GENERAL REMARKS. (continued 2)

Great care is required in curling gilded or frosted feathers, that the metal or glass powder is not rubbed off in passing the fibres of the vane over the curling-knife. This operation being extremely difficult and dangerous, the use of a curling-iron, like that used by hair-dressers, is preferable to that of the knife. The iron is moderately heated, so as not to singe the feathers; then, beginning at the lower end of the feather, a part of the fibres on one side of the stem are taken by their ends between the shanks of the iron, the latter closed and the fibres wound downwards around it, the iron being carried on the under side of the feather towards the stem. Then first one side of the vane is successively curled from the quill up to the tip, when the same operation is repeated upon the other half of the feather. If, in this manner, the feather should be curled too strongly, the fibres are taken between the shanks of the warm curling-iron at the stem and simply drawn through the iron.

Numerous ostrich feather dyers and dressers use the curling-iron altogether, instead of the knife; the only difficulty for the beginner is to get the proper heat, which, however, is soon learned.

Very pretty effects are also obtained by dyeing the feathers a light shade of color, drying, gumming and sprinkling them with either powdered black glass or jet.

RENOVATING FEATHERS.

White ostrich feathers which, by long exposure to the show-window, or by lying in store for a protracted time, have lost their whiteness and turned yellow, and dyed feathers which, from the same causes, have become dirty, pale and discolored, can be restored to their former beauty by washing, respectively redyeing, as follows:

I. A washing process, which is ordinarily only applied to white feathers which have become yellow, is as follows: Prepare a bath of two gallons of water at 145°F., to which add half a gallon of liquid ammonia (spirits of sal ammoniac, ammonia water); enter the feathers, work them once well through with the hands, and lay them down in the bath over night. On the following day take them up, wash them once through a soap-bath at 145°F., pass them again through the first ammoniacal bath, and rinse well and let them drain. Then prepare a bath of cold water, to which add so much of a clear solution of methyl violet 6 B., that a white china plate held about a foot below the surface of the water, appears with a faint bluish tint, or such a blue tone as is desired; and add to the bath so much sulphurous acid, that it gives the liquid a well defined odor. When the sulphurous acid mixes with the tinted liquid, the violet color of the latter disappears and changes to a greenish tint, which, however, turns again to blue upon the feathers when they are afterwards exposed to the action of the air. The feathers are then passed, singly, if possible, through the blue-bath, well drained, centrifugated or whizzed, starched and dried as usual.

Colored feathers which have lost their freshness, and are to be redyed, are simply washed clean with soap and rinsed, or they are stripped of their color, as much as possible, with soap and oxalic acid, or bleached with peroxyd of hydrogen, as described in the beginning; whereupon they are dyed and treated like bleached new feathers, always taking into consideration, however, what of the old color may remain upon the feathers, may be utilizable as a bottom for the new color, or even as a component of it, for instance, in the case of many modes and several browns.

II. Another method of renovating ostrich feathers presents the advantages that it is executed without the application of heat, that it is a simple cleaning process which attacks no color, and that it leaves the curling of the feathers intact, which is unavoidably taken out of them by washing with warm water and soap, or any other alkaline detergent substance. It is, therefore, only applied to feathers which have lost their purity of color by exposure, and whose curling is to be preserved, or is worthy of preserving. It is, in part, the same process which is known as "dry washing" among scourers and dyers of garments, and can be applied to feathers of any color and shade, white and even black, without exception.

For this operation fill a basin or small wooden hand-tub with benzene, add a handful or two of potato flour (sifted potato starch), enter the feathers and rub them well through with the starch until clean; then squeeze then out by hand and press between muslin, finally whiz or shake them in the air until dry.

This process is partly chemical, in so far as the benzene loosens the dust and other impurities which have settled upon the feathers, partly mechanical, as the numerous fine particles of the potato starch, which do not dissolve in benzene as soap does in water, rub these impurities off from the feather. By the combined action of the benzene and starch, and the friction applied, the feathers are not only cleaned, but the flues completely opened, so that the feather thus treated looks perfectly like new.

A remarkable feature of this process is that the starch carries nearly all the impurities down with itself to the bottom of the wash-basin, and becomes soiled, while the benzene takes up every little of them, and can, therefore, after settling, be poured off from the starch sediment, and can be used several times before it needs to be purified or eventually becomes unfit for use.

In using benzene, which is a highly combustible substance, the utmost precaution must be observed that no open flame or fire be in the work-room, neither open lamps nor a fire in the stove burning. Even doors leading to adjoining rooms, where lights or fires are burning, ought to be kept closed while working with benzene, because the benzene vapors, which may be carried to the flame by a draft of air, would inevitably ignite and cause an explosion and fire. Occurrences of this kind have been not unfrequently observed.

Feathers which have been cleaned by this process, as well as new feathers, may be dyed by the following process.

DYEING IN THE COLD WAY.

This process is a real dyeing process, as well as a renovating process, both, however, to a limited extent, inasmuch as it can be applied only to white feathers or to such as are dyed with light and medium shades of certain colors which are to be freshened up; but it does not answer for dark colors. It is, however, extremely simple and easy to execute; besides, almost instantaneous, and therefore of great utility where rapid work is required, because it leaves the feathers perfectly in shape, like the benzene washing process, and does not affect the curling of the feather, if there is such. Old feathers which were already dyed cream, rose, salmon, light blue, light gray, light green, sea green, golden yellow, heliotrope or beige, can be redyed in the same colors, but must previously be washed with benzene; new white feathers do not require such washing.

For this method of dyeing, aniline dyestuffs soluble in alcohol are used, viz.: for

Cream,Curcumine or Aniline Orange,

Rose,Eosine or Ponceau,

Salmon,Curcumine and Eosine,

Light Blue,Water Blue and Methylene Blue,

Gray,Nigrosine,

Sea-green,Malachite Green,

Golden Yellow,Orange and Fast Brown,

Heliotrope,Methyl violet 6 B.,

Beige,Methylene Blue, Curcumine and Fast Brown,

mixed according to tone and shade.

Operate as follows: Fill a white basin with a sufficient quantity of alcohol to completely wet the feathers in it; add, according to shade, a smaller or greater quantity of the clear alcoholic solution of the required dyestuff, or mixture of dyestuffs, pass the feathers singly, without previously wetting them, three or four times through the alcohol bath; then press them out between clean muslin, put a few handfuls of sifted potato starch upon a clean sheet of paper, and rub the feathers with it until thoroughly dry; finally, shake out the starch.

RECAPITULATION OF GENERAL RULES.

At all times have the feathers, which are to be dyed, scoured well, that is, washed clean from all externally adhering impurities, fat, etc.; naturally colored feathers bleached for all light and medium shades to be dyed upon them, and rinsed perfectly clean from the scouring or bleaching bath, first in two or three warm waters and then in cold water.

On taking the feathers from any bath, always squeeze the liquid out first by drawing the feathers through the hand closed upon them, then by placing them straight between several laps of clean dry muslin and repeatedly passing the hand with quite a smart pressure over it. Never transfer the feathers, in any case, from one bath to another in a wet, but in a moist condition, or nearly dry.

Never allow the feathers to become dry in the course of operations. If it is necessary to interrupt work, or to put feathers to one side for further treatment, dry them properly by first passing them through a bath of raw starch, in order to have the flues at all times as well opened as possible.

In no case let the temperature of a bath, in which feathers are treated, rise to actual boiling, although for some dyestuffs a temperature near the boiling point is required to make them dye up, to become level or to fix them.

In every instance, where an acid or acid salt is employed, either in a separate mordanting or fixing bath, or as a component of the dyebath, rinse well before drying.

When sulphuric acid is used in the composition of a bath, add only so much of it as to give the water a very slight, scarcely perceptible acid taste.

Although some artificial dyestuffs dye up without an addition of acid to the dye bath (basic dyestuffs), the addition of sulphuric acid, in a very small quantity, to the dye-bath is advantageous, rendering the colors brighter and also faster.

When bisulphate of soda is employed, it is not necessary to also add sulphuric acid to the dye-bath; if it is added, however, it must only be in a very small quantity; careful rinsing in several warm and cold waters after dyeing is required.

When alum alone is used without any other addition as mordant, sulphuric acid may be added, but only in the proportion of one tenth or, at the most, up to one fifth of the weight of alum, and careful rinsing in several warm and cold waters is the more indispensably required the more acid has been employed.

All solutions of dyestuffs, as well as of chemicals, ought to be carefully filtered, and decoctions of woods, etc., strained before adding them to the bath; never add dyestuffs, drugs or chemicals in substance to any bath, in order to prevent solid particles from settling upon the feathers.

Never add all the dyestuff probably required or prescribed by a recipe to the dye-bath at one time, but in several small quantities, each time after taking up the feathers, stir the bath after making the addition, re-enter the feathers and watch the progress of the dyeing carefully; when approaching the desired shade, add the dyestuff very cautiously, by drops if necessary, particularly with mixed colors, such as modes.

Sample in proper time, and take not a whole feather for it, but pull off two or three fibres from the lower part of a feather, dry them quickly by squeezing between dry muslin, match, correct the bath and finish dyeing.

While drying keep the feathers as much as possible in constant motion, shake and beat them.

Do not interrupt operations, if it can be avoided, but do the work rapidly and continuously, without pausing.

Keep every utensil scrupulously clean.

THE END.