The Practical Ostrich Feather Dyer. Alexander Bartlett Paul
either in powdered starch or by beating on a clean board or table. Under no circumstances allow feathers to hang wet and motionless on line during process of drying without beating the starch out. The result of so doing would cause the feathers to look thin, shriveled, and injure the color and quality of goods. The same care should be observed not alone in this, but in all colors.
In light blues your bath should look about two shades darker than the sample to be matched. Where a darker shade is required, more color can be added; and, through carelessness or negligence, should you allow your color to become too dark, rinse off your feathers in cold water first to remove the starch, and then in luke warm water a couple of times to draw off all acid, and pass feathers a few seconds through a bath of luke warm water with a small pinch of soda in it, which will have the effect of drawing off all surplus color; after which rinse in luke warm water, and mix a fresh bath of luke warm water and starch and one-half a teaspoonful of oxalic acid; enter your feathers and carefully add color until you have obtained the desired shade.
ECRU.
All old colors, excepting dark brown, bottle green, navy blue, black, garnet, etc., can be dyed a good shade of ecru. Begin an old color by passing them through a solution of hot water, about one ounce of soda to a gallon of water, for about 30 seconds; after which take them out and rinse by passing them through clean boiling water, which will draw off more color than it would seem possible the feathers could contain. If all the old color, or enough of it, be not removed, put feathers through the permanganate of potash process. For dirty white feathers simply wash them thoroughly with soap and hot water, and rinse well; then prepare your bath as follows: One gallon of hand warm water, add a small handful of starch, and enter feathers, rubbing them around thoroughly, and getting the starch rubbed into the flues; then add to bath a small quantity of copperas, about the size of a bean, and re-enter your feathers and let remain in bath about one minute or less; after which add a few drops of logwood liquor and about a teaspoonful of diluted aniline brown, first removing feathers from bath; enter feathers and let remain in bath about one minute, being careful to keep them moving in bath. If found a little too brown to match your sample, a small pinch of turmeric added to bath will reduce the shade. If they are found a little too yellow for sample, a drop of diluted violet will answer.
If the dyer, through his own carelessness, should allow his color to get too dark, proceed to extract color as follows: dilute in about one gallon of luke warm water one-half teaspoonful of oxalic acid. Enter feathers, first rinsing off starch in cold water; let them remain in about half a minute, and rinse off about three times in hot water to remove acid. The acid will turn the feathers a bright yellow, and after rinsing off well the yellow color will have entirely disappeared, and the feathers a light shade of dust. Prepare a fresh bath as per recipe, and, using more care, enter feathers and pass through until you have acquired the desired shade.
In the first bath, should a very dark shade be required, add a little more logwood and copperas than directed in the recipe, and if a very light color, a little less.
CREAM COLOR.
There are numerous methods of producing this most beautiful, yet simple, shade. Any yellow substance in conjunction with oxalic acid can be used with more or less fair success. A great many dyers use a few drops of diluted logwood, developed with the aid of oxalic acid. The color this produces is very satisfactory when finished, but no sooner is it exposed to strong light than the color becomes a dirty drab shade, caused by the acid leaving the feathers, the logwood becoming oxidized.
The best and most permanent shade of cream color is obtained in the following manner: Thoroughly wash and rinse your feathers to remove every particle of dirt, for it is as necessary to have the feathers clean as if they were for a white, and if they are very dirty or old faded out colors, put them through the permanganate of potash process, and then remove all color. Prepare bath of one gallon of luke warm water and a small handful of starch; enter feathers and rub around in bath between the hands; meantime dilute in about one pint of boiling water a small five-cent package of essence of coffee (commonly called chicory), and boil for a few minutes; then add a few drops of the liquid to the bath, and add thereto a teaspoonful of oxalic acid. Re-enter feathers and let remain in bath about one minute, constantly moving them around; after which squeeze them out and dry, either in starch or on a clean board.
The result will be a rich and permanent cream. Should a pink or brownish tint be required to match sample, a drop of Bismarck brown added to bath will produce the desired result; or if wanted a little more yellow, a few grains of turmeric added to the bath will answer.
CREAM—page 25. LIGHT BLUE—page 21. LAVENDER—page 38. SALMON—page 71.
SILVER GRAY.
A very delicate color, requiring feathers almost a pure white to make a clear shade. After thoroughly washing and rinsing, or bleaching if required, with permanganate of potash, prepare a bath of one gallon of luke warm water, and add a small handful of starch. Enter feathers and manipulate between the hands; then add to bath a small piece of copperas, about the size of a pea, and a few drops of diluted logwood liquor; re-enter feathers and let remain in bath until in appearances they are two or three shades darker than sample; then add to bath a couple of drops of diluted violet, first removing feathers from bath; let them remain in a few seconds longer, and squeeze out and dry in the usual way. The violet gives your feathers the brilliant shade that is so desirable in silver grays.
Be careful in drying them not to use starch that has been previously used in drying feathers that have been dyed in acid baths, as it would be liable to spot your color. Should you, through carelessness or otherwise, allow your color to get darker than shade desired, rinse feathers off a couple of times in cold water to remove starch; then dilute half a teaspoonful of oxalic acid in a gallon of hot water, and pass feathers through it for a few seconds, and then rinse off twice in boiling water. After which prepare a bath same as per recipe, using more care, and pass feathers through until you have obtained the desired shade.
BISMARCK BROWN.
Wash and rinse your feathers, after which prepare a bath of one gallon of boiling water and about one ounce of turmeric and half an ounce of copperas; enter your feathers and let them remain in bath about two minutes, more or less, after which take out and rinse twice in cold water. Meantime have boiling a bath of half a pound of logwood to a gallon of water, and enter feathers at boiling temperature, letting them remain in about ten seconds or longer. Should a darker shade be desired, take out and rinse in cold water, after which dilute a half teaspoonful of aniline brown in a gallon of boiling water. Reduce temperature a little with cold water. Enter feathers and let them remain in about three minutes; then cool off a small portion of the bath, and add a small handful of starch, pass feathers through and dry.
If a lighter shade is wanted, add a drop of sulphuric acid to the starch bath and pass feathers through. If the sample to match be more on the yellow order, about twice the amount of turmeric in the first bath; and if desired more on the red, use no turmeric, only copperas, in the first bath. If a darker shade is wanted, let them remain a longer time than that specified in the logwood bath. Any light color can be used to make a Bismarck brown; but if very dark colors are