CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF PRINTING CLOTH MADE OF COTTON OR LINEN, OR BOTH
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
THOMSON, of Primrose Hill, near Clithero, in the County of Lancaster, Calico
Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth day of February,
in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said James
Thomson, my exors, admors, and assigns, His Majesty's especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James Thomson, my
exors, admors, and assigns, and every of them, by ourselves or by our deputy
or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said James Thomson,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, and exercise, and vend, within
that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF PRINTING CLOTH MADE OF COTTON
OR LINEN, OR BOTH;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said James Thomson, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and to cause the same to

page_text: be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in
and by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of and in compliance with the said
recited proviso, I, the said James Thomson, do hereby declare that the nature
of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
is as herein-after mentioned :-
The ordinary practice of calico printers is to apply with the block or pencil
what are termed after-colors to certain spaces originally left in their patterns,
and intended to receive the said after-colors, or to certain spaces on the cloth
from which parts of the original pattern have been discharged, in order to
admit, by a subsequent operation, the application of the said after-colors.
Now the object of my Invention is, by one application of the block, cylinder,
roller, plate, pencil, or other mode, to remove parts of the original pattern or
color from the cloth, and at the same time to deposit a metallic oxide or earthy
base which shall of itself be a color, or shall serve as a mordant to some color
to be produced as herein-after described.
First, mix or combine with the acid called oxymuriatic acid (or deplo-
gisticated acid of sea salt) and water the alkaline salts of potash or soda, or,
which is still better, calcareous earth or quicklime, in such proportion as will
weaken or suspend the power of the said acid, so that it shall not in such
mixed or combined state, of itself and without any further operation, be able to
remove or materially to impair the colors within the moderate space of time
taken up in the performance of the process.
Secondly, print, stamp, pencil, or otherwise apply to those parts of the
cloth which are intended to be deprived of one color and to receive another, a
solution of some earthy or metalic salt, the acid of which, having a greater
affinity or attraction for the alkaline salt or earth with which the oxymuriatic
acid is mixed or combined than that acid itself possesses, will disengage it, and
the metallic or earthy base of which, being deposited in the cloth, will either
of itself be a color, or serve as a mordant to some other color to be produced
as herein-after described.
Thirdly, after the metallic or earthy solution aforesaid as been printed,
stamped, pencilled, or otherwise applied to the cloth as before directed, and is
sufficiently dry, immerse the cloth in the solution of oxymuriatic acid combined
with the alkaline salt of potash or soda, or, which I greatly prefer, with
calcareous earth or lime, when the acid of the metallic or earthy solution
which has been applied to parts of the cloth, will immediately seize upan

page_text: and combine with the alkaline salt or earth with which the oxymuriatic.
acid has been mixed or combined, and disengage that acid, which will almost
instantaneously deprive of their color those parts of the cloth to which the said
earthy or metallic salt has been applied.
Fourthly, wash or otherwise remove the said acids or salts by the usual
processes; and when the earthy or metallic base deposited in the cloth is
intended to receive another color, proceed to raise it by the usual operations of
dyeing, as will be further illustrated in the examples hereafter given of par-
ticular applications of this Invention. The earthy solutions which I apply to
the parts intended to be deprived of their color and to receive another are, the
solutions of alumine or earth of alum in acids, such, for example, as the
sulphate of alumine or common alum, the acetate of alumine, or the nitrate or
muriate of alumine. The metallic solutions which I employ are, the sulphate
of iron or copperas, the nitrate or muriate or acetate of iron, the muriate of
tin, or nitro-muriate of tin. The sulpate of copper or blue vitriol, or the nitrate,
muriate, or acetate of copper, all acids that form soluble compounds with the
before-named metals, or the earth of alum, may be employed; but. those only
which form the most soluble compounds, such, for example, as those enume-
rated above, can be employed with advantage.
For the more full and complete understanding of the principle laid down in
the preceding part of this Specification, I subjoin the following practical
illustration of its application to various kinds of work. If I desire to have a
yellow figure or stripe on the cloth upon which a madder red ground or pattern
has been printed, after having, by the ordinary processes of calico printing,
produced the red ground or pattern, I first print, stamp, pencil, or otherwise
apply to those parts intended to be yellow a strong aluminous mordant, com-
posed of three pounds of sugar of lead and six pounds of alum, dissolved in a
gallon of water, and thickened with a due proportion of calcined starch, in the
manner usually practised by calico printers.
Secondly, I prepare a solution of oxymuriate of lime either by dissolving
the dry oxymuriate of lime (commonly called bleaching powder, or bleaching
salts) in water, or by passing the oxymuriatic acid gas into a vat, vessel, or
cistern, in which, by agitation or otherwise, I keep suspended such quantity of
quicklime as will more than saturate fully and completely the said oxymuriatic
acid gas. In either way I obtain a solution of oxymuriate of lime with excess
of lime. That which I use and prefer is of the specific gravity one thousand and
fifty, and I seldom employ it lower than one thousand and thirty (water being
considered as one thousand). The vat, vessel, or cistern which contains the
solution of oxymuriate of lime in which I immerse the cloth may be of any

page_text: size or form best adapted to the purpose or situation. I use and prefer vessels
of stone, of from six to eight feet deep, six to seven feet long, and three and a
half to four feet broad, but larger or smaller vessels will answer very well.
Thirdly, when the cloth is ready for immersion, which it is as soon as the
paste is dry, I hook it on a frame such as is used in drying indigo or China
blues, commonly called a dipping frame, on which the cloth should be so
disposed that no two folds can touch each other; I then plunge the frame
with the cloth so attached into the vat containing the solution of oxymuriate
of lime, and keep it gently in motion during the time of immersion, which
rarely need exceed five minutes, the object being to remove the red dye
from certain parts or places. As soon as that is done the cloth should be with-
drawn from the solution of the oxymuriate of lime, and plunged into or rinsed
in cold water. I practise and approve the aforesaid plan of immersion, but any
other plan or plans by which the cloth can be exposed a greater or less time
to the action of the oxymuriate of lime without bringing one part of the said
cloth into contact with another, will answer very well.
Lastly, after having, as before directed, rinsed or washed the cloth in clean
water, I free it from all superfluous remains of the different substances
employed by the ordinary means of washing, dunging, and cleansing, as
practised by calico printers, after which I dye the cloth, and raise the yellow
in the usual way with quercitron bark, or any other yellow dye. If instead of
yellow it be proposed to have a buff pattern or figure, I add to the aluminous
mordant, prepared and thickened as above described, one fourth or one sixth,
or some intermediate proportion of a solution of nitrate of iron, and proceed to
print, and immerse in oxymuriate of lime, as in the former case.
The red dye
will be removed as before, and its place be occupied by a buff. If the buff be
raised in quercitron bark, an olive will be obtained. By printing at separate
times and in different parts of the cloth each of the above-mentioned mordants,
both yellow and olive figures on a red ground may be obtained. Similar
effects, with trifling variations, take place when instead of red grounds purple
or chocolate grounds are employed; but it must be observed, that these colors
being produced for mordants consisting wholly or in part of solutions of iron,
and the oxide of that metal not being removeable by the process detailed in this
Specification, the after-colors produced will be modified more or less by the
said oxide of iron.
The foregoing examples are given for the more fully explanation of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed; but the
Invention whereof I claim the sole and exclusive use consists in printing,
stamping, pencilling, or otherwise applying to cloth previously printed and

page_text: dyed, or dyed any other colors than Turkey-red, any of the earthy or metallic
solutions herein-before for that purpose directed, and immersing the whole
cloth in such mixture or combination of oxymuriatic acid and water with some
of the alkaline salts or earth as is herein directed for that purpose, so as
to remove the color or pattern from the parts so printed, stamped, pencilled,
or receiving such application, and by the same process fix on such parts either
a new color or a mordant for a new color.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Thomson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirtieth day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1815, the aforesaid James Thomson came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.