542

DYEING AND CALICO PRINTING.

a similar manner, red-lead being substituted for litharge. Both the plumbiteand the plumbate deposit a certain amount of lead upon vegetable fibres, andcan be used in getting up chrome-yellows. Their affinity for organic colouringmatters is too feeble to admit of them serving for purposes similar to thestannates.

Tungsten Mordants.

Tungsten, or wolfram, is a metal which is frequently found along with tin,and which has been tried as a mordant in various states of combination. Theuse of certain tungstic salts in dyeing was patented, in 1847, by RobertOxland. He diredts a chloride of tungsten to be made by boiling tungstate ofsoda with nitro-hydrochloric acid, and to be used in cloth-dyeing in place ofthe salts of tin. The shades produced upon wool with logwood are violet,passing on prolonged boiling into claret, and finally into black. He preparesthe tungstate of soda by roasting the ore, either native wolfram (the doubletungstate of iron and manganese)or “ native tungstic acid,” with soda-ash,or sulphate of soda. As prepared under this patent, the tungstate of sodawould require to be freed from admixtures of ferrate and manganate.

Haeffely, in a patent dated 1854, claims the use of this tungstate of sodaeither as a substitute for, or as an addition to, the stannate of soda.

The general conclusion, among printers who have given the tungstate a fairtrial, is unfavourable.

Antimony Mordants.

Antimony, like bismuth, has a considerable analogy with tin. When adtedupon by strong nitric acid it—like tin—forms an insoluble oxide, and its acidsolutions, like those of bismuth and tin, are rendered turbid and precipitatedif largely diluted with water,—a readtion which may be prevented by theaddition of tartaric acid.

The tartrate of antimony, the double tartrate of antimony and potassa,—commonly known as tartar emetic,—the chloride and the double oxalate ofantimony and potassa, and the alkaline antimoniates, have been made the sub-jects of various experiments in dyeing and printing. The results, though theydo not preclude all hope of success in the future, have not been satisfadtory.

Solutions of antimony along with oxalic acid have been tried for cochineal-scarlets in place of the corresponding tin preparations. The result was a coarseharsh shade, without the richness and softness of the tin cochineal-scarlet. As“ prepares ” for steam-colours, all the antimonial compounds hitherto triedhave shown themselves inferior to tin.

Jones Martyn Roberts, in 1853, patented the use of antimony, “renderedsoluble in any form,” as a mordant. He also claims its use as a “ brightener.”It is remarkable that several antimonial compounds, if digested in very smallquantity with logwood liquor, modify its colour to a rich rose-purple, almostapproaching certain aniline colours. The logwood so modified gives, how-ever, only weak stains upon fibres and tissues.

Antimonial compounds have been used in the preparation of aniline colours,and the double tartrate (tartar emetic) serves as a mordant for fixing coloursof this class upon cotton.

Solutions of antimony yield readily, with solutions and decoctions of dye-wares, a series of lakes, many of which, if the antimony is free from iron, are