IMPROVEMENTS IN COLOUR PRINTING
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Hancock, of West Street, Smithfield, in the
City of London, Manufacturer, and Stephen William Silver, of Bishops-
gate Street, in the said City of London, Manufacturer, for the Invention
Sealed the 7th March 1865, and dated the 14th December 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Hancock and
Stephen William Silver at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 14th December 1864.
We, CHARLES HANCOCK, of West Street, Smithfield, in the City of London,
Manufacturer, and STEPHEN WILLIAM SILVER, of Bishopsgate Street, in the
said City of London, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COLOUR PRINTING," to be as follows:-
We apply the milk of ballata, either alone or in combination with the milk
of caoutchouc, with the addition of dyes or colouring matters usually employed
in printing calicos and other fabrics, for the purpose of colour printing, and
the improvements in colour printing consist in the use of the said milk or
milks as the vehicle for conveying and fixing the colouring matters in such
printing.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Hancock and Stephen William Silver in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 14th June 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
HANCOCK, of West Street, Smithfield, in the City of London, Manufacturer,
and STEPHEN WILLIAM SILVER, of Bishopsgate Street, in the City of London,
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto us, the said Charles Hancock and Stephen William Silver, Her special
licence that we, the said Charles Hancock and Stephen William Silver, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Charles
Hancock and Stephen William Silver, our 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN COLOUR PRINTING," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Charles Hancock and Stephen William
Silver, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of either of us, particularly 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 we, the said Charles Hancock and Stephen
William Silver, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say):-
Difficulty and inconvenience has hitherto arisen in the use of caoutchouc for
calico printing in consequence partly of the offensive smell, and partly of the
inflammable nature of the solvents used to render it sufficiently liquid for
printing purposes. Turpentine, coal tar, and naptha being the solvents most
generally used.
Now we have ascertained that the milk of ballata aud the milk of
caoutchouc being both natural productions, and requiring no solvents to render
them fluid, may be employed with advantage in color printing, and are in

page_text: When
great measure free from the objections to which dissolved india-rubber is
subject. If the milk as imported is thicker than required for printing
purposes, water may be added to it, and the milk reduced to a suitable
consistence for use. The milk of ballata or caoutchouc, either alone or mixed
when strained through sieves or cloth, or other suitable strainers, is mixed
with the desired dye or pigment, such dyes or pigments having been previously
mixed or ground very fine in water alone or in paste, size, or gum.
concentrated dyes are used, such as ground logwood, phosphine, roseine,
magenta, indigo, &c., &c., we dilute them with water to the required tone of
color, and then mix them with the milk ready for use. The mode of applying
coloring matter to printing rollers and to blocks for printing the process of
"tearing," &c. is well understood by persons conversant with this branch of
manufacture. Owing to the rapidity with which the milk of ballata and
caoutchouc, either alone or mixed, coagulates care should be taken to have
brushes, "tearing" sieves, and cloths, pricting blocks, &c. put into water and
washed with clean water when out of use, or the color cleaned off before it
becomes set and hard. In printing on paper we prefer that the paper should
be unsized or only partially sized, paper hangings for walls, when printed with
the ballata and caoutchouc milk, will bear washing with a sponge and soap
and water.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we wish. it to be understood that we do
not claim as of our Invention, or the exclusive use of the several pocesses
herein-before described or referred to, except when the same are employed in
or about the application of the milk of ballata or of the milk of caoutchouc
alone or mixed for color printing, and we hereby declare that what we claim
as the Invention intended to be protected by the said Letters Patent is the
application of the milk of ballata or the milk of caoutchouc, alone or in com-
bination with each other and other substances, for the purpose of colour
printing, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Hancock, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five
CHARLES HANCOCK. (L.S.)