THE PRODUCTION OF A NEW OR IMPROVED. GREEN COLOURING MATTER FOR DYEING AND PRINTING
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 20, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for the Invention of "THE PRODUCTION OF A NEW OR IMPROVED.
GREEN COLOURING MATTER FOR DYEING AND PRINTING."-A communi-
cation from abroad by Alcide Poirrier; Charles Bardy, and Charles
Lauth, all of No. 23, Boulevard de Strasbourg, Paris, France.
Sealed the 18th March 1870, and dated the 28th September 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 28th September 1869.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "THE PRODUCTION OF A NEW
OR IMPROVED GREEN COLOURING MATTER FOR DYEING AND PRINTING," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in the production of a new green colouring
matter, called "Paris green," by reacting upon benzyle-aniline or upon

page_text: di-benzyle-aniline, or upon tolyle-aniline, or upon di-tolyle-aniline, or
their homologues, by means of all substances capable of eliminating
hydrogen. Thus the oxydizing substances iodine, bromine, chlorine,
or the iodides, bromides, and chlorides are employed with more or less
success. The substances employed by preference are small quantities
of weak nitric acid; the nitrates of mercury, copper, and other metals;
the chloride of iodine diluted in ten times its weight of water, or those
agents which are capable of generating this substance; iodine and
chlorate of potassa; iodized, bromized, or chlorized essences, bromized
glycerine, dry arsenic acid, and the like. I employ equivalent for
equivalent, and I raise the temperature to from 248° to 266° Fahrenheit.
I mix 100 parts by weight of benzyle-aniline, or of di-benzyle-aniline, or
of a mixture of benzyle-aniline and di-benzyle-aniline with 100 parts by
weight of chlorate of potassa and 20 parts by weight of iodine, and I heat
this mixture to 212° Fahrenheit. In order to subdivide the mass and
facilitate the reaction sand may be added; in this case the reaction is
effected at a slightly lower temperature. After a few hours when the
mass has become hard and brittle it is first treated in boiling water and
afterwards with a solution of potassa in alcohol heated to boiling point.
By this means the product is obtained in a tolerably pure basic con-
dition. This base is then treated with strong acetic acid, and in this
state the green coloring matter can be used for dyeing and printing
wool, silk, and other materials. It may be purified still farther by
alcoholic solutions, by filtering, and precipitation by soda or acids.
For using the "Paris green" for dyeing it is dissolved in alcohol and
is mixed in the bath with a small quantity of sulphuric acid or with
an acid or neutral mordant. This green is applied in the same manner
as aniline blues. I obtain the bases containing alcohol radicals above
mentioned for use in preparing the "Paris green" by reacting upon
aniline with chloride of benzyle or of tolyle. I mix one part by weight
of aniline with from two to three parts of chloride of benzyle and two
parts of ethylic or methylic alcohol, and the mixture is allowed to stand
for a few days in contact with the temperature of the surrounding air.
The above proportions may be varied, and instead of employing aniline
the chloride of benzyle or of tolyle or the higher alcohols may be made
to react upon toluidine, xylidine, or upon mixtures of aniline with its
homologues; and, lastly, instead of reacting at the ordinary temperature
the mixture may be heated in a closed vessel or by cohobation; the

page_text: reaction then takes place much more rapidly, and is complete in a few
hours if the temperature is raised to 212° Fahrenheit or higher. The
addition of ethylic or methylic alcohol is not indispensable, but it
facilitates the reaction. When the reaction is completed the alcohol
and chloride of benzyle in excess is evaporated, and boiling water is
added, which dissolves the aniline salt if any still exists, and the new
alcoholides crystalize out. In order to purify these I cause them to
recrystalize in benzine or alcohol. These products are then used to
obtain the "Paris green," as described. When chloride of tolyle is
made to react upon aniline or its homologues a formation of green
colouring matter always accompanies the production of tolyle or of
di-tolyle-aniline.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 26th March 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twent-eighth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Denton Abel, Her
special licence, that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles
Denton Abel, 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 "THE PRODUCTION OF A NEW OR IMPROVED GREEN COLOURING MATTER: FOR
DYEING AND PRINTING," (a communication to me from abroad by Alcide
Poirrier, Charles Bardy, and Charles Lauth, all of No. 23, Boulevard. de
Strasbourg, Paris, France,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Charles Denton Abel, my executors or administrators, by an instru-

page_text: ment 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 Charles Denton Abel, 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 consists in the production of a new green colouring
matter, called "Paris green," by reacting upon benzyl-aniline or upon
di-benzyl-aniline, or upon mixtures of these, or upon tolyl-aniline or
upon di-tolyl-aniline, or upon mixtures of the two last-named substances,
or upon benzyl and di-benzyl toluidine, or upon tolyl and di-tolyl
toluidine, or upon mixtures of all the substances above mentioned, in
whatever proportions, by means of all substances capable of eliminating
hydrogen. Thus the oxydizing substances iodine, bromine, chlorine, or
the iodides, bromides, and chlorides are employed with more or less
success. The substances employed by preference as reagents are small
quantities of weak nitric acid, the nitrates of mercury, copper, and other
nitrates; the chloride of iodine diluted in ten times its weight of water,
or those agents which are capable of generating this substance, whether
a mixture of iodine with a chlorate, arsenic acid, &c.
I employ
equivalent of the reagent for equivalent of the above-mentioned bases,
and I raise the temperature to about 266° Fahrenheit. I mix 100 parts
by weight of a mixture of benzyle and of di-benzyle aniline with 80 parts
by weight of chlorate of potassa and 20 parts by weight of iodine pre-
viously pulverized, and I heat this mixture to 212° Fahrenheit. In
order to subdivide the mass and facilitate the reaction sand may be
added in this case the reaction is effected at a slightly lower tem-
perature. After a few hours when the mass has become hard and
when a sample dissolved in alcohol gives a fine green colour it is first
treated in boiling water and is agitated; afterwards the water which has
dissolved the chloride in excess is decanted, and the whole black mass
is then treated with a solution of potassa or soda in alcohol heated to
boiling point, and after. cooling it is decanted. The iodine is con-
tained in the alcoholic solution, and a hard mass is obtained, which
is the green in a basic condition. This base is then treated with strong

page_text: acetic acid in sufficient quantity to convert it into a neutral salt, after
which it is dissolved in alcohol, and in this state the green colouring
matter can be used for dyeing and printing wool, silk, and other
materials. It may be purified still farther by adding a small quantity
of soda to the alcoholic solutions, so as to form a precipitate. This
precipitate is the green reconverted into a colourless basic state; it is
filtered and collected, and is again treated with the crystalisable acetic
acid, after which it is dissolved in alcohol; this solution is very pure.
This green is employed for dyeing and printing by the addition of an
acid in the bath or of an acid salt; or the material to be dyed may be
first steeped in a bath not acidulated, and afterwards in an acid bath.
The bases employed for producing the green are obtained by the reaction
of chloride of benzyl or of tolyl upon aniline or upon toluidine, either
with or without the addition of heat.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention, as communicated
to me by my foreign correspondents, what I claim is,-
First. The production of a green colouring matter obtained by tho
processes herein-before described, either by means of benzyl or di-benzyl
aniline, or of benzyl or di-benzyl toluidinc, or of tolyl or di-tolyl aniline,
or of tolyl or di-tolyl toluidine, or of mixtures in whatever proportions of
these substances.
Second. The employment of the said green colouring matter for
dycing and printing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have hore-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of March, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.