IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING CERTAIN COLOURS ON COTTON FABRICS AND YARNS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Albert Gatty, of Accrington, in the
County of Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING CERTAIN COLOURS ON COTTON FABRICS AND
YARNS."
Sealed the 15th November 1872, and dated the 11th September 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Albert Gatty
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 11th September 1872.
I, FREDERICK ALBERT GATTY, of Accrington, in the County of
Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING CERTAIN COLOURS ON COTTON
FABRICS AND YARNS," to be as follows:-
:-
My improvements apply. to cotton fabrics and yarns printed, padded,
or otherwise prepared with aluminous mordants for dyeing red colours
with madder, garancine, extracts of madder, artificial alizarine, or other
substitutes of madder.

page_text: In place of using cowdung or any known dung substitute for the
operation commonly called dunging I use solutions of soap or solutions
of fatty acids, or resins combined with soda, potash, or ammonia, or their
respective carbonates, or emulsions of oils, or the waste soap liquors of
calico printers and Turkey red dyers.
The object of using the ingredients named above in lieu of cowdung
or dung substitutes is to combine a certain quantity of fatty resinous
matter with the mordant in order to obtain brighter colours; and the
proportions which I have found advantageous should be from two to
three ounces of soap to one gallon of water, or an equivalent quantity
of any of the other ingredients named above. The proportions may,
however be varied according to the shade required.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Albert Gatty in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 11th March 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
ALBERT GATTY, of Accrington, in the County of Lancaster, Manu-
facturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Frederick Albert Gatty, Her special
licence that I, the said Frederick Albert Gatty, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick Albert Gatty,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and 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 PRODUCING CERTAIN COLOURS ON COTTON FABRICS AND YARNS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick Albert Gatty, 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

page_text: 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 Frederick Albert Gatty, 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 (that is to say) :-
My improvements apply to cotton fabrics and yarns printed, padded,
or otherwise prepared with aluminous mordants for dyeing red colours
with madder, garancine, extracts of madder, artificial alizarine, or other
substitutes of madder.
In place of using cowdung or any known dung substitute for the
operation commonly called dunging or cleansing I use solutions of soap,
or solutions of fatty acids, or resins combined with soda, potash, or
ammonia, or their respective carbonates, or emulsions of oils, or the
waste soap liquors of calico printers and Turkey red dyers.
The object of using the ingredients named above in lieu of cowdung
or dung substitutes is to combine a certain quantity of fatty resinous
matter with the mordant in order to obtain brighter colours. It has
hitherto been the practice to combine fatty acids with cotton fabrics and
yarns in various ways before applying the mordant, but by my Invention
the cloth or yarn is first printed or otherwise prepared with the mordant
and the fatty acid is combined therewith afterwards.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and carried
into effect I will describe how I perform the same.
The cotton fabrics are printed or padded in the usual way with an
aluminous mordant. I prefer to use the acetate of alumina, commonly
called red liquor. For printing it is thickened as is generally done, and
for padding it is used in the liquid state; the strength of the mordant
depends upon the depth of colour required. I find that a mordant of
ten degrees of Twaddle's bydrometer gives a good medium red. Two or
three days after printing or padding the cotton fabrics are passed through
a solution of a neutral soap or an emulsion contained in two cisterns, as
will be described hereafter. The first cistern is fitted up with rollers,
and the second with a wince, similar to those used by calico printers, for
the operation commonly called dunging or cleansing. Into the first

page_text: cistern containing from three hundred to four hundred gallons of water,
at one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty degrees of Fahren-.
heit's thermometer, I put for every one hundred gallons of water six
gallons of neutral soap, prepared by dissolving fifty pounds of soap in
ten gallons of water, to which I add an acid to neutralize part of the alkali
of the soap, which if left in the solution would act very injuriously upon
the mordant; the quantity of acid required depends upon the quality of
soap. I add acid to the soap until a small quantity of it put into distilled
water gives a milky solution. I find that one pound of muriatic acid of
commerce, or its equivalent of sulphuric acid, is about the quantity
required for ten pounds of good oil soap.
In place of neutralizing the soap with muriatic or sulphuric acid a
fatty acid may be used, or a mixture of fatty acids such as is obtained
when oils or other fats are saponified. In this case I add for every
pound of fatty acid three pounds of water to the solution of soap. Oils,
fats, or resin in their natural state will to a certain extent answer the
purpose, but I prefer to use saponified oils or fats. I give preference to
oils or fats saponified with an alkali, or with superheated or high pressure
steam to those saponified with mineral acids or oxidising agents.
.
In place of the neutral soap I sometimes use an emulsion made with
fatty acids or saponified oils or fats, and an alkali or alkaline carbonate,
such as soda, potash, ammonia, or their carbonates. I find the most
suitable proportions to be as follows:-I mix ten pounds of a fatty acid,
or of a saponified oil or fat, with two pounds of carbonate of soda and
three gallons of water.
The emulsion containing the same quantity of fatty acids as the
neutral soap described above may be used in the same proportions. In
place of carbonate of soda its equivalent of potash, ammonia, or their
carbonates may be used.
Into the second cistern I put the same proportion of neutral soap or
emulsion as in the first, but this is only necessary for the beginning, for
when the operation is going on the liquor carried by the fabrics from
the first cistern into the second is sufficient to keep up the necessary
strength. The cotton fabrics are pulled over the rollers through the first
cistern, and from there they go into the second, where they are kept
running over the wince for about fifteen minutes. The temperature of
the solution in the second cistern is from one hundred and forty to one

page_text: hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit. The first cistern is kept full by
a constant supply of neutral soap solution running into it while the.
fabrics are going through it. After the fabrics have come out of the
soap or emulsion they are well washed in cold water, and are then ready
for dyeing with madder, garancine, artificial alizarine, or other sub-
stitutes of madder in the usual way, well understood by printers and
dyers.
After the dyeing the cotton fabrics are cleared and brightened with
soap, or soap and a salt of tin, according to the colour required, as is
well understood by dyers and calico printers.
If the red is not required to be very bright the fabrics after coming
out of the dyeing may simply be washed and passed through a weak
solution of chloride of lime to restore the white in the printed fabrics.
When I use the waste soap liquors of calico printers and dyers they
sometimes contain less soap than is necessary for my purpose; in that
casc I add a certain quantity of the neutral soap or emulsion, above
described, to bring the solution up to the necessary strength, as stated
above. There is generally no excess of alkali in the waste soap liquors,
but should there be I add an acid, as in the case of preparing the neutral
soap described above.
I may mention here that an excess or large quantity of neutral soap
or emulsion when carefully prepared does not injure the mordant; but
I use weak solutions on account of economy.
In applying my Invention to cotton yarns I use the same mordant at
ten degrees of Twaddle's hydrometer for a medium red, and the same
neutral soap or emulsion as described above for cotton fabrics; the
process only differs in the manipulation or mechanical part. The yarns
may be printed with a thickened mordant, or steeped into it in the liquid
state, and the excess squeezed or wrung out.
In both cases the yarns
are dried, and two or three days after I steep them in a solution of
neutral soap or emulsion of the same strength and temperature as that
described for cotton fabrics. In this solution the yarns are handled
or mechanically moved about for about fifteen or twenty minutes; they
are then taken out and well washed in cold water, when they are ready
for dyeing with the same dye materials as the fabrics, in the usual way
yarns are generally dyed. After washing they are cleared and brightened

page_text: with soap, or soap and a salt of tin, in the usual way, well understood
by dyers.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and how I perform
the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself to the
particulars above described, as they may be varied; and I claim as my
Invention, the use of neutral soap or emulsions of fatty acids, or of oils
or fats, either saponified or in their natural state, or the two combined,
for the operation commonly called dunging or cleansing, in the manner
and for the purposes described.