IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME OR BE
MADE KNOWN, I, CLEMENT AUGUSTUS KURTZ, of Cornbrook House, Hulme,
'near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Practical Chemist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain and Ireland,
bearing date at Westminster, the nineteenth day of November, in the fourteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
'unto me, the said Clement Augustus Kurtz, my exors, admors, and assigns, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Clement Augustus Kurtz,
and such others as I, the said Clement Augustus Kurtz, my exors, admors, and
'assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, also in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, the
Invention, communicated to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad, of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING;" and in which said Royal Letters Patent there
is contained a clause requiring that I, the said Clement Augustus Kurtz,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed or carried into operation, by
an instrument under my hand and seal, such instrument, when duly acknow-

page_text: ledged by me, the said Clement Augustus Kurtz, to be enrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Royal Letters Patent, as in and by,
reference being had thereto, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Clement Augustus Kurtz, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed and carried into practical
effect, are fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
But, firstly, it may be necessary to mention by what process results some-
what anolageous to those produced by improvements have been heretofore
produced. To dye skeins or hanks of silk, worsted, coton, or other material, in
such a manner as to permit certain portions thereof to retain the original
color, while other portions are dyed of a different color, it has been cus-
tomary to print by block or machinery, or to bind round those parts of the
skein or hank cloth, calico, bladder, or other substances firmly bound round
and secured by string, or cord only has been used.. When the material was
thus prepared it was thrown into a dye bath until the uncovered portions
thereof were sufficiently colored or dyed; it was then dried, and on-the
covering being removed the hank or skein presented party colours, as red,
white, and blue and yellow, and the like. The edges or parts where the
different colours met were strongly defined by the pressure of the cord, &c.
It has been found desirable to obtain party-colored hanks or skeins of the
before-mentioned or other materials with the edges of colours blending with
and gradually fading the one into the other. To effect this, I will suppose the
operator to have a hank or skein of silk or other suitable material of plain
white in his hand, his object being to obtain a white and green, fading or
blending into each other, as aforesaid. He ties the skein or hank into as great
a number of slip knots as he requires; that is to say, knots which, when tied
and forcibly pulled by the the double or loop in the skein, will produce a knob
or knot in the skein of extreme closeness, but which, when the skein or
hank is pulled by the single portion of of the skein, will at once slip or unloose
itself. Having so tied up or prepared the skein or hank, the operator throws
it into the green dye bath, and when it is sufficiently saturated it is taken out,
cleansed or washed. On unslipping all the knobs or knots therein, it will be
found that those parts of the material forming the knots will have preserved
the material in its original color, excepting that, at the edges or meeting of the
parts of the skein under, in, and about the said knots the green color will have
more or less penetrated, and so have formed an irregular edging of various
intermediate shades. It is then again cleansed and dried.
As the same,

page_text: process is employed when the skein or bank has been previously dyed, it is
unnecessary to say more in this process, which would only be to repeat
without giving further instruction. When many colors are desired fewer
knots are tied in the first instance. Thus white, yellow, green, bluc, are
required; tie as many knots as desired to reserve white; throw the skein into
a yellow dye, both, then cleanse, but do not unslip the knots; tie more knots
to preserve the yellow; than, after dying green, and again cleanse the skeins
or hanks; unslip the whole of the knots, and the various colors and shades
required will appear thereon, as herein-before described.
Having now described the nature of the Invention so communicated to me
as aforesaid, and in what manner it is to be performed and carried into prac-
tical effect, I desire it to be understood that I do not claim the dying of silk,
coton, worsted, or other material in the hank or skein in party color, or such
operation has been previously performed, as herein mentioned and otherwise;
but I claim as of my Invention the mode herein set forth and fully described,
of dying skeins or hanks of silk or other suitable material so as to produce
irregular edges of various intermediate shades.
In witness whereof, I, the said Clement Augustus Kurtz, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid Clement Augustus Kurtz came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion 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.
Enrolled the Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.