IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING AND DYEING WOVEN. FABRICS AND YARNS OR THREADS."
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Rumney, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, and William Stevenson Macdonald,
of the same Place, Mechanic, for the Invention of." IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRINTING AND DYEING WOVEN. FABRICS AND YARNS OR THREADS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Rumney and
William Stevenson Macdonald at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 5th January 1859.
We, ROBERT RUMNEY, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Manu-
facturing Chemist, and WILLIAM STEVENSON MACDONALD, of the same Place,
Mechanic, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PRINTING AND DYEING WOVEN FABRICS AND YARNS OR THREADS," to be
as follows:-
Our Invention relates to the dyeing or printing of fabrics and yarns or threads
with colors derived from uric acid, "murexide," for instance, or to combi-
nations of other coloring matters therewith.
The method we adopt is as follows:-After the goods are scoured or
bleached they are immersed in an acid solution of metals or earths, such as
nitrate of lead, sulphate of alumina or alum, and then treated with an alkali,
in which there may or may not be dissolved, earths or oxides of metals. This
treatment forms a mordant suited for a variety of colors.

page_text: We also use as a base or mordant acetate of soda, potash or ammonia com-
bined with arsenious acid, and dried in the fabric. In preparing colors derived
from uric acid as aforesaid, we dissolve the murexide with nitrate of lead in
water, and add to the solution bichloride of mercury, and to which may or '
may not be added (according to the material to be dyed or printed, and shade
required,) arsenio-acetate of soda, or ammonia,, or other arseniate.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Rumney and William Stevenson Macdonald in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th July 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
RUMNEY, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist,
and WILLIAM STEVENSON MACDONALD, of the same Place, Mechanic, send
-greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of January, in the year. of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Robert Rumney and William Stevenson Macdonald, Her special
license that we, the said Robert Rumney and William Stevenson Macdonald,
.our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Robert
Rumney and William Stevenson Macdonald, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING AND DYEING WOVEN FABRICS AND YARNS OR
THREADS," upon the condition, amongst others, that we, the said Robert
Rumney and William Stevenson Macdonald, or one of us, by an instrument
in writing under our hands and seals, or under the band and seal of one of
us, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 we, the said Robert Rumney and William Stevenson
Macdonald, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-.
tained in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
Our Invention relates particularly to dyeing and printing fabrics and yarns
or threads with colour derived from uric acid, "murexide," for instance, and to
combinations of other, coloring matters therewith; but it is also applicable in..
part to colouring matters without the murexide class.
The method we adopt is to form a multiple mordaunt upon the material,
obtained by combining thereon metals or earths dissolved in acids with metals
or earths dissolved. in alkalis. After the goods are scoured or bleached they
are immersed in an acid solution as aforesaid, such as acetate or nitrate of
lead, tin, copper, zinc, or acetate, nitrate, muriate, or sulphate of alumina
or alum, or other earth. After this they are treated with a solution of the.
oxides of any of these metals or earths in caustic alkali, say, for example,
plombate or stannate or silicate of potash or soda, aluminate of potash or soda,
ammoniate of copper, &c. By this treatment the aforesaid multiple mordaunt
or base is obtained particularly applicable to colors derived from uric acid, but
also suitable for other colours, as those in which catechu, Brazil wood, chrome,
or logwood are used, for instance. The strength of the above-named solutions
must, as all practical dyers well know, be varied according to the shades
required, the nature of the water used and other circumstances, but we may
mention as a general guide that we have used them in the first instance
successfully of the density of 3° Twaddle, and in the second 1° Twaddle. In
carrying on the above process a variety of pigments will fall as precipitates,
and the sediment may be collected from the vats; these pigment we use for
ordinary purposes of printing upon textile materials or fabrics.
Another base or mordaunt which we employ for colors derived from uric
acid and for other colours is the acetate of potash or soda or ammonia, either
simply or in combination with arsenic or arsenious acid. In preparing the colour
bath for dyeing with colours derived from uric acid as aforesaid, we dissolve
the murexide with nitrate of lead in water as usual; the goods are then
immersed in this fluid, and subsequently passed through a bath of acetate or
subacetate of lead. If the colour is to be used for printing with block or
engraved cylinder, it must be thickened in the usual way, and when sufficiently
dried it is exposed in a bath or cistern with rollers to the fixing action of the
acetate or subacetate of lead.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of our said Invention and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, we desire it to be understood
that we claim as secured to us under the above in part recited Letters
Patent,-

page_text: Firstly, the use of solutions of metals or earths in acids combined with
solutions of the same in alkalis for the purpose above set forth, and also the
application of pigments arising therefrom, to the purpose of printing.
Secondly, the use of acetate of potash, soda, or ammonia, as a mordaunt...
Thirdly, the use of acetate or subacetate of lead for treating the goods
after they have been printed or dyed with murexide or other colouring matter
derived from uric acid.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Stevenson Macdonald, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
WILLIAM STEVENSON MACDONALD. (L.S.)