Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, first edition - Volume I, A-B.pdf/670

 562 B L E A C H I N G. This alternate courfe of bucking and watering, is per- From the bucking it goes to the watering, as formerformed for the moft part, from ten to fixteen time^, or more, ly, obferving only to overlap the felvages, and tie it before the linen is fit for fouring; gradually increafing the down with cords, that it may not tear; then it returns Itrength of the lye from thefirft to the middle bucking, and to the four, milling, wafhing, bucking, and watering afrom that gradually decreafmg it till the fouring begins. gain. Thefe operations fucceed one another alternately The lyes in the middle buckings are generally about a till the cloth is whitened ; at which time it is blued, third Wronger than the firft and laft. ftarched, and dried. Souring, or the application of acids to cloth, is the This is the method ufed in the whitening fine cloths. fourth operation. It is difficult to fay when this opera- The following is the method ufed in the whitening of tion fhould commence, and depends moftly on the fkill coarfe cloths. and experience of the bleacher. When the cloth has an Having forted the cloths, according to their quality, equal colour, and is moftly freed from the fprat, or they are fteeped in the fame manner as the fine, rinfed, outer bark of the lint, it is then thought fit for fouring ; wafhed in the mill, and dried before boiling. which is performed in the following manner. Into a In this procefs, boiling fupplies the place of bucking, large vat or veflel is powered fuch a quantity of butter- as it takes lefs time, and confequently is thought cheapmilk, or four milk, as will fufficiently wet the firft row eft. It is done in the following manner : 200 lb. caflrub of cloth; which is tied up in loofe folds, and preffed afhes, 100 lb. white Mufcovy, and 30 lb. pearl-afhes, down by two or three men bare-footed. If the milk is boiled in 105 Scots gallons of water for a quarter of an thick, about an eighth of water is added to it if thin, hour, as in the procefs for the fine cloth, makes the nrtono water. Sours made with bran, or rye-meal and wa- tber or firft lye. The cloth-boiler is then to be filled ter, are often ufed inftead of milk, and ufed milk-warm. two thirds full with water and mother-lye, about nine Over the firft row of cloth a quantity of milk and water parts of the former to one of the latter ; fo that the lye is thrown, to be imbibed by the fecond; and fo it is nfed for boiling the coarfe cloth, is about a third weaker continued till the linen to be foured is fufficiently wet, than that ufed in bucking the fine. Such a quantity of and the liquor rifes over the whole. The cloth is then cloth is put into the foregoing quantity of lye, when kept down by covers filled with holes, and fecured with cold, as can be well covered by it. The lye is brought a poft fixed to the joift, that it may not rife. Some gradually to the boil, and kept boiling for two hours ; the hours after the cloth has been in the four, air-bubbles cloth being fixed down all the time, that it does not arife, a white fcum is found on the furface, and an inte- rife above the liquor. The cloth is then taken out, ftine motion goes on in the liquor. In warm weather it fpread on the field, and watered, as mentioned before in appears fooner, is ftronger, and ends fooner, than in the fine cloth. cold weather. Juft before this fermentation, which lafts As the falls of the lye are not exhaufted by this boilfive or fix days, is finifhed, at which time the fcum falls ing, the fame is continued to be ufed all that day, adddown, the cloth fhould be taken out, rinfed, mill-wafhed, ing, at each boiling, fo much of the mother-lye as will and delivered to the women to be wafhed with foap and bring it to the fame ftrength as at firft. The lye by boilwater. ing lofes in quantity fomewhat betwixt a third and a Wafhing with foap and water, is the fifth operation; fourth ; and they reckon that in ftrength it lofes about a and is performed thus. Two women are placed oppofite half, becaufe they find in pra<5iice, that adding to it at each tub, which is made of very thick ftaves, fo that half its former ftrength in frefti lye, has the fame effefl the edges, which dope inwards, are about four inches in on cloth. Therefore fome frefti lye, containing a fourth thicknefs. A fmall veffel full of warm water is placed part of the water, and the half of the ftrength of the firft in each tub. The cloth is folded fo that the felvage lye, makes the fecond boiler equal in ftrength to the may be firft rubbed with fbap and warm water length- firft. To the third boiler they add fomewhat more than ways, till it is fufficiently impregnated with it. In this the former proportion, and go on ftill increafing gradumanner all the parcel is rubbed with foap, and afterwards ally to the fourth and fifth, which is as much as can be done in a day. The boiler is then cleaned, and next carried to be bucked. The lye now ufed has no foap in it, except what it day they begin with frelh lye. Thefe additions of frefti gets from the cloth ; and is equal in ftrength to the lye ought always to be made by the mafter-bleacher, as ftj ongeft formerly ufed, or rather ftronger, becaule the it requires judgment to bring fucceeding lyes to the fame cloth is now put in wet. From the former operation ftrength as the firft. thefe lyes are gradually made ftronger, till die cloth When the cloth comes to get the fecond boiling, the feems of an uniform white, nor any darknefs or brown lye ftiould be a little ftronger, about a thirtieth part, and colour appears in its ground. After this the lye is more the deficiencies made up in the fame proportion. For fix fpeedily weakened than it was increafed; fo that the laft or feven boilings, or fewer, if the cloth be thin, the lye which the cloth gets, is weaker than any it got before. is increafed in this way, and then gradually diminiflied But the management of fours is different; for they till the cloth is fit for fouring. The whiteft cloth ought are ufed ftrongeft at firft, and decreafed fo in ftrength, always to be boiled firft, that it may not be hurt by what that the laft four, confidering the cloth is then always goesIn before. this procefs, if the cloth cannot be got dry for boiltaken up wet, may be reckoned to contain three fourths ing, bufinefs does not flop as in the fine ; for aftercoarfe the of water.