Dyes and dyeingPellew, Charles E. (Charles Ernest), Viscount Exmouth
Science
Dyes and dyeing
Pellew, Charles E. (Charles Ernest), Viscount Exmouth
Dyes and dyeing
Another attraction is the feeling of working all the time in an
unexplored or very partially explored country. There is the constant
chance of obtaining at any moment effects never thought of before.
The experimenter is always trying some new little trick in tying, or
in folding, or in dyeing, the results of which can never be foreseen
accurately, and which are always interesting and often very beautiful.
=Tied and Discharged Work.=—One day, in our laboratory, some
experiments were made which resulted in a modification of this
process which, so far as we know, was entirely new, and which
presents very interesting possibilities, to say the least. We made
the experiment of dyeing the cloth first, and then tying it up,
and putting it in a bleaching solution, so as to discharge the
color everywhere excepting where it was protected by the tying.
The experiment was successful, resulting (see Plate IV, Fig. b),
in a series of dark patterns on a light background. All kinds of
modifications of this can be made. For instance, the cloth can
be dyed with a mixture of two or three dyes, some of which are fast
and the other or others can be discharged by the chemical used. The
pattern thus will be the full mixed color, say brown, against a
background of red or yellow or blue as the case may be.
[Illustration: FIG. 11—CENTRE AND CORNERS TIED
FIG. 12—DYED, UNTIED AND SHAKEN OUT
TIED AND DYED WORK-CONTINUED]
The important thing about this modification is to select the proper
bleaching agent to act on the particular colors, and the particular
kind of material, used. Our first experiments were with bleaching
powder (chloride of lime), dissolved in water, say two tablespoonfuls
to the gallon, with, if necessary, a few drops of acetic acid or weak
sulphuric acid stirred into it. This powerful bleaching agent is very
apt to attack the cloth, and only heavy materials, such as scrim or
heavy calico should be used with it. But although so strong, it does
not act at all readily on a large number of the dyestuffs, including
many of the Vat colors. Some of these, like the Indanthrene colors,
are not affected at all, Indigo is changed from blue to a brilliant
shade of yellow. And Thio Indigo Red B produces curious shades of
purple, settling, where exposed to the full action of the bleaching
agent, to orange.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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