The History of the Royal Society of London/Part 2/Paper 13
' It were not incongruous to begin the History with a Retrospect into the very nature of Light it self (as to inquire whether the same be a Motion or else a Body;) nor to premise some Theorems about the Sun, Flame, Glow-worms, the Eyes of some Animals, shining Woods, Scales of some Fishes, the dashing of the Sea, strokes upon the Eyes, the Bolonian Slate (called by some the Magnet of Light) and of other light and lucid Bodies.
'It were also not improper to consider the very essentials of Colour and Transparencies (as that the most transparent Bodies, if shaped into many angles, present the Eye with very many colours;) That bodies having but one single superficies, have none at all, but are suscipient of every colour laid before them; That great depths of Air make a Blue, and great depths of Water a Greenish colour; That great depths or thicknesses of coloured Liquors do all look blackish (red Wine in a large conical Glass being of all reddish colours between Black at the top and White at the bottom.
'That most Vegetables, at one time or other, are greenish; and that as many things passing the Sun are blackned, so many others much whitened by the same: Other things are whitened by acid Fumes, as red Roses and raw Silks by the smoak of Brimstone.
'Many Metals, as Steel and Silver, become of various colours, and tarnish by the Air, and by several Degrees of heat.
'We might consider the wonderful variety of colours appearing in Flowers, Feathers; and drawn from Metals, their Calces and Vitrifications; and of the Colours rising out of transparent Liquors artificially mixed.
'But these things, relating to the abstracted nature of Colours, being too hard for me, I wholly decline; rather passing to name (and but to name) some of the several sorts of Colorations now commonly used in Humane affairs, and as vulgar Trades in these Nations; which are these; viz.
1. 'There is a whitening of Wax, and several sorts of Linnen and Cotton Cloths, by the Sun, Air, and by reciprocal effusions of Water.
2. 'Colouring of Wood and Leather by Lime, Salt, and Liquors, as in Staves, Canes, and Marble Leather,
3. 'Colouring of Paper, viz. Marbled Paper, by diftempering the colours with Ox-gall, and applying them upon a stiff gummed Liquor.
4. 'Colouring, or rather discolouring the Colours of Silks, Tiffanies, &c. by Brimstone.
5. 'Colouring of several Iron and Copper-work, into Black, with Oyl
6. 'Colouring of Leather into Gold-colour, or rather Silver leaves into Gold by Varnishes, and in other cases by Urine and Sulphur.
7. 'Dying of Marble and Alabaster with heat and coloured Oyls.
8. 'Colouring Silver into Brass with Brimstone or Urine.
9. 'Colouring the Barrels and Locks of Guns into Blue and Purple with the temper of Small-coal heat.
10. 'Colouring of Glass (made of Sands, Flints, &c.) as also of Chrystals and Earthen Ware, with the rusts and solutions of Metals.
11. 'The colouring of live Hair, as in Poland, Horse and Man's Hair; as also the colouring of Furrs.
12. 'Enameling and Anealing.
13. 'Applying Colours, as in the Printing of Books and Pictures, and as in making of playing Cards; being each of them performed in a several way.
14. 'Gilding and Tinning with Mercury, Block-Tin, Sal-Armoniack.
15. 'Colouring Metals, as Copper with Calamy into Brass, and with Zink or Spelter into Gold, or into Silver with Arsenick: And of Iron into Copper with Hungarian Vitriol.
16. 'Making Painter's Colours by preparing of Earth, Chalk, and Slates; as in Umber, Oker, Cullen earth, &c. as also out of Calces of Lead, as Ceruse and Minium; by Sublimates of Mercury and Brimstone, as in Vermilion; by tinging of white Earths variously, as in Verdeter, and some of the Lakes; by concrete Juices or Fæculæ, as in Gambrugium, Indico, Pinks, Sap-green, and Lakes: As also by Rusts, as in Verdegreese, &c.
17. 'The applying of these Colours by the adhesion of Ox-gall, as in the Marble Paper aforesaid;; or by Gum-water, as in Limning; or by clammy drying Oyls, (such as are the Oyls of Linseed, Nuts, Spike, Turpentine, &c.)
18. 'Watering of Tabbies.
19. 'The last I shall name is the colouring of Wool, Linnen, Cotton, Silk, Hair, Feathers, Horn, Leather, and the Threads and Webbs of them with Woods, Roots, Herbs, Seeds, Leaves, Salts, Limes, Lixiviums, Waters, Heats, Fermentations, Macerations, and other great variety of Handling: An account of all which is that History of Dying we intend. All that we have hitherto said being but a kind of remote and scarce pertinent Introduction thereunto.
'I begin this History by enumerating all the seveal Materials and ingredients which 1 understand to be or to have been used in any of the last aforementioned Colorations, which I shall represent in various Methods, viz. out of the Mineral Family. They use Iron and Steel, or what is made or comes from them, in all true Blacks (called Spanish Blacks) though not in Flanders Blacks; viz. they use Copperas, Steel-filings, and Slippe, which is the stuff found in the Troughs of Grind-stones, whereon Edge-tools have been ground. They also use Pewter for Bow-dye, Scarlet, viz. they dissolve Bars of Pewter in the Aqua-fortis they use; and make also their Dying kettles or Furnace of this Metal.
'Litharge is used by some, though acknowledged by few, for what necessary reason I cannot learn, other than to add weight unto Dyed Silk; Litharge being a Calx of Lead, one of the heaviest and most colouring Metals.
'I apprehend Antimony much used to the same purpose, though we know there be a very tingent Sulphur in their Mineral, which affordeth variety of Colour by the precipitations and other operations upon it.
'Arsenick is used in Crimson upon pretence of giving Lustre, although those who pretend not to be wanting in giving Lustre to their Silks, do utterly disown the use of Arsenick.
'Verdegrease is used by Linnen Dyers in their Yellow and Greenish Colours, although of itself it strike not deeper Colour than of pale Straws.
'Of Mineral Salts used in Dying; the chief is Allum; the very true use thereof seems to me obscure enough, notwithstanding all the Narrations I could get from Dyers about it: For I doubt,
i. Whether it be used to make common Water a fit Menstruum, wherewith to extract the Tingent particles of several hard Materials; for I find Allum to be used with such Materials as spend easy enough, as Brasil, Logwood, &c. And withal, that the Stuffs to be dyed are first boyled in Allum-Liquors, and the Allum afterwards (as they say) cleared from the said Stuff again, before any Colour at all be apply'd.
2. 'Whether it be used to scour the Sordes, which may interpose between the Coloranda, and the Dying Stuff; and so hinder the due adhesion of the one unto the other: The boyling of several things first in Allum seeming to tend this way. But I find this work to be done in Cloth, and Rugs, by a due scouring of the same in the Fulling-mills with Earth, and in Silk with Soaps, by which they boyl out the Gums and other Sordes, hindring or vitiating the intended Colours.
3. 'Whether Allum doth intenerate the Hairs of Wool, and Hair-stuff, as Grograins, &c. Whereby they may the better receive and imbibe their Colours? Unto which opinion I was led by the Dyers; saying, that after their Stuffs were well boyled in Allum, that they then cleared them of the Allum again: But we find the most open bodied Cottons and Silks, to have Allum used upon them; as well as the harder Hairs. Nor is Allum used in many Colours, viz. in no Woad or Indico Blues; and yet the Stuffs dyed Blue, are without any previous inteneration quickly tinged; and that with a slight and short immersion thereof into the Blue-fat.
4. 'Whether it contribute to the Colour it self, as Copperas doth to Galls, in order to make a Black; or as Juice of Lemons doth to Cocheneel in the Incarnadives; or as Aqua-fortis impregnated with Pewter, doth in the Bow-Scarlet, changing it from a red Rose-Crimson to Flame-Colour. This use is certainly not to be denied to Allum in some cases; but we see in other cases, that the same Colours may be dyed without Allum, as well as with it, though neither so bright and lively, nor so lasting.
5. Wherefore, Fifthly, I conclude (as the most probable opinion) that the use of Allum is to be a Vinculum between the Cloth and the Colour, as clammy Oyls and Gum-waters are in Painting and Limning; Allum being such a thing, whose particles and Aculei dissolved with hot Liquors will stick to the Stuffs, and pitch themselves into their Pores; and such also, as on which the particles of the dying Drugs will also catch hold, as we see the particles of Copperas and other chrystallizing materials, do of Boughs and Twigs in the Vessel, where such Chrystallization is made. A second use I imagine of Allum in Dying, to be the extracting or drying up of some such particles, as could not consist with the Colour to be superinduced; for we see Allum is used in the dressing of Alutas or white Leather, the which it dryeth, as the Salt of Hen-dung doth in Ox-hides, and as common Salt doth in preservation of Flesh-meats; for we know, a Sheep-skin newly flayed could not be colour'd as Brasils are, unless it were first dressed into Leather with Allum, &c. which is necessary to the Colour, even although the Allum be, as it is, cleared out of the Leather again, before the said Colouration, with Bran, Yolks of Eggs, &c. Wherefore as Allum, as it were by accident, makes a wet raw Skin to take a bright Colour, by extracting some impedimental particles out of it; so doth it also out of other materials, though perhaps less discernably.
Another use I suppose of Allum, which is to brighten a Colour: For as we see the finest and most glassy materials to make the most orient Colours, as Feathers, Flowers, &c. so certainly if by boyling Cloth in Allum, it become incrustated with particles, as it were of Glass, the tinging of them yields more brightness, than the tinging of a Scabrous matter (such as unallumed Cloth is) can do. Analogous hereunto I take the use of Bran, and Bran-liquors in Dying to be; for Bran yielding a most fine Flour (as we see in the making of white Starch;) I conceive that this Flour entring into the pores of the Stuff, levigates their Superficies, and so makes the Colour laid on it, the more beautiful, just as we see, that all woods, which are to be gilded, are first smoothned over with white Colours, before the Gold be laid on.
'And indeed all other Woods are filled, not only as to their greater holes and Asperities, with Putty; but also their smaller Scabrities are cured by priming Colours, before the ultimate Colour intended be laid thereon.
'The next Mineral Salt is Salt-peter, not used by ancient Dyers, and but by few of the modern. And that not till the wonderful use of Aqua-fortis (whereof Salt-peter is an ingredient) was observed in the Bow-scarlet: Nor is it used now, but to brighten Colours by back-boyling them; for which use Argol is more commonly used. Lime is much used in the working of Blue-fats, being of Lime-stone calcined, and called Calke, of which more hereafter.
'Of the Animal Family are used about Dying, Cochineel (if the same be any part of an Animal) Urine of labouring Men, kept till it be stale and stinking; Honey, Yolks of Eggs, and Ox-gall. The three latter so rarely, and as the conceits of particular Workmen; and for collateral uses (as to increase weight, promote fermentation, and to scour, &c.) that I shall say very little more of them in this place, only saying of Urine, that it is used to scour, and help the fermenting and heating of Woad; it is used also in the Blue-fats instead of Lime: It dischargeth the yellow (of which and blue, most greens are compounded) and therefore is always used to spend Weld withal. Lastly, the stale Urine, or old Mud of pissing places, will colour a well scoured small piece of Silver into a Golden colour, and it is with this (and not at all with the Bath-water) wherewith the Boys at Bath colour single pence; although the generality believe otherwise. Lastly, it seems to me that Urine agreeth much in its Nature with Tartarous Lixivia; not only because Urine is a Lye made of Vegetables in the body of Animals; nor because in the Receptacles of Urine, Tartarous stones are bred like as in Vessels of Wine; nor because Urine discharges and abrades Colours as the Lixivia of Tartar, or the deliquated Salts of Tartar do; but because Tartar and Sulphur-Lixivia do colour the superficies of Silver, as we affirmed of Urine; and the difference I make between Urine and Tartarous-Lixivia is only this, that though the Salts of both of them seem by their effects in Dying, in a manner the same; yet that Urine is made and consists of Salt and Sulphur both.
'Before we enter upon the Vegetable materials for Dying, we may interpose this Advertisement, That there are two sorts of Waters used by Dyers, viz. River-water and Well-water: By the latter I mean in this place the Pump-water in great Cities and Towns, which is a harsh Water wherewith one can scarce wash ones hands, much less scour them clean; nor will Soap dissolve in it, but remains in rolls and lumps: moreover, the Flesh boyled in it becomes hard and reddish. The Springs rising out of large covered spaces (such as are great Cities) yield this Water, as having been percolated thorough more ground than other Water, and consequently been diverted of its fatty earthy particles, and more impregnated with saline substances in all the way it hath passed. The Dyers use this Water in Reds, and in other Colours wanting restringency, and in the dying of Materials of the slacker Contextures, as in Callico, Fustian, and the several species of Cotton-works. This Water is naught for Blues, and makes Yellows and Greens look rusty.
'River-water is far more fat and oily, sweeter, bears Soap; that is, Soap dissolves more easily in it, rising into froth and bubbles, so as the Water thickens by it. This Water is used in most cases by Dyers, and must be had in great quantities for washing and rinsing their Cloaths after Dying.
'Water is called by Dyers White Liquor; but there is another sort of Liquor called Liquor absolutely, and that is their Bran-liquor, which is one part of Bran and five of River-water, boyled together an hour, and put into leaden Cisterns to settle. This Liquor when it turns sour is not good; which sourness will be within three or four Days in the Summer-time. Besides the uses afore-named of this Liquor, I conceive it contributes something to the holding of the Colour; for we know Starch, which is nothing but the flour of Bran, will make a clinging Paste, the which will conglutinate some things, though not every thing; viz. Paper, though, neither Wood nor Metals. Now Bran-liquors are used to mealy dying Stuffs, such as Mather is, being the Powder or fecula of a Root; so as the flour of the Bran being joyned with the Mather, and made clammy and glutinous by boyling, I doubt not but both sticking upon the villi of the Stuff dyed, the Mather sticks the better by reason of the starchy pastiness of the Bran-flour joyned with it.
'Gums have been used by Dyers about Silk, viz. Gum Arabick, Gum Dragant, Mastick, and Sanguis Draconis. These Gums tend little to the tincture of the said Silk, no more than Gum doth in ordinary writing Ink, which only gives it a consistence to stay just where the Pen delivers it, without running abroad uncertainly: So Gum may give the Silk a glassiness, that is, may make it seem finer, as also stiffer; so as to make one believe the said stiffness proceeded from the quantity of Silk close woven: And lastly, to increase weight; for if an ounce of Gum, worth a penny, can be incorporated into a pound of Silk, the said penny in Gum produceth three Shillings, the price of an Ounce of Silk. Wherefore we shall speak of the use of each of the said four Gums, rather when treating of Sising and Stiffening, than now in a Discourse of Dying, where also we may speak of Honey and Molasses.
'We refer also the Descriptions of Fullers-earth, Soaps, Linseed-oyl, and Ox-galls, unto the head of Scouring, rather than to this of Dying.
'Wines and Aqua-vitæ have been used by some particular Artists; but the use of them being neither constant nor certain, I omit further mention of them. The like I say of Wheaten-flour and Leaven.
'Of Cummin-seed, Fenugreek-seed, Senna, and Agarick, I have as yet no satisfactory account. Having spoken thus far of some of the Dying stuffs, before I engage upon the main, and speak more fully of those which have been but slightly touched upon already, I shall more synoptically here insert a Catalogue of all Dying Materials, as well such as I have already treated upon, as such as I intend hereafter to describe.
'The three peculiar Ingredients for Black are Copperas, filings of Steel, and Slippe.
'The Restringent binding Materials are Alder Bark, Pomegranet Pills, Wallnut rinds and roots, Oaken Sapling Bark, and Saw-dust of the same; Crab-tree Bark, Galls, and Sumach.
'The Salts of Allum, Argol, Salt-peter, Sal-Armoniack, Pot-ashes, and Stone-Lime, unto which Urine may be enumerated as a liquid Salt.
'The Liquors are Well-water, River-water, Wine, Aqua-vitæ, Vinegar, Juyce of Lemon, and Aqua-fortis: There is Honey used, and Molasses.
'Ingredients of another Classis are Bran, Wheaten-flour, Yolks of Eggs, Leaven, Cummin-seed, Fenugreek-seed, Agarick, and Senna.
'Gums are Gum Arabick, Dragant, Mastick, and Sanguis Draconis.
'The Smecticks or Abstersives are Fuller's-earth, Soap, Linseed-oyl, and Ox-gall.
'The other Metals and Minerals are Pewter, Verdegrease, Antimony, Litharge, and Arsenick.
'But the Colorantia colorata are of three sorts, viz. Blue, Yellow, and Red; of which Logwood, old Fustick, and Mather, are the Polycaresta in the present and common practices, being one of each sort. The Blues are Woad, Indico and Logwood: TheYellows are Weld, Wood-wax, and old Fustick, as also Turmerick, now seldom used: The Reds are Redwood, Brazil, Mather, Cochineel, Safflowrs, Kermes-berries, and Sanders; the latter of which is seldom used, and the Kermes not often. Unto these Arnotto and young Fustick, making Orange-colours, may be added, as often used in these times.
'In Cloth Dying, wood-soot is of good use.
'Having presented this Catalogue, I come now to give or enlarge the Description and Application of some of the chief of them, beginning with Copperas.
'Copperas is the common thing used to dye Blacks withal, and it is the salt of the Pyrites stone, wherewith old Iron (having been dissolved in it) is incorporated. The filings of Steel, and such small particles of Edge-tools as are worn away upon the Grindstone, commonly called Slippe, is used to the same purpose in Dying of Silks (as we said before) which I conceive to be rather to increase the weight than for any other necessity; the particles of Copperas being not so heavy and crass as these are: for else why should not these latter-named Materials be as well used about Cloth, as other cheaper stuffs?
'We observe, that green Oaken-boards by the affriction of a Saw become black; and that a green sour Apple cut with a knife, becomes likewise black; and that the white grease wherewith Coach-wheels are anointed, becomes likewise black, by reason of the Iron boxes wherewith the Nave is lined, besides the ustulation or affriction between the Nave and the Axel-tree. Moreover we observe, that an Oaken-slick, by a violent affriction upon other wood in a Turning-Lath, makes the same black
From all which we may observe, That the whole business of Blacking lies in the Iron, as if the salt of the Pyrites-stone in Copperas served only to extract the same; and withal it seems to lie in a kind of findging and ustulation, such as rapid affrictons do cause: For Allum seems to be of the same nature with Vitriol; and yet in no case that I know of, is used for black colours: And in the black colour upon earthen Ware is made with scalings of Iron vitrified. Note, That where-ever Copperas is used, either Galls, Sumach, Oak Sapling-barks, Alder-bark, Walnut-rinds, Crabtree-bark, or green Oak saw-dust, must be used with it: All which things Physicians call Austere and Stiptick.
'Red-wood must be chopt into small pieces, then ground in a Mill between two heavy stones, as corn is. It is used also in Dying of Cloth and Rugs, and those of the Coarser sort: The colour is extracted with much and long boyling, and that with Galls. The colour it makes is a kind of Brick-colour Red; it holdeth much better than Brasil. The Cloth it dyeth is to be boyled with it: Wherefore only such matters as are not prejudiced by much boyling are dyed herewith.
'Brasil is chopt and ground like as the Red-wood: It dyeth a Pink-colour or Carnation, imitating the colour of Cochineil the nearest: It is used with Allum for the ordinary colour it dyeth; and with addition of Pot-ashes, when it is used for Purples.
'Brasil steept in Water giveth it the colour of Clarret-wine, into which a drop or two of Juyce of Lemons or Vinegar being put, turneth it into the colour of Canary-Sack; in which particular it agreeth with Cochineil. This colour soon staineth, as may appear by the easy change which so small a quantity of acid liquor makes upon it. A drop of Spirit of Vitriol turnest the infusion of Brasil into a purplish violet-colour, even although it hath been made yellow before, by the addition of juyce of Lemons or Vinegar; and is the same effect which Pot-ashes also produce, as we said before.
'Mather is a Root cultivated much in Flanders: There be of it two sorts; Pipe-Mather, which is the coarseth; and Bale-Mather, otherwise called Crap-Mather: This Mather used to the best advantage, dyeth on Cloth a colour the nearest to our Bow-dye, or the new Scarlet; the like whereof Safflowr doth in Silk, insomuch as the colours called Bastard-Scarlets are dyed with it. This colour indures much boyling, and is used both with Allum and Argol: it holdeth well. The brightest colours dyed with this material are made by over-dying the same, and then by discharging part of it by back-boyling it in Argol.
'Mather is used with Bran-liquor, instead of White-liquor, or ordinary Water.
'Cochineil is of several sorts, viz. Silvester and Mestequa: This also is used with Bran-liquor in Pewter-Furnaces, and with Aqua-fortis, in order to the Scarlet dye. It is the colour whereof the like quantity effecteth most in Dying; and Colours dyed with it, are said to be dyed in Grain. Rags dyed in the dregs of this colour is called Turnsole, and 'tis used to colour Wines; Cochineil being counted so far from an unwholesome thing, that it is esteemed a Cordial. Any acid Liquor takes off the intense Redness of this colour, turning it towards an Orange, Flame, or Scarlet colour: With this colour also the Spanish Leather and Flocks are dyed which Ladies use. The extract or fecula hereof makes the finest Lake.
'Arnotto dyeth of it self an Orange-colour, is used with Pot-ashes upon Silk, Linnen, and Cottons, but not upon Cloth, as being not apt to penetrate into a thick substance.
'Weld, called in Latin Luteola; when it is ripe (that is to say, in the flower) it dyeth (with the help of Pot-ashes) a deep Lemon-colour, like unto Ranunculus, or Broomflower; and either by the smallness of proportion put into the Liquor, or else by the slighter tincture, it dyeth all Colours between White and the Yellow aforefaid.
'In the use of this material, Dyers use a cross, driven down into their Furnace, with a screw to keep it down, so as the Cloth may have liberty in the supernatant Liquor, to be turned upon the Winch, and kept out with the staves: This weed is much cultivated in Kent, for the use of the London Dyers; it holdeth sufficiently well but against Urine and Tartarous Liquors. Painters Pinke is made of it.
'Wood-wax, or Genista Tinctoria (commonly called Grasing-weed by the Dyers) produces the bame effect with the Luteola, being used in greater quantities: It is seldom made use of as to Silk, Linnen, or Cottons, but only as to coarse Cloths: It is also set with Pot-ashes or Urine, called by the Dyers Sigge-fustick; of it there be two sorts, the young and the old. Fustick is chopt and ground as the other Woods above-mentioned are.
'The young Fustick dyeth a kind of Reddish Orange-colour; the old, a Hair-colour with several degrees of yellowness between: It is used with slacked Lime. The colours dyed with old Fustick hold extreamly, and are not to be discharged, will spend with Salts or without, and will work hot or cold.
'Soot of Wood. Soot containeth in it self both a Colour and Salt; wherefore there is nothing added to it to extract its Colour, nor to make it strike up on the Stuff to be Dyed; the natural Colour which it Dyeth of it itself, is the Colour of Honey; but is the foundation of many other Colours upon Wool and Cloth; for to other things it is not ufed. Woad is made of a Weed, sown upon strong new-broken Land, perfectly cleared from all stones and weeds, cut several times by the top leaves, then ground, or rather chopt with a peculiar Mill for that purpose; which being done several times, it is is made up in Balls and dryed in the Sun; the dryer the year is, the better the Woad.
'When it is made up in Balls, it is broken again and laid in heaps, where if it heat too fast, it is sprinkled with ordinary water; but if it heat too slowly, then they throw on it a quantity of Lime or Urine. But of the perfect cultivating and curing of Woad, we shall speak elsewhere.
'English Woad is counted the strongest, it is commonly tryed by staining of white Paper with it, or a white limed Wall, and if the Colour be a French-green it is good.
'Woad in use is used with Pot-ashes commonly called Ware, which if it double refin'd, is called hard Ware (which is much the same with Kelp) or Sea-weeds, calcin'd and burnt into the hardness of a stone, by reiterated Calcinations.
'Lime or Calke, which is strong Lime, is used to accelerate the fermentation of the Woad, which by the help of the same Pot-ashes and warm liquors kept always so, in three or four Days will come to work like a Kive of Beer, and will have a blue or rather greenish-froth or flowry upon it, answering to the Yest or the Kive. Now the over quantity of Ware, fretting too much upon the Woad, is obtunded or dulled by throwing in Bran sometimes loose, sometimes in Bags.
'The making and using Woad, is one of the most mysterious, nice, and hazardous operations in Dying: It is one of the most lasting colours that is dyed: An intense Woad-Colour is almost black, that is to say, of a Damson-colour; this Colour is the foundation of so many others in its degree, that the Dyers have a certain Scale, or number of Stalls, whereby to compute the lightness and deepness of this Colour.
'Indico is made of a Weed of the same Nature with Woad, but more strong; and whereas Woad is the whole substance of the Herb, Indico is only a mealy concrete juice or fecula dryed in the Sun, sometimes made up in flat Cakes, sometimes into round Balls; there be several sorts of Indico.
'Logwood is chopt and ground like other of the Woods above-mentioned; it maketh a purplish blue; may be used without Allum: It hath been esteemed a most false and fading colour; but now being used with Galls, is far less complained of.
General Observations upon
DYING.
'FIRST, that all the materials (which of themselves do give Colour) are either Red, Yellow, or Blue, so that out of them, and the primitive fundamental Colour White, all that great variety which we see in dyed Stuffs doth arise.
'2. That few of the Colouring materials (as Cochineil, Soot, Wood-wax, Woad) are in their outward and first appearance of the same Colour, which by the slightest distempers and solutions in the weakest Menstrua, the Dye upon Cloth, Silk, &c.
'3. That many of the Colouring materials will not yield their Colours without much grinding, steeping, boyling, fermenting, or corrosion by powerful Menstrua; as Red-wood, Weld, Woad, Arnotto, &c.
'4. That many of the said Colouring materials will of themselves give no Colouring at all, as Copperas, or Galls, or with much disadvantage, unless the Cloth or other Stuff to be dyed, be as it were first covered or incrustated with some other matter, though Colour-less aforehand, as Mather, Weld, Brasil, with Allum.
'5. That some of the said Colouring materials by the help of other colour-less ingredients, do strike different Colours from what they would alone, and of themselves; as Cochineil, Brasil, &c.
'6. That some Colours, as Mather, Indico, and Woad, by reiterated tinctures, will at last become black.
'7. That although Green be the most frequent and common of natural Colours, yet there is no simple ingredient, which is now used alone, to dye Green with upon any Material; Sap-green (being the condensated juice of the Rhamnous Berry) being the nearest; the which is used by Country People.
'8. There is no black thing in use which dyes black, tho' both the Coal and Soot of most things burnt or scorched be of that colour; and the blacker, by how much the matter before it was burnt was whiter, as in the famous instance of Ivory black.
'9. The tincture of some Dying Stuffs will fade even with lying, or with the Air, or will stain even with Water; but very much with Wine, Vinegar, Urine, &c.
'10. Some of the Dyers Materials are used to bind and strengthen a Colour, some to brighten it, some to give lustre to the Stuff, some to discharge and take off the Colour either in whole or in part, and some out of fraud, to make the Material dyed (if costly) to be heavier.
'11. That some Dying Ingredients or Drugs, by the coarseness of their Bodies, make the thread of the dyed Stuff seem coarser; and some by shrinking them, smaller, and some by levigating their Asperities, finer.
'12. Many of the same Colours are dyed upon several Stuffs with several Materials; as Red-wood is used in Cloth, not in Silks; Arnotto in Silks, not in Cloth; and may be dyed at several prices.
'13. That Scowering and Washing of Stuffs to be dyed, is to be done with special Materials; as sometimes with Ox-galls, sometimes with Fullers-earth, sometimes with Soap: This latter being pernicious in some cases, where Pot-ashes will stain or alter the colour.
'14. Where great quantities of Stuffs are to be dyed together, or where they are to be done with great speed, and where the pieces are very long, broad, thick, or otherwise, they are to be differently handled, both in respect to the Vessels and Ingredients.
'15. In some Colours and Stuffs the tingent Liquor must be boyling; in other cases blood-warm; in some it may be cold.
'16. Some tingent Liquors are fitted for use by long keeping; and in some the vertue wears away by the same.
'17. Some Colours or Stuffs are best dyed by reiterated Dippings ever into the same Liquor at several distances of time; and some by continuing longer, and others lesser whiles therein.
'18. In some cases the matter of the Vessel wherein the Liquors are heated, and the Tinctures prepared, must be regarded; as the Kettles must be Pewter for Bow-dye.
'19. There is little reckoning made how much Liquor is used in proportion to the dying Drugs; the Liquor being rather adjusted to the bulk of the Stuff, as the Vessels are to the breadth of the same: The quantity of dying Drugs being proportioned to the Colour higher or lower, and to the Stuffs both; as likewise the Salts are to dying Drugs.
'Concerning the weight which Colours give to Silk (for in them 'tis most taken notice of, as being sold by weight, and being a Commodity of great price) it is observed, That one pound of raw Silk loseth four ounces by washing out the Gums and natural Sordes.
'That the same scowred Silk may be raised to above thirty ounces from the remaining twelve, if it be dyed black with some Materials.
'The reason why Black colour may be most heavy dyed, being because all gravitating Drugs may be dyed black, being all of colours lighter than it: whereas perhaps there are few or no Materials wherewith to increase the weight of Silk, which will consist with fair light colours; such as will, having been used, as white Arsenick to Incarnadives. Of a thing truly useful in Dying, especially of Blacks, nothing increases weight so much as Galls, by reason whereof black Silks are restored to as much weight as they lost by washing out their Gum: Nor is it counted extraordinary, that Blacks should gain about four or six ounces in the Dying upon each pound.
'Next to Galls, old Fustick increases the weight about 112 in 12.
'Mather about one ounce,
'Weld half an ounce.
'The Blue-far, in deep Blues of the fifth stall, gives no considerable weight.
'Neither doth Logwood, Cochineil, nor Arnotto: Nor doth Copperas itself, where Galls are not.
'I conceive much light would be given to the Philosophy of Dying, by careful Experiments of the weight added by each Drug or Salt in Dying of every colour.
'Slipp adds much to the weight, and giveth a deeper Black than Copperas itself; which is a good excuse for the Dyers that use it.
'I have hitherto but mentioned the several Colorations used in Humane Affairs, enumerated the several Materials used in one of them, namely, Dying; and imperfectly described the several uses and applications of them in Dying. I have also set down some general Observations relating to that whole Trade. It remains now that we describe the several Vessels, Tools, and Utensils used in the same: And particularly to shew how any Colour assigned may be superinduced upon any kind of Material, as Wool, Linnen, Hair, Feathers, Cotton or Silk: And with what Advantages or Disadvantages of Lasting, Brightness, Cheapness, and Variety, &c. each may be performed. But this being infinite, and almost unteachable by words, as being incomparably more difficult, than how to imitate and compose any Colour assigned, out of the few, usually furnishing a Painter's Palat; I leave the whole to the further consideration of this Learned Society.
