IMPROVEMENTS IN FIXING COLORS ON FABRICS MADE OF COTTON OR OTHER FIBRE
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ROBERT JOHNSON, of Crawford Street, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of
October, One thousand eight hundred and fifty, in the fourteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Robert Johnson, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial
license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Robert
Johnson, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Robert Johnson, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIXING COLORS ON FABRICS MADE OF COTTON OR
OTHER FIBRE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I,
the said John Robert Johnson, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: by an instrument in writing, under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
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NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Robert Johnson, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The improvements consist, first, in a mode of isolating or extracting the
coloring matter of madder and other rubiaceous plants, such as munjeet, so
as to render the colour fit and profitable to be fixed upon fabrics by direct
application, instead of by the usual dying processes. In carrying out this
improvement, I commence by converting the madder into garancine, as is well
understood, and when the acid employed for the conversion of the madder
into garancine has been removed by washing, I treat the residue still remaining
upon the filter with a hot aqueous solution, which has the property, while hot,
of dissolving the coloring matter of madder, and of abandoning it while cold;
and I continue the addition of such solution until it ceases to take up coloring
matter. The liquor when cooled gives up the coloring matter in fine orange
flocks, which are collected upon a filter and washed until tasteless and free
from acid. The filtered liquor being now almost entirely free from coloring
matter, may be used again for a second operation, and so on repeatedly; and,
to make the process more economical, I pass the cold solution of one opera-
tion through "worm" or refrigeratory apparatus immersed in the hot liquor of
another operation. This is thereby more rapidly cooled by the transference of
its heat to the liquor about to be used, and thus a saving of time, fuel, and
plant is effected. Several earthy and saline solutions, with free sulphuric or
muriatic acid, have the property of dissolving more or less perfectly the coloring
matter of madder while hot, such as a weak solution of chloride of calcium
with free muriatic acid. The best solvent is, however, a solution of potash or
ammonia alum with free muriatic or sulphuric acid. I usually prepare my
solvent thus: Alum, ten pounds; sulphuric acid, one and a half pounds;
water, twelve gallons.
I am aware that the solvent property of a solution of alum upon alizarine,
the colouring principle of madder, has been known for many years, and that
an acid has been used to precipitate the color from the aluminous solution. I
disclaim the alternate use of solution of alum and acid for the extraction of
the coloring matter of the rubiace, as such a mode of operation is expensive

page_text: and otherwise impracticable; but I claim as my Invention the application of
a solution of alum with excess of acid, or of other acidified saline solution,
which by the simple addition and abstraction of heat may be rendered again
and again fit for use for the extraction of the coloring matter of madder, and
other rubiaceous plants. And I claim the abstracting and adding the heat
from one solution to the other, as already described, to the extraction of the
coloring matter of the rubiacæ, in order to its being fixed upon fabrics of
cotton, silk, &c.
The extract of madder, prepared as above, may be fixed upon fabrics by
printing it upon cloth prepared with an aluminous mordant, and steaming,
as by the process of Fanquet, &c., but I prefer to operate in a different
manner.
The second improvement consists in a new mode of fixing alizarine, the
coloring matter of madder, by whatever mode it be obtained, by mixing it
with the mordant, and applying them simultaneously upon the fabric prepared
as hereafter described, and steaming to fix them there. Upon cotton unpre-
pared the color so applied readily yields to soap; but I find that it is rendered
perfectly fast and stable by impregnating the cloth with a small quantity of
oleaginous matter. The fine hue of the madder is not fully developed until
the oil has been oxidized, as in the Turkey-red process. Turkey-red cloth, as
usually prepared, does not, however, answer the purpose, as the alkali and
subsequent operations have rendered the cloth coloured. I find the best result
to be obtained by the following mixture:-White soap, 5 lbs.; Gallipoli oil,
5 lbs.; water, 10 gallons. Dissolve the soap, and add the oil to form a muci-
lage. Pad the cloth in this mixture, dry it, and "age" in a warm room for
forty-eight hours, then rince in water with a small quantity of carbonate of
soda, say one pound of soda to twenty gallons of water; wash and dry.
Simple rincing through hot soap will partially effect the same object. Old cloth,
which has been worn and washed many times, answers perfectly, shewing how
minute a quantity of the oleaginous matter is sufficient to give stability to
the compound of alizarine and base. Any salt of alumina, when printed with
the madder extract, gives a more or less perfect colour.; I, however, prefer a
mixture thus composed :-Extract in paste, containing about ten per cent. of
dry extract, ten parts by weight; pure acetate of alumina, at twenty-five
degrees. Twaddel, one part; gum tragacanth to thicken. These proportions
may be considerably modified without greatly modifying the result; but if the
alumina be increased beyond a certain point, say when about twenty per cent.
of acetate of alumina at twenty-five degrees is employed, the colour ceases to
be fixed even upon oleaginous cloth, and it then resembles the common madder

page_text: lake when printed upon fabrics. The substitution of a salt of iron modifies
the colour from red towards chocolate or black. When the colour is printed,
the fabric is hung for a few hours, steamed for half an hour at the lowest
pressure possible, then cooled, and rinced through water containing about
Tooth of its weight of an alkaline carbonate or phosphate. The color will
however bear "raising" in weak caustic alkali or lime. It is improved by
"soaping" after the "raising" and washing.
I claim as my Invention the use of oleaginous matter, as above described,
for fixing the colouring matter of madder when applied topically, that is by
direct application to the fabric.
The third improvement consists in a new method of operating when the
dyeing process is used for fixing the coloring matter of madder. When the
ordinary methods of dyeing with madder are used, several "soaping" or
"branning" operations are required, in order to clear the "whites" and
brighten the colours; and in order that the colors may resist the clearing
processes a large excess of madder has to be used beyond that required for
the formation of the colors. To avoid this expence of material, labour, soap, &c.,
the madder is frequently treated with acids, &c. to convert it into "garancine,"
and the colors are then obtained bright and the white clear without the use of
soap.
Now I find that the same result may be obtained, and as regards the
hue of many of the colors, and the stability of all, a superior result may be
obtained without converting the madder into garancine by operating thus:-
First, by simply dyeing with about twenty-five per cent. less madder than is
absolutely required when the soaping processes are used; second, by padding
by the usual padding machine or "pin roller" a certain quantity of a bleaching
liquid into the dyed piece, and heating the piece over the flue of the padding
machine, or over the "tins" of the drying machine, as is already done for the
clearing of the whites of garancine. Almost any of the bleaching pre-
parations, such as chloride of lime, or "clearing powder" will answer for
this purpose; I however prefer to use a hypochlorite of soda, prepared by
adding a solution of soda crystals (carbonate of soda) to a solution of chlo-
ride of lime, until the lime ceases to be precipitated. If the liquor stand
at ten degrees Twaddel, about fifteen per cent. of this liquor, and eighty-
five per cent. of water will form a solution fit for use in the padding
machine. The pieces may be dyed in the ordinary way (only with the
diminished quantity of madder); I, however, prefer first to treat the madder
with water heated to about one hundred and twenty degrees or one hundred
and twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit for several hours before being used. The
transformation first pointed out by Mr. Higgins then takes place, and the

page_text: .
soluble yellow coloring matter passes to the state of red coloring matter
(alizarine); I also find that the pectic fermentation takes place at the same
time, and that the mass after fermentation contains pectosic or pectic acid.
If this fermented madder be used, a saving of time, fuel, and labour result. As
the precautions as regards temperature are not necessary, the water containing
the residue of the madder may be used for another operation, and the "whites"
are clearer.
I claim the application of the processes above described to the. production
of colours and clear whites from madder without the use of bran, soap, or
garancine. I also claim the application of fermented madder to economise
time, fuel, and labour in the dyeing process.
The fourth improvement consists in the application of the above-described
clearing process to obtain colours and clear whites from spent madder, without
the necessity of heating the spent madder by steam or otherwise; that is,
without converting it into garancine. I find that if the spent madder be washed
with dilute acid (I prefer muriatic acid for this purpose) as in the Patent
granted to Frederick Steiner, dated 2nd June, 1832, until the salts of lime be
removed and the washings have become tasteless, it becomes in a fit state to
be again used; I then introduce it into the dye vessel with sufficient of an
alkaline carbonate to render the dye liquor slightly red, and dye as with
garancine. The color is given up to the mordants, but the whites are bad,
and this rendered Steiner's process comparatively without value. The whites
are however rendered pure by the clearing process above described.
I claim the application of the clearing process aforesaid for the purpose of
obtaining bright colours and clear whites from spent madder, without the
necessity of converting the spent madder into garancine.
The fifth improvement in fixing colour consists in a new mode of obtaining
a topical colour from alkanet root (anchusa tinctoria). I digest the root in
oil of turpentine, naptha, or other cheap essential oil, and to the solution con-
taining the colouring matter I add about one eighth of its volume of a saturated
solution of caustic baryta, or a mixture of salt of baryta or other earth and
caustic ammonia, and I agitate for ten or fifteen minutes. The earthy solu-
tion seizes upon the colouring matter and separates it from the essential oil,
which is then fit for another operation. The deep indigo blue mass of colour
and earth is treated with acetic acid to neutralize the earth, and when printed
upon aluminous cloth gives a fine purple; or the acetic mixture may have a
mordant added to it in the usual way of preparing topical colors, and when
printed upon the oleaginous cloth before described it gives a fine purple, which
resists soap, alkalies, and acids.

page_text: I claim the application of anchusine, the colouring matter of alkanet, as a
topical colour, and the process of extracting it as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Robert Johnson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
Enrolled the Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.