IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING COLOURS FOR THE IMPRESSION OF WOVEN OR TEXTILE FABRICS OR STUFFS OF ANY KIND
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Abel Désiré Schratz, of Saint Denis, near Paris, in
the Empire of France, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PREPARING COLOURS FOR THE IMPRESSION OF WOVEN OR TEXTILE FABRICS OR
STUFFS OF ANY KIND."
Sealed the 24th October 1856, and dated the 24th April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Abel Désiré Schratz, at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th April 1856.
I, ABEL DESIRE SCHRATZ, of Saint Denis, near Paris, in the Empire of
France, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for Im-
PROVEMENTS IN PREPARING COLOURS FOR THE IMPRESSION OF WOVEN OR TEXTILE
FABRICS, OR STUFFS OF ANY KIND, to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in employing linseed for thickening the colours in
their preparation for printing textile stuffs or fabrics of all kinds. This
thickening was produced heretofore either by gum arabic, white starch, or
British gum. For preparing my thickening composition, I take water or any
colouring solution, which is placed in a suitable copper upon a fire; when the
temperature is about 140° Fahrenheit, I put in linseed, without being pounded or
ground, in the proportion of about 3 or 4 pounds of linseed to 6 or 7 gallons of
liquid; this mixture is left boiling during 2 or 3 minutes; I then add to it the
required quantity of alum or other mordant and colouring materials, or any
substance required; I then strain it before it has cooled, and it is then fit for
The proportion of linseed used for producing the mucilagenous thick-
ening may be varied, according to the kind of material with which it is to be

page_text: mixed; gum or starch may be added to it in certain proportions in some
instances, if required. In lieu of linseed, quince seed or any other seed or
substance capable of producing mucilage may be used.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Abel Désiré Schratz in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ABEL
DEIRE SCHRATZ, of Saint Denis, near Paris, in the Empire of France,
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Abel Désiré Schratz, Her special licence that I, the 'said Abel
Désiré Schratz, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
1, the said Abel Désiré Schratz, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PREPARING COLORS FOR THE IMPRESSION OF WOVEN OR TEXTILE FABRICS
OR STUFFS OF ANY KIND, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Abel. Désiré Scliratz, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particu-
larly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Abel Désiré Schratz, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof:-
:
My Invention consists in making use of linseed for thickening the colours
in their preparation for printing textile stuffs or fabrics of any kind. The
proportion of linseed to be used, either alone, or mixed with gum arabic, or
with artificial gum, starch, and other mucilaginous substances, depends upon
the nature of the colours employed; but several applications which I have

page_text: made of my improved mode of thickening printing colours having proved
successful, I will now describe the particular dispositions I have observed in
the process for preparing two of them, which may be taken as examples,
the practical knowledge of chemists conversant with such operations being
sufficient to guide them in all other instances according to the nature of the
fabrics or colors. 1st, printing a rose-coloured pattern on barège fabric: in
an ammoniacal cochineal bath, at 21 degrees of Beaumé's acid scale, pour
1-75 pint of water, heat it to 104 degrees Fahr., add about three ounces of
unbruised linseed, heat the whole to 212 degrees, and keep it boiling for about
five minutes, then add two ounces of alum, and leave the whole to cool.
.
On the other hand, in order to obtain a pink or rose hue, dissolve one-third
of an ounce of salt for that colour in 0.22 pint. of warm water with half an
ounce of oxalic acid, and add it to the colored.bath, strain this liquid mixture
through a sieve, and it is then in a condition fit for printing.
I should observe, 1st, that were the same printing bath prepared with gum
arabic, three quarters of a pound at least should have been required, and
therefore my process is much more ecomomical. 2nd, the water added to the
cochineal bath is for the purpose of preserving the hue that it should have had,
had such a quantity of gum been employed. 3rd, having remarked that the
effect of oxalic acid is to render the colour lighter, I have when using linseed
lessened the dose of the former by one-half, and replaced it in this case, that is
to say, for rose hue, by an equivalent quantity of salt. 4th, in order to avoid
the action of the acid on the linseed, which would be destroyed by it, I allow
the coloured bath to cool before putting the acid materials into it, which is the
reverse of what is done now.
2d Example. Printing a garnet-colored pattern on a similar tissue: pour
0.66 pint of water into 3½ pints of archil, heating it to 104 degrees Fahr.,
and adding rather less than three ounces of linseed, boil as in the first instance;
then taking the liquid away from the fire, add to it 4 ounces of alum.
With that mixture several colouring baths may be composed, into which,
either by adding carmine of indigo, lakes, or extracts of various colours, various
tints or hues may be produced, such as carob-tree wood, chesnut, puce,
mallows, or violet blossom, and other colours.
I should observe, that if any tin salts or sal ammoniac were to be used in
the colored bath containing the linseed, the tints would fade or become much
lighter, and that the colouring matter would fall down, or clots would be
produced, according to the quantity of the above materials.
The two modes of application of my improved thickening of colours for
printing stuffs by means of linseed, which I have just described, will, I think,

page_text: be sufficient to guide the competent operator in its applications to other colours
or hues, for it is impossible to give uniform proportions of the various materials
to be employed, since almost each colour requires different proportions; which
experience alone can teach; but what I can positively assert is, that there is a
considerable saving in the cost price and quantity of the materials used by my
process, in baths of the same size, when compared with those in which gum is
employed. The grounds printed when gum is the thickening material used
are generally brittle, and very often crack during the various processes in which
the fabric has to be folded, which. is not the case when the colour has been
thickened with linseed; for the thick or pattern printing colours linseed has
not. the inconveniences of starch or of gum; in effect these colours are
difficult to work with gum, and crack with starch, whilst when thickened with
linseed all these objections are avoided. Besides all these advantages, the
linseed is yet preferable to several other substances used for thickening, such
as leiocomme dextrine, baked starch, and others, linseed being cheaper, more
pliable, and colourless, whereas the other substances have a more or less yellow
hue, a circumstance of great moment when light or delicate hues have to be
printed. The colours thickened with linseed are purer and more vivid than
when thickened with, starch, because the colour, even when thickened, retains
its freshness, and may be preserved for several months without alteration.
When a darker hue is required, the quantity of linseed may be increased
and that of the water diminished. In many instances a colouring bath with
linseed may be employed, into which its own weight of alum and th of its
weight of tartaric acid may be added. For some colours, blacks for instance,
it is necessary to use starch in almost the same proportion as linseed; but as
these solutions have a tendency to become acid, they cannot be kept long.
Besides using linseed for thickening colours intended for printing textile
fabrics or tissues, my improvements may also be applied for preparing the
colors used for printing hanging papers, or any other kind of stuffs.
.
In witness whereof, I, the said Abel Désiré Schratz, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of October, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-six.
Signed and sealed in the presence of
EMILE BADIN.
A. D. G. SCHRATZ. (L.B.)