An Improvement in Thickening and Fixing Calico Printers' Pigments, Colours, and Mordants.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 20th May, 1894
Complete Specification Left, 26th Mar., 1895-Accepted, 27th Apr., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improvement in Thickening and Fixing Calico Printers'
Pigments, Colours, and Mordants.
1 EARDLEY BLOIS MANBY of Grove House, Kersal Moor, Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Bleacher and Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My said invention relates to an improved medium or vehicle for thickening and
fixing calico printers' pigments, colours and mordants and for use as a substitute
for albumen in calico printing and dyeing. The medium, vehicle, or substitute
which I employ is obtained by dissolving any known or convenient form of cellulose
such as flax, rhea, hemp, wood pulp, paper, bleached cotton and the like in chloride
of zinc solution, the result being a gelatinous or viscous substance or solution the
fluidity of which can be modified to any required degree. I do not however
confine myself to a cellulcse solution obtained in the indicated manner as any
solution containing dissolved cellulose and capable of being used for the purposes
of my invention will serve my purposes. The cellulose solution so obtained can be
mixed with certain pigments, metallic oxides (hydrated or otherwise) or with
colouring matters already combined with metallic oxides or bases, or other materials
familiar to calico printers and dyers.
The cellulose solution acts as a thickening agent to the colours or mordants with
which it is combined and the colours are printed or used in the ordinary manner in
the ordinary printing or padding or dyeing apparatuses.
After printing or padding, the fabric or fibre is subjected to the cleansing action.
of a plentiful supply of water or other suitable liquid or weak acid or saline or
alkaline solution, which washes out the chloride of ziuc or other solvent, leaving
the cellulose and the colouring matter or mordant in or upon the fibre.
In some cases I might subject the fabric or fibre to the action of steam or any
suitable vapour or gas, before removing the chloride of zinc or other agent or
agents used to dissolve the cellulose. The cellulose precipitated or left upon or in
the fabric or fibre, imprisons and binds and fixes the colour, which cannot be there-
fore removed or dislodged by washing, soaping or boiling. The cellulose therefore
acts as a colour fixing medium, and is used as such instead of the usual albumen.
. As the cellulose solution is much cheaper than the ordinary albumen fixing, it
follows that its use is attended by a great economy in cost. In addition to this, the
cellulose solution will keep sweet and good for almost any reasonable time, whereas
albumen if not used at once becomes decomposed and offensive so that it cannot be
used for the indicated purposes and is often therefore a source of loss to the user.
Another important advantage of my invention is that slop-padded or dyed goods
which have been treated with my improved cellulose solution, either when mixed
with the colours, pigments or mordants or when applied to the fabric or fibres
before the slop-padding or dyeing operations, receive considerable bulk or substance
from the precipitated and imprisoned cellulose, so that the usual subsequent
stiffening or starching or dressing operations necessary to give handle or feel to the
goods, can be wholly or partly dispensed with, the cellulose, especially when of a
kindred nature to the fibre, increasing the bulk of the fibre by an increment of

page_text: a nature similar to its own instead of by an increment of a foreign body as is the
case with the ordinary dyeing, dressing and finishing compounds.
Dated this 29th day of May 1894.
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improvement in Thickening and Fixing Calico Printers'
Pigments, Colours, and Mordants.
I, EARDLEY BLOIS MANBY, of Grove House, Kersal Moor, Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Bleacher and Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :—
My invention relates to the thickening and fixing of calico printers' colours,
pigments and mordants by means of a medium or vehicle obtained by dissolving
any known or convenient form of cellulose, such as ramie, rhea, flax, hemp, wood
pulp, paper, bleached cotton and the like, in a concentrated solution of zinc chloride,
thus producing a viscous substance or solution capable of carrying pigments,
colouring matters or mordants.
°
For preparing the cellulose solution, I employ 5 to 8 parts of cellulose to
100 parts by weight of concentrated zinc chloride solution, mixing the materials in
'a vessel provided with a steam jacket or steam coil.
I find a ready way to prepare the solution is first to act upon the cellulose with
hydrochloric acid and then to add the zinc chloride solution; or a little acid,
preferably hydrochloric acid, may be added while the cellulose is being
dissolved.
In each case, I add sufficient caustic soda or other alkali to neutralise the
acid.
Another method which I employ is first to immerse the cellulose in a mixture of
two volumes of sulphuric acid and one volume of water in the cold for a few
seconds, as is practised in making parchment paper, then to wash out the acid either
partially or entirely with water before adding the zinc chloride solution; when
the sulphuric acid is not thoroughly removed by washing, sufficient alkali must be
added, while the cellulose is being dissolved, to neutralise the free acid.
The cellulose solution thus obtained constitutes a vehicle or medium for
admixture with certain pigments or colouring matters, bases or other materials
suitable for calico printing and dyeing.
After printing or padding, the fabric or fibre treated is subjected to the cleansing
action of water or in some cases to weak acid or saline solution, to wash out the
zinc chloride, leaving the cellulose and the colouring or other natters carried by it
fixed in or upon the fibre or fabric. In some cases the printed fabric or fibre may
be passed through an alkaline solution or organic acid such as tannic acid.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare, that what I
claim is :
The herein described method of thickening and fixing calico printer's colours,
pigments and mordants, by applying these mixed with solution of cellulose in zinc
chloride as a vehicle, and then removing wholly or partially the chloride.
Dated this 26th day of March 1895.
ADEL & IMRAI,
Agents for the Applicant.