Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/471

Rh more than two thousand years, its original colors scarcely dimmed. Modern dyeing must stand abashed in the presence of such evidence of a permanency it does not pretend to imitate. But it has made some wonderful advances, all within the last quarter of a century, in the successful application of the aniline dyes to fabrics; and the new combinations which are constantly evolved and applied, are all of them possessed of this great advantage, that they are brought within the reach of the millions.

Wool has an affinity for dye surpassing that of any other fiber, and there is no new discovery in dyeing material to which it does not instantly declare kinship. It is dyed to equal advantage either in the fleece (after scouring), the sliver, the yarn, or the piece, according to the use to which it is to be put. The dyeing department of a great wool-factory is one of the most critical points of its administration. Here again art touches manufacture closely. The designer and the dyer are the two agencies through which the manufacturer keeps in touch with the world. The finishing of woolen goods is a series of operations no less important than those which have preceded, for they determine the final appearance of the textures. These processes are numerous and delicate. They have been vastly simplified and expedited by machinery, and chiefly in the last half-century. The most important of the finishing operations is that of fulling or milling. In this operation the cloth will lose by shrinkage from one quarter to one third of the length and breadth to which it is woven. The serrations of the wool, which have been left intact throughout the multitudinous manipulation to which the fiber has been subjected, fit into each other in the process of milling, and lock fast under pressure. Thus a piece of woolen cloth, originally a series of threads loosely woven, becomes apparently one solid mass, which can be pulled apart with difficulty. Fulling can only be accomplished when the