book.
WHITE—page 16. LILAC—page 56. LIGHT PINK—page 20. LEMON—page 52.
LIGHT PINK.
White feathers are generally used for this color, but all light colors can be made a beautiful shade of pink by first bleaching with permanganate of potash. After washing and rinsing thoroughly in luke warm water, soap to remove all loose dirt and grease, or bleaching, if required. Prepare bath as follows: Take one gallon of luke warm water, more or less, according to the quantity of feathers you have to dye add a small handful of starch. Enter your feathers and rub around between the hands thoroughly to open the flues so as to insure an even shade; add a couple of drops of diluted safranine to bath. Enter feathers, and let them remain in the bath about one minute, or until feathers look about two shades darker than sample; gently stirring them around in bath meanwhile, and keeping them under the surface. Remove from bath, squeeze and dry in the usual way, rubbing them in dry powdered starch, and beat them out on a clean board or between the hands to remove all particles which might adhere. Should your sample that you have to match be a little on the yellowish order, a drop of diluted Bismarck brown added to bath will bring the desired shade; or if a very brilliant shade or rose pink, a drop of diluted violet added to the bath and increase temperature; a little judgment is always necessary; as, for example, should you require a dark shade, you would naturally let your goods remain longer in the bath than the time specified in recipe, or add a little more color, and if a very pale pink is wanted, less time and color should be used. Should you, at any time, find your color, after being dried, a couple of shades darker than your sample, rinse goods in luke warm water, and enter feathers, pass through for a minute, and dry.
LIGHT BLUE.
All other faded out light colors can be made into a delicate shade of sky blue by first bleaching with permanganate of potash process for the purpose of removing colors. White feathers that are only dirty and greasy must be thoroughly washed and rinsed in luke warm water, after which prepare bath as follows: For one gallon of luke warm water, more or less, according to the amount of feathers to be dyed, add a small handful of clean starch; enter your feather and rub them around in bath for a second between the hands to open the flues, to admit color evenly; add about one teaspoonful of oxalic acid, enter feathers and let remain in bath a few seconds longer; then remove feathers from bath, and add a couple of drops of concentrated cotton blue diluted; re-enter feathers and let them remain in about half a minute; increase temperature of your bath a few degrees by adding some hot water; take feathers out of bath and add thereto a drop of diluted indigo blue; re-enter, and keep them well under the surface of bath to give them an even color, and allow to remain in about thirty seconds longer. Take them out of bath, squeeze out