IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZE OR IN PREPARATIONS TO BE USED IN THE STIFFENING, DRESSING, DYEING, OR FINISHING OF YARNS, WOVEN FABRICS, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Casthelaz, of Crumpsall Chemical Works,
near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, at present residing in
Paris, in France, Manufacturing Chemist, and Charles Depoully,
of Paris, in France, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SIZE OR IN PREPARATIONS TO BE USED IN THE STIFFENING, DRESSING,
DYEING, OR FINISHING OF YARNS, WOVEN FABRICS, AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS."
Scaled the 10th November 1871, and dated the 19th July 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Casthelaz and
Charles Depoully at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 19th July 1871.
We, JOHN CASTHELAZ, of Crumpsall Chemical Works, near Man-
chester, in the County of Lancaster, at present residing in Paris,
in France, Manufacturing Chemist, and CHARLES DEPOULLY, of Paris,
in France, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZE OR IN PREPARATIONS TO BE USED IN THE STIFFENING,

page_text: DRESSING, DYEING, OR FINISHING OF YARNS, WOVEN FABRICS, AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS," to be as follows:--
Size of the ordinary descriptions as used in the dressing, stiffening,
or finishing of yarns, warps, tissues, fabrics, and fibrous bodies or
materials has hitherto been composed principally of farinaceous or
other substances liable under certain conditions to ferment or to become
decomposed or to generate mildew, the goods or materials treated with
the size being thereby injured or lessened in value, besides which such
size is chiefly applicable to inferior classes of goods.
The preparations made in accordance with our Invention are applicable
to all classes of goods, are not acted upon by washing in water, will
not ferment nor generate mildew, and may be employed to fix coloring
matters in the goods. To make the said preparations suitable for the
various purposes we form aqueous solutions of shellac, gum copal, or
other resinous gum or gums, and linseed oil or other natural or prepared
drying oil or oils, by separately dissolving the said substances in diluted
ammonia, and we use the solutions so formed either separately or mixed
together in such combinations and proportions as may be suitable to
the different purposes for which the compounds may be required. The
solution or mixture of solutions so formed is or may be applied to the
goods in the ordinary manner, and the said goods are suitably dried,
the ammonia being thereby volatilized, the resinous substance or sub-
stances, or mixture of resinous substance or substances and oil remaining
in the goods, and adhering to every part of the fibres thereof. The
said preparations can be made of any tint or color by means of soluble
or insoluble dyes, which thus become fixed upon the goods, or the goods
may be subsequently dyed without the use of any mordant other than
the said size or preparations. A mixture of aqueous solutions containing
fifty parts of shellac, thirty parts of gum copal, and twenty parts of
linseed oil gives a good consistency and a great elasticity to almost
'every kind of woven fabric or of yarns or other goods. To obtain greater
strength and stiffness a mixture containing fifty parts of shellac, forty-
five parts of gum copal, and five parts of linseed oil may be employed.
A mixture containing sixty parts of shellac and forty parts of gum
copal is suitable for fixing dyes in or upon goods, the said mixture
acting also as a size. The said preparations can be thinned with
water to any desired extent. Fabrics which have been treated with
the resinous preparations may be embossed or ornamented in the

page_text: ordinary way by means of engraved or suitably prepared plates or
rollers used in a heated state, and if metallic leaf or powder be inter-
posed between the said rollers or plates and the fabric, the said leaf
or powder will be caused to adhere to the fabric in all parts subjected
to the pressure of the said plates or rollers.
We would remark that we find it desirable to purify the shellac to
some extent, or to decolorise the same, or to employ bleached shellac,
according to the purpose for which the size or preparation is designed.
Known methods may be employed in the said purifying, but we have
found the addition of paraffine to the heated aqueous solution of shellac
to be suitable, the said paraffin collecting on the surface in combination
with a great portion of the impurities.
Commercial soda or other alkali may be substituted for the ammonia
herein-before mentioned, in which case it may be desirable to neutralize
or remove the said alkali from the goods by means of acid solutions
or by other meaus.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Castlelaz and Charles Depoully in the Great
Scal Patent Office on the 15th January 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
CASTHELAZ, of Crumpsall Chemical Works, near Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, at present residing in Paris, in France, Manufac-
turing Chemist, and CHARLES DEPOULLY, of Paris, in France, Chemist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said John Castlelaz and Charles Depoully,
Her special license that we, the said John Casthelaz and Charles
Depoully, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said John Casthclaz and Charles Depoully, 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

page_text: Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZE OR IN PREPARATIONS TO BE USED IN THE
STIFFENING, DRESSING, DYING, OR FINISHING OF YARNS, WOVEN FABRICS, AND
OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS," upon the condition, amongst others, that we,
the said John Casthelaz and Charles Depoully, 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 Charles Depoully, for myself and on
behalf of the said John Casthclaz, do hereby declare the nature of the
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 —
Size of the ordinary descriptions as used in the dressing, stiffening,
or finishing of yarns, warps, tissues, fabrics, and fibrous materials has
hitherto been composed principally of farinaceous or other substances
liable under certain conditions to ferment or to become decomposed,
or to generate mildew, the goods or materials treated with the size
being thereby injured or lessened in value, besides which such size is
chiefly applicable to inferior classes of goods.
The preparations made in accordance with our Invention are applicable
to all classes of goods, are not acted upon by washing in water, will
not ferment or generate mildew, and may be employed to fix coloring
matters in the goods. To make the said preparations suitable for the
various purposes we form aqueous solutions of shellac, gum copal, or
other resinous gum or gums, and of linseed oil or other natural or
prepared drying oil or oils, by separately dissolving the said substances
in dilute ammonia, and we use the solutions so formed either separately
or mixed together in such combinations and proportions as may be
suitable to the different purposes for which the compounds may be
required.
We will now proceed to describe the methods which we have found
most suitable when preparing the said solutions. The solution of shellac
may be prepared from the shellac when in its crude condition as when
imported, or after it has been subjected to a purifying or bleaching
process.

page_text: The bleaching or decoloration of the shellac may be effected by
dissolving the said shellac in water with the aid of carbonate of soda,
and by employing an ordinary decolorant, such as hypochlorite of soda,
but as the said shellac contains a wax the presence of which in the
size would injure the said size for many purposes we remove the said
wax from the alkaline solution by suitable means, as, for example, by
adding paraffine to the solution when hot. The said paraffine combines
with the said wax and collects in a solid mass on the surface of the
solution. When decolorized and purified we prefer to precipitate the
shellac from the solution in the form of a powder by adding a sufficient
quantity of muriatic acid to the said solution. The resultant precipitate
is then washed with cold water, and is in a form which renders it capable
of being readily dissolved in a solution of ammonia or other alkali.
Stick lac or seed lac may be decolorized and be treated in the same
manner as shellac, and may be used in lieu of shellac for all the purposes
herein set forth, but the lac being more pure when in the form of shellac
it is most convenient to use it in that form. We place the said pre-
cipitated shellac or ordinary bleached or unbleached shellac in a vessel
which can be closed, and we add to each one hundred parts of the
shellac four hundred parts of a mixture of water and concentrated liquid
ammonia, the weight of the said liquid ammonia being about twenty-five
per centum of the weight of the shellac. The vessel is then closed and
the contents are heated to a temperature of about 150 to 200 degrees
Fahrenheit, and are mechanically stirred until the shellac is completely
dissolved. The resultant solution will contain about twenty to twenty-
five per centum of useful matter. If unbleached or crude shellac has
been used it will be necessary to remove the aforesaid wax and other
impurities from the solution by means of paraffine or by other suitable
means, the said solution being further purified by filtration whilst
warm.
When preparing the solution of gum copal, Manilla gum, or other
resinous gum of the copal species, we employ similar proportions of
gum and ammonia as in the case of the shellac, and we dissolve the
said gum in a closed vessel with the aid of heat and agitation as afore-
said, but as the said gum is sufficiently colourless in its crude condition
the bleaching process is not required.
According to another method we reduce the gum to a powder and
macerate it for about twenty-four hours in strong ammonia at a

page_text: temperature of about 150 degrees Fahrenheit, the operation being by
preference conducted in a vessel capable of being closed. The gun
absorbs ammonia, and is reduced to a pasty consistency, and only requires
the addition of boiling water to effect its solution, the amount of water
added being regulated, according to the experience of the operator, to
suit the intended purpose for which the size is required. The solution
prepared by either process may be used after being strained through
a fine seive, the afore-mentioned treatment with paraffine not being
required in the case of the copal solution. When preparing the solution
of drying oil we make use of the oil of linseed, hempseed, poppy, or
of nut oil or of other suitable drying oil, or of oil rendered "siccative,"
or of mixtures of such oils, and we prefer to reduce such oil or oils to
the condition of fatty acid by the process of saponification, as, for
example, when we employ linseed oil we prefer to separate the "linoleic
acid from the said oil and to make use of the said acid. The said oils
are employed either in their crude or natural state, or after having
been "oxidised" or subjected to any suitable or ordinary process, such as
boiling or heating, in combination with metallic oxide, whereby their
drying properties are rendered more intense as is well understood.
The linseed oil or other oil or oils, whether crude or boiled or oxidised,
may be saponified by means of an excess of soda or lime, as, for example,
we employ about twelve parts of lime or forty parts of caustic soda
made into a solution marking 66 degrees Twaddel to each hundred
parts of oil, the mixture being boiled until the saponification is com-
plete. We then add sufficient muriatic or other suitable acid to separate
the linoleic or other fatty acid, which then floats on the surface of the
The said fatty acid is then removed or the said aqueous
aqueous fluid.
fluid is withdrawn, and the said fatty acid is washed with water. Fatty
acid so prepared retains the drying properties of the oil or oils from
which it has been prepared. When preparing a solution of the said
fatty acid we dissolve about one hundred parts of the said fatty acid
in about five hundred parts of a mixture of warm water and ammonia.
If the solution be effected in a closed vessel forty to fifty parts of
ammonia marking from 90 to 100 "test atoms," according to "Griffin's
table," will be required for the above-named quantity of fatty acid.
The proportions herein-before stated when describing the methods
of preparing the solutions are given as examples, but experience will
enable the operator to fix other proportions to suit the required strength
of size and the various uses for which it may be required.

page_text: We will now proceed to furnish examples of the purposes to which
the said solutions may be applied, and in the first place we may state
that a mixture of the three aqueous solutions containing about fifty parts
of shellac, thirty parts of gum copal, and twenty parts of drying oil or
drying fatty acid when used as a size is suitable for almost every de-
scription of yarn and woven fabric, and gives firmness to the yarn or
fabric without destroying its elasticity or resilience. Where greater
strength and stiffness are required the mixture may contain about fifty
parts of shellac, forty-five parts of gum copal, and five parts of drying.
oil or drying fatty acid.
A mixture containing sixty parts of shellac and forty parts of gum
copal is suitable to be used for fixing colors or dyes in or upon fabrics
or to act as a mordant, the said mixture also acting as a size. The
solutions may be mixed in other proportions than herein specified, or
other combinations of the said solutions may be used, and the said
solutions may be used in a concentrated state, or be "thinned" with
water to any required extent according to the purposes for which they
are required. The improved size is applied to the fabrics by padding
or in the same manner as ordinary size or in a suitable manner, and
the ammonia evaporating during the drying of the said fabrics, the
resinous matter or matters or the combined resinous and oleaginous
matters remains as a coating to the fibres of the said fabrics, the said
coating being more prominent than ordinary size for the reasons herein-
before set forth, and also for the reason that being waterproof the fabrics
may be washed and even bleached without removing or entirely dis-
charging the size. The fabric may receive two or more coatings or
applications of the size, care being taken to thoroughly dry the fabric
after each coating or application. The size may be tinted or colored
by the admixture therewith of soluble or insoluble dyes or pigments,
the size fixing the said dyes or pigments in or on the fabrics, or the
fabrics may be dyed with soluble or insoluble dyes or pigments and
be subsequently padded or treated with the size, the said size fastening
the dyes or pigments in or on the fabrics.
Lakes, analine colors, and pigments having a metallic base, such
as, for example, arsenate of copper or chromate of lead and earthy
pigments may be fixed in or on fabrics by either of the two methods
last mentioned, the aforesaid mixture of shellac and copal solutions
being suitable for this purpose. Fabrics which have been sized with

page_text: the said size or mixture of solutions, may be subsequently dyed, the size
acting as a mordant to fix the dye in the fabric, the said size having an
affinity for analine and many other dyes. After the fabric has been
sized we dry it thoroughly and treat it with a weak acid to remove all
traces of alkali, and after washing out the acid we dry the said fabric
in the ordinary or in a suitable manner. The action of the said size
as a mordant may be increased by the addition thereto of an earthy or
metallic mordant, care being taken that such mordant is not acid, as
the addition of an acid mordant to the size would have the effect of
decomposing the size, or in place of adding the mordant to the size
the fabric after having been sized may be run through a solution of a
mordant, as, for example, through a solution of one of the salts of
alumina, iron or tin. A double decomposition takes place and the
resinous matter or matters become chemically combined with the base
of the mordant.
Although when describing our methods of preparing the solutions of
shellac, copal, and oil or fatty acid I have only mentioned ammonia as
the alkali to be used, we do not intend to confine ourselves to the use
of ammonia for the purposes herein-before set forth, as other alkali, such
as, for example, commercial or caustic soda may be used for the said
purposes, but it then becomes necessary to remove or cause the removal
of the said alkali from the fabric after it has been sized. For this
purpose the fabric after having been sized or after each application of
size may be run through an acid solution, as, for example, through a
mixture of acetic acid and water, or through a solution of one of the
salts ordinarily employed as mordants, as herein-before mentioned when
referring to the size or solutions prepared with ammonia. When such a
solution is employed a double decomposition takes place, and the base
of the salt unites with the size in or on the fabric. The solution of the
shellac, resinous gum, and oil or fatty acid may be effected with the soda
or alkali other than ammonia in a similar manner as indicated when
describing the operations with ammonia, it being desirable to operate
in closed vessels with the aid of a moderate heat. Certain descriptions
of gum copal which are not readily dissolved in solutions of soda may
be mixed with solid "caustic hydrate of soda," and the mixture being
melted by the application of heat the said gum becomes soluble in
water. Fabrics which have been suitably treated with the size when
embossed by means of heated rollers or plates or other engraved surfaces

page_text: retain the impressions produced by the said rollers, plates, or surfaces,
and when metallic leaf or powder has been laid or sprinkled upon the
fabrics previously to the operation thereon of the said rollers, plates,
or surfaces the said leaf or. powder will adhere to the fabrics in all parts
where the patterns or designs formed on the said rollers, plates, or sur-
faces press on the said fabrics. Fabrics treated with the said size may
thus be printed with ornamental patterns in gold or metal without the
aid of any of the adhesive powders or substances ordinarily employed
for the purpose.
I would here remark that to avoid unnecessary repitition the words
"fabric" and "fabrics" have been used herein, but it must be under-
stood that in all or most cases the said terms must be read to include
warps, yarns, paper, leather, felt, and other goods or fibrous substances
or materials to which the size may be usefully applied for the objects
herein set forth and indicated.
Having now fully described the nature of our said Invention, and
our methods of carrying the same into practical effect, I would in
conclusion have it to be understood that we claim, as secured to us
by the herein-before mentioned Letters Patent, the manufacture and
employment of sizes or preparations substantially as and for the pur-
poses herein-before described, set forth, and indicated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Depoully, for myself and
on behalf of the said John Casthelaz, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Tenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
Signed and sealed by the said
Charles Depoully in the
presence of
EDWARD K. DUTTON,
Agent for the Patentees,
3, Smithy Door,
CHARLES DEPOULLY. (L.S.)
Manchester.