THE MANUFACTURE OF AN IMPROVED VEGETABLE COLOURING SUBSTANCE
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Michel Edmond Savigny, Chemist, and Alfred Charles
Collineau, Doctor in Medicine, both of Boulevard Saint Denis, 1, at Paris, for
the Invention of "THE MANUFACTURE OF AN IMPROVED VEGETABLE COLOURING
SUBSTANCE
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Michel Edmond Savigny
and Alfred Charles Collineau at the Office of the Cominissioners of Patents
on the 9th June 1879.
MICHEL EDMOND SAVIGNY, Chemist, and ALFRED CHARLES COLLINEAU, Doctor
in Medicine, both of Boulevard Saint Denis, 1, at Paris. "THE MANUFACTURE OF
AN IMPROVED VEGETABLE COLOURING SUBSTANCE."
This Invention relates to the manufacture of an improved vegetable colouring
substance or matter obtained by treating alder wood or the different varieties of
the birch with an alkaline salt, and by then precipitating the decoction by strong
acids, such, for instance, as sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, acetic acid, we obtain
as precipitate a resinous substance or matter of a blackish brown, having the same
properties as the cashoo, and useful for dyeing the fibres of animal or vegetable
textile materials, skins, &c.
We obtain our improved colouring substance by the following mode of
extraction:-We treat either the bark or the twigs of the alder or birch tree, cut
into small pieces, with carbonate of soda, or potash, or other like alkaline salts, and
in or about the following proportions; but we wish it to be understood that we
do not restrict ourselves thereto, as such proportions may be varied according to
circumstances :-
Alkaline salt
-
500 grammes (1 lb. 2 oz.)
Bark or twigs
Water
-
1 kilogramme (2 lbs. 4 oz)
about 10 litres (2', gallons),
-
and we then boil this mixture until the liquid becomes of an intense brown
colour.
We then separate the wood from the liquid with a strong acid, by preference
hydrochloric acid, in a proportion equivalent to that of the alkaline employed.

page_text: The colouring substance is precipitated by saturation of the alkali which has
served to dissolve it, and we have only to collect it on a filter.
The liquid of filtration can also be employed in dyeing and tanning, it obeying
the same reagents as the colouring substance from which it is obtained, but the
tints or shades are not as strong as those obtained by using the colouring substance
itself.
The colouring substance is delivered to the public either in the form of a paste
or in a dry state, according to the requirements; it is in either case dissolvable in
water, and especially so in boiling water. The colours obtained by the liquid of
filtration are "chamois" and grey on cotton, silk, phormium (New Zealand
flax), &c., and the colours obtained by the colouring substance itself are salmon,
amadou, and cashoo.

page_text: Phormium, cotton, raime, silk, wool, skin can be dyed therein directly and
without mordanting, the depth of colour varying according to the duration of the
bath, from salmon colour to amadou (dark yellowish red), and from this latter to
that of cashoo.
To obtain shades of amadou the material on coming out of the alnéine bath
must be dipped in a solution of bichromate of potash or acetate of copper, the
concentration of such solution being in relation to the shade it is desired to
obtain.
.
To obtain dark shades of amadou the following is the mode of operation :—
First, a bath of alnéine.
Then, a dipping in bichromate of potash; and, lastly, a fresh immersion in the
alnéine bath.
The shades can be varied after the dipping in the bichromate of potash by either
dipping in a bath of yellow wood (Cuba, quercitron, turmeric), or in a bath of red
wood (Brazil, logwood, sandalwood).
The dyeing in alnéine grey is obtained as follows :-
First. By dipping the fabric to be dyed into the alnéine bath; and,
Second. Finishing in a solution of sulphate of iron or of zinc. It should again
be repeated here that the filtrate offers more feeble reactions, but identical with
those above specified for the alnéine.
Our experiments on alnéine have brought us to conclusion that such substance
can be used with advantage as a substitute for cashoo in the preparatory operations
of dyeing before employing the various aniline or other colours used in such
industry.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same may be performed, we declare that we claim,―
First. The manufacture or preparation of the new vegetable coulouring substance,
herein before specified, to which we give the name of "alnéine."
Second. The various applications to which such new vegetable colouring sub-
stance is applicable, such, for instance, as dyeing and tanning.
In witness whereof, we, the said Michel Edmond Savigny and Alfred Charles
Collineau, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twentyninth day
of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy nine.
(L.S.)
MICHEL EDMOND SAVIGNY.
ALFRED CHARLES COLLINEAU. (L.S.)
Witness,
ALBERT CAHENS,
Civil Engineer,
of Boulevard Saint Denis, 1,
at Paris.