CERTAIN CHEMICAL COM- POSITIONS FOR "RENDERING COTTON, LINEN, WOOLLEN, SILK, AND OTHER FABRICS IMPERVIOUS TO WATER, AND FIXING COLOURS IN DYEING
Year: 1850

page_text: OPECIFICATION
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS: SHALL COME, I, CELESTE
MENOTTI, of No:56, Rue de la Paix, Paris, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent: Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of
December: (One thousand eight hundred and fifty), in the fourteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, "Her heirs and successors; give and grant unto me,
the said Célester Menotti my exors, admors; and assigns, Her especial:license;
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Celeste Menotti, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Celeste Menotti,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed;
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey; Alderney Sark; and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of -" CERTAIN CHEMICAL COM-
POSITIONS FOR "RENDERING COTTON, LINEN, WOOLLEN, SILK, AND OTHER FABRICS
IMPERVIOUS TO WATER, AND FIXING COLOURS IN DYEING;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the "said Celeste Menotti,
shall cause a particular description of 'the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be perfornied, by and' instrument in writing

page_text: under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Celeste Menotti, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and the following instrument in writing, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in manufacturing certain chemical compositions for
rendering cotton, linen, woollen, silk, and other fabrics impervious to water
and not to air, which compositions I call hydrofugine. The mode of applying
the hydrofugine varies slightly according to the nature and colour of the
substance to which it is to be applied, as will be herein-after described." And I
now proceed to detail the process of manufacturing and applying the said
hydrofugine, which is obtained by three different operations :-
Firstly, I prepare in a trough, capable of containing about three gallons of
liquid, twenty-two pounds of sulphate of alumina, or sulphate of alumina and
potash, or alumina and ammonia, or sulphate of iron, copper, or chloride of
tin, all these salts of commerce being previously reduced to à very fine powder
by means of a pestle and mortar, with the exception, however, of the sulphate
of alumina, which only requires to be cut into very fine slices, and chloride of
tin, which may be used in the state of a crystallized salt.
Secondly, I prepare in a trough, capable of containing about three gallons
of liquid, fourteen ounces of oleic, stearic, or margaric acids (the two last
acids are known in commerce under the name of steearine); or, instead of the
above, I use soap or soapy substances. The above substances must be reduced
to powder, except, however, the oleic acid, which being liquid I use it as it is,
and preferably to any other.
Thirdly, I take about two gallons of alcohol, at thirty degrees Cartier's
aerometer, and pour it on the fourteen ounces of fatty acids or soapy substances;
(if the latter are employed I heat the mixture on a sand bath until it is in a
perfect state of solution, when I pour it on one of the earthy or metallic salts
prepared in the first trough, and well mix the whole in order to obtain the best
possible amalgamation; I then pass the said mixture through a filter made of
felt, and submit it afterwards to the action of a press until the liquid part is
extracted; after this I place it in a drying room heated to thirty degrees
Reaumur and manipulate the salts as I please, and I either leave them in the
same state as they are when taken out of the drying room, or I prepare them
in small cakes by means of moulds, or reduce them to powder by any

page_text: convenient means. To apply the said mineral salts to ronder generally fabrics,
felts, yarns, pasteboard, rope, etc. waterproof, it will be merely necessary to
dissolve the salts in soft water, and to use more particularly a salt having
alumina, potassa, or ammonia for its base. All the tissues must be very clean
and dry, but new cotton fabrics require to be washed with soap or potash
before being rendered waterproof; the other salts herein-before mentioned
can also be employed to render fabrics generally waterproof. As however, their
chemical properties can alter certain colours, a special knowledge of the
subject is required to apply 'the principle of those salts to the several qualities
of fabrics and to the liues required, and as their number is immense, practice
alone must be the guide to the best result.
Mode of applying the aforesaid salts for rendering tissues waterproof.-I
take one of the salts and I place it in any kind of recipient in which it
dissolves in a cold or lukewarm state in about two hundred times its weight of
soft water if the stuff be wool or silk, but if the tissue be cotton or thread the
proportion must be about one hundred times its weight of soft water. I pass
the solution through a very fine linen cloth and immerse the fabric into the
solution; I withdraw the fabric from the solution, wring it, dip it again, and
when sufficiently impregnated I take it out without wringing, and dry it either
in the open air or close to the fire. To finish the stuff, if it is wool or silk it
has to be brushed and sent to be unglossed. To finish any other fabrics the
employment of steam would be beneficial. For articles made of felt I employ
the saine operation above described, and for cords I prefer to pass the yarns
composing the rope into the solution which is one hundred times the weight of
the salt, and quite hot.
For cardboard, the pulp should be prepared in the same manner as
packing paper, or it may be dipped in a bath of basic salt of alumina or tin,
if required to be white; if, on the contrary, it is required to be slightly colored,
it is dipped in a solution of basic salt of iron or copper. As may be seen, the
number of articles susceptible of being rendered waterproof is considerable,
that is why it is difficult to determine the quantity of solution for each article;
it is the duty of the operator to proportion the quantity of the solution to the
nature of the article to be rendered waterproof.
I wish to observe, in conclusion, that since a long time processes have existed
for rendering fabrics impervious to water and not to air, but for the application
of those said processes it is unnecessary to have recourse to different com-
plicated preparations of various ingredients, which the public were not
competent to perform, and which rendered it necessary to send the articles
or stuff to be waterproofed to manufactories at a distance, thus giving rise

page_text: to much. expense, trouble, and. loss of time. Now, by my new processes,
herein described, I am enabled to obtain different compositions which I.call
hydrofugine, being a powder. soluble in cold. water, with which every one can
waterproof.fabrics or made-up articles with the utmost facility at an exceedingly
small cost, and with very little loss of time. :
And having.now described the, nature of my said Invention and the manner of
performing the same, I wish it to. be understood that I do not claim as of my
Invention the several agents herein employed, nor do I confine, myself. to the
several proportions. thereof as herein laid down; but what I. do claim, as, my
Invention, and intend to be protected by Letters. Patent, is, the processes.herein
described for producing a substance which I.call. hydrofugine, and the appli-
cation of the same to rendering. silk, cotton, linen, woollen, and other.fabrics
impervious to water.and pervous. to air.
In witness whereof, I, the said Celeste Menotti, have hereunto set-my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of June; in the year of our 1
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of June,
in the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid Celeste Menotti came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.