CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OR COMBINATION OF COLOURS FOR PRINTING STUFFS AND TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Antoine Hartmann, Gentleman, of Paris, in
the French Empire, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PREPARATION OR COMBINATION OF COLOURS FOR PRINTING STUFFS AND TEXTILE
FABRICS."
Sealed the 23rd October 1855, and dated the 19th June 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Antoine Hartmann
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th June 1855.
I, CHARLES-ANTOINE HARTMANN, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OR COMBINATION OF
COLOURS FOR PRINTING STUFFS AND TEXTILE FABRICS" to be as follows:-
'For a red colour I employ an alcoholic or other extract of madder or
garancine, mixed with soap and gum water, with or without the addition of
ammonia. By diluting the 'red, a'rose colour is obtained: By adding to it
various quantities of extract of campeachy, with or without catechu, various
shades of puce and brown and black are obtained; for a blue colour I employ
green is pro-
a mixture of precipitated deoxidized indigo and magnesia. A
duced by the addition of a salt of lead to the blue, and immersing the fabric
in a solution of bichromate of potash after fixing the colours by-steam. These
colours or mixtures of the same are printed-or-applied upon cloth or other,

page_text: fabric prepared with an aluminous mordant, and they are fixed by exposure
to steam.
These colours may be mixed with other dyes or extracts of dye woods, capable
of being used as steam colours. For a cheaper red than that above mentioned
extract of campeachy may be added, and the proportion of madder or garancine
may be diminished. By the mixture of soap with the madder or garancine,
and by the mixture-of-magnesia--with the indigo-as-above-mentioned, I am
enabled to employ those coloring matters for steam colours..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Antoine Hartmann in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd December 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
ANTOINE HARTMANN, Gentleman, of Paris, in the French Empire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Antoine Hartmann, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Antoine Hartmann, my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Charles Antoine Hartmann, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and, no others, from time to time and
at all times tliereafter 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OR COMBINATION OF COLOURS FOR
PRINTING STUFFS AND TEXTILE FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Charles Antoine Hartmann, 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 Inven-
tion, 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 Charles Antoine Hartmann, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner, the same is to

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof (that is to say) :-
The fabrics for which my improved colours are more particularly adapted are
-vegetable fabrics, such as cotton, linen, or hemp, and fabrics of silk or silk
mixed with cotton.
I prepare red and puce, or brown and black, and rose colour and blue and
green, partly with a base of madder and partly with a base of indigo. The
colours are printed upon stuffs or fabrics prepared with an aluminous mordant,
and they are fixed by steam; the blue colour may also be printed upon
cloth which is not mordanted. These colours may be printed alone or together
by hand, or by machines, or they may be employed together with the ordinary
steam colours, such as the violet from campeachy wood, the blue from prussiate
of potash, the ordinary steam green or grey, or other ordinary steam colours.
Various styles of work may thus be produced.
The fabric is prepared by plunging it in a solution of a salt of alumina,
generally the acetate of alumina, and fixing the acetate of alumina upon the
cloth or fabric cither by quickly drying it, which decomposes the salt into an
insoluble salt, or by a sufficient exposure to the air, or by both processes,
followed by passing it through a vessel of hot water containing chalk, or the
salts which are commonly employed for decomposing and fixing the salts of
alumina, such as the alkaline phosphates and silicates. Any preparation.
which fixes the alumina on the fabric in the state of a basic salt or of alumina
produces nearly the same effect. The acetate of alumina is prepared in the
ordinary manners. I prefer that which is made from alum or the sulphate of
alumina and white acetate of lead, or acetate of lime or acetate of baryta.
When a solution of silicate of soda of specific gravity 1.380 (water being
1.000) is employed, one pound weight of it may be dissolved in twenty gallons
of water at a temperature of one hundred and forty degrees of Fahrenheit's
thermometer. A more simple method of fixing the alumina is to expose the
cloth or fabric to running water after drying the mordant upon the fabric. The
strength of the aluminous mordant may be varied; I commonly employ it of
the specific gravity 1.050, water being 1.000. The tints, and particularly the
red, may be somewhat varied by adding a little salt of tin to the mordant, say,
about one pound of protochloride of tin to the gallon; but in all cases -the
alumina is the essential base of the mordant.
To prepare red and brown colours, I employ the various extracts of madder,
whether produced by extracting it by alcohol, pyroxylic spirit, alum, or the
other solvents of the colouring principle of the madder, and extracts of
garancine, "flower of madder," or other products of madder, the essential

page_text: point being to obtain the colouring matter of the. madder divested of the
lignine or woody fibre, and of a certain degree of purity and concentration.
The more pure and concentrated the extract, the better are the tints produced
by it. I commonly employ the alcoholic extracts of garancine and of con-
centrated madder, or "flower of madder," which are met with in commerce.
The extracts of madder or of its derivatives, may be employed in a liquid or
pasty state.
!
The principal point in the production of the red colour is the mixture of
soap with extract of madder. I mix the extract with a little solution of
ammonia, and I add to it the soap in powder or in solution. Or, I add the
materials which produce soap, that is to say, fatty or oily acids. or substances
and alkali. This addition of soap, or, the materials of soap, is the essential
point in producing my fast steam red. It not only gives greater permanence
and intensity to the colour, but it prevents the injurious action which would
otherwise take place between the ammonia and the copper, when the colour is
printed by copper rollers. The quantity of ammonia may be varied, and it
may be altogether suppressed, and the colouring matter in fine powder may be
mixed with the soap and the thickening material; but I prefer the mixture, of
colouring matter, soap, and ammonia, to which I add solution of gum senegal
as the thickening material, in preference to other thickening materials.. A
little alcohol or pyroxylic spirit may be added to the colour., The essential;
point is the addition of the soap, as already mentioned....
The following proportions produce a good red colour: --Three pounds weight,
of fine sifted extract of madder, having twenty-five times, the strength of
ordinary madder;, one and a quarter pounds of powdered soap; one gallon of
solution of ammonia; two gallons of solution of gum senegal. The extract
of madder is mixed with the solution of ammonia, and digested for several.
hours. The powdered soap is then added, and afterwards the gum water.
I have obtained a better impression in the machine by diminishing.. the
quantity of soap and solution of ammonia by about, one-third, and replacing,
the solution of ammonia by gum water. I also add one quart of alcohol:
If the extract of madder employed be of greater or, less strength, ia pro-
portionately less or greater quantity is employed. The intensity of the colour,
is reduced by diminishing the quantity of extract. When an extract, of one
hundred times the strength of ordinary madder is employed, one quarter of
the above quantity may be used, and the quantity of soap, and ammonia may
be diminished.
..
To obtain a puce or brown colour, I mix the red colour with various quan
tities of decoction or extract of campeachy wood, according as it is required-to

page_text: obtain tints more or less deep or more or less' red. To render them more
fast and permanent, I add an ammoniacal solution of catechu. I also prepare
these puce colours by mixing the colouring matter of madder with extract
of campeachy wood, or with extracts of campeachy wood and catechu, with
the addition of soap or ammonia, or both. The following mixture produces
a good puce colour: Two gallons of the aforesaid red colour, half a gallon
of preparation of catechu, and one pint of extract of campeachy-wood- of
specific gravity 1160." The preparation of catechu is made by mixing three
pounds ten ounces of powdered catechu with half a gallon of solution of
ammónia. These colours should be fixed with steam of a considerable pressure.
I employ steam at a pressure of three atmospheres for this purpose:
I produce a steam blue with 'indigo on cotton and other fabrics by mixing
indigo precipitated in the deoxidized state with magnesia: The preparation of
this precipitated indigo is known and described in various works on dyeing
and printing. It is obtained by adding muriatic acid and; salt of tin to a
solution of indigo in lime, deoxidized by sulphate of iron.I prefer to pre-
cipitate the indigo by muriatic acid alone, which is added until the mixture
becomes slightly acid, and it is then filtered. In lieu of adding the magnesia
directly to the indigo, a salt of magnesia may be added together with some
chemical re-agent, such as an alkali; which is capable of liberating the mag-
nesia in the mixture. The following proportions produce a good blue colour:
Ten pounds of precipitated, indigo, one gallon of, solution of gum senegal, one
pound and a quarter of magnesia.
I produce a green colour by mixing the aforesaid; blue thickened with gum
water, with a salt of lead. This is printed on the fabric, which is then steamed
and washed, and dyed or raised in a solution of bichromate of potash, like the
ordinary greens. The white parts of the fabric become discoloured, and it is
necessary to restore them by immersion in a very weak alkaline solution. Two
gallons of the blue colour are, mixed with one pint, of the yellow mixture,
which is a solution of five pounds of nitrate of lead, and five pounds of acetate
of lead in a gallon of water. The mixture should be made immediately before
printing it, and no more should be mixed than is required for immediate use.
..
I also prepare red and puce, and various mixed colours, by mixing the
colouring matter of madder with soap or the materials of soap and the
colouring matters of red woods, Brazil wood, fernambuc wood, sanders wood,
sumach, catechu, quercitron, Persian berries, chesnut bark, and other colouring
matters ordinarily employed in dyeing; and I thus obtain in steam colours
similar tints to those obtained in dyeing with mixtures of these colouring
natters with madder or garancinė.

page_text: By mixing the puce colour with three or four times as much extract
.of campeachy, I obtain black colours. By diluting the red colour with gum
water I obtain a rose colour, which may be rendered brighter by mixing it
with a little extract of fernambuc, or one of the dye woods.
Having now described the nature of the Invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that what I claim is,-
Firstly, the preparation of a steam madder red by the mixture of extract
of madder with soap, or the materials of soap, or by the mixture of extract of
madder with solution of ammonia and soap, or the materials of soap.
Secondly, the preparation of a steam madder puce by the addition to such 1
steam madder red of variable quantities of extract of campeachy wood, or
of the extracts of campeachy wood and catechu.
Thirdly, the preparation of a steam indigo blue, by the mixture of precipitated
indigo with magnesia.
Fourthly, the preparation of a steam green, by mixing a salt of lead with 1
the aforesaid steam indigo blue, and dyeing or raising the colour in a solution
of bichromate of potash.
Fifthly, the preparation of steam colours by the addition generally of other
colouring matters, and particularly of the extracts of dye woods to the extract
of madder and soap, or the materials of soap, so as to obtain in steam colours 2
the effects of mixed dyes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Antoine Hartmann, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of October, in the year One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
C. A. HARTMANN. (L.S.)