IMPROVE. MENTS IN WATERPROOFING, CEMENTING, AND STIFFENING FABRICS AND FIBROUS ATERIALS AND ALSO IN DYRING FABRICS AND FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Scoffern, of 4, Barnard's Inn, in the County
of Middlesex, Bachelor of Medicine, for the Invention of "IMPROVE.
MENTS IN WATERPROOFING, CEMENTING, AND STIFFENING FABRICS AND FIBROUS
ATERIALS AND ALSO IN DYRING FABRICS AND FIBROUS MATERIALS"
MAT
Sealed the 5th January 1860, and dated the 27th July 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION lett by the said John Scoffern at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th
July 1859.
I, John ScoffERN, of 4, Barnard's Inn, in the County of Middlesex.
Bachelor of Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WATERPROOFING. CEMENTING, AND STIFFENING FABRICS AND
FIBROUS MATERIALS, AND ALSO IN DYEING FABRICS AND FIBROUS MATERIALS," to
be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in waterproofing, cementing,
and stiffening fabrics and fibrous materials, and also in dyeing fabrics and
fibrous materials. For the purpose of waterproofing, cementing, and stiffen-
ing fabrics or fibrous materials, I prepare a solution of vegetable or animal
fibre or material, and this I do by immersing the animal or vegetable fibre or
material in ammonia, to which copper is added. After a time a solution is
obtained, and by impregnating animal or vegetable fabrics and fibrous
materials with this solution, and afterwards drying them, they become

page_text: stiffened, and to a great extent waterproof; and if two fabrics impregnated
with this solution be placed in contact while moist, they will, when dry, be
firmly cemented together.
In place of preparing a solution of animal or vegetable fibre or material,
as above described, the fabric or fibrous material to be waterproofed,
stiffened, or cemented, may be simply dipped in ammonia, to which copper
has been added, when a sufficient quantity of the fabric or fibrous material
becomes dissolved to produce the desired effect.
In dyeing vegetable fibrous materials, great difficulty is experienced in
making them take certain dyes, which notwithstanding attach themselves
to animal fibre with considerable facility. Now, according to this Invention,
when it is desired to apply such dyes to vegetable fabrics or fibrous materials,
I prepare such fabrics or materials with a solution of animal matter, in
copperized ammonia, as before explained, and I find, when so prepared, the
vegetable fabrics or materials take readily dyes, which, without such pre-
paration could not practically be applied to them.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Scoffern in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
27th January 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Joun
SCOFFERN, of 4, Barnard's Inn, in the County of Middlesex, Bachelor of
Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Scoffern, Her special licence that I, the said John
Scoffern, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said John Scoffern, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN WATERPROOFING, CEMENTING. AND STIFFENING FABRICS AND
FIBROUS MATERIALS, AND ALSO IN DYEING FABRICS AND FIBROUS MATERIALS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Scoffern, my

page_text: 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 John Scoffern, 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 fol-
lowing statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in waterproofing, cementing,
and stiffening fabrics and fibrous materials, and also in dyeing fabrics and
fibrous materials. For the purpose of waterproofing, stiffening, and cement-
ing fabrics or fibrous materials, I prepare a solution of vegetable or animal
fibre or material; and this I do by immersing the animal or vegetable fibre
or material in ammonia, to which copper is added, atmospheric air being
admitted from time to time, or continuously, through a small orifice, and the
mixture being agitated occasionally.
The ammonia I prefer is aqueous solution of ammonia, having a specific
gravity of 880, but other strength will do. The copper may be added in
fragments, quantity immaterial, provided it be in excess of what the ammonia
can dissolve, a saturated solution resulting in the end. The result is what I
will term copperized ammonia; it has the property of dissolving woody fibre,
paper, cloth, and other forms of lignine, it also dissolves wool, feathers, and
hair, also silk, and many other animal and vegetable fibres or materials. A
solution, being obtained of any of these, may be turned to various uses, as is
set forth in this Specification.
Firstly, either of these solutions may be used as an agent for imparting
stiffness to fibrous materials, such as cloth, paper, silk, tissue, and flannel;
and to a certain extent either of them may be used as a cement for sticking
two or more sheets or thicknesses of woven or fibrous materials together. I
lay no claim to any manipulative processes for effecting this cementing
together. The solution of silk in copperized ammonia has a lustrous black
color. It may be used as an ink or a varnish for cloth, paper, leather, &c.
My application of the copperized solution to the purposes of dyeing consists
in the following:-Certain dyestuffs cannot ordinarily be imparted to cotton
or linen, though they are readily imparted to other substances, for example,
wool. Now, I find that by steeping cotton or linen in solution of wool, or
one of many other animal substances capable of solution in my copperized

page_text: ammonia, the cotton or linen so steeped will take up lac dye. I claim the
principle of using copperized ammoniacal animal solution as a mordant; but
I do not claim any special process to be followed in connection with the
operation of mordanting, or limit my process to any one dye stuff.
Finally, though I have mentioned a process for manufacturingthe copperized
ammonia, wherewith any animal and vegetable substances are dissolved and
rendered available, I lay no special claim to the same process, aware that the
copperized solution may be made equally good by other processes, and far
more rapidly, though not, I believe, so economically. For example, the
hydrated oxide of copper, as prepared according to any process known to
chemists, dissolves in ammoniacal solution rapidly, and yields my copperized
solution. Practically, I consider the process first described to be the most
eligible.
I must also state that neither the copperized solution,nor any of its derivative
solutions contemplated by this Specification, must be kept in vessels of zinc or
lead, but practically it neither affects iron, steel, nor tin,earthenware, or glass.
I store it usually in tin plate reservoirs, and use, by preference, a steel spatula
for spreading it; a hair brush will do for this purpose, but it rapidly wears out.
A pledget of linen or silk tissue answers well, but rapidly dissolves; I there-
fore prefer to spread it with an iron or steel edge, though I make no claim to
any mode of spreading.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Scoffern, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
JN°. SCOFFERN. (L.S.)