IMPROVEMENTS IN INDIGO VATS AND IN VATS FOR DYEING WITH NOIR BLEU OR WITH MIXTURES OF NOIR BLEU AND INDIGO
Year: 1884

page_text: I, FREDERICK WILLIAM RENAUT, of The Cottage, Burstow, in the County of
Surrey, Secretary, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN INDIGO VATS AND IN VATS FOR DYEING WITH NOIR BLEU OR
WITH MIXTURES OF NOIR BLEU AND INDIGO, to be as follows:-
This invention relates to the indigo vats used by dyers, and to similar vats
in which indigo is replaced either partially or entirely by the material which is
known in France as Noir Bleu, and which will hereinafter be spoken of as Blue
Black.
In such vats, the colouring matter has to be reduced. The present invention
relates to vats in which the reduction of the colouring matter is effected by a
fermentation produced by certain organisms or ferments, and has reference to the
fermentiscible material to be supplied to such vats, as food for the said organisms
or ferments, and the hydrogen evolved during the fermentation of which is the
agent which reduces the colouring matter or colouring matters used in such vats.
The fermentiscible materials at present employed in such vats are usually bran
and molasses. My correspondents have discovered that the flour of wheat, barley,
oats, rice, or any other kind of grain or seed is a very much more advantageous
material, and the present invention accordingly consists in using flour as the
fermentiscible material, or one of the fermentiscible materials, to be supplied to
vats in which indigo or blue black or both are reduced by fermentation.
Alkalies or alkaline earths are usually employed in such vats, for a purpose
which need not be here explained, as it is well understood. The alkaline bodies
which it is best to use in vats in which flour is used as the fermentiscible material or
one of the fermentiscible materials, are soda, potash, and carbonate of magnesium.
The flour to be used in fermentation vats under the present invention may
either be supplied to them in the raw state, or may be first boiled.
What is new in this invention thus consists in employing as the fermentiscible
material, or one of the fermentiscible materials, used in vats for the reduction of
indigo or blue black or both, flour from any kind of grain, or other similar
amy laceous body, and in combining therewith the use of soda, potash, and carbonate
of magnesium, or either or any of these.

page_text: I, FREDERICK WILLIAM RENAUT, of The Cottage, Burstow, in the County of
Surrey, Secretary, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN INDIGO VATS, AND IN VATS FOR DYEING WITH NOIR BLEU
OR WITH MIXTURES OF NOIR BLEU AND INDIGO," a Communication from
Charles Collin and Lucien Benoist, both of Paris, in the Republic of France, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to the indigo vats used by dyers, and to similar vats in
which indigo is replaced either partially or entirely by the material which is known
in France as Noir Bleu, and which will hereinafter be spoken of as blue black.
In such vats, the colouring matter has to be reduced. The present invention
relates to vats in which the reduction of the colouring matter is effected by the
hydrogen liberated during the fermentation of organic bodies, and has reference to
the fermentiscible material to be supplied to such vats.
The fermentiscible materials at present employed in such vats are usually bran
and molasses. My correspondents have discovered that flour gives very much
better results, and the present invention accordingly consists in using flour as the
fermentiscible material or one of the fermentiscible materials, to be supplied to
vats in which indigo or blue black or both are reduced by fermentation.
-The flour to be used in fermentation vats under the present invention may
either be supplied to them in the raw state, or may first be boiled. It will usually
be best that a part of the flour employed should be supplied to the vats in the raw
state, and that a part of it should be boiled before being supplied to the vats. The
proportion of raw flour to boiled flour must depend on the rate at which it is
desired that fermentation should proceed in the vats, boiled flour fermenting more
rapidly than raw flour.
It will be well understood by practical men that fermentation vats must be
supplied, not only with fermentiscible material, but also with an alkali to combine
with the reduced colouring matter and with the acids formed during the
fermentation taking place in the vats. It is customary, in the fermentation vats
at present in use, to employ both soda and lime; but any correspondents have
found it better not to employ lime. They prefer to employ soda only, or potash
only, or a mixture of soda and potash.
Soda, as being the cheaper alkali, will usually be preferred. My correspondents,
though they do not confine themselves to such proportions, have found that, when
using soda in vats supplied with flour, from 45 to 67 parts of soda per 100 parts of
flour employed are suitable proportions. The smaller proportion usually suffices
during the ordinary working of the vat, but the larger proportion is usually
necessary during the six or seven days required for the preparation of a new vat.
My correspondents have found it advantageous to combine the use of flour in
fermentation vats with the use therein of glucose, according to their former
invention, a patent for which was applied for on the 29th. April, 1884, and
numbered 6974. When thus combining the use of glucose with that of flour, they
find that about four parts of flour (one half of which has first been boiled with
water) and half a part of glucose, employed together as sustenance for a working
vat, suffice for the reduction of five parts of indigo of average quality: that is to
say of indigo containing about sixty per cent. of indigotine. If flour be used alone,
about four and a half parts (one half of which has been boiled) are a suitable
proportion for the above stated quantity of indigo. In vats in which indigo is

page_text: used in admixture with blue black, no additional quantity of flour, above the
quantity thus indicated for indigo alone, need be employed. When blue black
is employed without indigo, the proportion of flour used may vary considerably
without inconvenience; but smaller proportions than those indicated for indigo
alone will suffice. As explained above, the proportion (if any) of the total flour
used which is first boiled must depend on the rapidity with which it is desired
that the fermentation should take place.
In mounting new vats, the whole or part of the fermentiscible material to be
supplied to which is flour, my correspondents prefer to use the ferment prepared by
their other invention an application for a patent for which was deposited at the
Patent Office on the 29th. April, 1884, and was numbered 6973. The temperature
at which fermentation best takes place under the influence of this ferment is from
50 to 52 degrees Centigrade, or from about 122 to about 126 degrees Fahrenheit.
The temperature of the vats may, however, be, maintained at about 48 degrees
Centigrade, or at about 118 degrees Fahrenheit, without disadvantage.
In order that the proper working of the vat should not be interfered with by
the production of fermentations other than that produced by the ferment just
referred to, the temperature of the vat should preferably from time to time bo
raised to from 70 to 80 degrees Centigrade, or to from about 158 to 176 degrees
Fahrenheit, since this temperature kills most of the organisms which would produce
prejudicial fermentations, but does not kill the ferment which my correspondents
have found to produce the most favourable results.
The flour employed under this invention may be that of any available grain or
seed, as that of wheat, barley, rye, oats, maize, rice, horsebeans, haricot beans, or
other kind of grain or seed the flour of which consists largely of amylaceous
matter.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is the use of flour iu fermentation vats for dyeing with Indigo, with Blue
Black, or with any mixture of both Indigo and Blue Black, as the material or one
of the materials by whose fermentation the required reduction of the colouring
matter is to be effected.