A NEW OR IMPROVED MODE OR PROCESS OF IMPARTING METALLIC LUSTRE TO FILAMENTOUS AND TEXTILE MATERIALS
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Clayton Mewburn, of 169, Fleet Street, in the City
of London, Patent Agent and Consulting Engineer, for the Invention of "A
NEW OR IMPROVED MODE OR PROCESS OF IMPARTING METALLIC LUSTRE TO
FILAMENTOUS AND TEXTILE MATERIALS." A communication from abroad by
Alcide François Poirrier, Manufacturer, and Daniel Auguste Rosenstiehl,
Chemist. both of Paris, France.
Sealed the 13th May 1879, and dated the 16th December 1878.
Sealed the 13th May 1879, and dated the 16th December 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Clayton Mewburn at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th December 1878.
JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN, of 169, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent and Consulting Engineer. "A NEW OR IMPROVED MODE OR PROCESS OF
IMPARTING METALLIC LUSTRE TO FILAMENTOUS AND TEXTILE MATERIALS." [A
communication from abroad by Alcide François Poirrier, Manufacturer, and Daniel
Auguste Rosenstiehl, Chemist, both of Paris, France.]
This Invention consists essentially in covering textile or filamentous materials
with a sulphide which itself possesses the metallic lustre desired. The textile or
filamentous material is damped by dipping or otherwise with a liquor containing in
solution one or more metallic salts. It is then exposed in an atmosphere containing
sulphuretted hydrogen. According to the effect desired, the material is previously
The metallic salt which covers the
dried, or it is left to a certain extent moist.
material becomes sulphuretted and assumes the metallic lustre due to it.

page_text: By way of example, I will explain how metallic lustre may be imparted to silk.
The silk is impregnated with a solution containing 20 per cent. of acetate of lead.
It is afterwards exposed to the air to allow a part of the solvent to evaporate.
Before it is quite dry the silk is suspended in a box, at the bottom of which either
there is a sulphide or sulphuret, which is decomposable in the air, slowly giving off
sulphuretted hydrogen, or there is an orifice by which this gas enters ready prepared.
The operations are repeated if thought necessary.
The process or mode of treatment is applicable to textile materials in the state of
threads or fabrics, to hair, feathers, and generally to filamentous materials of vegetable
or animal origin.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Clayton Mewburn in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th May 1879.
JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN, of 169, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent and Consulting Engineer. "A NEW OR IMPROVED MODE OR PROCESS OF
IMPARTING METALLIC LUSTRE TO FILAMENTOUS AND TEXTILE MATERIALS." (A
communication from abroad by Alcide François Poirrier, Manufacturer, and Daniel
Auguste Rosenstiehl, Chemist, both of Paris, France.)
This Invention consists essentially in covering textile or filamentous materials
with a sulphide which itself possesses the metallic lustre desired. The textile or
filamentous material is damped by dipping, printing, or otherwise with a liquor
containing in solution one or more metallic salts. It is then exposed in an atmos-
phere containing sulphuretted hydrogen. According to the effect desired, the
material is previously dried, or it is left to a certain extent moist. The metallic
salt which covers the material becomes sulphuretted and assumes the metallic lustre
due to it.
By way of example, I will explain how metallic lustre may be imparted to silk.
The silk is impregnated with a solution containing 20 per cent. of acetate of lead.
It is afterwards exposed to the air to allow a part of the solvent to evaporate.
Before it is quite dry the silk is suspended in a box, at the bottom of which either
there is a sulphide or sulphuret, which is decomposable in the air, slowly giving off
sulphuretted hydrogen, or there is an orifice by which this gas enters ready prepared.
The operations are repeated if thought necessary.
The process or mode of treatment is applicable to textile materials in the state of
threads or fabrics, to hair, feathers, and generally to filamentous materials of vegetable
or animal origin.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,―
The mode or process hereinbefore described of imparting metallic lustre to fila-
mentous and textile materials, the said mode or process consisting essentially in
covering the materials with a sulphide by the decomposition of one or more metallic
salts in the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen, substantially as explained.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Clayton Mewburn, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty ninth day of May, One thousand eight hundred
and seventy nine.
J. C. MEWBURN. (L.S.)