New Material for Fixing Colors on Cotton, Woolen and Silk Goods.

Scientific American 45, 28.7.1849

A Mr. R. T. Pattison, of Glasgow, Scotland, has recently taken out a patent for a new substance entirely, to be used in color making for printed goods. The substance is made from either sweet, skimmed, or buttermilk, the latter kind should be used as early after churning as possible. The milk is taken and put into a kettle and raised t othe heat of 160 degrees Fahrenheit, when a thick curd is deposited. The whey is then removed and the curd submitted to a severe pressure in a cheese press in order to free it from whey and moisture, when it becomes a granulated mass. It is then spreat out on trays made of fine wood slats, and placed in a drying chamber. When perfectly dried, it is reduced to a fine powder in the way flour is ground, or between crushing rollers. It must be observed that he uses oxalic acid to precipitate the curd in new, or skimmed milk. In mixing this with colors, no positive rule can be given for all shades of colors - the ingenious color maker will soon learn to mix it according to the shades he desires to produce. - But one example will assist to explain its application. For ultramarine blue of a medium shade, take 12 pounds and dissolve it in a gallon of water. Then mix 8 pounds of the flour milk (or lacterine,) and mix it in two gallons of water, in which is mixed 4 ounces of ammonia, which converts the substance into a gummy consistency. This ultramarine and the lacterine are then mixed together and strained through a fine cloth, and rendered into a proper consistency for printing on cloth. It is stated to facilitate the permanency of the coloring matter and affords an excellent substitute for gum.

This is something which should arrest the attention of our calico printers, in order that they might give it a fair trial, as the supposition is uppermost in the mind, that Mr. Pattison would not pay about $600 to get a patent for the article, if it was not of some importance.