AN IMPROVEMENT IN FIXING MORDANTS ON FABRICS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Greenwood, of New Accrington, for
the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN FIXING MORDANTS ON
FABRICS"
Sealed the 5th August 1858, and dated the 2nd May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Janies Greenwood
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents. with his Petition,
on the 2nd May 1858.
1, JAMES GREENWOOD. of New Accrington. do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN FIXING MORDANTS
ON FABRICS to be as follows:-
The improvements consist in the application of chloride of lime, or
chloride of soda, or chloride of potash, alone, or in combination with
carbonate of lime. or carbonate of soda, or carbonate of potash, or
carbonate of ammonia, or other alkaline or other earthy hody or
metallic oxide. The object of the Invention being the use of chloride
of lime, or chlorine in combination with other base than lime, for the
purpose of fixing mordants.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Greenwood in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 2nd November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JAMES GREENWOOD, of New Accrington, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Greenwood, Her special
licence that 1, the said James Greenwood, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Greenwood,
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIXING MORDANTS ON FABRICS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said James Greenwood, by au
instrument in writing under my hand and scal, 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 I, the said James Greenwood, do hereby
leclare 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):
The improvements consist in the application of chloride of lime, or
chloride of soda, or chloride of potash, alone, or in combination with
carbonate of lime, or carbonate of soda, or carbonate of potash, or
carbonate of ammonia, or other alkaline or earthy body or metallic
oxide. The object of the Invention being the use of chloride of lime,

page_text: or chlorine in combination with other base than lime, for the purpose
of fixing mordants.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will now
proceed to describe the manner in which the same is to be performed.
I prefer to employ the chloride of lime mixed with carbonate of
lime, but the chloride of soda or other chlorides may be used.
I proceed as follows:-
I take, by preference, a solution of chloride of lime, or it may be
other chloride, as before mentioned, equal to ten pounds of the dry
powder, or ten gallons of the clear solution of chloride of lime at
the specific gravity of 1.085; to this solution I add about eighty
pounds of pulverized carbonate of lime, or, instead of the carbonate of
lime, I use twelve and a half pounds of crystallized carbonate of soda, or
fourteen pounds of carbonate of potash (crystallized), or four pounds of
carbonate of ammonia, or five and a half pounds of muriate of ammonia,
and the mixture is added to about seven hundred gallons of water
at about one hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit's thermometer, in
a cistern, which is provided with a double series of rollers for the
purpose of passing the calico pieces through the mixture; the goods
printed with mordants, or otherwise prepared, (as is well understood by
printers,) are passed through this mixture, and kept in during the space
of one minute or thereabouts; fresh portions of chloride of lime or the
other chloride which may be employed, and carbonate of lime, are
added, from time to time, in the proportion of three quarts chloride
of lime solution of the specific gravity of 1-035, and three pounds
carbonate of lime to every three hundred yards of cloth, or, instead of
the carbonate of lime, I use fourteen ounces carbonate of soda, or one
pound carbonate of ammonia, or six ounces muriate of ammonia. The
mixture is mixed with about ten gallons of water, and then added to
the mixture in the cistern, the temperature of which is kept about one
hundred and sixty degrees Fahrenheit; I have found that any tem-
perate from one hundred and twenty degrees to the boiling point, will
do, but I prefer one hundred and sixty degrees. The goods are
washed, and then put into the dye bath.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner

page_text: of performing the same, I would have it understood that what
I claim is the application of chloride of lime (known in comnierce
as bleaching powder "), or chlorine in combination with other bases
than lime, for the purpose of fixing mordants on fabrics.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Greenwood, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-three.
Witness. BRYAN LOWE,
Book-keeper,
Broad Oak,
JAMES GREENWOOD. (L.S.)
Accrington.