DEFINITION

 

Bleaching is defined by the OED as :

bleaching, n.1

 1. The art or process of whitening or cleansing by washing and exposure, or by chemical agents.

1552   R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum   Bleachynge, insolatio.

a1616   Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor (1623) iv. ii. 111   Behold what honest cloathes you send forth to bleaching .  

1878   T. H. Huxley Physiogr. (ed. 2) 109   It is this oxygen..which is the really active agent in bleaching. 

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CONTENTS

1. History

2. Uses: What was bleached?

3. Linen

4. Cotton

5. Wool

6. New forms of bleaching

7. Charles Tennant

8. Scotland and Ireland

9. Bleaching in Art and Literature

     i. It-Narratives

     ii. Art

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1. HISTORY

 

The act of bleaching is a process that has been practised throughout history. It can be traced as far back as the prehistoric and ancient Egyptians who bleached linen through treating the fabric and then laying it outside in the sun to bleach and whiten.  

 

‘There is another kind of wild poppy (a spurge rather, Euphorbia esula of Linnaeus), known as "heraclion" by some persons, and as "aphron" by others. The leaves of it, when seen from a distance, have all the appearance of sparrows; the root lies on the surface of the ground, and the seed has exactly the colour of foam. This plant is used for the purpose of bleaching linen cloths in summer.’

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, Book 20, Chap.79

In the 12th-century sodium perborate was used as a laundry bleach. During the 18^th century bleaching was used not only for to clean fabrics such as linen but also to prepare old fabric for paper for literature some of which was eventually used for toilet paper. The Dutch were experts renowned throughout Europe for their laundering skills. To reduce the harsh effects of bleaching they combined lye with sour milk. As a result, all  Scottish brown linen was shipped to Holland for bleaching in the mid 18th century.

 

 

2. USES : WHAT WAS BLEACHED?

 

Many things were bleached during the 18th century such as :

• Old Fabric to make Paper

◦ The process of making paper from fabric was a common practice of the 18th century. This was done by washing and bleaching the old fabric to remove the dirt then pulverising the fabric to a mush like consistency and shaping it to make paper.

• Skin for Cosmetics using white lead and urine

◦ Puppy urine was used to soak puppy skin gloves in before bed to whiten hands while the wearer slept to bleach their hands. Pale hands were the aspired aesthetic during the 18th century. White lead was used for the face to cover black spots associated with Syphilis as well as bleach the skin. However the frequent use of white lead caused death by lead poisoning. The symptoms of lead poisoning are lose teeth, blue veins appearing on the face where the white lead was applied

• Cleaning clothes and linen

◦ Cotton, linen and wool were treated differently when it came to bleaching due to there different properties and the amount of impurities they carried in their raw form. These textiles were used for clothing such as Handkerchiefs, shirts and Aprons. Due to it's high absorption, linen was also primarily used during Menstruation as sanitary towels.

 

 

 

3. LINEN

 

The bleaching of linen is a much more complicated and time-consuming process than cotton. In linen, the impurities amount to 20% or more of the weight of the fibre, whereas in cotton they are around 5%. 

Towards the end of the 18th century, the bleaching of linen in the north of Ireland and in Scotland was accomplished by ‘bowking’ in cows dung and souring with sour milk, then exposed to sunlight on the grass. Potash and later on soda was substituted for the cows’ dung, while sour milk was replaced by sulphuric acid which was discovered by John Roebuck in 1746. 

The process of bleaching linen in the 18th century was split into two stages, bucking (soaking in alkaline lye) and crofting (laid out in the sun). These two stages were repeated until the linen was bleached to a satisfactory level of whiteness. 

There were two main processes of bucking cloth. The Dutch method used by skilled bleachers for fine cloth and the Irish method more generally used for coarse cloth due to the low cost of the process. 

 

Bucking, defined by the OED as : 

‘The operation of steeping or boiling yarn, cloth, or clothes in a lye of wood ashes, etc., in the old process of bleaching, or in buck-washing; the number of clothes, etc. so treated; apparently, also the lye used in the process. Cf. blacking n.1  1753   Chambers's Cycl. Suppl.   Bucking of cloth is the first step or degree of whitening it.’,

was the process by which linen and cloth were prepared and cleaned before being laid out in the sun to bleach. During bucking, linen was soaked in a barrel of lye (alkalised water, primarily that made by the leaching of vegetable or wood ashes). Afterwards, the cloth was washed and placed in wooden containers, filled with buttermilk and left before being crafted. 

 

 

After the linen was bucked, it was laid out on a field to be bleached by the sun. These fields were known as bleacheries or bleachfields or bleach-greens. These fields are also the namesake of some roads and streets named Whitefield due to the white cloths laid out on the ground. However, this process could take days especially with the unreliability of the weather in Britain. 

 

In his paper Experiments on bleaching (Image 2), Francis Home (1719-1813) explains specific stages of the bleaching. These include processes such as ‘souring’, the process of adding very diluted sulphuric acid to the cloth when the cloth appears to all be the same colour and clear of dirt and ash from the lye.

 

By this method of bleaching, linen goods frequently acquired a yellowish tinge. This is why crofting was an essential part of the process as exposure to sunlight usually removed this yellow tinge from linen. Finally, the linen was boiled for a short time in diluted pearlash and white soap to remove the odour resulting from this bleaching process. 

  

 

4. COTTON

 

Cotton, however, required fewer soaks in bleaching liquor. Furthermore, cotton did not require crofting as the yellow tinge did not appear when finished as it was removed by the sulphuric acid. Unlike with linen, the bleaching of cotton is a comparatively simple process in which three main operations are involved, viz. (1) boiling with an alkali, (2) bleaching the organic colouring matters by means of a hypochlorite or some other oxidizing agent; (3) souring, i.e. treating with diluted sulphuric acid. These three stages were usually enough to bleach cotton to a satisfactory level of whiteness.

A series of inventions revolutionised the production of textile goods. The spinning jenny of the 1760s gave way under the introduction of steam power to mule spinning in the 1780s.

The concentration of cotton mills in country districts, where water power was the main source of energy, was  and the mills were relocated near the new sources of energy of the Lanarkshire coalfields. This made it possible to bring the work to the workers rather than the workers to the work. Initially, spinning led the way in the cotton industry's technological development, with weaving confined to handlooms worked by literally thousands of weavers in their own homes

 

5. WOOL

 

The impurities which wool contains consist in the “yolk,” (perspiration from the body of the sheep), which create sticky surfaces of the fibres, because of this, wool required cleansing before any bleaching could start. The wool was washed in stale urine. The stale urine or lant was diluted four to five times its volume in water. This liquid was then heated between 40°–50° C before it was suitable to wash the wool.

Image 1 : Diagram of bleaching factory

 

 

Image 2 : Experiments on bleaching by Francis Home

  

 

6. NEW FORMS OF BLEACHING

 

Throughout the 18th century, various scientists and manufacturers were experimenting to speed up the process of bleaching. In 1746, John Roebuck, a member of the British Linen Board, began using diluted sulphuric acid in place of sour milk. This sped up the bleaching process to between 12 and 24 hours as opposed to the weeks and months it used to take. In 1774 Swedish scientist Karl Wilhelm Scheele discovered that chlorine had the ability to destroy vegetable colours. In 1792, in the town of Javel, Paris, Eau de Javel was produced by combining potash solution with water. Then, in 1799, a chloride of lime was introduced by the Scottish chemist Charles Tennant, now known as bleaching powder.

 

 

7. CHARLES TENNANT

 

Charles Tennant (1768-1838) was a Scottish chemist who discovered bleaching powder. He initially started out as a weaver using the traditional method of soaking the cloth in stale urine and letting it bleach in the sun for months. In 1788, Charles acquired his own bleaching fields in an attempt to experiment on bleaching and discover a faster and more efficient method. Sulphuric acid in place of sour milk had already sped up the process from eighteen months to four; the application of lime sped this process up further however it was illegal due to its harmful nature. Charles’ idea was to combine chlorine and lime, after many years of experimenting, Charles achieved a new form of bleaching that was faster, harmless and cheaper than any other products; he was granted a patent in 1798. Soon after, Charles struck a deal with the Irish bleachers for the use of his process for 14 years. In 1799, Charles invented bleaching liquor and powder.

 

 

8. SCOTLAND AND IRELAND 

 

Linen was Scotland's primary industry in the 18th century. In 1727, The Board of Trustees for Fisheries and Manufactures in Scotland was founded to provide financial aid and support to entrepreneurs wanting to enter the linen business. In that same year, it received subsidies of £2,750 a year for six years, resulting in a considerable expansion of the trade. The Board sought to build an economy in harmony with England’s. Encouraged and subsidized by the Board of Trustees so it could compete with German products, merchant entrepreneurs became dominant in all stages of linen manufacturing and built up the market share of Scottish linens. 

 

Vouchers of accounts of John Campbell, cashier of the Royal Bank, of rents of the Earl of Breadalbane's estate, crop 1739 and moneyrent 1740. Settled at Taymouth, 4 October 1742 : 

31. Account of linen cloth bleached for Lord GLenorchy, `to whytning six score fouer els broad linnen cloth at Lenerick bleatch field at 6ps pr. ell'. Paid to John Murray, 5 February 1742. 

 

 

Image 3 : Graph of exports and re-exports of linen, 1741-75 (Durie) 

 

 Image 4 (Durie)

 

‘The amount of linen stamped for sale (after inspection by the stampmasters of the Board of Trade) rose from 3-7 million yards in 1730 to 7-6 million in 1750 and to 12-1 million in 1775. Production 'spurted' in the late 1740s, and again in the late 1750s, after the depression of 1754-6 had temporarily halted progress. While the expansion was general in the linen-making areas of Scotland, the increase was most pronounced at Dundee where the quantity stamped rose from 817,416 yards in 1747 to 1,275,689 yards in 1759, and at Glasgow where production trebled from 625,000 yards in 1740 to 2,032,000 in I757.’ (Durie)

  

Ireland was in competition with Holland over bleaching. Holland’s use of sour milk was kept secret thus, Ireland was unable to match the quality of linen. Image 5 is important because it shows that despite it’s lesser quality, England still imported linen, linen yarn, wool and woollens from Ireland due to its low cost. This is further emphasised by the fact that Ireland imported ‘Hollands’ from Britain. Hollands were the colloquial name for shirts bleached and prepared in Holland using the Dutch method. Rather than send them to the country of origin for the best treatment, Great Britain sent it to Ireland to save money. However, it is also interesting to note that Ireland imported potash from Holland. Potash is key to bucking and treating linen however it was not used by Holland. Ireland unknowingly imported a product that it thought was essential to bleaching but was unused by Holland.

 

Image 5 : An Account of Ireland in 1773

 

Image 6 : An Account of Ireland in 1773

 

Even though Ireland exported linen to Great Britain, Ireland was not well treated. In 1699 Britain had already banned the exportation of wool from Ireland. However, it could be argued that this allowed the Irish linen industry to be so successful. In the footnote on page 116 of Image 6, we see the consequence of the rising price of corn on the linen industry. The increase in the price of corn would, according to the petitioners of the linen manufacturers of Ulster, be detrimental to the production of linen as the cost of labour would have to match the increase in corn which would in turn increase the price of the linen to make a profit which would decrease the number of buyers. Linen was one of Ireland’s biggest exports and contributor to the Irish economy. In 1711, the Irish Linen Board was founded to promote the growth of trade as well as offer grants and subsidies to landowners to further the Irish linen industry and economy. In 1728 in Dublin, the White Linen Hall was built for the export of bleached goods. In 1787, Belfast also built a White Linen Hall but exclusively for exports to England.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image 7 : Business Newspaper 11-12th August 1707 (London, England)

 

 

9. BLEACHING IN ART & LITERATURE

 

i. IT-NARRATIVES

 

It Narratives were an immensely popular subgenre during the 18th Century due to the expansion of world trade bringing in exotic new products and objects into Britain. In these narratives, objects were the narrators and were used as a tool by writers to observe, comment or satirise human society. In From a Sheet of Gilt Paper. To Cloe by Sarah Dixon, we see evidence of how paper was made from clothes and fabric

'From filthy Rubbish, bleach'd with Care,

Press'd, and impress'd, and gilded fair;

Inscrib'd - To CLOE in her Bloom,

On a Love Embassy I'm come;'                    (Dixon, l.15-18)

Here Dixon shows the transformation of 'filthy rubbish' to 'a love embassy' (a billet-doux). In line 15 the use of parenthesis in the middle cleanly separates the filthy rags from the clean bleached ones ready to be pulped and pressed into paper. The tone of the narrator (the love letter) seems to understand the importance of image and societal status through the language from the self-disgust of its former self to the esteem of being a letter of societal importance; it has climbed the societal ladder like it's mistress hopes to and unlike it's previous 'filthy' owner. However, the letter is bitter that it cannot be used for more prestigious writing like classic literature or novels of the time rather than a poorly written love letter never to be read more than once 'gently lay me - on the Fire' (Dixon, l.47).

 

 

ii. ART

 

Although an unusual topic for artwork, various processes of bleaching were used as inspiration for paintings and engravings. The 18th century saw an increase in popularity of more relatable and accessible depictions of everyday activities and people. The most famous advocate for accessible art during the 18th century was William Hogarth and his engraving plates A Harlot's Progress, The Rake's Progress and Four Times in a Day. Hogarth satirised classic art in his own works through composition and what they depicted: the everyday life of London. Images 8 and 9 depict Blanchisseuses (female bleachers) bucking cloth, apparent from the stool or box under the bucket to allow the water to run out at the bottom to see if the fabric is clean and free of lye. It interesting to note that the only artistic depictions of women bleaching and bucking are either for their own fabric or as a maid both these roles were expected of women in 18th century Britain. Whilst in image 10 for example, we see men in the background crofting linen on a Bleach Green, not a bucking pot in the street (image 8) or inside (image 9), but an actual factory and business that was booming and profitable; when men are present in art of bleaching it is a paid job and business, when only women are present it is a duty to family or the Lord and Lady of the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image 8 : Les Blanchisseuses Italiennes by Charles Levasseur (1749-1816)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image 9 : La Blanchisseuse by J.B.S. Chardin (1737)

 

 

Image 10 : Plate 10 View of a Bleach Green by William Hincks 1783

 

 

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

PRIMARY SOURCES

"bleaching, n.1." OED Online. Oxford University Press, January 2018. Web. 13 January 2018.

http://0-www.oed.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/view/Entry/20047 

 

A collection of papers relating to trade imports, exports and taxes. 1706. Available through: Adam Matthew, Marlborough, Empire Online, http://0-www.empire.amdigital.co.uk.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/Documents/Details/A collection of papers relating to trade imports exports and taxes_ [Accessed March 19, 2018].

 

http://0-www.empire.amdigital.co.uk.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/Documents/Images/Woodes%20Rogers%20A%20Cruising%20Voyage%20Round%20the%20World%20London%201712_/93?searchId=eb74c7b0-9031-4620-8c2b-f78fc3bcc61e

 

http://0-www.empire.amdigital.co.uk.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/Documents/Images/An%20Account%20of%20Ireland%20in%201773_/61?searchId=eb74c7b0-9031-4620-8c2b-f78fc3bcc61e

 

http://0-www.empire.amdigital.co.uk.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/Documents/Images/An%20Account%20of%20Ireland%20in%201773_/64

 

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https://data.historicaltexts.jisc.ac.uk/view?pubId=ecco-1021700100&terms=Francis%20Home&pageTerms=Francis%20Home&pageId=ecco-1021700100-10  

 

 

 

SECONDARY SOURCES

 Durie, Alastair J. “The Markets for Scottish Linen, 1730-1775.” The Scottish Historical Review, vol. 52, no. 153, 1973, pp. 30–49., www.jstor.org/stable/25528985.

 https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/def22b03-8d8f-3104-836d-46f477e1ab20

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http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1529096&partId=1&searchText=waSHERwoman&page=2

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https://www.fergusonsirishlinen.com/pages/index.asp?title2=History-of-Irish-Linen&title1=About-Linen 

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http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/trades/dyeing.htm

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