IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING MADDER
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to François Auguste Verdeil, of Rue St. Sulpice, in
the City of Paris, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
MADDER."
Sealed the 27th August 1858, and dated the 11th March 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said François Auguste Verdeil
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th March 1858.
I, FRANÇOIS AUGUSTE VERDEIL, of Rue St. Sulpice, in the City of Paris, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
MADDER," to be as follows:-
In the Specification of a Patent granted to M. Michel and myself, and
dated 15th January 1857, there is described a process of obtaining extracts
from madder for dyeing and printing, which process consisted in extracting
the madder root with an alkaline liquid, precipitating this extract by an acid,
and redissolving the precipitate in alcohol or wood spirit. Now, according to
my present Invention, I extract the root with an alkaline liquid, and precipitate
the extract as before; but in place of redissolving the precipitate in alcohol
or wood spirit, I boil it with sulphuric acid; and in this way I obtain a product
with which fabrics may be dyed as when garancine is used.
My Invention also consists in obtaining coloring matter from the madder
root, from which coloring matter has already been extracted-by-an-alkaline

page_text: liquid as before mentioned, and from which matter after it has been so treated
no coloring matter has heretofore been obtained. For this purpose I treat it
with acid, and I prefer to use sulphuric acid; but during this treatment it is
not necessary that the acid should boil. The root prepared in this manner
may be employed for dyeing in the same way as madder is at present used,
but when this substance is used it is not necessary to employ soap after the
dyeing, as when ordinary madder is employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said François Auguste Verdeil in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 31st August 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANÇOIS
AUGUSTE VERDEIL, of Rue St. Sulpice, in the City of Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said François Auguste Verdeil, Her special licence that I, the said François
Auguste Verdeil, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as,
I, the said François Auguste Verdeil, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN TREATING MADDER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said François Auguste Verdeil, my exccutors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said François Auguste Verdeil, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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 :-
In the Specification of a Patent granted to M. Michel and myself, and
dated 15th January 1857, there is described a process of obtaining extracts.

page_text: from madder for dyeing and printing, which process consisted in extracting the
madder root with an alkaline liquid, precipitating this extract by an acid,
and redissolving the precipitate in alcohol or wood spirit.
In order that my present Invention may be clearly understood, I will
proceed to describe the means which I have found fully to answer.
I take 900 lbs. of madder in a crushed or ground state, and steep it for 6 or
8 hours in a sufficient quantity of cold water to cover it, and keep it in a cold
place to prevent fermentation, I then add 3,000 lbs. weight of a cold solution of
caustic soda, making 1½ degrees on Beaumé's areometer, and allow the same
to remain about 36 hours, stirring the mixture frequently during that time.
The liquor, which now contains a large portion of the colouring matter of the
madder in solution, is drained off from the madder and run into a separate
vessel. A similar quantity of caustic soda at about one-fourth the strength of
the solution, first used is again added to the madder and allowed to remain 5 or
6 hours, when it is drained off and run into a separate vessel as before. The
latter operation may be again repeated, and the whole of the liquors thus
collected containing coloring matter in solution are mixed together and an acid,
by preference sulphuric acid, is added in sufficient quantity to precipitate the
colouring matter which is contained therein. When this is effected the super-
natant liquor is filtered or drained off, and the precipitated colouring matter
remains as a thin pasty substance. In this state it is unsuitable for drying
purposes, and the Invention consists in subjecting the product obtained as
above to the well-known process of garancine manufacture, which I proceed to
perform in the usual way by boiling or steaming with acid, by preference
sulphuric, washing out the acid with water, or neutralizing it with an alkali.
This substance is then pressed, and is the colouring matter or extract of madder
in a highly concentrated form, and may be used in a like manner to that
heretofore practised in respect to garancine. The woody fibres of the madder
which has been subjected to the action of the alkali, as above explained, and
from which colouring matter has been extracted is unsuitable for dyeing
purposes, but when subjected as above explained when treating the precipitated
product to the ordinary garancine process may be employed for dyeing in like
manner to what has heretofore been practised when using garancine, but such
woody fibre does not contain so much colouring matter as ordinary garancine;
and I would here state that it is not necessary in the first instance to separate
the woody fibre before precipitating the coloring matter after treating the
madder with alkali as above described, as instead of so doing I allow the
liquor to remain in contact with the woody portions of the madder, and add
sufficient quantity of an acid, by preference sulphuric acid, to precipitate the

page_text: colouring matter and leave the mixture slightly acid. After standing 2 hours
the supernatant liquor is drained off, and the collective products (the extract
of madder and the woody fibre) remain, which in this state are unfit for dyeing,
and in order to render them suitable for the purposes of dyeing, the products
are subjected to the ordinary and well-known process of garancine mann-
facture.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to
the subjecting madder to an alkaline process when separately considered,
neither do I claim separately the ordinary well-known process of garancine
making, but what I claim is the application of the combined process herein
described when obtaining colouring matter from madder.
In witness whereof, I, the said François Auguste Verdeil, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
F. A. VERDEIL. (L.S.)
Witness,
Je témoigne que la signature ci contre
est bien celle de Mr Verdeil,
DELAUNAY, Proprietaire, a Paris,
No. 30, Rue St. Sulpice.