THE MANUFACTURE OF COPYING INKS FOR PRINTING."
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Underwood and Frederic Valentine Burt, of
Fish Street Hill, in the City of London, Stationers and Printers, for the
Invention of "THE MANUFACTURE OF COPYING INKS FOR PRINTING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Underwood and
Frederic Valentine Burt at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 19th September 1856.
We, JOHN UNDERWOOD and FREDERIC VALENTINE BURT, of Fish Street Hill,
in the City of London, Stationers and Printers, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "THE MANUFACTURE OF COPYING INKS FOR PRINTING,"
to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in manufacturing soluble ink or inks for printing,
which after having been used in printing become dissolved by the application
of or being exposed to moisture or wet, in such manner and to such extent
that one or more copies may be taken therefrom, as is now ordinarily done in
taking impressions from documents and papers, written with what is known
as copying ink.
It will be evident that various ingredients may be employed for the purpose
of our Invention; among others, we have found the following to answer well,
in or about the proportions named:-Nut galls, 14 lbs.; sulphate of iron,

page_text: 6 lbs. gum senegall, 12 lbs.; treacle, 6 lbs.; soap, 3 lbs.; lamp black, 6 lbs.;
prussian blue, 3 lbs.; water, 15 gallons.
When the above ingredients are used, the nut galls are first bruised, and
then boiled for about 3 hours, more or less, in half the above-named quantity
of water, and the clear liquid drawn off. The gum and sulphate of iron are
separately dissolved in the remaining quantity of water, and the whole is then
mixed with the decoction of nut galls, and exposed for about 21 days, more or
less, to the atmosphere, when the supernatant liquid is drawn off from the
deposited matters and sediment. The treacle and soap are now added to the
liquid thus drawn off, and the whole evaporated to a syruppy consistency, and
then the lamp black and prussian blue are mixed with it.
The above ingredients will form a black ink; but ink of any desired color
may be made by using coloring matter, as now practised in the manufacture
of colored printing inks. The above is one of the modes of manufacture.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Underwood and Frederic Valentine Burt in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 19th March 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
UNDERWOOD and FREDERIC VALENTINE BURT, of Fish Street Hill, in the City
of London, Stationers and Printers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John Underwood and Frederic Valentine Burt, Her special licence that
we, the said John Underwood and Frederic Valentine Burt, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Underwood
and Frederic Valentine Burt, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at al
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
"THE MANUFACTURE OF COPYING INKS FOR PRINTING," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said John Underwood and Frederick Valentine
Burt, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our,

page_text: 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 we, the said John Underwood and Frederic
Valentine Burt, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:―
Our Invention consists in manufucturing ink or inks for printing, in such a
manner that after having been impressed or deposited by printing upon the
surface of paper or other material, then such deposited ink may become
soluble, or partially soluble, by the application of or being exposed to moisture
or wet, and to such extent that one or more copies may be taken therefrom
upon moistened or damp paper, as is now ordinarily done in taking impressions
from documents and papers written with what is known as copying ink.
In order to effect this object, we cause the ink to be made of coloring
matters or pigments necessary to produce the intended color, to which we add
a material or mixture of materials requisite for causing the particles of the
coloring matter or matters to cohere, and also to adhere to the surface upon
which the ink is to be printed; and also a material or mixture of materials
which will cause the ink after being so printed to be not only capable of drying
when requisite, but also capable of being afterwards rendered sufficiently soft
and soluble by moisture, as to yield impressions by being pressed in contact
with surfaces capable of taking such impressions.
Many materials or ingredients may be used for effecting these objects, and
the nature or description of materials suitable for these purposes will be
shewn by the following description of the mode of making inks according to
our Invention :-
For the purpose of making a black ink, we take of nut galls, 14 lbs.; of
sulphate of iron, 6 lbs.; of gum senegal, 12 lbs.; of treacle, 6 lbs.; of soap,
3 lbs. of lamp black, 6 lbs.; of prussian blue, 3 lbs.; and of filtered rain water,
15 gallons. The nut galls are first bruised, and then boiled for about 3
hours, more or less, in half the above-named quantity of water, and the clear
liquid drawn off. The gum and sulphate of iron are separately dissolved in
the remaining quantity of water, and the whole is then mixed with the
decoction of nut galls, and exposed for about 21 days, more or less, to the
atmosphere, when the supernatant liquid is drawn off from the deposited
matters and sediment. The treacle and soap are now added to the liquid

page_text: thus drawn off, and the whole evaporated in a water bath to nearly the con-
sistency of ordinary printing ink, and then the lamp black and prussian blue
are mixed with it. The above ingredients will form a black ink; but ink of
other colors may be made by using a soluble coloring material or materials,
such as sulphate of indigo or carmine, dissolved in ammonia, either separately
or combined with coloring matter, such as now employed in the manufacture
of colored printing inks, in lieu of the nut galls, sulphate of iron, lamp
black, and prussian blue used in making ink, as above described.
The following is another mode of making a black ink for the purpose of our
Invention: 1st, take 12 lbs. nut galls, and 6 lbs. of sulphate of iron; bruise the
nut galls very fine, and boil them in 12 gallons water 48 hours consecutively,
adding water from time to time to make up what is lost by evaporation; then
add the sulphate of iron, previously dissolved in 3 gallons of water, expose
for 21 days, more or less, to the atmosphere, and strain through cloth, and
filter through paper. Take the clear liquid, and add fused caustic potash till
the solution will turn reddened litinus paper blue, boiling all the time. Filter
again, and evaporate the clear liquid in a water bath to the consistency of a
druggist's ordinary extract.
2nd, take of the extract so prepared, 12 oz.; soft soap, 6 oz.; subcarbonate
of potash, 2 lbs. ; distilled water, 5 imperial pints; powdered gum tragacanth,
4 oz. powdered gum arabic, 1 lbs.; treacle, 2 lbs.; spirit black, 1 lb. We
now mix the tragacanth and gum arabic thoroughly together, and add 2 pints
of the distilled water to them and the 12 oz. of extract previously dissolved
in 1 pint of the distilled water, and having incorporated these thoroughly
together, we then stir the treacle with them. We then boil together the
soft soap and 1 lb. of the subcarbonate of potash in a pint of the distilled
water, and add this to the former mixture, and while stirring the whole
together, we add gradually in small quantities the remaining 1 lb. of sub-
carbonate of potash, dissolved in the remaining 1 pint of water. We now
grind the spirit black with the whole, in the ordinary way of manufacturing
printing inks.
We have thus produced our black ink, but ink of other colors may be made
by using other coloring matters, as aforesaid. When ink manufactured in this
way has been deposited by printing upon the surface of paper or other fit
material for printing it upon, it will dry upon being exposed to warm dry air;
and when it is desired to obtain impressions from such printed surfaces, a
damp or moist surface suitable for receiving the intended impression or im-
pressions is placed upon or applied thereto, such as the thin paper used for
making ordinary transfer copies in a copying machine, and then the damp or

page_text: moist surface is to be pressed into close contact with the printed surface, so as
to receive the intended impression.
Subsequent impressions may be taken in the same way if the quantity of
ink deposited in the first instance shall have been sufficiently large for that
purpose, but such subsequent impressions will of course become more and
more faint by the repeated abstraction of ink from the printed surface.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in
which the same may be performed, we declare that we do not claim the mode
of printing by transfer, as above described; but that we claim as of our said
Invention, the mode of manufacturing inks for printing, composed of the
requisite coloring matters mixed with materials, so as to cause such inks to be
not only capable of printing properly, and of drying after being printed or
deposited upon the surface of paper or other material, but also to be capable
of yielding an impression or impressions by pressure against damp or moist
surfaces.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Underwood and Frederic Valentine
Burt, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Nineteenth day of
March, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
JOHN UNDERWOOD.
(L.S.)
FRED. VALENTINE BURT. (L.S.)
JOHN UNDERWOOD.
(L.S.)
FRED. VALENTINE BURT. (L.S.)