A CERTAIN CHEMICAL COMBINATION FOR REPLACING INDICO WHITE CATTS (T'AIDERS
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ferdinand D'Albert, of No. 4, South Street,
Finsbury, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the
Invention of "A CERTAIN CHEMICAL COMBINATION FOR REPLACING
INDICO WHITE CATTS (T'AIDERS RIND
Sealed the 7th June 1853, and dated the 21st December 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ferdinand
D'Albert at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 21st December 1852.
I, FERDINAND D'ALBERT, of No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention for "A CERTAIN CHEMICAL COMBINATION FOR REPLACING
INDIGO, WHICH I CALL D'ALBERT BLUE,"" to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in combining, in several proportions,
sulphate of iron when reduced to the state of oxide, alum of
commerce, common resin, muriatic and sulphuric acids, hydro-
ferrocyanide of potash, lime water, tartrate of potash, muriate of
tin, Indian indigo dissolved in sulphuric acid at about 158° Fah-
renheit, and neutralised by potash, soda, or volatile alkali, arabic
gum, and clear water.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said Ferdinand D'Albert in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 21st June 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
FERDINAND D'ALBERT, of No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in
the sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Ferdinand D'Albert,
Her special licence that I, the said Ferdinand D'Albert, iny execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Ferdinand D'Albert, ny 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 CERTAIN CHEMICAL COMBINATION FOR
REPLACING INDIGO, WHICH I CALL 'D'ALBERT BLUE,"" upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Ferdinand D'Albert, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should parti-
cularly 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 Ferdinand D'Albert, 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 Invention consists in the manufacture of a coloring matter
applicable for dying, printing, and painting, in the following
manner I place in a vessel or receiver eighty parts, by weight,

page_text: of sulphate of iron, which I calcine with fifteen parts of alum, and
five parts of rosin, and pulverize and mix the whole together. The
mixture is then stirred, and heated to a white heat, until it becomes
liquid, when it will assume a whitish green hue; it is next allowed
-to cool, and when cold turns to a red color, and on being exposed
to the air becomes covered with a yellow efflorescence. I add to a
given weight of this mixture an equal weight of commercial con-
centrated sulphuric acid, and, after an interval of twenty-four hours,
I gradually add five times its weight of commercial concentrated
muriatic acid. I then add a quantity of clear rain water, double
the volume of the above mixture. This proportion of water may
be varied to some extent, the colour being, however, fainter, if much
water be added. I obtain from these ingredients a yellow solution,
which becomes limpid in twenty-four hours. I prepare another
solution, by dissolving ten parts, by weight, of hydro-ferro-cyanate
of potash, in ninety parts, by weight, of boiling water; this solution
becomes limpid in twenty-four hours. I mix equal volumes of
these two solutions; the mixture immediately assumes a blue color,
and thickens, and after being left in a state of repose for twenty-
four hours, the blue is precipitated. I pour off the supernatant
liquid, and wash the blue in clear rain water, so as to clean it, and
then leave it to subside. In about twenty-four days the bluc
subsides. I pour off the liquid, and place the precipitated blue on
a filter, and when thoroughly drained I collect it in the state of
paste. In this state blue as a coloring matter is produced, but it
is not soluble, nor would it constitute a fixed dye; it requires the
addition of a solvent to render it suitable for the purposes to which
it is to be applied. It has hitherto been the practice of dyers, or
others using coloring matters, to add a mordant at the very time
of employing the coloring matter; now, I prepare my blue
combined with a solvent which enables dyers to dispense with the
use of separate mordants.
I will now describe the means I employ for this purpose.
First, I dissolve the blue in an equal weight of sulpho-muriatic
acid, formed by mixing one volume of concentrated commercial

page_text: sulphuric acid with four volumes of concentrated inuriatic acid.
This solution turns green in twelve hours. I add ten times the
weight of clear rain water, whereupon the solution resumes a blue
color, in which state the blue is soluble in water. I neutralize the
acid by means of an alkali, preferring, however, ammoniacal gas;
wash the precipitate in pure water, strain off, and collect it in a
state of cake or paste. For the general purposes of dyeing and
printing, I prepare my blue as I have above described, but I add
other substances, according to the nature of the fabric, as follows:—
For dyeing woollens, I add to my blue sulphate of indigo of
commerce in proportions varying from a fourth to a third part of
the latter, according to the depth of colour required. I next
prepare a solution of gum arabic, and of oxalate of potash which
has been moistened with sulphuric acid formed by mixing equal
volumes of the oxalate and the gum with fifty volumes of water.
I add this solution to the blue paste in the proportion of twenty-
five per cent. to the weight of dry blue, and I add also powdered
tartrate of potash in the proportion of fifteen to twenty per cent. to
the weight of the dry blue.
For dyeing silk, I mix with my blue twenty-five per cent. of
alum; and if it be required to vary the shade of colour, I add
tartrate of potash, or cochineal of commerce, as dyers mix them
with the ordinary sulphate of indigo dye.
For dyeing cotton and flax, I mix with it white oxide of zinc, or
woad, as required, and in the proportion in which the indigo dyers
use them with indigo.
And for dyeing leathers, I add to it alum, carbonate and sub-
carbonate of lime, in small quantities, as is done with indigo.
For printing stuffs, gelatinous matters, gum arabic, and alum
should be added in the usual manner.
Paper may be dyed by my blue without addition of other sub-
stances.
My coloring matter, prepared as above described, is to be used in
a state of solution for the different purposes just mentioned; but
when employed for dyeing in baths, it should be used undissolved,

page_text: for which purpose I mix it with dyers' woad, in the proportion of
twenty per cent. woad to eighty per cent. blue. The color, when
applied, will be found to possess, among other advantages, brilliancy
and beauty of hue, tenacity equal to that of Indian indigo, and un-
equalled by any other blue hitherto manufactured.
My new coloring matter is applicable for painting, as well as for
dyeing, and may be distinguished from indigo by subjecting it to
the action of concentrated nitric acid, which would destroy indigo
blue; but my blue would not be destroyed thereby, but would only
assume a greenish tint, which would also be the case were it sub-
mitted to the contact of alcalis.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I declare that I do
not claim the exact proportions, as these may be varied; but I
claim, as of my Invention, the production of a coloring matter, in the
manner herein-before described, in so far as regards the following
parts of the process; that is to say, the obtaining oxide of iron at
the highest point of igneous oxidation, the combining this with
sulphuric and muriatic acids, and the mixing this compound
with hydro-ferro-cyanate of potash, so as to obtain a colouring
matter.
I also claim, as of my Invention, the combination of the coloring
matter herein-before described with sulphate of indigo, oxalate of
potash, and gum arabic, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ferdinand D'Albert, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Twentieth day of June, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
חחעזע "