A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD AND PROCESS OF PRINTING, COLOURING, OR STAINING LINENS, CALLICOES, OR OTHER CLOTHS
Year: 1799

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GILLISPIE, Callico Printer, at Anderston, near Glasgow, send greeting.
WHEREAS the King's most Excellent Majesty, by Letters Patent under
the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Thirtieth day of April,
in the thirty-ninth year of His reign, gave and granted unto me, the
said William Gillispie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His
Majesty's special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said William Gillispie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every
of them, by myself or themselves, or by my or their deputy or deputies,
servants or agents, or such others as I, the said William Gillispie, my exe-
cutors, administrators, or assigns, shall 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 my Inven-
tion of "A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD AND PROCESS OF PRINTING, COLOURING,
OR STAINING LINENS, CALLICOES, OR OTHER CLOTHS," within that part of Great
Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said William Gillispie, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should in their discretion
seem meet, and that I, the said William Gillispie, my executors; adminis-
trators, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole
profits, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing,
accruing, and arrising, by reason of the said Invention, [for and during the
term of years therein mentioned, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said

page_text: licence, power, privileges, and advantages therein-before granted or mentioned
to be granted unto me, the said, William Gillispie, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of
fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent next and imme-
diately ensuing, and fully to be complete and ended, according to the Statute
in such case made and provided; in which said Letters Patent, is contained
a proviso that if I, the said William Gillispie, should not particularly de-
scribe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and
seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine,
and become void, as by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear...
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said "William Gillispie, in pursuance of and
in compliance with the said proviso in the said Letters Patent contained, and
the purport and true intent and meaning thereof, and of His Majesty's said
most.gracious. intention, do by, this. instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, duly executed, describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and the methods by which, the same may be performed, that is to say:
The method or process, which I have invented is chiefly distinguished from
the method of processes, already practised in printing cloths, by its enabling
the printer on coloured grounds to produce, figures or spots, consisting, of
white, with or without a variety of colour or coloured figures or spots, and to
place these figures, or spots, whether they consist, of white or any colour or
colours, upon the goods in as exact and determinate a correspondence of
situations, with regard to each other, as the coloured figures printed on white
grounds in the ordinary way. For, obtaining this object, instead of using
bleached cloths in their simple whitened state, and printing, impressing, or
laying on them in this state such substances as are fit for making the parti-
cular spots or figures meant to be impressed or represented on the said cloth
capable of being dyed and; of retaining colours; and instead of printing,
impressing, or laying on the said cloths in the said whitened state, such acids
or other substances as are capable of preserving the particular spots or figures
so meant to be impressed or represented on the said cloths from being dyed,
that is, preventing them from retaining colours, and consequently keeping the
said last-mentioned spots or figures white; I first, by means of a blotching
machine, or by any other convenient method, impregnate the cloths I am

page_text: to print with a proper mordant or colour-fixing substance. I then dry the
cloths, and afterwards rinse or otherwise free them from the gum.or other
'superfluous inatter mixed with the. mordant. Then, after again drying and
properly smoothing then, I print, impress, or lay' on 'such parts of the cloths
as I wish to remain ultimately white, some vegetable acid or other substance
capable of discharging the mordant or of destroying its effects, in fixing
colours on the parts so printed, impressed, or covered with such vegetable
acid or other substance. If I wish to have another colour or other colours.on
the said cloth, besides the ground colour and white, then either before or
after. laying on the said acid or other substance for..destroying the mordant
or its effects, I print, impress, or lay on the cloths such other mordant
or mordants as may be necessary and proper for producing (along with the
ground. colour and the figures, or spots in white produced in the way above
mentioned), when the cloths are dyed, a variety of colours, or spots or figures,
on the parts so printed, impressed, or covered with such other .mordant
ór mordants. If I do not wish to produce any white figures or spots on the
cloth, I omit the process above detailed for this purpose, namely, the printing;
impressing, or laying on the cloths some vegetable or other acid, or other
substance capable of destroying the mordant, or the effects of the mordant,
with which they are first impregnated; and in this case I print, impress, or
lay on the cloths the other mordant or mordants above mentioned, which
produce, when the cloths are dyed, a variety of colours or: figures on the parts
so printed, impressed, or covered with this other or. last-mentioned mordant or
mordants. The number and variety of spots and figures may be thus multi-
plied and varied at pleasure by the application of appropriate or corresponding
mordants. After the cloths have undergone the operations above mentioned in
the different cases above detailed, they are dryed, and then rinsed and cleaned,
and afterwards dyed, or the colours raised in the usual or common way.
The above I consider to be an accurate. Specification of my Invention.
That it may, however, be more easily and fully understood, the following is a
detailed account of an operation of printing by this method:-After the cloths
have been whitened, bleached, or fitted as usual for printing, they are run
through a blotching machine, or otherwise impregnated with a mordant or
colour-fixing substance, such mordant being varied according to the particular
colour intended to be afterwards dyed or brought up by means of proper
dying stuff's well known to printers. The cloths are next to be dryed and then
rinsed through warm water, with or without other ingredients commonly
used for cleaning them from the gum or other superfluous matter mixed
with the mordant. They are then dryed and calendered, or otherwise smoothed

page_text: and prepared, so as to fit them for the application of the blocks or plates for
printing. I then print, impress, or lay on such parts of the cloths whereon
I wish to produce white spots or figures, a discharging. acid or proper
substance thickened properly with gum or other fit substance; and if no other
colour is wanted besides the ground colour and white spots or figures, the goods
are dryed, then rinsed, and afterwards dyed as usual. If other colours or
coloured figures or spots are wanted, then, before removing the goods from the
table or press, the proper mordant or mordants for such other colours are
printed, impressed, or laid on those parts of the cloths where such colours
or coloured figures or spots are wanted, with proper blocks or plates, so as to
make these other colours or coloured figures or spots correspond with the
white spots or figures that will arise from the application of the discharging
acid or substance. Sometimes it is expedient before printing, impressing, or
laying on the discharging acid or substance on the parts of the cloths to which
it is to be applied, to print, impress, or lay on the other mordant or mor-
dants on those parts of the cloth where the other intended colours or coloured
spots or figures are meant to be impressed or represented, which may be
occasionally varied, as circumstances may require. In either way an exact
correspondence of situation is obtained between the white and coloured spots
or figures. If no other white spots or figures are wanted, the use of the
discharging acid or substance is omitted. When the goods have remained a
sufficient time to fix or dry after the operation, they are rinsed and cleaned,
and afterwards dyed with the usual materials, and in the usual way fitted for
raising the colours, which are produced by the mordant or mordants with
which they have been impregnated, impressed, or printed. When the dying
is finished they are to be rinsed in warm water, with bran or other cleaning
material. And in many cases it is necessary and useful, both for clearing the
white spots or figures, and reducing the colours to the intended shade, to pass
the cloths through a proper quantity of oxygenated muriatic acid, or its com-
pounds, after which rinsing in clean water will make the goods fit for drying
and finishing.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Gillispie, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, being
first duly stamped, in presence of
ROBERT GRAHAME.
GRAHAM DOUGLAS.
W GILLISPIE. (L.S.)

page_text: Graham Douglas, of the City of Glasgow, in North Britain, Gentleman,
maketh oath and saith, that he did see William Gillispie, mentioned in the
Deed Poll hereunto annexed, sign, seal, and as his act and deed in due form
of law deliver, the said Deed Poll in the presence of Robert Grahame, of the
City of Glasgow aforesaid, Gentleman, and this Deponent, and that the name
W Gillispie, appearing to be set and subscribed at the end of the said Deed
Poll, as the party executing the same; and the names Robert Grahame,
Graham Douglas, set and subscribed to the said Deed Poll, as witnesses.
attesting the due execution of the same, are of the respective proper hands
writing of the said William Gillispie, Robert Grahame, and this Deponent
respectively.