IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING AND PRINTING TEXTILE MATERIALS AND FABRICS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Hodgson Gratrix, of Salford, in the County of
Lancaster, Dyer, and Mathias Paraf Javal, of Thann, France, Calico
Printer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING AND PRINTING
TEXTILE MATERIALS AND FABRICS."
Sealed the 8th March 1861, and dated the 12th September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Hodgson Gratrix
and Mathias Paraf Javal at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 12th September 1860.
We, ROBERT HODGSON GRATRIX, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster,
Dyer, and MATHIAS PARAF JAVAL, of Thann, France, Calico Printer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING
AND PRINTING TEXTILE MATERIALS AND FABRICS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to dyeing and printing with matters derived from
aniline, napthaline, or an analogous substance. The principle we proceed
upon is to prepare the article with a material so that the color shall be
precipitated on the said article; and we have found that this may be done by
passing it through gall liquor solution of catechu or other substance of that
group or of compounds thereof. The aniline coloring matter we extract with
In preparing a coloring matter for printing we dissolve rosin and
precipitate the coloring matter with gall or other such substance as aforesaid;
this precipitate may then be used as a printing material.

page_text: We find also that the objects of our Invention may be attained by the used
of what is commonly known as the Turkey red preparation, which is a pre-
paration of oil galls and alum. Thus the oil solution may be used alone, or
the galls and oil mixed, or the oil galls and alum in combination.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Hodgson Gratrix and Mathias Paraf Javal in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
HODGSON GRATRIX, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Dyer, and MATHIAS
PARAF JAVAL, of Thann, France, Calico Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said Robert
Hodgson Gratrix and Mathias Paraf Javal, Her special license that we, the
said Robert Hodgson Gratrix and Mathias Paraf Javal, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Robert Hodgson
Gratrix and Mathias Paraf Javal, our 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 DYEING AND PRINTING TEXTILE MATERIALS AND FABRICS,"
upon
the condition, amongst others, that we, the said Robert Hodgson Gratrix and
Mathias Paraf Javal, or one of us, by an instrument in writing under our
hands and seals (or under the hand and seal of one of us), 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 Robert Hodgson Gratrix, do hereby
declare the nature of our 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:-*
Our Invention relates to a mode or modes of applying the class of colors
derived from aniline, naphthaline, nitro-benzine, cinchonine, and analogous.

page_text: substances to the obtaining of patterns or designs upon textile materials and
fabrics. Hitherto in the use of this class of colours for producing patterns
upon textile materials and fabrics the mode adopted for fixing them has been
to use albumen, lacterine, or other azotized substances, but either from the
cost of these materials or the loose and fugitive character of the applied colors,
no cheap and fast goods could be produced.
In order to obtain patterns by the aid of printing in the above-named class
of colors, which patterns shall be chemically fixed, we propose to precipitate
the color on the fabric by proceeding in the following manner :-We first form
a compound of tannin with the color which we desire to employ, and thicken
it with gum senegal, or other suitable thickening material; we then take the
article to be operated upon, say, for example, the cloth known in the trade as
prepared cloth," that is, cloth on which tin or other suitable metallic base
has been precipitated by any of the well-known preparation processes, and we
impress upon this cloth the prepared or combined color by means of printing
blocks, engraved rollers, or other suitable mechanical appliances. Or, as a
modification of this improved process, we take the prepared cloth intended to
receive a pattern or device, and print upon it the desired pattern with a
composition consisting of a thickened solution of gall nuts. By this mean we
form on those parts only of the surface which are to carry the colored pattern
a combination of tannin with oxide of tin or other suitable base. We then
submit this fabric to a bath composed by preference of a dilute acid solution
of any desired color derived from aniline or analogous substances. By either
of these processes we are enabled to obtain on the fabric a precipitate of the
color employed, and thus in a comparatively inexpensive manner we fix the
colored pattern firmly on the fabric. We will now proceed to describe in
detail the manner in which we obtain the above-mentioned result.
In order to form compounds of tannin with the color to be employed we
add to a solution of blue, purple, or red colours (or their combinations) derived
from aniline and analogous substances, so much of a strong solution of galls (a
newly made solution being preferred) as is sufficient to precipitate all the
coloring matter, or we use the pure tannin, by preference, if the expense be
not objectionable; we then collect the precipitate upon a filter and wash it,
and then dry it or not as may be thought desirable. We redissolve this pre-
cipitate in acetic acid, alcohol, methylated spirits, or other suitable solvent, and
thicken it with gum senegal, or other suitable thickening. It is then ready
to be used for printing upon cloth prepared with salts of tin or other suitable

page_text: mordant or mordants. When the fabric has been printed it is to be steamed
and then washed with or without the use of soap, according to the color.under
operation, the red color more particularly requiring such treatment with
We take cloth prepared with a stannate of soda or other well known and suit-
able mordant or mordants, and upon this cloth we print the desired pattern with
a solution of gall nuts or other tannin matter (say marking ten degrees Twaddle,
if for a very dark color, a less according to the shade required) thickened with
gum senegal or other material that will give it a suitable consistence. The
fabric thus prepared we then submit to steam heat, beginning at a low
pressure and ending at from eight to ten pounds to the inch. We then clear
off the gummy matter by passing the fabric through the ordinary fixing bath,
or such as is used for madder (say a solution of arseniates of potash and soda
silicates or their equivalents), and having well washed the fabric it is ready
for the dye vat. This fabric we now "enter" into a madder-dyeing vessel or
other suitable vessel filled with water slightly acidulated with acetic acid, or
other suitable acid, and heated to one hundred and forty degrees Fahrenheit;
we then add a small quantity of the coloring matter previously dissolved in
acetic acid or other suitable solvent, and continue to supply the colour by
degrees until the parts prepared to receive it are completely "filled." At the
same time we bring the liquor gradually to the boiling point. This heat we
maintain after the supply of color is completed for half an hour or more, when
the pattern will shew up a beautiful clear color according to the strength of
the tannin printed on the fabric; the white parts will, however, be slightly
tinged with the colouring matters used. To remove this tinge we boil the
article in water slightly acidulated with acetic acid, sulphuric acid, or other acid
as may be found most convenient for the coloring matter used; or soap may
be used or bran, or the article may be passed through a weak solution of print-
clearing liquid, such as is used for garancine, or with a mixture of this liquor.
and dilute acetic acid. These operations, or some of them, should be repeated
until the white is sufficiently pure. The fabric is then to be washed and is
ready for the stiffening and finishing operations.
It will be obvious that this process admits of many modifications in details
without departing from the principle of our Invention. Thus, for example,
instead of operating on the ordinary prepared cloth with tannin as above
described, the cloth may undergo the preparation process subsequently to the
application of the tannin, or the preparation material might be combined with

page_text: the tannin to constitute the printing material; the color is then to be applied
by the dyeing process to give the pattern the required color.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "Improvements in
Dyeing and Printing Textile Materials and Fabrics," and explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be understood that
under the above in part recited Letters Patent, we claim fixing colors derived
from analine or analogous substances on to textile materials and fabrics
(to produce patterns or designs) by means of tannin alone or in combination
applied as a printing material.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Hodgson Gratrix, have hereunto
set, my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
K. HODGSON GRATRIX. (L.S.)