IMPROVE- MENTS IN PRINTING AND DYEING TEXTILE FIBRES AND FABRICS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Crum, of Thornliebank, in the County of
Renfrew, Bleacher and Calico Printer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PRINTING AND DYEING TEXTILE FIBRES AND FABRICS."
ealed the 22nd July 1859, and dated the 23rd May 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Crum at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd May 1859.
I, WALTER CRUM, of Thornliebank, in the County of Renfrew, Bleacher and
Calico Printer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING AND DYEING TEXTILE FIBRES AND FABRICS," to be
as follows:
My Invention has for its object the employment of gluten as a mordant for
the impregnation of vegetable fibres and fabrics, and it consists in the preparing
and treating of gluten with potash or soda, or other alkaline substance in such
a manner as to render it fit for being applied to cotton and other vegetable
fibres and substances, and for acting as a mordant to or in conjunction with
colouring matters.
For the purposes of my Invention I prefer to use the gluten of wheat flour,
but I do not confine myself to that variety of gluten, as gluten prepared from
other grains or vegetable substances may be employed.
In preparing gluten from wheat flour, the method I prefer is to knead the
flour with water, as in the usual process of making bread, and from the dough

page_text: to remove the starch by washing with water in the usual way, whereby the
gluten is left in a tenacious mass. The gluten when prepared by this or any
other suitable process is afterwards treated with potash, soda, or other alkaline
substance. For example, when soda is used, I mix one part of a solution of
caustic soda at sixteen degrees of Twaddell with four parts of the gluten,
which is thereby rendered suitable for immediate application, either sepa-
rately or in conjunction with colouring matter. When used separately
the fabrics to which it is applied are first steamed and then dyed in the
usual way.
When used conjointly with coloouring substances, the preparation
of gluten and soda is mixed with the requisite proportion of the coloring
matter, and the fabric being printed thereby is then steamed in the usual
manner. The proportions & mode of operating respectively above specified may
be varied according to the con-condition of the gluten when used, or according
to the result desired to be produced. When alkaline substances other than
soda are employed, the proportion must, of course, be varied according to the
nature and power of such substances respectively.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Walter Crum in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd November 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WALTER
CRUM, of Thornliebank, in the County of Renfrew, Bleacher and Calico
Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of g
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Walter Crum, Her special licence that I, the said Walter
Crum, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Walter Crum, 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 PRINTING AND DYEING TEXTILE FIBRES AND FABRICS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Walter Crum, my executors a
or administrators; by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one

page_text: was to be
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
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 Walter Crum, 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 a mode of treating gluten, and employing it in
conjunction with an alkali as a mordant or intermedium for attracting and
fixing certain colouring matters to cotton and other vegetable textile fibres
and fabrics.
The method is to mix gluten with caustic potash or soda, or with the silicate
of potash or soda; to print or otherwise impregnate the fibre or fabric with the
solution or mixture so produced in the manner well known to calico printers
and dyers; to subject the fibre or fabric so impregnated to the joint action of
heat and moisture, and then to apply the particular colouring matter which is
to be attracted and fixed.
The process. I adopt is as follows:-First, I take the gluten of wheat as it is
produced in the well-known process of kneading the flour of wheat with
water and washing away the starch, and I allow it to remain in a suitable
vessel until it has lost its tenacious character and acquired in some measure
that of a mucilage. The period at which this change takes place varies with
the different qualities of flour from which the gluten is produced, and the
temperature at which it is kept. It is usually sufficiently fluid after five or
six days when kept at summer heat, and between that period and eight or ten
days thereafter it is in the best condition to be used for the purposes of this
Invention.
Secondly, I then proceed to purify this mucilage by rendering the gluten
which it contains again insoluble and coherent, and for that purpose I mix it
with a solution of carbonate of soda sufficient to saturate the acid which has
been formed in it; the point of saturation being indicated by test paper in the
usual way.
For 10 lbs. of gluten in this condition there is usually required
18 oz. of solution of carbonate of soda of S. G. 1150. The gluten in
becoming again insoluble gradually separates from the soda solution, and
partially-resumes its tenacious and coherent state, and the whole being shaken
on a cloth, the solution passes away along with some portions of starch not
previously separated. Assuming the above quantities to have been used, the

page_text: gluten remaining is then to be kneaded or washed with 3 lbs. of cold water and
shaken on a cloth as before; and this washing operation is to be performed
three times.
Thirdly, ten pounds by weight of the purified gluten is to be mixed with
14 oz. of solution of caustic soda, S. G. 1.080. The gluten immediately
dissolves and forms a mucilage, which is to be diluted with water to the
required thickness, as is understood by calico printers. For cylinder printing
I usually add 7 lbs. of water.
Fourthly, when the fibre or fabric of cotton or linen has been printed or
otherwise impregnated with the compound just described, and dried, it is
subjected to the action of steam (or of heated air more or less moist), then
rinsed in water.
And, fifthly, dyed in a preparation of orchil in the manner well known, or in
picric acid or dinitrophenylic acid, or in the colouring matter obtained from
coal tar or from aniline; or the same colouring matters may be applied by
printing them upon a fibre or fabric previously prépared with the glutenous
mordant fixed by steam, and subsequently again subjecting the printed fabric
to steam.
Although I adopt by preference for the purification of the gluten, as above
described, the employment of carbonate of soda, yet I find that other substances,
caustic soda, or potash, or ammonia, or the carbonates of potash or ammonia,
or the sulphates or phosphates of soda or potash, or common salt, or nitric
acid, may be employed for reproducing the insoluble and coherent condition of
the gluten; but I find the alkaline carbonates the most suitable substances.
I also find that gluten may be employed without the prescribed purification,
and at an earlier or later period after its separation from the starch, though not,
as I believe, to the same advantage as the prepared gluten, nor with the same
certainty of a uniform result. If taken at an early period, the gluten should
be mixed with about a fourth of its weight of caustic soda, S. G. 1.080, and if
taken after the gluten has attained its most fluid condition, it should be mixed
with about one-third of its weight of the same caustic soda, more soda being
required in proportion to the length of time the gluten is kept, and in these
several operations the soda may be replaced by an equivalent quantity of potash:
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would observe that I do not confine myself to the
precise details referred to, as the same may be varied without deviating from
the peculiar character of my Invention; nor do I confine myself to the
precise proportions given, as these may be varied with advantage, according to
he condition of the gluten, which again varies with the quality of the flour from

page_text: which the gluten is produced, with its own age and purity, and with the
temperature at which it is kept. These are points which will readily be
understood and allowed for by any competent workman, who, when his
material varies in character has only to test it by a preliminary trial with pro-
portions of alkali slightly varying, and to observe what proportion gives the
best result on being dyed. The alkaline salts, silicate of soda or potash, in
which the alkali has not entirely lost its alkaline character, and in proportions
containing an equal quantity of alkali with that mentioned above, may be
employed for dissolving the purified gluten, although, as I believe, with less
advantage than the alkalies which I have named. And I do not claim the
employment of a mixture of gluten, alkali, and colouring matter, unless such
gluten shall have been purified in the manner herein-before described, or unless
such mixture shall be used after its application to the fibre or fabric as a mordant
for the coloring matters already specified; but what I do claim is, the appli-
cation of gluten along with potash or soda, or the silicate of potash or soda, to
cotton and other vegetable textile fibres and fabrics as a mordant for attracting
and fixing any of the colouring matters above stated, with which it is brought
in contact after being applied to the fibre or fabric; and I also claim the
treating and purifying of gluten in the manner and by the materials above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Crum, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
5 Witness,
JOHN ANTHONY GRAHAME.
WALTER CRUM. (L.S.)