IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF COLORING MATTERS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 28, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention
of " IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF COLORING MATTERS."
A communication from abroad by Carl Alexander Martius, of the Actien
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd February 1881.
CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF COLORING
MATTERS." [A communication from abroad by Carl Alexander Martius, of
the Actien Gesellschaft fuer Anilin Fabrikation, of Berlin, in the German
Empire.]
86
According to the present Invention the coloring matter known in trade by the
name of methyle-orange or orange III." and having the following composition,
C₁4 H₁4 N, SO, Na,
is heated in a closed digestor up to about 105°-110° centigrade, with an excess of
sulphohydrate of ammonia.
The product of this digestion is separated by filtration from the precipitated
sulphur, and oxydlised with perchloride of iron by the well known reaction taught
by Lauth.
The blue coloring matter formed in this way is precipitated with a solution
of chloride of zinc, and purified by redissolving it in water and precipitating again
with salt.
The coloring matter is easily soluble in water, less soluble in spirit. It is
reduced by powder of zinc, sulphohydrate, or other reducing agents, but oxydising
agents reproduce the color easily.
The coloring matter is employed generally in the same way as magenta, shewing
when used in dyeing the fine blue hue of the cornflower (centaurea). On silk
and wool it is applied without mordant, but on cotton and linen a mordant is
required.
The sulfoanilic acid obtained as a by-product in the above described process can
be employed for the manufacture of other colors.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 19th
August 1881.
CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF COLOURING
MATTERS." A communication from abroad by Carl Alexander Martius, of
the Actien Gesellschaft fuer Anilin Fabrikation, of Berlin, in the German
Empire.
According to the present Invention the coloring matter known in trade by the
name of methyle-orange or orange III., or helianthim, and having the following
composition,
C₁4 H₁4 N, SO, Na,
is heated in a closed digestor up to about 105°-110° centigrade with an excess of
sulphohydrate of ammonia.
The product of this digestion is separated by filtration from the precipitated
sulphur, and oxydised with perchloride of iron by the well known reaction taught
by Lauth.
The blue coloring matter formed in this way is precipitated with a solution
of chloride of zinc, and purified by redissolving it in water and precipitating again
with salt.
The colouring matter is easily soluble in water, less soluble in spirit. It is
reduced by powder of zinc, sulpho-hydrate, or other reducing agents, but oxydising
agents reproduce the color easily.
The coloring matter is employed generally in the same way as magenta, shewing
when used in dyeing the fine blue hue of the cornflower (centaurea). On silk
and wool it is applied without mordant, but on cotton and linen a mordant is
required.
The sulfoaniline acid obtained as a by-product in the above described process
can be employed for the manufacture of other colours.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, I
claim,―
A new manufacture of blue coloring matter, called phenylene blue, produced by
treating the sulfoacid of bimethyleazobenzole (yellow colouring matter known in
commerce as helianthim, or methyle-orange, or orange III.) with polysulfide of
ammonia, and the oxidation of the bimethylethiophenylediamin thus formed by
perchloride of iron.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
CHA, D. ABEL.
(L.S.)