333. Aniline Blue

333.    Aniline Blue. To 100 pounds of fabric dissolve 11/4 pounds aniline blue in 3 quarts hot alcohol; strain through a filter and add it to a bath of 130° Pah.; also 10 pounds glauber salts, and 5 pounds acetic acid. Enter the goods and handle them well for 20 minutes; next heat it slowly to 200° Fah.; then add 5 pounds sulphuric acid diluted with water. Let the whole boil 20 minutes longer, then rinse and dry. If the aniline be added in two or three proportions during the process of coloring, it will facilitate the evenness of the color. Hard and close wove fabrics, such as braid, ought to be prepared in a boiling solution of 10 pounds sulphuric acid and 2 pounds tartaric acid before coloring with the aniline, as this will make the fabric more susceptible to the color.

334. To Dye Hats

334.    To Dye Hats. A bath for dyeing 12 dozen hats consists of 144 pounds logwood, 12 pounds green sulphate of iron or copperas, 71/2 pounds verdigris. The copper is made of a semi-cylindrical shape, and should be surrounded with an iron jacket, or case, into which steam may be admitted, so as to raise the temperature of the interior bath to 190° Pah., but no higher; otherwise the heat is apt to affect the stiffening varnish, called the gum, with which the body of the hat has been imbued. The logwood having been introduced and digested for some time, the copperas and verdigris are added in successive quantities, and in the above proportions, along with every successive two or three dozen of hats suspended upon the dipping machine. Each set of hats, after being exposed to the bath, with occasional airings, during 40 minutes, is taken off the pegs, and laid out upon the ground to be more completely blackened by the peroxydizement of the iron with the atmospheric oxygen. In 3 or 4 hours the dyeing is completed. When fully dyed, the hats are well washed in running water.

335. Spirit Stiffening for Hats

335.    Spirit Stiffening for Hats. 7 pounds orange shellac; 2 pounds gum sanda-rac; 4 ounces gum mastic; 1/2 pound amber resin ; 1 pint solution of copal; 1 gallon spirit of wine, or wood naphtha.

The shellac, sandarac, mastic, and resin are dissolved in the spirit, and the solution of copal is added last.

336. Alkali Stiffening for Hats

336.    Alkali Stiffening for Hats. 7 pounds common block shellac; 1 pound amber resin; 4 ounces gum thus; 4 ounces gum mastic; 6 ounces borax; 1/2 pint solution of copal.

The borax is first dissolved in about 1 gallon warm water. This alkaline liquor is put into a copper pan (heated by steam), together with the shellac, resin, thus, and mastic, and allowed to boil for some time, more warm water being added occasionally until it is of a proper consistence; this may be known by pouring a little on a cold slab, somewhat inclined, and if the liquor runs off at the lower end, it is sufficiently fluid. If, on the contrary, it sets before it reaches the bottom, it requires more water. "When the whole of the gums seem dissolved, 1/2 pint of wood naphtha must be introduced, with the solution of copal ; then the liquor must be passed through a fine sieve, and it will be perfectly clear and ready for use. This stiffening is used hot. The hat bodies, before they are stiffened, should be steeped in a weak solution of soda in water, to destroy any acid that may have been left in them (as sulphuric acid is used in the making of the bodies.) If this is not attended to, should the hat body contain any acid when it is dipped into the stiffening, the alkali is neutralized, and the gums consequently precipitated. After the body has been steeped in the alkaline solution, it must be perfectly dried in the stove before the stiffening is applied ; when stiffened and stoved, it must be steeped all night in water to which a small quantity of the sulphuric acid has been added; this sets the stiffening in the hat body, and finishes the process.