CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTICLES USED IN PRINTING AND DYEING COTTON, SILK, WOOLLEN, AND OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
BARNES, of Church, in the County of Lancaster, Chemist, JOHN MERCER, of
Oakenshaw, in the County of Lancaster, Calico Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Tenth day of November, in the sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John Barnes and John Mercer, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that we, the said John Barnes and John Mercer, our
exors, adiñors, and assigns, and such others as we, the said John Barnes and
John Mercer, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, should 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
and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTICLES USED IN PRINTING AND DYEING
COTTON, SILK, WOOLLEN, AND OTHER FABRICS;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso, that we, the said John Barnes and John Mercer, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the
said John Barnes and John Mercer, do hereby declare the nature of our
Invention of certain improvements in the manufacture of articles used in
printing and dyeing cotton, silk, woollen, and other fabrics, to consist in the

page_text: manufacture of a new material, which we call
assistant mordant quor,
which when combined in certain proportions with the ordinary mordants
renders them more effective and useful, thereby improving the manufacture of
such articles; and the manner in which the same is to be performed and
carried into effect, together with certain other advantages resulting from our
Invention, we shall now proceed to describe.
To one hundred pounds avoirdupois of potato starch we add thirty-seven
and a half gallons of water, twelve and a half gallons of nitric acid of com-
merce (specific gravity 1800), and four ounces avoirdupois of oxyde of man-
ganese. The chemical action which takes place among these ingredients is
allowed to proceed until the nitric acid is destroyed. To the residum thus
produced we add fifty gallons of pyrolignic acid, and the compound is the
assistant mordant liquor in a fit state to add to the various mordants used in
printing and dyeing. The proportion in which the assistant mordant liquor
must be added to produce the various improved mordants will vary according
to the chemical properties and nature of the mordant to which it is applied,
but according to our present experience we have found the following proportions
to produce a greatly improved article:-For black, we take one gallon of iron
liquor (pyrolignate of iron, well-known in the arts), one gallon of assistant
mordant liquor, and one gallon of water, either thickened or not, according to
the mode in which it is to be applied. For purple, we take one gallon of iron
liquor, two gallons of assistant mordant liquor, and six gallons of water; for
paler purple, one gallon of iron liquor, three gallons of assistant mordant
liquor, and twelve gallons of water; and for still paler, one gallon of iron liquor,
four gallons of assistant mordant liquor, and from twenty to thirty gallons of
water. These improved articles or mordants are applied, washed, and dyed
in the usual way. For tin or aluminous mordants we follow the same rule,
except that we use red liquor or other salts of alum, or muriate of tin or other
salts of tin, instead of iron liquor or other sorts of iron. For dyeing silk or
woollen, we add the assistant mordant liquor along with the tin, iron, or
aluminous mordant, either with or without colouring matter, in the same boiler;
but this and other practical arrangements must depend on the judgment and
skill of the operator.
Having described one process by which we produce "assistant mordant
liquor," and the manner in which we have compounded it with ordinary
mordants for the purposes of improving the manufacture of such articles, we
wish it to be understood that we do not confine ourselves to the use of nitric
acid in the manufacture of assistant mordant liquor; for although we prefer
nitric acid, we are well aware that the same result my be obtained by the use

page_text: of other oxydising agents, as the acid and salts of chromic acid or the oxydes of
manganese, along with a mineral acid, or do we confine ourselves to any exact
proportions of acid or other ingredients which may be varied with varied
success.
What we aim at is to carry on the decomposition as far as possible without
forming oxalic acid, and as little as possible of carbonic acid, in the process,
which is greatly aided by the catalitic action of the manganese preventing the
formation of oxalic acid; and although we have found potatoe starch to answer
well in the process already explained, we are aware that all starchy sacharine
or gummy substances will answer the same purpose; indeed all substances
which contain little nitrogen, and where the oxygen and hydrogen are or are
nearly in the proportion to form water.
We therefore claim the improved manufacture of articles used in printing
and dyeing called mordants made by the admixture of our "assistant
mordant liquor," as also the manufacture of the assistant mordant liquor,
which we produce in the manner already described by the partial decom-
position of all kinds of starch flour of wheat, oats, barley, rye, maze,
Indian corn, rice, sago, arrowroot, linseed, hempseed, potatoes, and all other
farinacious substances, as also of gums, whether natural or artificial, such as
British gums, dextrine; and all kinds of sacharine substances, from the sugar
cane, beetroot, grapes, Indian corn, straw, marple, molasses, or any other
sacharine substances; also lignious fibre or any kind of ground wood or other
vegetable, which when acted on by any of the oxydising substances already
named, produces a residuum, which mixed with pyrolignic acid form an
"assistant mordant liquor," which production, as well as the improved articles
or mordants resulting from its combinations, being, to the best of our know-
ledge and belief, new, and never before used in that part of Her Majesty's
Dominion called England, we deliver this as our true and faithful Specification
of the same.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Barnes and John Mercer, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fifth day of May, One thousand
35 Signed, sealed, and delivered (being first duly
stamped), by the within-named John Barnes
and John Mercer, in the presence of
T.. Dis
Salt DL 11
JOHN (L.S.)
JOHN (L.S.)
BARNES.
MERCER.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the fifth day of May, in the year of
our Lord 1843, the aforesaid John Barnes and John Mercer came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
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 Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-three.