In dyehouses where steam is used, it is necessary to boil your bath a longer time than where the bath comes in direct contact with the fire. The accommodations of a dyehouse for the re-dying of ostrich feathers need be very simple and inexpensive; in fact, I have seen a dyehouse where old re-dyed transient work to the amount of fifty dollars per day was accomplished with a small cooking stove, a wash-boiler, a wash-bowl and a tin dipper; costing in all less than six dollars. Of course, in the manufacture of raw stock it is necessary to have larger vessels and much better facilities; for instance, instead of from ten to fifty, or even a hundred feathers, you will of necessity be compelled to dye lots of from five to ten pounds of goods at one time. Two stationary tubs or vats, one for use in washing white and bleaching, and the other for black, with water pipes and steam pipes and connections; a few large porcelain lined or copper basins for dark colors are essential; it is also well to have an outer room or inclosed closet to keep your dyestuffs in, as it is important that they be kept clean. When cans of color are opened for the purpose of diluting a portion or making a color, have the cover replaced and returned to closet when through with it.

Have bench or table whereon rests your basins, while you match shades in making colors, if possible, where a north light will strike it; and if cold weather and the windows closed, keep the glass clean. You will often get various reflections in the dyehouse that cause a great deal of trouble to the dyer; as, for example, if the sun should be shining on a red brick wall and the reflection beating into the dyehouse, it will often lead the dyer astray, and while he thinks he has a perfect match, when the color goes into the office there is a decided difference.

The great majority who are expected to be benefitted by this work are not ostrich feather manufacturers, but the job dyer; and it is my object to simplify the dyehouse as well as the methods of dyeing. A small corner of the dyehouse can be used, and a couple of ordinary wash-bowls, a common wash-boiler and a tin dipper are really all the utensils that are practically necessary to complete the dyehouse for the renovator. A couple of hours in the morning devoted to feather dyeing, and a good practical man can turn out fifty dollars worth at a cost of only his two hours labor, and perhaps fifty cents worth of color. Feathers can be dried in an ordinary hot room or, if warm weather, out in the open air. The dry room where large quantities of feathers are dried should never be too warm, as the feathers are apt to dry up quicker than the boys can beat the starch out of them; and, as a consequence, the flues or fibres are not expanded as they should be, and the feathers are much harder to curl. The board or table used to beat the feathers on must be perfectly smooth, as there is otherwise danger of tearing out the flues.

The drying of feathers is quite an important operation, and if not understood, can result in ruining a great many by drying them improperly, allowing the starch to dry up on the flues without beating it out, and by breaking the quills. The dry room is only used when the weather is too inclement to dry in the open air, or when you have not got outside accommodations. The yard or roof is far preferable to the dry room, and especially so for white and black feathers. After having been washed and the starch thoroughly removed, it will improve them greatly to expose them to the sun for an hour or two. Colors, especially delicate shades, should not be allowed to hang in the sun only during the actual time required for drying a black made by our process; it greatly improves upon exposure to the sunlight, giving it an advantage over all others. Baths of logwood or old garnet baths that you are desirous of saving for future use, it will be well to remove them from the copper or tin basins or pans to wooden buckets or crockery jars, and cover them up for the purpose of excluding all foreign matter.

MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION.

In the re-dying of old feathers the first thing necessary is to enter them in book by whatever system you may think best; after which they are assorted as to color, the blacks, browns, greens, blues, etc. Put in separate lots and then string them and mark your tickets. You will often find when you have selected your colors a number of different shades to be dyed one color; as, for example, when you come to string your browns, you will find a blue, a green, a garnet, a drab, and perhaps a dozen different shades of colors; string them all on at once and enter together, and dye a good medium shade of seal brown and dry; after which you proceed to take them off the string, and place them with their respective tickets. You will now find, perhaps, one a shade too dark for your sample, another perhaps a shade too light. The former you would pass through a weak solution of sulphuric acid in starch bath, and the latter through a weak solution of bichromate of potash. Another one you may find a little too red for sample, or too yellow. These, in turn, you can bring to match your sample as per recipe for brown.

In beginning the days work, it is well to do all your bleaching and cleaning first, while your hand basins and dyehouse are in a clean condition; after which the blacks, as they require logwood good and pure, and the same logwood used for them can be used for all other colors where logwood enters into their composition. Consequently one bath of logwood boiled in the morning will do all the work for the day.

In Chicago I remember, while giving instruction to a gentleman, who had come down from St. Paul, Minn., for the purpose of learning the art, that in one afternoon I taught him how to make every color and shade of color known, and my logwood bath that was used during the whole day's work was boiled in a small sauce-pan that held about two quarts. It had been used in making black, browns, greens and navy blues of all shades, and was still in good enough condition to make any color, excepting perhaps black.

Keep your bath of logwood covered at all times when not in actual use, and, indeed, then, if convenient, to prevent any foreign substance from entering it. It is the custom of a great many ostrich feather dyers to keep a quantity of starch in the dyehouse for the purpose of dipping their feathers into it and partially beating them out prior to removing them from the bath for the purpose of drying the ends up to see if they match sample. This is a very bad practice, for the loose starch flying through the dyehouse will settle on the uncovered colors and cause not a little annoyance and trouble. Keep the starch out of the dyehouse; keep it in the drying-room where it belongs. In drying your feathers out of the baths in starch it is well to have two boxes,—one to be used for colors that contain acid; as, for example, light blues, lemon, etc.,—the other for those colors that contain none; such as drabs, pinks, etc. In dissolving colors use ordinary bottles, and be sure to always use boiling water for the purpose of diluting. Let the proportions be about one teaspoonful of color to one pint of boiling water. Shake gently to thoroughly dilute aniline, and cork or cover bottles to keep out dirt.

Colors that are used in making very delicate shades, such as pinks or light blues, it is well to tie around the top of the bottle in place of a cork a small piece of muslin. It will act as a strainer, and prevent particles of color that may not have been thoroughly dissolved from passing into the bath and spotting your goods. Do not be too careful of the hands and afraid of getting them covered with dyestuffs; use them in the bath instead of sticks at all times, excepting where the liquid is too hot to permit it. The best method of cleaning the hands, no matter how dirty, is to pass them through a solution of soda, about one-quarter ounce in a small quantity of hot water; rinse off in cold water, and take about a teaspoonful of chloride of lime, moisten with water and rub the hands gently with it until all color has entirely disappeared; then wash with soap and hot water.

WASHING RAW STOCK.

First string your feathers, being careful to place the string on the end of quill so as not to get any of the flues under the loop; then slice down according to quantity of feathers to be washed, from one to more pounds of soap in boiling water, and boil down to a liquor; after which fill a clean tub half full of luke warm water, and pour soap into it; then enter your feathers and give them a slight rubbing. Then push them well under the surface of the water, cover them up and allow them to remain over night. In the morning run off dirty water and squeeze out your feathers; enter your feathers in a tub of clean luke warm water and use an ordinary wash board and a soft scrubbing brush. Rub bar soap on feathers, and brush gently, being very careful not to tear out the flues. Soap and brush one string at a time, manipulate them much after the manner of a woman handling a large wash. Be careful to give minute attention to the bottom portion of the feathers, as the flues are always more closely stuck together with the natural grease of the bird, and it often requires an amount of hard labor to remove. Repeat the washing operation and rinse off in about three luke warm waters, starch and dry.

In starching rub the feathers around well between the hands for the purpose of getting all the flues thoroughly expanded, squeeze out of bath and hang on lines to dry. Put no more out at once than the dyers can comfortably handle, as it is well to have them beat out on board at regular intervals of a minute or so; thereby expanding the flues to their utmost. The process of selecting the different grades or qualities follow, and it is necessary for the person performing this work to be familiar with the application of dyestuffs to feathers, to insure the dyer less trouble; as the different qualities all put in the bath together, and going through exactly the same process will come out different shades of color, will cause the dyer a great deal of trouble and labor getting them all an even color. When a batch of feathers are intended for white it will not be necessary to dry them first; simply wash and rinse, and prepare your white bath as per recipe, and pass them through it. It is scarcely necessary to remark here that natural black and gray feathers must not be washed at the same time with whites, as the latter would not be improved.

Strings should not contain more than fifty plumes, for, if they are made much longer, it would be awkward to handle them. Tips, however, are often strung three or four in a bunch, according to size, and an ordinary string may contain two or three hundred. In washing natural black tips it is advisable to use a brush on them during the first rinsing to remove all particles of soap therefrom.

SHADING.

Shading from dark to light colors is the result of submerging one portion of the feather in the bath and withholding the balance. Great care and not a little skill is needed to produce a satisfactory result. There are various ways of handling the goods, covering up the portions to remain the light shade or holding them out with the hands. Spotted or speckled feathers are produced by first dyeing the light shade that you desire to be spotted, and then wrapping around a round stick with cord, according to the size you desire to have the spots, you will regulate the weight of cord used. After having bound the cord tightly around the feather and stick, which must then be tied firmly to keep from slipping, pass through boiling water for a few seconds for the purpose of expanding the wood and contracting the cord, thereby making the cord much tighter. After you have made them whatever dark color you desire, take out, starch and pass through dry starch; then remove cord and dry your feathers, when you will find that the portion covered by the cord will be the light shade, and the feathers have the appearance of being dotted all over.

Natural blacks or grays can be speckled as follows: Go through the same preparations of binding around stick with cord and degrading or bleaching them white. The result will be that the portion covered with cord will be same as before entering the bath, a black or dark brown, and the body of the feathers will be white. Should you desire the feathers dyed any light color to contrast with the dark spots; before removing the cord, mix your bath and dye as per recipe, dry as before directed, and the result is very beautiful. Some very nice effects are produced in shading by taking natural grays or bioucs, that is, feathers that are one portion white and the balance in spots, black.

PARING, STEAMING AND CURLING.

Feathers that have just come out of the dyehouse for the first time require paring, which consists in removing the quill from the inner portion of the feather, thereby making the feathers more elastic. The feathers must first be thoroughly dried; they are then taken, one at a time, held between the thumb and two fore fingers of the left hand, while, with a knife held in the right, the inner quill is rapidly removed close to the flues or fibres. This branch of the business is in itself a trade, and requires a great amount of skill and caution to prevent cutting through the quill. The feather can be made still more limber by scraping the quill with a piece of glass. Of course, this process of paring the quill is only used in new work. In re-dying old feathers it is never needed; in old work it is only necessary to dry up thoroughly, steam and curl. A great many have no knowledge of what relation steaming has to the finishing of feathers. It has the effect of making all the flues lie perfectly straight beside each other, and also dampens the feathers just enough to assist the curler in her work.

It is necessary to have a steamer made as follows: get a kettle that will hold about one gallon or more of water, made out of plain tin, with a spout commencing at the base about two inches in width and tapering up to a half inch in width at top. The spout should be about eighteen inches in length; the total cost should not be more than one dollar. Never have it more than half full of water, and you can boil it on either an ordinary stove or common gas or oil stove.

You may ask why steam from the boiler, or out of an ordinary tea-kettle would not answer? It is too wet. Instead of having the desired effect it wets the flues, while the other dampens it just enough. The steam emitted from the steam kettle is drier than any other.

When the steam is passing through the tube take hold of the feathers by either end and pass backward and forward for a few seconds about two inches above the top of pipe, and lay down perfectly flat, one on top of the other. Curling is a trade that can only be thoroughly mastered by practice; the principles can be taught, but only practice will make perfect. It does not, however, require a great while. I have known persons that within three months had become first-class curlers, practicing a short time each day.

The feather is held between the first and second finger and thumb of the left hand and a few flues taken up at a time with the knife held in the right hand, and gently drawn along the round dull edge of the knife, and allowed to drop in a half circle; begin at the bottom of the right hand side of the feather, work up to the top and around and down the other side; and in laying up take up about three flues at a time, skipping about six. Feminine fingers are generally better adapted to this work than others, and, in fact, it is more of a woman's work than a man's.

Tips are generally bent and branched. You can give the feathers a nice droop by taking the quill between the thumb and fore-finger, and with the thumb pressing the quill through between the first and second finger. Begin about the middle of the feather, and, shifting about a quarter inch at a time, pass swiftly up towards the top, when the feathers will have a very beautiful droop. Plain wire stems can be used. Take thin wire, cut about five inches in length, and twist one end of it on stem or quill of your feathers so as to hold; then take tissue paper, cut in strips about a half inch wide, and in color corresponding with the shade of feathers; wrap it around wire to entirely cover it up, and then branch tips, two or three in a bunch, as suits your fancy.