AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE DYEING OF WOOL, WOOLLEN CLOTHS, COTTON, SILKS, AND OTHER FABRICS AND MATERIALS
Year: 1842

page_text: KAGENBUSCH'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
KAGENBUSCH, late of the Parish of Whitby, and now of Sandsend, in the
Parish of Lyth, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of England, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-sixth day of May now last past, did, for Herself, Her
heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Peter Kagenbusch,
Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Peter Kagenbusch, my exors, admňors, and assigns, and such others as I,
the said Peter Kagenbusch, my exors, adûiors, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also within all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE DYEING OF WOOL, WOOLLEN
CLOTHS, COTTON, SILKS, AND OTHER FABRICS AND MATERIALS;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, that I, the said Peter Kagenbusch, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,.
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Peter Kagenbusch, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to
consist in the use and application of the residual mother liquors of alum works.
and of a certain product obtained therefrom, as a mordant for dyeing and
fixing colours; and I do. further declare the manner in which my said
Invention is to be and may be performed, to bo as follows:-
I take any convenient quantity of the residual mother liquors of the alum
works, that is to say, of the mother liquors of the aluin meal, rough alum, or
alum for rocking, and from which the Epsom salts have been taken in one
or more crops; and I take the residual mother liquor of that manufacture of
alum in which muriate of potassa has been employed for the alkaline base, the
residual mother liquor of the manufacture of alum in which sulphates have been
employed not being, according to my experience, so useful for the purposes of
my Invention as the rosidual mother liquor of the alum, in the manufacture of
which muriate of potassa has been employed. And I also prefer the liquors
of the alum from the natural rock or schist to the mother liquors of the
rough alum from what is generally called the artificial alum process. To
this residual mother liquor, heated to boiling. I add common salt or brino
in sufficient quantity to neutralize the sulphuric acid of the said mother
liquor. The quantity of salt or briue necessary for this purpose will depend
on the quantity of sulphuric acid existing in the mother liquor; but I
find the addition of a saturated solution of salt or brine, equal in quantity
to about one-twelfth of the mother liquor, to be generally sufficient for the
purpose; the addition, however, of a greater quantity of salt than is acted
upon chemically by the liquor is not prejudicial in the subsequent use and
application of the mother liquor as a mordant. This salted liquor is ready
for use as a mordant for dyeing and fixing all colours except reds; and
its strength, if insufficient to produce the required shade or depth of colour,
may be increased by boiling down and evaporation. But instead of leaving
the mordant so prepared in this state, I prefer, for the convenience of
transport, to evaporate the salted liquor to such a consistency that, on being
couled, it readily solidifies as a salt. The point at which this will take
place must be ascertained for each quantity of the liquor by taking some
of it in a spoon or glass, and observing whether the mordant becomes solidl
when cold. The mordant thus obtained should be protected from the
atmosphere, and when required for use it is to be dissolved in water, more
or less of the mordant being used, according to the depth and slunde of
colour to be produced. The precise quantity of the mordant necessary for
any particular colour must be ascertained by experiment, according to the

page_text: methods well known to dyers, and the solution so obtained is to be used for
dyeing and fixing all colours, except reds, in the same way as other mordants
have been hitherto used for those purposes.
According to the process as above described, I have supposed all the Epsom
salts intended to be taken from the mother liquor to have been taken before
adding the common salt, but the common salt may be added before taking the
last crop of Epsom salts, that is, if only one crop of Epsom salts be taken in
the usual course of the manufacture, the common salt may be added to the
mother liquor when boiled, for the purpose of taking that crop; and if two
crops be taken, the common salt may be added when the mother liquor is
boiled for the second crop; and, unless it be important to obtain the Epsom
salts in the greatest degree of purity, I usually add the salt as lastly above
mentioned, that is, when the liquor is at the boiling point, for taking the
last crop of Epsom salts. The Epsom salts having been taken in the usual
manner, the residual liquor is the mordant, which I evaporate, as above
mentioned, to obtain a solid salt, as above described; should the rough alum
mother liquors yield no Epsom salts, or be of such a nature that none can be
taken profitably, they are to be treated in the manner herein-before mentioned.
I would also remark that the process of preparing the mordant is injurious
to pans of metal, and that vessels of earthenware, or evaporating furnaces of
the kind in general use in the alkali works, are more economical and well
adapted for the
purpose.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I would remark that I am aware of many of the
substances which exist in the mordant, prepared as aforesaid, having been
used, either separately or in various combinations with each other and with
other substances, for the purpose of dyeing and fixing colours; and I wish it
to be understood that I claim nothing in respect of such use; but what I claim
as of my Invention is, the improvement in dyeing by the use and application
of the residual mother liquors of the alum works, and of the product obtained
therefrom, as a mordant, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Kagenbusch, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Soventh day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-two.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventh day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1842, the aforesaid Peter Kagenbusch came before
our said Lady the Queen in Iler Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
abovo written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Tenth day of November, in the year of our Lord_One