AN IMPROVED PRINTING INK
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVED PRINTING INK."-A communication from abroad by
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Melville
Clark at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 8th June 1874..
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED PRINTING INK," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved ink or coloring matter for the
pads used with hand or endorsing stamps.
The inks hitherto used for this purpose after being applied on the
type or engraved surface are transferred by pressure on to the surface
to be inmensced
.

page_text: These inks or coloring matters have hitherto been of an oily nature
and a of syrupy consistency, partaking more of the character of a paste
than a of colored liquid, and therefore possessing all the inconveniences
incidental to the use of sticky substances for such purposes.
The improved ink of this Invention consists on the other hand of a
solution of coloring matter, producing perfect impressions, and forming
a substitute for inks having an oily base, and which are therefore liable
to injure the surface on which they are applied.
This improved ink consists of a solution of coloring matter prepared
in the ordinary manner and dissolved in boiling alcohol marking 45 to 50
degrees, to which is added, after cooling, a certain quantity of glycerine.
The relative proportions of the ingredients may be as follows, viz. :—
2.9 lbs. of coloring matter, 44 lbs. of alcohol, and 33 lbs. of glycerine.
The necessary filtering is then effected in order to obtain the liquor, and
suitable acids are added according to the color for the purpose of
brightening the same. For example, sulphuric acid is added in the case
of blue color, and acetic acid for green color.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said Alexander Melville Clark in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 7th December 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alexander Melville Clark, Her special
licence, that I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander
Melville Clark, 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

page_text: make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "AN IMPROVED PRINTING INK," a communication to me
from abroad by Eugène Cré, of Paris, France, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, my exe-
cutors 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 Alexander Melville Clark, 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, that is to say:
This Invention relates to an improved ink, termed asteatine ink, or
coloring matter for use in typographic, lithographic, autographic, and
plate printing, as well as for the pads used with hand or endorsing
stamps.
These inks or coloring matters have hitherto been of an oily nature
and of a syrupy consistency, partaking more of the character of a paste
than of a colored liquid, and therefore possessing all the inconveniences
incidental to the use of syrupy and sticky substances, and which are too
numerous to mention.
Asteatine inks on the other hand are solutions of coloring matters
producing perfect impressions, and forming a substitute for inks having
an oily base, and which are therefore liable to alter the surface on which
they are applied.
The asteatine ink of this Invention consists of a solution of coloring
matters in boiling alcohol, to which is added, after cooling, a certain
quantity of glycerine.
The relative proportions of the ingredients may be as follows, viz. :-
2.9 lbs. of coloring matter prepared in the ordinary manner, which is
dissolved in 44 lbs. of boiling alcohol marking 45 to 50 degrees, 33 lbs.
of glycerine being added after cooling. The necessary filtering is then
effected in order to clear the liquid, and suitable acids are added

page_text: according to the color for the purpose of brightening the same. For
example, sulphuric acid is added to a blue liquor, and acetic acid to a
green liquor.
I also employ these asteatine colored inks in combination with other
matters, whereby I obtain printing inks or colors of any desired con-
sistency from the most fluid to the most solid, and of any shade
according to the proportion of asteatine inks to the neutral matters in
powder and the varnishes used to form the composition.
The following is the method of preparation -I take either ceruse,
zine white, flake white, or other white carbonate or sulphate in fine
powder, which I form into a thick paste with the asteatine ink, and
then dry and grind the same to powder. I then grind together the
powder thus obtained with lithographic or typographic varnish, and
when well ground I add 'asteatine ink until the desired color is obtained,
the process being the same for all colors. Inks thus prepared may be
used in typographic, lithographic, and plate printing, and for other
purpose.
The inks of this Invention may be thus prepared from 50 to 80 per
cent. cheaper than the colored inks at present in use.
Having described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to
be protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
improved ink above specified and termed asteatine ink, employed either
alone or in combination with varnishes or other matters according to
the purpose to which it is to be applied as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
foun
Witness,
HY. SWALES,
53, Chancery Lane,
London.
A. M. CLARK. (L.S.)