The following recipes for dyeing cotton apply to 10 pounds weight of cotton yarn or cloth, which is found to be the smallest quantity capable of being well dyed at one time. The proportions of each ingredient may be altered, however, so as to correspond with the quantity to be operated upon.

1. Common Black

Take 3 lbs. sumac, and treat with hot water, steeping the goods in the hot decoction for some hours; wring out, wash for 10 minutes in lime-water, and for 30 minutes in a solution of 2 lbs. copperas.

Wash the goods well in cold water, sometimes repeating the treatment with lime, and rewashing; then work the goods for 30 minutes in a warm solution of 3 lbs. of logwood, and afterward with 2 oz. copperas; work again for 10 minutes; wash and dry.

2. Jet Black

Proceed as at 1, adding 1 lb. of fustic with the logwood; and when 3 pts. of iron liquor are used instead of the 2 oz. copperas, a more brilliant black is obtained.

3. Blue Black

Use indigo blue vat, then proceed as at 1.

4. Brown

Treat the goods with a yellow dye, then work for 30 minutes in a decoction of 2 lbs. lima wood, and 8 oz. logwood: lift and work with 2 oz. alum for 15 minutes, then wash and dry.

5. Catechu Brown

Immerse the goods at a boiling temperature in a decoction of catechu; then work for 30 minutes in a hot solution of 6 oz. bichromate of potash. Wash in hot water. If the latter contains a little soap, the color will be improved.

6. French Brown

Dye the goods with a spirit yellow, then treat for half an hour with a solution of 3 lbs. of logwood; raise with a little red liquor, work for 10 minutes, wash and dry.

7. Red

Make a hot solution of 3 lbs. of sumac, introduce the goods, and let them stand till the liquor is cold; then wring out and work in water containing in each gallon a gill of red spirits (prepared by adding 2 oz. feathered tin by degrees to a mixture of 3 parts hydrochloric acid, 1 part of nitric acid, and 1 of water), in the cold, for 30 minutes, wring and wash well; then work the goods for 30 minutes in a lukewarm decoction of 3 lbs. of lima wood and 1 lb. of fustic, add a gill of red spirits, work the goods longer, wash and dry. The famous Turkey-red is imparted to the cloth by first impregnating it with an oily or fatty substance, and then subjecting it to a decoction of madder.

8. Yellow Or Straw

Work the goods in a weak solution of acetate of lead; then wring out, and work in a dilute solution of bichromate of potash; wring out, and work again in the lead solution; wash and dry.

9. Leghorn Yellow

Proceed as at 8, but add a little annotto liquor with the solution of bichromate of potash.

10. Spirit Yelloiv

Work the goods through a weak solution of protochloride of tin for 30 minutes, then work in a solution of quercitron bark for 15 minutes. Lift out, and work again in tin solution, and wash in cold water.

11. Orange

Proceed as at 8, and afterward pass through lime-water at the boiling point, finally washing in cold water.

12. Blue

The goods are worked in various strengths of solution of salts of iron, such as nitrate of iron; wring out, wash in water, and then work in solution of yellow prussiate of potash; wring out and wash in water, and then work in solution of yellow prussiate of alum. The various shades of blue may be obtained by using stronger or weaker solutions.

13. Green

Dye the cloth blue, then work in red liquor (acetate of alumina), wash in water, work in decoction of fustic or bark, raise with solution of alum; wash in cold water and dry. The darker shades of green, as olive or bottle green, are brought out by the use of sumac and logwood, along with the fustic.

14. Lilac

Work the cloth or yarn with spirits, (see 7), then in logwood solution at a temperature of 140° Fahrenheit, adding a little red spirits, red liquor, or alum, wash and dry; or dye the cloth blue (12), then work in solution of logwood, add alum, wash and dry.

15. Purple

Soak the goods in a warm decoction of sumac till cold, work for an hour in red spirits, wash, work in hot solution of logwood, then add a little red spirits, and work again, wash and dry. The various shades of purple may be obtained by altering the strength of the chemicals; the more sumac, the browner the hue; and the more logwood, the bluer the purple becomes.

16. Lavender Or Peach

Work the goods for 20 minutes in spirit plumb (a strong solution of logwood treated with about one-sixth of its volume of a solution of tin; made by dissolving tin in 6 or 7 parts of hydrochloric acid, 1 part of nitric acid, and 1 of water), wring out and wash well in cold water.

17. Drab

Work the goods in a decoction of sumac, lift, add copperas, rework, wash in water, then work in a mixed decoction of fustic, lima wood, and logwood, raise with a little alum, wash and dry. Catechu is occasionally employed.