IMPROVEMENTS IN COLOURS
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Ford Stanley, of Great Turnstile, Holborn,
London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN COLOURS,"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Ford Stanley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th September 1877,
WILLIAM FORD STANLEY, of Great Turnstile, Holborn, London.
IN COLOURS."
"
IMPROVEMENTS
For the improvements of colours used by engineers, architects, geologists, patent
agents, and other professional men for colouring maps, plans, elevations, sections,
diagrams, and illuminations for the class of drawing which is known as technical
or geometrical; the colours are not adapted to artistic colouring, for which the
ordinary artist's colours are preferable.
To show clearly in what my Invention consists I will explain the system of
colours now in use for the same purposes that these are intended, and point out
afterwards the improvements in which my Invention consist.
The colours used by architects, engineers, and other professional men, and trades
for technical drawing are the same as those used by artists, and are termed artists'
colours. They consist of cakes of various pigments which are made up in a solid
form, so that they can be reduced to a semi-fluid consistence by rubbing them up in
water upon a palette or in the class called moist colours by washing the thick pasty
colour up with a brush. There are also used occasionally five fluid colours for
section lines and other purposes, solutions of carmine, Prussian blue, spirit yellow,
Chinese white, and a brown. The colours are generally named after the pigments of
which they are composed, as lake, sepia, chrome, sienna, but sometimes by the
colour, as Payne's gray, lamp black, Venetian red, Hooker's green, and so.
The mode of using these colours for technical purposes, in which a given tint is made
to represent a given material, would be for, say, steel, by placing some water in
the palette and rubbing up from the cake colour the required quantity of the cake
Prussian blue, to which crimson lake would be added to bring the mixture to the

page_text: right tint. For gun metal, gamboge and lake; for cast iron, Indian ink and a little
indigo; for stone, sepia and Indian ink, and so on, using some colours of the tint
of the cake colour and some by mixing various colours.
These improvements consist in,
First. In employing only those colouring matters for coloring which are perfectly
soluble and without sediment when mixed in water, which colours are combined
to produce the technical tint of a given material. The colour being reduced to a
state of dilution, suitable for direct use on the drawing. The coloring matter that
I have found best suited for producing the required tints are mixtures of tincture
of cochineal and tin chloride; in ammonia, solution of an aniline dye, termed eocene
sulpho, ammoniate of indigo, aminoniacal extract of saffron, vanadiate of am-
monium, and ammoniacal citrate of iron, with a mucilaginous substance, as glue
or gum. For the technical colours, as, for instance, for brick, I employ cochineal
solution and a little saffron or eocene and mucilage. For cast iron, I employ
vanadiate of ammonium, a little indigo, and mucilage. For oak, I employ am-
moniacal citrate of iron, indigo, and mucilage; and for other materials 1 mix the
above substances in various proportions until the required tint is produced, as the
object of this mixture is to obtain a colour of a particular tint to represent a given
material, not a pure colour, and this is a novelty of the Invention. I claim the
right to replace one or more of these colours to give the required tint for another
soluble colour, as, for instance, to use a tincture of cyanide of iron for the indigo,
which for certain colours would answer the same purpose.
Second. The name of these compound colours the same as the object or material
they are intended to represent, which will be the following materials:-Brick,
stone, granite, cast iron, wrought iron, steel, copper, oak, deal, concrete, earth, grass
lands, brass, gun metal, lead, zinc, slate, corn, chalk, clay, eoal, gravel, each colour
being made to represent technically an object or material instead of giving the tints
the names of pigments or colours, as heretofore.
Third. Placing these colours in bottles, the cork of each bottle to have a metallic
cap in which a hollow is sunk, containing an enamel or varnish of the same tint
as the colour in the bottle; the bottle also bearing a distinctive lable about the
shoulders with the name of the material which the colour is to represent, as stone,
oak, or other technical word, not colour. The colours are placed in complete series
in a case suitable for one profession, as architect or engineer.
The originality of this Invention may be summed up in this, the compounding of
soluble colours, so that they shall be of the exact required technical tint but without
mixing or grinding ready for professional use, and the arranging and placing these
colours in bottles, so that the tints can be distinguished by outward signs, as
described.
No originality is claimed for the use of new or particular colouring matters;
these may be varied considerably to produce the known professional tints, and such
as I use have most probably all been used for various colouring purposes before,
although not in the manner I describe, to give by combination the tints of technical
materials or in a soluble state with the mucilage, suitable for drawing purposes.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said William Ford Stanley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th
February 1878.
WILLIAM FORD STANLEY, of Great Turnstile, Holborn.
COLOURS."
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
My Invention to be as follows:-For the improvements of colours used by
engineers, architects, geologists, patent agents, and other professional men for
coloring maps, plans, elevations, sections, diagrams, and illuminations for the class
of drawing which is known as technical or geometrical; the colours are not adapted
to artistic coloring, for which the ordinary artist's colours are preferable.
To show clearly in what my Invention consists I will explain the system of
colours now in use for the same purposes that these are intended, and point out
afterwards the improvements in which my Invention consists.
The colours used by architects, engineers, and other professional men and trades
for technical drawing are the same as those used by artists, and are termed artists'
colors. They consist of cakes of various pigments which are made up in a solid
form, so that they can be reduced to a semi-fluid consistence by rubbing them up
in water upon a palette, or in the class moist colours by washing the thick pasty
color up with a brush. There are also used occasionally five fluid colours for
section lines and other purposes, solutions of carmine, Prussian blue, spirit yellow,
Chinese white, and a brown. The colours are generally named after the pigments
of which they are composed, as lake, sepia, chrome, sienna, but sometimes by the
colour, as Payne's grey, lamp black, Venetian red, Hooker's green, and so forth.
The mode of using these colours for technical purposes, in which a given tint is
made to represent a given material, would be for, say, steel, by placing some water in
the palette and rubbing up from the cake colour the required quantity of the cake
Prussian blue, to which crimson lake would be added to bring the mixture to the
right tint. For gun metal, gamboge and lake; for cast iron, Indian ink and a
little indigo; for stone, sepia and Indian ink, and so on, using same colors of the
tint of the cake colour and some by mixing various colours.
The improvements consist in,-
First. In employing only those colouring matters for colouring which are soluble
and without sediment when mixed in water, which colours are combined to produce
the technical tint of a given material. The colour being reduced to a state of
dilution, suitable for direct use on the drawing. The colouring matter that I have
found best suited for producing the required tints are mixtures of tincture of
cochineal and tin chloride; in ammonia, solution of an aneline dye, termed eocene
sulpho, ammoniate of indigo, ammoniacal extract of saffron, vanadiate of ammo-
nium, and ammoniacal citrate of iron with mucilaginous substance, as glue or
gum. For the technical colours, as for instance, for brick, I employ cochineal
solution and a little saffron or eocene and mucilage. For cast iron, I employ
vanadiate of ammonium, a little indigo, and mucilage. For oak, I employ ammo-
niacal citrate of iron, indigo, and mucilage; and for other materials I mix the
above substances in various proportions until the required tint is produced, as the
object of this mixture is to obtain a colour of a particular tint to represent a given
material, not a pure color, and this is a novelty of the Invention. I claim the
right to replace one or more of these colours to give the required tint for another.
soluble colour, as, for instance, to use a tincture of cyanide of iron for the indigo,
which for certain colours would answer the same purpose.
Second. The naming of these compound colours the same as the object or material
they are intended to represent, which will be the following materials :-Brick,
stone, granite, cast iron, wrought iron, steel, copper, oak, deal, concrete, earth, grass
lands, brass, gun metal, lead, zinc, slate, corn, chalk, clay, coal, gravel,
and so forth, each colour being made to represent technically an object or material,
instead of giving the tints the names of pigments or colours, as heretofore.

page_text: Third. Placing these colours in bottles, the cork of each bottle to have a metallic
or wooden cap in which a hollow is sunk, containing an enamel or varnish of the
same tint as the colour in the bottle; the bottle also bearing a distinctive lable
about the shoulders with the name of the material which the colour is to represent,
as stone, oak, or other technical word, not colour. The colours being placed in
vertically in complete series in a case suitable for one profession, as architect or
engineer.
The originalty of this Invention may be summed up in this, the compounding of
soluble colors, so that they shall be of the exact required technical tint without
mixing or grinding, ready for professional use, and the arranging and placing these
colours in bottles so that the tints can be distinguished by outward signs, as
described, and placing the same vertically in series in cases.
No originality is claimed for the use of new or particular colouring matters, these
may be varied considerably to produce the known professional tints, and such as I
use have most probably all been used for various colouring purposes before, although
not in the manner or for the purpose I describe, to give by combination the tints of
technical materials or in a soluble state with mucilage suitable for drawing purposes
direct from the bottle.
The Drawings attached show the items of this Invention.
A represent 24 colors as described in the Specification, each with the technical
name below it, these were used direct from the bottles labelled with the same
technical name; B to B¹ shows the label on the shoulders of the bottle; C, D, E,
show the top surface of the caps with the colour inserted; F is the case with
the colour bottle, as described, placed vertically so as to be ready for immediate
1se.
The separate parts of this Invention are claimed, so that any single bottle of the
colour without cap or label, or one of these, for the purposes of this Invention,
may be taken as the Invention; or the bottle may be partly filled with colour to
be made up with water or otherwise, by which the Invention by slight detail may
be completed, and which could only be done for evasion.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Ford Stanley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
HART
T
W. FORD STANLEY.
(L.S.)