IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR METHOD OF PRODUCING BLACK COLORING MATTERS OR PIGMENTS."
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Green, of Margaret's Place, Old Ford Road,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MEANS OR METHOD OF PRODUCING BLACK COLORING MATTERS OR PIGMENTS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Green at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th
May 1863.
I, WILLIAM GREEN, of Margaret's Place, Old Ford Road, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE.
MENTS IN THE MEANS OR METHOD OF PRODUCING BLACK COLORING MATTERS OR
PIGMENTS," to be as follows:-
According to the present processes of manufacturing black coloring matters
or pigments the black is generally obtained as a carbonaceous product, the
result of combustion or burning of coal tar, various oils, and other similar
matters, whereby the various smokes or lampblacks are produced, and which
are suitable for the purposes of paint, printing inks, and such like.
Now my Invention consists of the manufacture of black pigments from such
materials as are now used in dyeing and in making black writing ink, such as
logwood, galls, tannin, in combination with the mordants now in use for such
purposes, and in the application of such new pigments to the purposes for
[Price 8d.]

page_text: which the before-mentioned smoke, vegetable, and such like blacks are
used; and 1 also propose to use these black pigments in combination with the
blacks of commerce.
My mode of proceeding is to precipitate the coloring matter in conjunction
with the mordants, and to filter-and dry in the manner usual in making other
precipitated colors, such as lakes and Prussian blues. The ingredients I
mostly use are logwood, galls, and tannin, the salts of iron, copper, and such
chemicals as are known in the dyeing trade to strike a black with such in-
gredients. And I also prepare these precipitates as water colors, in which case
they are only partially dried.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Green in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th
November 1863.
TO ALL TO, WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GREEN, of Margaret's Place, Old Ford Road, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Green, Her special licence that I, the said William Green, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Green, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR
METHOD OF PRODUCING BLACK COLORING MATTERS OR PIGMENTS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said William Green, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should 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 I, the said William Green, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: to be particularly deserved a
ment:-
and the rowing Sta
According to the present methods of producing black coloring matters or
pigments they are obtained as carbonaceous compounds, the result of the
combustion or burning of tar, various oils, and other similar matters, whereby
various smoke or lampblacks are produced; others are obtained, as charcoal,
by the calcination of numerous substances, such as ivory, vine twigs, &c.; these
constitute the only processes now in use for the manufacture of blacks, and
they are all essentially of a dark brown or olive color; in fact, they may be
described as little more than browns or olives multiplied, but such blacks are
found suitable for the purposes of printing ink, paint, &c.
The object of my Invention is to produce blue or jet blacks by more strictly
chemical means, which I do by the use of such materials as are used in the
manufacture of black writing inks and in dyeing blacks, such as myrabolanes,
galls, logwood, and the various tanning matters; and my mode of proceeding
is by the precipitation of the coloring matters of the said materials in con-
junction with those chemicals or mordants that are known to strike a black
therewith, and which precipitates I wash and dry after filtering in precisely the
manner adopted in making precipitated colors generally, such as lakes or
Prussian blue, which I will further describe as follows:-1 first make the
extract or solution by boiling the coloring matters; this I put into a vessel
and allow to stand until quite clear; the mordant to be used is also, when a
soluble one, dissolved in water and left to clear itself; the two are then drawn
off and mixed in another vessel; when the color has subsided the mother
liquor is drawn off, which is replaced by clean water; the color is allowed
again to subside, and the liquor is drawn off as before, and this process
repeated if necessary; the color is then placed on filters, and allowed to drain;
it is then removed to the drying or heated room, where all remaining moisture
is driven off, in which state it is ready for use, or it may be crushed or ground
into powder, sifted, and so produced in the shape of dust. I also prepare these
precipitates as water colors, in which case they are only partially dried, or
they may be mixed in their damp state with size or other suitable vehicle, and
dried for use as crayons, or as solid ink in lieu of black lead. There are some
of the materials that may for cheapness be simply mixed with the mordant and
dried, such as solid extract of logwood, cutch, &c. As most of these pigments,
if precipitated with their mordants only, would, when dried, be hard and
difficult to grind, in order to render them commercially useful, I generally
precipitate on what is termed a basis, such as china clay or carbonate of lead;
or, for this purpose, such basis may be used as will of itself form a black with

page_text: logwood, gallic acid, or tannin, as, for instance, some of the insoluble salts of
the metals, as chromate of lead or carbonate of copper; and such basis may
be first stained by being boiled in an extract of the coloring matter, in which
state they may sometimes be used as cheap pigments when washed and dried,
or such chemicals may be used as do of themselves deposit a soft basis, for
instance, sulphate of copper and logwood give a deep blue black, if an alkali or
some of the salts of the alkalis be added thereto, the copper will be precipitated
as a carbonate combined with the coloring of the wood, and so act as basis
and mordant; and I may here mention that I sometimes use the blacks of
commerce as a base on which to precipitate these new pigments.
For some
uses these precipitates may be, when partially dried, mixed with the oil, and
then heated to drive off the remaining moisture. I sometimes mix two or
more of the dye stuffs together, as logwood with galls, as I do also sometimes
use more than one mordant, such as sulphate of iron, with some of the salts of
lead or potash, by which the precipitates may be varied in tone of color and
texture of body to suit the purpose for which they are to be used. When
using galls or materials containing gallic acid, I prefer to add an alkali; or an
alkaline earth may be added after the copperas or other mordant, so as to
cause the more perfect precipitation of the color.
There are other chemicals than those instanced herein that are known to
strike a black with some of the before-mentioned dye stuffs, such as some of
the salts of lead and bichromate of potash with logwood, which may be used
in the production of these pigments. In cases where the affinity of the
coloring matter for its mordant is low, I sometimes raise the solutions to a
boiling heat, to accelerate the combination, as with many of the tanning
matters.
I cannot herein give any set proportions, as the materials vary in quality;
it is known, for instance, that galls will take from one quarter to half their
weight of copperas, and this must be used at the discretion of the workman:
but this is not of material importance, as by the process of washing the pre-
cipitate, as heretofore described, any excess of either mordant or coloring
matter is removed. But after the foregoing general description of my
Invention, I will give the three following examples, one a method of using
logwood, one of cutch or tanning matter, and one of galls or matters contain-
ing gallic acid; and I will vary these processes so as to make them as expla-
natory as possible of my Invention, and along with one or other of these three
materials may be classed nearly the whole of the coloring matters I propose to
use.
Before giving the said examples I will remark, that as nearly the whole

page_text: of these blacks are precipitated by a metallic mordant, I intend in commerce.
to style then patent metallic blacks.
I will now give the following as one of my methods of using logwood:--I
take a clarified extract thereof containing one pound to every gallon, which
should be of the strength of one degree by Twaddle's hydrometer, to each
gallon of which I well mix four ounces of china clay or other base; I then
add at the rate of a quarter of a pound of copperas to each gallon, which I
use in a clarified solution, as described in the first part of this Specification.
I then allow the precipitate to subside, wash, and dry, as also herein-before
described.
The following may be taken as a method of using cutch or tanning matters:
- take a clear solution of free cutch containing half a pound to the gallon
or of five degrees on the hydrometer; to this I put two ounces of pearlash,
and afterwards four fluid ounces of nitrate of iron to each gallon; I then boil
in another vessel a given weight of the base for the purpose of staining it.
And will here select chromate of lead, for example, to each pound of which
I add six gallons of extract of logwood containing one pound to the gallon;
this boil a short time. I then mix at the rate of one pound of the stained
base to each pound of cutch, raise the mixture to its boiling point, and then
pass it through a very fine sieve into the stand tubs, when the color is allowed
to settle, and is washed and dried, as before stated.
And, lastly, in using galls, the following method may be adopted: -Put any
given weight of carbonate of copper as a base into a boiler: to each pound of
this add one gallon of logwood or the extract from one pound. Raise this to
one hundred degrees of heat; then add to each pound of copper under
operation three gallons of a clear infusion of galls of five degrees of strength
by the hydrometer. To every gallon of this mixture put three fluid ounces of
nitrate of iron, and pass the whole through a fine sieve into the stand tubs;
allow the color to precipitate, wash and dry in the manner before stated; or in
lieu of carbonate a sulphate or other soluble salt of copper may be used, in
which case an alkali or alkaline agent should be added so as to precipitate the
copper as a carbonate after its combination with the coloring matter.
I have in each of these three instances used a base, because I believe it is
mostly best to do so; but I wish it to be understood that. I do not confine
myself to the so doing, as there are some of these precipitates that do not for
all purposes require it; but what I claim as my Invention is,-
Firstly, the production of black pigments by the precipitation of the coloring
matter of myrabolanes, galls, logwood, tannin, and such other materials as are
used in the manufacture of black writing inks and in dyeing black in con-

page_text: junction with the mordants that are used for such purpose, and the application
of such pigments, when dried, to the purposes for which smoke, vegetable,
and such blacks are capable of being used either alone or in admixture with
the blacks of commerce.
Secondly, the precipitation of the said black pigments upon or in con-
junction with a basis, as before described, for the production of soft blacks,
and the use of the base when simply stained with these coloring matters as a
black pigment.
Thirdly, the use of the before-mentioned pigments as water colors, or dried
as described herein as crayons or solid ink.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Green, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Witness,
ALEX. PRINCE,
Ollice for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross.
W. UNEEN.
(17.5.)