IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING AND DYEING TEXTILE FABRICS AND YARNS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Lightfoot, of Lowerhouse, near Burnley, in
the County of Lancaster, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PRINTING AND DYEING TEXTILE FABRICS AND YARNS."
Sealed the 29th November 1870, and dated the 12th October 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Lightfoot at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th October 1870.
I, JOHN LIGHTFOOT, of Lowerhouse, near Burnley, in the County of
Lancaster, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING AND DYEING TEXTILE FABRICS AND YARNS," to
be as follows:-
.
These improvements consist in the production of a black dye or color
on textile fabrics or yarns by printing or staining them with a salt of
aniline or any of its analogues mixed with certain oxidising agents
herein-after described.
In one process I make the color as follows:-I take sixty ounces of
chlorate of potash, and dissolve it in six quarts of boiling water, I then

page_text: hung and aged one night, they are dunged, dyed, and finished in the
usual manner.
In the process of dyeing I use either the chlorate of soda or the
chlorate of ammonia processes before described, following exactly the
same modes of procedure with the exception of the use of the thickening
matter, but in lieu thereof I add one pint of acetic acid at 8° Twaddell,
and half a pound of common sugar to each gallon of dye liquor,
and only about one and a half ounces per gallon of sulphate of copper
instead of the larger quantity added when the thickening matter is
used. I pad the cloth or dip the yarns in the said dye liquor, wring
out and dry in a cool room, age one night as before, and raise in any
weak alkali.
In some instances such as where the black dye or color is not printed
along with mordants intended for dyeing madder or garancine and for
dyeing cloth or yarn plain black I can use certain other metallic salts
instead of copper, such as the soluble salts of chrome or iron (or their
oxides when an acid salt of aniline is used), but by preference I employ.
a salt of copper in all cases for producing the best black..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,.
filed by the said John Lightfoot in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th April 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
LIGHTFOOT, of Lowerhouse, near Burnley, in the County of Lancaster;
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Lightfoot, Her special license
that I, the said John Lightfoot, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Lightfoot, 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 Ircland, the Channel

page_text: Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING
AND DYEING TEXTILE FABRICS AND YARNS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Lightfoot, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, 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 John Lightfoot, 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) :-
These improvements consist in the production of a black color or dye
on textile fabrics or yarns by printing or staining them with a salt of
aniline or certain of its analogues mixed with certain oxidizing agents
herein-after described.
.
In one process I make the color as follows:-I take sixty ounces of
chlorate of potash and dissolve it in six quarts of boiling water. I then
dissolve in another vessel four and a half pounds of tartaric acid in
six quarts of boiling water, and add by degrees four and a half pounds
crystallized carbonate of soda, mixing this compound with the dissolved
chlorate of potash at once. I allow the said mixture to stand until
perfectly cold, then filter out the cream of tartar and wash it with three
quarts of cold water on the filter, I thus obtain chlorate of soda and 2
cream of tartar sufficiently pure for the market. The washings are
afterwards added to the filtrate. The filtrate is then thickened with
eighteen pounds of British gum (calcined starch) or ten pounds of starch,
or a mixture of the two heated from one hundred and fifty degrees
Fahrenheit to two hundred and twelve degrees F. according to the a
thickening material made use of. I then mix two quarts of aniline (by
preference Dale's Number 2) and three pints of the best hydrochloric
acid at thirty-two to thirty-four degrees Twaddell. I allow this mixture
to stand until perfectly cold and then mix it with the said thickened
filtrate. When quite cold and just before using the color I add from a
twelve to twenty-four ounces of sulphate of copper crystals or any other
suitable copper salt, or five and a half gills of sulphide of copper paste.

page_text: In another process I make the color as follows:-I dissolve sixty
ounces of tartaric acid in six quarts of boiling water, adding by degrees
twenty-five ounces of sesqui-carbonate of ammonia or an equivalent
quantity of caustic ammonia so as to form a bi-tartarate of ammonia.
I then dissolve in another vessel four pounds of chlorate of potash in
six quarts of boiling water and mix it at once with the bi-tartarate of
ammonia. I allow the said mixture to stand until perfectly cold and
then filter out the cream of tartar and wash it with three quarts of
cold water; by this means I obtain chlorate of ammonia and cream
of tartar sufficiently pure for the market, the washings being added to
the filtrate and the filtrate thickened as described in the first process.
I then add two quarts of aniline (by preference Dale's Number 2)
and three pints of the best hydrochloric acid at thirty-two to thirty-
four degrees Twaddell, or any proportion of aniline and hydrochloric
acid of thirty-two to thirty-four degrees T. between eight of aniline
and five of acid, and eight of aniline and seven of acid. I allow this
mixture of aniline and hydrochloric acid to stand until perfectly cold
and then mix it with the said thickened filtrate. When quite cold and
just before using the color I add from twelve to twenty-four ounces
of sulphate of copper crystals or any other suitable copper salt, or five
and a half gills of sulphide of copper paste. I print either of these
colors and age one night by hanging in a room at from sixty to seventy
degrees F., and raise in soda liquor about one degree Twaddell, wash,
soap, and finish in the usual way. When these colors are printed
along with madder or garancine mordants, hung and aged one night,
they may be passed through ammoniacal gas and are dunged, dyed, and
finished in the usual manner.
In the process of dyeing I use either the chlorate of soda or the
chlorate of ammonia processes before described, following exactly the
same modes of proceedure with the exception of the use of the thicken-
ing matter, but I add in lieu thereof one pint of acetic acid at eight degrees
T., half pound of common sugar to each gallon of dye liquor and only
about one and a half ounces per gallon of sulphate of copper instead
of the larger quantity added when the thickening matter is used. I pad
the cloth or dip the yarns in the said dye liquor, wring out, and dry in a
cool room, age one night as before, and raise in any weak alkali.
For either printing or dyeing purposes certain other metallic salts,
sulphides, or oxides than copper may be used for producing a good black,

page_text: sucli, for instance, as the salts of iron, their oxides or sulphides, or the
soluble salts, oxides, or sulphides of uranium or vanadium, or the above-
named metals may be used in a fine state of division, but by preference
I employ a soluble or insoluble salt of copper in all cases for producing
the best black.
Having now described the nature and particulars of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be
understood that I do not claim the use of chlorate of soda or chlorate of
ammonia separately in the manufacture of an aniline black color or dye,
but what I do claim is,-
First. The mode or method of producing a black dye or color for
fabrics or yarns, substantially as herein-before described.
Secondly. The treatment of the substances herein-before described
whereby I obtain as a bi-product in the manufacture of an aniline black
dye or color commercial cream of tartar fit for the market.
Thirdly. The proportions set forth for the mixture of aniline and
hydrochloric acid.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Lightfoot, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Tenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
Signed, sealed, and delivered
by the within-named John
-
Lightfoot, in the presence of
G. SEPTIMUS HUGHES,
Patent Agent,
Manchester.
JOHN LIGHTFOOT. (L.S.)