IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF VARNISH AND LACKER
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Cattell, of 30, Euston Square, in the County
of Middlesex, Doctor of Medicine, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF VARNISH AND LACKER."
Sealed the 29th November 1859, and dated the 16th June 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Cattell at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
June 1859.
I, THOMAS CATTELL, of 30, Euston Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF VARNISH AND LACKER," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
varnish and lacker, and consists in dissolving the gums or resinous bodies
usually employed in or suitable for the preparation of varnish and lacker in
solvents prepared by mixing alcohol, wood spirit, or methylated spirit with
coal tar naptha, or volatile hydrocarbons separated therefrom by distillation,
or with volatile hydrocarbons obtained by the destructive distillation of peat,
shale, and other bituminous matters.
In preparing the solvents, I prefer to distil the mixture of alcohol, wood
spirit, or methylated spirit and the volatile hydrocarbons employed.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Cattell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th December 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
CATTELL, of 30, Euston Square, in the County of Middlesex, Doctor of Medi-
cine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of June, 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 me, the said
Thomas Cattell, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Cattell, my
exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Cattell, 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,
excrcise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF VARNISH AND LACKER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Thomas Cattell, my 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 Thomas Cattell, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of varnish
and lacker, and consists in dissolving the gums or resinous bodies usually
employed in or suitable for the preparation of varnish and lacker in solvents
prepared by mixing alcohol, wood spirit, or methylated spirit, with coal tar
naptha, or volatile hydrocarbons separated therefrom by distillation or with
volatile hydrocarbons obtained by the destructive distillation of peat, shale, and
other bituminous matters.
In preparing the solvents I prefer to distil the mixture of alcohol, wood
spirit, or methylated spirit, and the volatile hydrocarbons employed.
And in order that the said Invention may be most fully understood and

page_text: readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the method in which I
prefer to proceed.
For perspicuity of description and reference the said operation is divided
into two stages.
1. The stage involving the preparation of the solvents.
But having regard to the chemical constitution of the agents hercin
employed and their practical bearing upon the objects of this Invention, it is
important to consider them under the denomination of the two classes
following, namely,
Class 1. The class of ethylated hydrocarbon solvents.
Class 2. The class of methylated hydrocarbon solvents.
In the preparation ethylated hydrocarbon solvents I employ on the
ground of economy "methylated spirit" in the place of pure alcohol. In the
preparation of methylated hydrocarbon solvents I employ pyroxylic spirit.
It is essential to the proper blending of the alcohol or pyroxylic spirit with
the volatile hydrocarbons specified that they be dehydrated as much as possible
before they are brought together. With this view, therefore, I expose the
ordinary alcohal "methylated spirit" or pyroxylic spirit of commerce to the
action of dry carbonate of potash and chloride of calcium in the proportion of
two ounces of each salt to a gallon of spirit for two or three days and after-
wards submit them to distillation. Alcohol, methylated spirit, and pyroxylic
spirit thus prepared will mix with the volatile hydrocarbons herein specified,
without producing but very slight if any opalescence.
The hydrocarbon which I prefer to employ is benzole ; it should be perfectly
clear and bright, and I mix it with the alcohol méthylated spirit or pyroxylic
spirit prepared as above described, by preference in equal proportions. In
place of benzole, rectified coal tar naptha may for economy be employed;
hydrocarbons obtained from peat, shale, or other bituminous substances in a
manner similar to that in which coal tar naptha is obtained from coal may also
be employed; I, however, recommend the use of benzole.
.
But further to determine a more fixed combination of the two liquids, I
distil them together, adding previous to the distillation seven ounces of caustic
lime and one ounce of dried carbonate of potash to each gallon of solvent:
When the distillation is complete the solvent is ready for use.
I would here remark that in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to
me on the 17th of February 1859, for the Invention of "Improvements in
Treating and Purifying Gutta Percha," a process is described producing a
by-product consisting of a mixture of alcohal, methylated spirit, or pyroxylic
spirit, and benzole, or coal tar naptha; this mixture, in order to obtain a solvent

page_text: suitable for varnish making, I digest for a day or two with occasional
over caustic lime seven ounces dried carbonate of potash, one ounc
gallon of fluid, and afterwards submit the same to distillation.
II. The stage involving the manufacture of varnish and lacker by
the two classes of solvents prepared in the manner herein-before descr
is to say:
1. THE PREPARATION OF VARNISH.
All gums or resinous bodies employed in or suitable for the manu
varnish are alike to a more or less extent available for this purpose.
I now proceed to give the composition of different varnishes prepa
solvents constituted as herein-before described.
1. The following is a carriage varnish :-
Copal
Amber
28 ounces.
8
وو
2. The following is for extern
Copal
Amber
-
2
-
Camphor
Ethylated hydrocar-
bon solvent
ounce.
->
1 gallon.
Animé
Camphor
Ethylated hydrocar-
bon solvent -
3. The following is a furniture varnish: 4. A picture varnish :-
Copal
-
Shellac (bleached) -
Olibanum
Camphor
Ethylated hydrocar-
bon solvent-
24 ounces.
8
Copal
Damar
"
4
5. A white hard varnish :-
Copal
Mastic
-
->
Sandarac
Camphor
وو
-
•
ounce.
Mastic
Ethylated hydrocar-
bon solvent-
6. A French Polish
Shellac
-
Ethylated hydrocar-
bon solvent-
-
1 gallon.
8 ounces.
16
33
4
"
ounce.
-
1 gallon.
32 ounces.
4
Ethylated hydrocar-
bon solvent-
7. Another French polish :-
Shellac -
Olibanum
Ethylated hydrocar-
2
1
3
8. A varnish for prints and
Mastic
Sandarac
1
-
1
Canada Balsam

page_text: THOMAS CATTELL. (L.S.)