Specification of the Patent granted to SAMUEL JOHN SMITH, of Gaythorne, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Dyer; for an Improved Method of Staining, Printing, or Dying, on Silk, Woollen, Cotton, Yarn, or Goods manufactured of Cotton.

The Repertory of Arts, Manufactures, and agriculture. No. CLXVII (167). Second series. April 1816.

Tekstiin lisätty kappaleita lukemisen helpottamiseksi. // Paragraphs added to help reading.

Dated June 29, 1815.

To all to whom these presents shall come, & c. NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Samuel John Smith, do hereby declare that the nature of my said invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and ascertained in manner following; that is to say: My discovery consists in the preparation of a mordant, which I obtain from certain vegetables of British growth, which never before have been employed for the purpose of producing a mordant, and which mordant may be used with advantage for dying, raising, fixing, and printing, certain colours employed in the arts of calico printing, and in the dying of silkeń, woollen, and cotton stuffs.

The vegetables from which I extract this mordant, are the following, namely, the bark, leaves, and wood of the trees called the Spanish chesnut, the horse chesnut, the birch, the willow, and the hazel; but with regard to the comparative value or useful application of this species of trees, with a view to obtain this mordant, I prefer the bark and wood of the horse chesnut, and the bark and wood of the Spanish chesnut, to either of the other barks, woods, or leaves of the other species of trees, because I have discovered that the bark or wood, or the bark and wood together, of the horse and Spanish chesnut trees, contain a greater quantity of tannin, gallic, and extract, than any of the other vegetables before named; and these are the materials which are essential to the action of the mordant under consideration: and the same may be said of the leaves of the respective trees before- named, all of which, when compared with the wood of the same species of trees, contain a greater quantity of the active principles than can be obtained from a like quantity of the wood of the trees of the same species; nevertheless either of the before-mentioned vegetable materials may be used singly or conjointly, because they all are fit to afford the same mordant, and the difference consists only in strength, but the principle of its action is the same, from whatever the before-mentioned substances the mordant may have been produced.

Further to extract the mordant from the above-mentioned indigeneous vegetable materials I proceed in the following manner: I boil a quantity of the vegetable substance either with whiting, chalk, or quick lime, or potash, soda, or any substance which contains these alkaline or earthy bodies in a free or uncombined state, such as soapmaker's alkaline ley, barilla, kelp, & c. with a sufficient quantity of water, according to the strength of the mordant required; I then strain the liquor from the insoluble residue, and apply it in the usual manner.

In all those bases and processes to be named presently, where sumack or gall nuts are employed for the dying, fixing, raising, and printing colouring substances into the fibres and textures of silk, woollen, and cotton stuffs, and which colouring materials may thus be fixed without the use and application of gall nuts and sumacks; the colours to which this new mordant may be applied with peculiar advantage, are the following:

Black.
I first work or impregnate the goods with this new discovered mordant, next in a solution of green vitriol, and then in lime liquor, after which I work them again in logwood liquor, mixed with my new discovered mordant, according to the colour wanted; and lastly, I wash off in the usual manner.

Washing Black.
The goods are first to be worked in a ley made of American pearl ashes, or any other alkali; they are then worked in a solution of nitrate of iron, called aqua fortis, killed with steel or iron, or in common iron liquor, or acetate of iron, and again in the above ley, then in the new mordant, prepared with regard to strength according as the colour is wanted, and lastly cleared off with green vitriol, and well washed off in a soap ley.

Washing Fawn.
The goods are first worked in the new mordant, as before stated, and then in a solution of Roman or blue vitriol, or a mixture of it with alum, according to the colour wanted, and lastly washed off in a soap ley.

Another Fawn.
The goods to be worked first in the mordant as before, and then in a solution of green vitriol, and next in lime water, and washed off.

Washing Brown.
The goods are first worked in a solution of aqua fortis killed with steel or iron, called nitrate of iron, then in the mordant, and in ash or soap ley, and cleared off.

Another Brown.
First in the mordant, and then in a solution of green vitriol, and again in the mordant, and lastly washed off in ashes ley.

Buff or Nankeen.
First in the mordant proportioned according to the colour wanted, and then in a solution of tin in aqua fórtis, or spirits of salts, or oil of vitriol, and washed off in a soap ley.

Slate, Mud, and Dove.
First, the mordant mixed in logwood, according to the colour wanted; then in a solution of green vitriol, and washed off

Olive.
First in the liquor composed of mordant and fustic, then in green vitriol and Roman vitriol, washed off and repeated according to the colour wanted.

Washing Drabs.
First, in the mordant, and then in green, vitriol, after which an ash ley, and well washed off in water, then in a slender liquor of oil of vitriol, and washed next in a soap ley, and then in urine, and washed off.

Another Drab.
First in the mordant mixed with fustic, according to the colour wanted, and next in a solution of green vitriol, and washed off.

Bottle Green.
First in the fustic and mordant as above, then in the green and Roman vitriol, washed off, and then in an extract or solution of logwood and fustic, then through a solution of Roman vitriol, and repeated according to the colour wanted.

All these colours may be varied or changed to an almost endless variety of shades or hues according to slight variations in the quantity or quality of the dye stuffs ' employed in the different processes, the time or order of their application, the strength of the new mordant, the modes of mixing the different kinds of dyes, and other practical operations well known to the skilful manufacturer, and on which it is not necessary to speak; and the intelligent workman will readily see that it is the discovery or preparation of a powerful mordant obtained from certain indigenous vegetables, materials never made use of for that purpose, and the useful application of this mordant, that constitutes my claim; and he will also see that by the application of the new mordant, the consumption of foreign articles hitherto employed for like purposes, such as sumack and gall nuts, not only be diminished, but, as in the cases of colours mentioned in this specification, may be wholly superseded by the application of this mordant. These woods, &c. are prepared or ground in the usual way.

In witness whereof, &c.