alcohol water mixture or preferably a water dispersible dye dispersed in water a preferred dye is one which is absorbed by the web only at a temperature above about 180 u00b0 f which obviates the possibility of unintentionally staining the web by random spattering of cool dye onto the web a preferred dye is the dispersion sold as a 34 catalytic dye 34 by brainpower inc of florida although other dispersions such as the commercially available rit dyes may be used the web 14 preferably comprises a continuous flexible sheet of material having a transverse or widthwise dimension small relative to its longitudinal or lengthwise dimension the top and bottom edges are substantially parallel in a preferred embodiment the transverse dimension may be for example approximately 5 to 10 cm while the longitudinal dimension may be several hundred meters preferably this flexible web will comprise a transparent synthetic plastic material and will be initially provided on a supply spool 21 threaded through the conducting or transport means and onto the take up spool 22 fig2 shows the preferred embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention wherein additional adjustable transport means conduct the web progressively transversely into and out of the dye bath three times before conducting the webs onto the take up spool 22 obviously the intensity gradient of the dyeing may be controlled by precisely adjusting the residence times of progressive transverse points of the web in the dye bath in operation a spool containing a web of material to be dyed is fixed in a position adjacent the dye bath 12 such that a plane through longitudinal dimension of the web as it enters the dye bath is preferably.