A NEW METHOD OF MAKING IRON LIQUOR FOR THE USE OF DYERS AND PRINTERS
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
ASHWORTH, of Tottington, in the Parish of Bury, in the County of Lancaster,
Dyer and Colour Mixer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of March 'now
last past, hath given and granted unto me, the said James Ashworth, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, special licence, full
special licence, full power, sole privilège
and authority, that I, the said James Ashworth, my exors, adiñors, and
assigns, or by my deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others
as I, the James Ashworth, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, to make, use, exercise,
and vend, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF MAKING IRON LIQUOR FOR THE
USE OF DYERS AND PRINTERS;" within that part of the said United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in which said Letters Patent there is
contained (amongst other things) a proviso obliging me, the said James
Ashworth; particularly to describe 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 to cause the same to be inrolled in

page_text: His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said now reciting Letters Patent, as in
and by the same Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Ashworth, in compliance with
the said proviso, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained by the description herein-after contained, that is to say:-
Whereas by the common methods now in use for making iron liquor it
requires the space of seven weeks to make and bring the same to perfection,
but by my said Invention the same may be made and brought to perfection in
two or three days or less, and which said Invention I exercise in two several
days, depending upon two distinct principles, as follows:-
First, I dissolve in any vegetable acid the oxyd of any metal casy of
solution in such acid, and between which metallic oxyd and acid there is a less
affinity than there is between the same acid and the oxyd of iron, and I
then add iron in a metallic state to the above solution, which precipitates the
metal before dissolved, and is taken up into its place, upon the principle which
the chymists called elective attraction; as, for example, I dissolve .red lead,
litharge, white lead, or any other oxyd of lead, in vinegar brought to a
boiling heat or nearly so, after the proportion of from four to eight ounces
of oxyd to one gallon of vinegar or thereabouts, which solution is then poured
into a vessel containing lumps or pieces of iron, and there left to stand
all together for about twenty-four or thirty-six hours. The liquor is then
heated or boiled again with the same or fresh pieces of iron, and when cool
is ready for use. The quantity of oxyd necessary in proportion to the acid
depends in some degree upon the strength of the acid and the purity of the
oxyd, and will easily be known by any person having common experience in
such business. A similar effect is produced by substituting any of the oxyds
of manganeze, tin, copper, bismuth, antimony, or arsenic, in the place of the
oxyd of lead, or by substituting the oak acid, alegar, or any other vegetable
acid in the place of the vinegar, the process depending upon the same
principle of elective attraction, the application of which principle to the making
of iron liquor with vegetable acids I claim as part of my said Invention.
Also, secondly, I dissolve in any vegetable acid an oxyd of iron, and to this
solution I add iron in.a metallic state, which is thereby dissolved, and forms
an iron liquor. For example, I add Spanish brown, Venetian red or ochre, or
any other oxyd of iron, to vinegar, or any other vegetable acid, brought to a
boiling heat, or nearly so, and when the solution has taken place I pour the

page_text: same on lumps or pieces of iron; let them stand together during twenty-
four or thirty-six hours, then boil the liquor a second time with the same or
fresh pieces of iron, and when cold pour it off for use. The principle of
this second process differs from that described under the first head, and does
not depend upon elective attraction; but I conceive the solution of the metallic
iron is effected by its attracting oxygen from the oxyd of iron previously
dissolved, and a compound is by this means also obtained of vegetable acid
with iron, oxydated to the extent proper for producing good iron liquor.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Ashworth, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and two, and in the forty-second year of
the reign of His present Majesty.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of April, in the year above written.