A NEW PROCESS on DenmarNG & RING DE OR COLOURING MATTER
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Smith Dixon, residing at Belliśle, in the
County of Ayr, Scotland, Esquire, for the Invention of "A NEW PROCESS
on DenmarNG & RING DE OR COLOURING MATTER
Sealed the 17th April 1868, and dated the 31st October. 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Smith Dixon
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 31st October 1867.
I, WILLIAM SMITH DIXON, residing at Bellisle, in the County of Ayr, Scot-
land, Esquire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inveution for "A NEW
PROCESS OF PRODUCING A BLUE DYE OR COLOURING MATTER," to be as follows:-
It consists in the admixture of a saturated solution of yellow prussiate of
potash and a reddish coloured liquor produced by the action of rain and
atmospheric influence on a mineral called maggie exposed in heaps or by
other equivalent action. The mineral is found in the lower carbonacious
stratification of the counties of Linlithgow, Mid Lothian, and Lanark, and other
places in Scotland and elsewhere, and is thrown out as waste in working slaty
band ironstone, by which admixture a precipitate is obtained which by
filtration or evaporation, or by both of these means, leaves a residuum; this
residuum is made available as a dye or blue colouring matter possessing the
qualities and properties of a substance or article of trade commonly called

page_text: Prussian blue, which residuum is also available for other manufacturing and
artistic purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Smith Dixon in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th April 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SMITH DIXON, of Bellisle, in the County of Ayr, Scotland, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Smith Dixon, Her special licence that I, the said William
Smith Dixon, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Smith Dixon, 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 "A NEW
PROCESS OF PRODUCING A BLUE DYE OR COLOURING MATTER," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Smith Dixon, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 William Smith Dixon, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
In the lower carbonaceous stratification of the counties of Mid Lothian,
Linlithgow, and Lanark, in Scotland and elsewhere, and in working what is
called slaty band ironstone, there is found and thrown out as waste, and
exposed in heaps, a certain mineral or substance commonly called in such
counties "maggie," from which heaps and by the action of rain and atmospheric

page_text: influence thereon there proceeds or flows a reddish liquid which contains more
or less of the following, that is to say:-
Sulphate of aluminum
Sulphate of iron (proto)
Sulphate of iron (per)
-
873 01 grains per gallon.
484.22
"
"
-
3742 10
"
"
Sulphate of lime
Sulphate of magnesia
Chloride of sodium
73.27
"
"
74.22
دو
"
3.37
"
Suspended
matter.
Carbonaceous matter
-
2:13
"
Carbonate of iron
8.93
"
Total -5261.25
My Invention consists in the employment of a process of treating the
above-mentioned reddish liquid by mixing therewith a saturated solution of
yellow prussiate of potash or its equivalent, and obtaining a dye or blue
colouring matter which may be used for various purposes.
I take of the said liquor or fluid and add to and mix therewith a saturated
solution of yellow prussiate of potash or its equivalent in such quantity or
proportion as will form a precipitate; this quantity or proportion may be
varied, but the requisite proportion will be easily ascertained by persons
acquainted with processes of a similar character, and will be found in practice
to depend upon the condition of the liquid at the time. In ordinary circum-
stances the quantity or proportion of the said prussiate of potash to one gallon
of said liquid would be about half a pound of the prussiate of potash in a dry
state made into a saturated solution to a gallon of the liquid; I then filter or
evaporate by ordinary processes until a residuum or dry substance or body is
left. The residuum body or substance so left is a blue dye or blue colouring
matter resembling and having the properties of an article of commerce known
as Prussian blue, available for the purposes for which Prussian blue is
ordinarily used and for manufacturing and artistic purposes.
In carrying out my Invention it is not necessary that the liquid treated by
the process above described should contain or hold in solution the several
substances in the particular proportions before set forth, or that the proportion
of prussiate of potash should be confined to the quantity above mentioned;
nor is it a condition of such Invention that the mineral or substance before
described should be thrown out in working slaty band ironstone or any other
substance. It is sufficient that this and other minerals of a similar character
consists
ocess treating thе
above-mentioned reddish liquid by mixing therewith a saturated solution of
yellow prussiate of potash or its equivalent, and obtaining a dye or blue
colouring matter which may be used for various purposes.
I take of the said liquor or fluid and add to and mix therewith a saturated
solution of yellow prussiate of potash or its equivalent in such quantity or
proportion as will form a precipitate; this quantity or proportion may be
varied, but the requisite proportion will be easily ascertained by persons
acquainted with processes of a similar character, and will be found in practice
to depend upon the condition of the liquid at the time. In ordinary circum-
stances the quantity or proportion of the said prussiate of potash to one gallon
of said liquid would be about half a pound of the prussiate of potash in a dry
state made into a saturated solution to a gallon of the liquid; I then filter or
evaporate by ordinary processes until a residuum or dry substance or body is
left. The residuum body or substance so left is a blue dye or blue colouring
matter resembling and having the properties of an article of commerce known
as Prussian blue, available for the purposes for which Prussian blue is
ordinarily used and for manufacturing and artistic purposes.
In carrying out my Invention it is not necessary that the liquid treated by
the process above described should contain or hold in solution the several
substances in the particular proportions before set forth, or that the proportion
of prussiate of potash should be confined to the quantity above mentioned;
nor is it a condition of such Invention that the mineral or substance before
described should be thrown out in working slaty band ironstone or any other
substance. It is sufficient that this and other minerals of a similar character

page_text: to that above described and brought under the action of water and atmospheric
air may be operated upon to produce the residuum colouring matter in the
manner above described.
Having particularly described my Invention, and the manner in which it is
to be performed, I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise details and proportions herein-before set forth, as the
same may be modified, without departing from my Invention; but, what
I claim is, the production of a dye or colouring matter that may be used in
the place of Prussian blue for various manufacturing and artistic purposes
from the substance or substances above mentioned or their equivalents, in the
manner herein described.
In witness whereof, I; the said William Smith Dixon, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight bundred and sixty-eight.
WILLIAM SMITH DIXON. (L.S.).