A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS TO BE USED FOR PRODUCING OR DEPICTING DESIGNS ON TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Maclean, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED
PROCESS TO BE USED FOR PRODUCING OR DEPICTING DESIGNS ON TEXTILE
FABRICS."
Sealed the 24th November 1868, and dated the 29th May 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Maclean at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th May 1868.
I, WALTER MACLEAN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "A NEW
OR IMPROVED PROCESS TO BE USED FOR PRODUCING OR DEPICTING DESIGNS ON
TEXTILE FABRICS," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention which relates to the production of figures, landscapes,
flowers, and other ornamental designs on textile fabrics so as to have
the appearance of being photographed, consists in forming the design
in the usual manner of an aquatint upon steel, copper, or other suitable
material, excepting that the design has to be bitten into the steel,

page_text: copper, or other material by the action of the acid to a greater depth
than hitherto when employed for printing on paper. When used for
producing the design on cloth the plate, roller, or block on which the
aquatint is formed is inked with the usual copperplate ink of the shade
of colour wanted, and with the addition of some dryer. The aquatint
after being inked is passed through a copperplate press, and thus gives
the impression on a piece of thick plate paper coated with Indian corn
Hour slightly damped before printing. The impression having been
placed in a damping book of blotsheet in order to gradually moisten the
coating of corn flour is then laid in its position on the cloth and
impressed thereon by pulling it through a lithographic or other suitable
press. The impression on the cloth is next stoved for as long as may
be necessary in a temperature of (160°) one hundred and sixty degrees
Fahrenheit or thereabouts. The effect of doing this, combined with the
action of the dryer mixed with the ink, is to dry up the varnish in the
ink and so make the impression on the cloth more effectually resist
being destroyed by washing in the usual way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Walter Maclean in the Great Scal Patent Office on
the 28th November 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WALTER
MACLEAN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Walter Maclean, Her special license
that I, the said Walter Maclean, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Walter Maclean, my executors,
administrators, or 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS

page_text: TO BE USED FOR PRODUCING OR DEPICTING DESIGNS ON TEXTILE FABRICS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Walter Maclean,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should par-
ticularly 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 I, the said Walter Maclean, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the, same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say:-
My said Invention which relates to the production of figures, land-
scapes, flowers, and other ornamental designs on textile fabrics so as to
have the appearance of being photographed, consists in forming the
design in the usual manner of an aquatint upon steel, copper, or other
suitable material, excepting that the design has to be bitten into the
steel, copper, or other material by the action of the acid to a greater
depth than hitherto when employed for printing on paper. When used
for producing the design on cloth the plate, roller, or block on which
the aquatint is formed is inked with the usual copperplate ink of the
shade of colour wanted, and with the addition of some dryer. The
aquatint after being inked is passed through a copperplate press, and
thus gives the impression on a piece of thick plate paper coated with
Indian corn flour slightly damped before printing. The impression
having been placed in a damping book of blotsheet in order to gradually
moisten the coating of corn flour is then laid in its position on the cloth
and impressed thercon by pulling it through a lithographic or other suit-
able press. The cloth containing the impression is next heated in a stove
for as long as may be necessary in a temperature of (160°) one hundred
and sixty degrees Fahrenheit or thereabouts; the effect of which,
combined with the action of the dryer mixed with the ink, is to dry up
the varnish in the ink, and so make the impression on the cloth more
effectually resist being destroyed by washing in the usual way.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in or under which the same is or may be used or practically
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that I do not bind
myself to the precise mode of putting it into practice, which I have

page_text: herein-before set forth, but what I do consider as novel and original and
therefore claim as the Invention secured to me is,―
First. The application of aquatint engraving for producing or
depicting designs or devices on textile fabrics in imitation of photo-
graphed designs or devices, as herein-before described.
Second. The process of transferring designs or devices from an
aquatint engraving to textile fabrics having the appearance of being
photographed, as herein-before described, or any mere modification
thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Maclean, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of November, One
thousand cight hundred and sixty-eight.