IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING AND PRINTING
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Laing, of No. 80, George Street, in the City
of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Drysalter, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING AND PRINTING."-A communication from
abroad by Nicholas Rave, ainé, of Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium,,
Dyer.
Sealed the 2nd October 1868, and dated the 18th July 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Laing at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th
July 1863.
I, JAMES LAING, of No. 80, George Street, in the City of Manchester, in
the County of Lancaster, Drysalter, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING AND PRINTING," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the use of oleic, stearic, margaric, linoleic, benic,
margaritic, ricinic, palmitic, laurostearic, or any other analogous fixed fatty
acid, combined with ammonia as a mordant or fixing agent, to be employed
in dyeing and printing threads and textile fabrics, and with or without an
admixture of glycerine, and which may be applied either alone or together
with other mordants and fixing agents now in use in printing and dyeing.
The proportions I have found suitable are one of oleic, or any other analogous
fixed fatty acid, one of the ordinary liquid ammonia of commerce, and one of
water by measure, but I do not confine myself to these quantities.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Laing in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
18th January 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
LAING, of No. 80, George Street, in City of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Drysalter, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Ierself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Laing, Her special license that I, the said James Laing, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Laing, my 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING
AND PRINTING," a communication to me from abroad by Nicolas Rave, ainé,
of Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Dyer, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said James Laing, 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 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 James Laing, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
My Invention consists in the use of oleic, stearic, margaric, linoleic, benic,
margaritic, ricinic, palmitic, laurostearic, or any other analogous fixed fatty acid,
combined with ammonia as a mordant or fixing agent, to be employed in
dyeing and painting threads and textile fabrics, and with or without an admix-
ture of glycerine, and which may be applied either alone or together with
other mordants and fixing agents now in use in printing and dyeing. I make
use of the oleic acid of commerce, or of any other of the analogous fatty acids
before enumerated, but prefer oleic acid, on account of its cheapness. I
also use the liquor ammonia of commerce; and I prefer to make the mordant

page_text: by taking ten gallons of the oleic acid, ten gallons of the liquor ammonia of
commerce of the usual strength, and ten gallons of warm water, and stir these
ingredients up together, in a tub or other suitable vessel, until they are all
combined or blended together into a homogenous paste, which constitutes the
mordant. These proportions may be varied without altering the character of
the mordant, as practical dyers and calico printers will well understand.
In employing the combination of oleic acid and ammonia, which I shall
designate by the name of oleate of ammonia, for dyeing, I prefer to make a
solution of it in clear warm water at the rate of one pound of the oleate of
ammonia to each gallon of water, more or less, according to the depth.or
quality of colour which it is intended to dye. The goods to be mordanted are
steeped, padded, immersed, or otherwise thoroughly saturated with the mixture
of the mordant and water, and afterwards the excess is expressed out by any
of the ordinary methods well known to dyers and printers. In order to cause
the mordant to adhere to the fibre, the threads or textile fabrics so saturated
with the mordant are dried or exposed to heat, by which the ammonia or a
portion of it becomes expelled from the oleate of ammonia, and the oleic acid
or some compound of it remains attached to the fibre. The mordant may also
be further fixed with or without drying by causing the mordanted goods to be
put into contact with acids or with acid salts, as is well understood in the arts.
of dyeing printing. After the mordant has been fixed, as above detailed,
upon the threads or textile fabrics, the dyeing is then proceeded with in the
ordinary manner well known to all engaged in the trade; or before proceeding
with the dyeing the goods may be passed in water to remove any excess of
mordant adhering to them. After the dyeing the goods are finished in the
way common to the particular shades dyed, and the nature of the threads or
textile fabrics. The oleate of ammonia mordant may not only be used as a
mordant by itself, but also in conjunction with the other mordants or fixing
agents known or commonly used in the trade; it may be applied separately
either before or after the common mordant, and when the common. mordant
is of such a nature as to be capable of being mixed with the oleate of
ammonia mordant they may be applied together at one operation, and the
threads or textile fabrics then dyed in the usual way. In applying this new
mordant for the purposes of printing I use it in three ways; firstly, I prepare
the threads or textile fabrics by passing them, by means of proper apparatus
well known in the trade, through a solution of the mordant made iii water,
and then drying them; or the mordant may be thickened with gums or other
matters used by calico printers, and may be then printed on the threads or
textile fabrics in the way that the common mordants employed by calico

page_text: printers are now applied, and such mordanted threads or textile fabrics may
be afterwards dyed in suitable colouring matters, as is well understood by
printers and dyers; or, secondly, I mix the mordant with suitable thickening,
and with the colour to be printed upon the threads or textile fabrics, and then
print this mixture in the usual way; or, thirdly, I pass the threads or textile
fabrics, after they have been printed with the colours or mordants in the
ordinary way, through a solution made by dissolving this mordant .in water.
The oleate of ammonia mordant may be used either separately or in conjunc-
tion with any of the ordinary mordants or fixing agents employed in preparing
threads or textile fabrics for printing or in fixing colours for printing.
In employing the combination of ammonia and a fatty acid as a substitute
for albumen or lactarine for fixing pigment colours I proceed as follows:-I
obtain the fatty acids from linseed oil, nut oil, poppy oil, or any other of those
oils well known to practical men as drying oils, and I prefer the fatty acid of
-linseed oil or linoleic acid as most suitable for my purpose. I expose the
linoleic acid, or fatty acid or acids from linseed oil to heat for a long period,
until through the action of heat it has become thickened, so that when cold
it may have the consistence of butter, or even the heat may be continued
until the linoleic acid when cold will be as hard as wax. This boiled or
thickened linoleic acid is then combined with ammonia by stirring and
working until it yields a homogenous paste, which I call linoleate of aminonia,
and which I use as a substitute for albumen and lactarine. Instead of
ordinary linoleic acid, I also prepare linoleic acid from the boiled linseed oil
of commerce, and such linoleic acid may be used without any further boiling
to form a combination with ammonia, which can be used as a substitute for
albumen and lactarine; or this linoleic acid may be boiled further to increase
its drying properties, and the way I apply either of these compounds is as
follows: I take the pigment matter required to be fixed and mix it inti-
mately with the linoleate of ammonia, and either dilute the mixture with
ammonia until it is of a proper consistency to be applied by the usual printing
apparatus, or mix it with mucilage of gum or starch until a suitable degree
of thickness is attained. When the mixture is printed the cloth is left
exposed to the action of the air for two or three days or more, until the colour
is fixed. This end may be hastened by hanging in a warm room, and by
steaming in the usual way.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be under-
stood that I claim the use of the fatty acids above named, either with or
without the admixture of glycerine, combined with ammonia, as mordants or

page_text: fixing agents in dyeing and printing threads and textile fabrics. I am aware
that oils have long been used in dyeing and printing in various ways; but I
simply claim the use of such fatty acids in combination with ammonia as a
destructive or adjunctive mordant or fixing agent in dyeing and printing
threads and textile fabrics in manner herein-before mentioned. I am aware
also that linseed oil and other drying oils in a boiled state have been used to
fasten pigment colours; but I claim the use of the acids of linseed oil, or of
any other drying fatty oil above named, combined with ammonia, as a com-
pound to fasten pigment colours or threads and textile fabrics in manner
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Laing, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
JAMES LAING. (L.8.)