A NEW OR IMPROVED LITHOIDAL COMPOSITION TO BE USED AS A PAINT AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John William Gray, of 23, Billiter Street, in the
City of London, Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent, for the
Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED LITHOIDAL COMPOSITION TO BE USED
AS A PAINT AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES."-A communication from abroad
: T
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John William Gray
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 23rd April 1872.
I, JOHN WILLIAM Gray, of 23, Billiter Street, in the City of London,
Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED LITHOIDAL COMPOSITION TO
BE USED AS A PAINT AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES," a communication, to be as
follows (that is to say):
-
This Invention relates to a new or improved method of treating
silicate of potash for the purposes herein-after set forth, and the following
is a simple method of carrying the Invention into effect :—

page_text: Ordinary silicate of potash is taken in a gelatinous state and more
or less concentrated and rendered neutral at about 35° by the addition
of that one of its two elements which, as the case may be, is found to be
less than the other, until the preperation is represented by the formula
(KO)³, SiO³. This operation is effected by the addition of sands more
or less rich in one or other of the said elements.
** The next operation consists in augmenting the strength or grain of
this silicious composition, and this is accomplished according to its
intended use by the addition of some one or more pulverulent substance
or substances, such for instance as feldspars or aluminous salts.
The composition thus prepared is then mixed with a certain proportion
of acroleic substances, such being a product of the saponification of
tallow or other grease through or by means of lime, and which for this
particular operation are mixed with about four times their volume of
water. When thus prepared the composition will keep for any length
of time and under any atmospheric conditions in a fit and proper state
to be used for any of the various purposes for which it may be required.
It will be found that all mineral colouring matters will readily and
intimately mix with it and remain in permanent suspension therein, not
settling as a deposit however long left, but no greasy matter or product
should be used but be carefully avoided.
The composition may also be mixed with sand and other matters for
the formation of cements, stuccos, and other coatings, and likewise be
used as a primary material in the manufacture of artificial stone, slate,
marble, ware, and other substances, and may be supplied either in its
pure and simple state or mixed with other substances, or manufactured
into various forms and materials.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John William Gray in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 23rd October 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Joun
WILLIAM GRAY, of 23, Billiter Street, in the City of London, Consulting
Engineer and Patent Agent, send greeting.
30

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
5 and grant unto me, the said John William Gray, Her special license that
I, the said John William Gray, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John William Gray, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thercafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, usc, 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
LITHOIDAL COMPOSITION TO BE USED AS A PAINT AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES,” a
communication from Fernand Renoz, of Liége, Belgium, Civil Engineer,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John William Gray,
my executors or administrators, 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 William Gray, do hereby.
declare 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) :-
This Invention relates to a new or improved method of treating silicate
of potash for the purposes of enabling it to be used as a paint or'
coating for stone, brick, slate, concrete, plaster of any description, wood,
the various metals, cloth, leather, felt, paper, and numerous other sub-
stances. Also as a medium for bearing and affixing coloring matters
in such paints or coatings, likewise as a groundwork for cements, and
for stuccos, plasters, and other similar coatings or coverings, and as a
base or primary material to be used in the manufacture of artificial
stone, marble, slate, ware, and other materials or substances, as also for
numerous other useful purposes which it is not necessary to enumerate
here, and consists particularly in giving to the silicate of potash the
:

page_text: necessary flexibility to render it manageable and to cause it to cease
drying instantaneously under the brush or under the influence of
immediate contact with atmospheric air as it has done hitherto, and
also in giving to it an inherent hardness, enabling it to resist to an
almost unlimited degree the effects of time, weather, and generally all
destructive causes or influences whatever, from which latter cause, and
also from the fact of its being both fire and water proof, it becomes an
invaluable preservative of the material or substance to which it is
applied or with which it is mixed or incorporated.
For the purposes of this Invention I take silicate of potash in a
gelatinous state and bring it to 35° (Beaume) and to the formula
(KO), Sio, by carefully testing it and adding thereto such of the
chemical elements as are found wanting to strictly meet the above
formula.
This being done the next operation is that of imparting to the said
silicate the flexibility necessary to render it manageable in use as herein-
before alluded to, and this is done by adding to it in the manner herein-
after described a soft liquor or substance well known in chemistry as
forming the soft or sweet principle of oils and neutral fatty matters,
and which is represented chemically by the formula (C,H,O-HO,)
and is produced or found generally in all or any of the products well
rectified from the saponification of oils and neutral fatty matters with
the exception of sperm or whale oil. The liquor produced by the
reaction of potash on the tribromure of allyle (French) may also be
used for this purpose. But although the said liquor may be procured
from various sources as described, I prefer to obtain it for the purposes
of my Invention by the following method, as in so doing I utilize
products which have hitherto been to a great extent thrown away as
being of no use or value:--
During the process of saponifying tallow through or by means of lime
in the usual way there are produced, first, a calcareous soap which I
throw off, and then waters which I retain and treat with a current of
carbonic acid gas, by which means, and after the necessary evaporation,
I produce the said soft liquor (CII,O HO,) which I require for the
purposes of my Invention, and which I mix with the silicate in the
manner and proportion herein-after described.

page_text: If during the process of saponification the heat by being excessive has
intervened to decompose or remove a portion of the said waters there is
then produced in their stead a substance known in chemistry as acroleine
(C,H,O,). This latter substance I can use only after the following
process. The formula of the soft liquor I require being (C,H,, O,-HO,)
and that of the acroleine (О,H,O.) I have therefore in order to recon-
stitute the said soft liquor to multiply the acroleine by four equivalents
of water.
This soft liquor used or applied as herein-after described will be found
to possess the faculty or property of retarding the solidification of the
silicate sufficiently to allow of its being easily employed as a paint and
for other purposes, and of its being preserved for any required length
of time without risk of solidifying, whilst its property of drying and
becoming quite hard is in no way impaired, as this will take place after
a short exposure to the atmosphere. The presence of the said soft liquor
with the silicate also wholly prevents the formation of splits or cracks
during the process of drying.
The said soft liquor having been produced as above described I now
proceed to mix it with the silicate, and as it is almost impossible to obtain
or even to maintain for any length of time, these two substances at a
given degree of fluidity I am obliged to resort to the following method
of procedure, upon the exact observance or performance of which much
of the success of my Invention depends :—
If a small quantity of silicate of potash, either pure or mixed with
water be spread with a brush on a sheet of paper it will be observed
that the paper will almost immediately commence to curl or roll, and
if this action of the paper be prevented the silicate being unable to draw
or shrink by so curling the paper will do so by producing cracks or splits
in itself, and this effect, viz., cracking or splitting, is precisely the same
as produced by ordinary silicate paint on any rigid material, and is
exactly what will be obviated by my Invention.
Having prepared a certain quantity of silicate of potash as herein,
before described, and also a certain quantity of the soft liquor to be
mixed or amalgamated therewith, it is necessary to experiment with a
small portion thereof. in order to ascertain exactly the proportions in
which they are to be united, such proportions varying with the varying

page_text: densities of the two substances, and yet being of the utmost importance
to fix exactly, as if the said soft liquor be added in insufficient quantity
the tendency of the silicate to crack or split will not be wholly removed,
whilst if too much be added the silicate will never dry firm and hard.
In order therefore to fix these proportions I proceed as follows:-A
certain amount of silicate having been placed in a suitable vessel con-
veniently arranged that the contents may be stirred, an attendant stands
by with a certain quantity of the said soft liquor in a vessel marked
with a graduated scale, which soft liquor he adds slowly drop by drop
to the silicate, stirring it the while to prevent the denser portions thereof
from sinking to the bottom, and to insure the two substances being well
mixed.
After adding a small portion of tho said soft liquid the attendant with
a brush spreads a portion of the mixture on paper, and so long as
the paper thus treated curls on the application of the mixture so long
is the above described process of adding the said soft liquor continued,
but is stopped directly the paper is observed to bear the application
without curling, as it is evident the mixture so arrived at and which does
not shrink on the paper will still less do so on rigid materials such
as it would be employed on for paint or other purposes, and therefore
will produce neither cracks nor splits when so employed.
The quantity of the said soft liquor added to the silicate being thus
fixed, and the proportions determined, the bulk corresponding with tho
parts experimented on may be mixed in like proportion, care being
taken that the silicate be well stirred up whilst the said soft liquor is
slowly added thereto,
The delicate operation above described, and in each successive repe.
tition of which the quantities to be amalgamated will be found to vary
according to the differing densities of the two substances, is the best if
not the only measure of the proportions to be adopted for the mixture
of the larger quantities.
In the process of mixing these substances it is also most important
that the operator should avoid the too great density of the silicate and
the too great fluidity of the said soft liquor, and also that no water what-
ever be introduced into the mixture at this stage, as it would in a

page_text: measure dissolve the substances and prevent their being homogeneous.
It is only some time after the mixing, and when the mixture is actually
to be used, that water may be added in such proportion as to thin it
according to requirements.
Silicate of potash prepared as above described may be employed with.
certainty of success for numerous purposes, and is especially applicable
where flexibility is required.
If I have to employ the mixture for paint or for coatings, cements,
stuccos, or any purpose in which hardness is desirable I have now to
procced to the following operation, which consists in augmenting its
hardness and in fixing the potash in a stato of insolubility. In this
operation I add powders or pulverulent substances of such nature or
composition that they will form with the silicate of potash double salts,
as nearly as possible identical with the hard rocks such as felspar, &c.;
the operation being based on the well known chemical tendency of
silicate of potash to form double salts, I thus increase the hardness
of the mixture by adding to it some pulverulent salt which I choose, so
that it shall be at the same time a colored and a covering basis, and
shall also be of such nature as to form with the silicate a permanent and,
hard combination as well as to fix the potash in a state of insolubility.
For this purpose I prefer the silicates of manganese, magnesia, and
alumina, the aluminates of potash, the refractory earths, such as fire-
clay, and all or any of them alone or associated with sulphurets,
chlorides, &c. The ochres and ultramarines quite pure would sometimes
answer the purpose very well, but they must be previously examined
chemically with groat care and attention to make quite sure of their
purity. I recommend the stone colours prepared with aluminates and
salts of zinc; the blacks from the precipitates formed by the sulphate
of copper treated with ammonia and then calcined, the powder of
crushed or pounded bricks, the composites of grey and pink phosphates,
zinc grey, combined with phosphates of lime and extreme green, grey
and white zinc mixed with Meudon white and yellow ochre, and green
ultramarine mixed with any of the above powders.
As to the quantities to be employed for these mixtures they are
absolutely determined in every case by the density it is desired to give
to the paint, but generally it is preferable to prepare it thin as the

page_text: the means, and for the purpose or purposes herein-before set forth and
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John William Gray, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of October,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two.