IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF PRUSSIATES AND OTHER COLOURING MATTERS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in
the County of Middlesex, and of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF PRUSSIATES AND OTHER COLOURING
MATTERS "A communication.
Sealed the 7th March 1856, and dated the 7th November 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Johnson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th November 1855.
I, WILLIAM JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF PRUSSIATES AND OTHER COLOURING
MATTERS," a communication from abroad, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, in the first place, to the employment of the refuse
matter of the gas purifier for the manufacture of prussian blue and other
colouring materials; and also to the use for the same purpose of the accumu-
lated soot which is found in the chimneys of chemical works, foundries, lime-
kilns, or houses where a certain quality of fuel is consumed.
The Invention also relates to the precipitation of colouring matter from

page_text: alkaline solutions of animal and other substances containing carbon; also to
the manufacture of blues from cyanogen compounds without the employment
of any of the persalts of iron.
The Invention has especial reference to the mode of preparing blue from
the solutions of hair, horn, wool, and woollen rags, feathers, skin, silk,
membranes, and glue in caustic alkali; also to the employment for the same
purpose of the refuse animal charcoal of the sugar refiners, and of the refuse of
prussiate makers and blood boilers; also of sugar scùm, treacle, and other
saccharine matters; also starch and gluten. There are also used to the same
end certain products of the distillation and burning of animal matter, such as
Dippel's oil. There are also used for the manufacture of blues the bituminous
schists, and also certain kinds of coal; also creosote, carbolic acid, peat, and
certain products thereof. The Invention relates also to the employment of
soluble silicates, either alone or in combination with alum, borax, magnesia,
lime, or other salts or bases or acids, in the manufacture of certain blue
compounds and other colouring matter; also to the manufacture of prussiates
or colouring compounds, by dissolving the animal matter instead of burning it.
The Invention also relates to the use of sulphate of lime, and of certain
insoluble soaps, such as the stearates or resinates of lime, magnesia, &, as a
basis or receptacle for the blue colour; and further, to the use of machines,
constituted either on the principle of a pill-making machine, or such as is used
by lozenge makers for forming the balls of washing blue. The Invention
relates also to the manufacture and use of prussiates of soda, lime, magnesia,
alumina, bariuon, and of the combination of prussiates with silicates, or
silicon.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office ou the
7th May 1856.
:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME; I, WILLIAM
JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex, and of
Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent; bearing date the Seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for. Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,,

page_text: the said William Johnson, Her special license that I, the said William
Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Johnson, my executors, administrators, or 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF PRUSSIATES AND OTHER COLOURING
MATTERS," being a communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Johnson, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, 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 Johnson, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement in writing, that is to say:-
The said Invention relates, in the first place, to the application in the
manufacture of prussian blue, prussiate of soda, prussiate of potash, and other
colouring matters, of the refuse matter of the gas purifier, and of soot and
other refuse matters from chemical works, foundries, glass works, and kilns
where a certain quality of fuel is consumed. In using these substances in the
said manufacture they are to be treated with alkalis, sulphate of iron, or other
persalts of iron. Insoluble cyanides or ferrocyanides may be treated with a
solution of caustic alkali, such, for example, as caustic soda, and if this alkali
is used prussiate of soda will be produced. The refuse animal charcoal of
sugar refiners, as well as the refuse matters from prussiate makers and blood
boilers, may be similarly treated with caustic alkali, so as to produce useful
colouring matters. The said Invention also comprehends the employment or
use of soluble silicates in the manufacture of prussiates; and also the employ-
ment and use of insoluble soaps, such as the stearates or resinates of lime or
magnesia, as bases for the blue colouring matter. The said Invention further
relates to the application and use, in the manufacture of blue balls for washing
purposes, of apparatus similar to that used for making pills or lozenges.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I may observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict myself to

page_text: the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to describe or
refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without deviating from
the principles or main features of the Invention; but what I consider to be
novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein before in part recited Letters Patent, is,―
First, the application and use, in the manufacture of prussiates and other
colouring matters, of the refuse matter of the gas purifier, of soot and other
refuse matter from chemical works, foundries, glass works, and kilns, of the
refuse animal charcoal of sugar refiners, the refuse matters of prussiate makers
and blood boilers, and of soluble silicates, as herein-before described.
Second, the system or mode of treating cyanides or ferrocyanides with
caustic alkali for the production of prussiates, as herein-before described.
Third, the application and use in the manufacture of blue washing balls
of apparatus generally similar to that used in making pills or lozenges, as
herein-beforo described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Johnson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of May, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-six.
WILLIAM JOHNSON. (L.S.)