IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO THE COLOURING OF FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Young, the younger, of Kelly; in the County of
Renfrew, North Britain, Esquire, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
AND RELATING TO THE COLOURING OF FIBROUS MATERIALS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Young at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th January 1881.
JAMES YOUNG, the younger, of Kelly, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain,
Esquire. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO THE COLOURING OF FIBROUS
MATERIALS."
This Invention relates to improvements in colouring cotton, wool, or other fibrous
material where infusorial earth or other colour bearing vehicle is used.
Now my present Invention consists in subjecting the infusorial earth or other
colour bearing vehicle to a preparatory bleaching by any suitable bleaching process,
then charging the infusorial earth or other colour bearing vehicle with the desired
colour and oil, and afterwards applying the same in a comparatively dry state to
the cotton, wool, or other fibrous material.
By this Invention I am enabled to obtain better and brighter effects than when
the infusorial earth or other colour bearing vehicle is employed in an unbleached
state.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said James Young in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th July
1881.
JAMES YOUNG, the younger, of Kelly, in the County of Renfrew, N.B., Esquire.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO THE COLORING OF FIBROUS MATERIALS."
My said Invention relates to improvements in the process of coloring cotton,
wool, or other fibrous material in which a dry powder consisting of infusorial earth
or other suitable vehicle charged with color or with color and mordant is
mechanically incorporated with the material during working, and my Invention
consists in subjecting the infusorial earth or other vehicle to a preparatory
.bleaching by any suitable bleaching process, then charging the infusorial earth or
other vehicle with the desired color or color and mordant (with the addition of oil),
and afterwards applying the same in a comparatively dry state to the cotton, wool,
or other fibrous material.
When such infusorial earth or other vehicle is mixed with or contains iron or
other material which if not previously extracted interferes with or prevents the
bleaching or the subsequent dyeing, such iron or other material is first divided or
extracted from the infusorial earth or other color bearing vehicle in any convenient
manner.
In practice I have found that good results are obtained by operating in the
following manner, videlicet:-
I first pass the infusorial earth or other similar vehicle employed through a fine
sieve, say, of a gauze of sixty meshes to the square inch, in order to remove fibrous
and other foreign matter. If the infusorial earth or other vehicle contains iron
this I dissolve out with an acid, say, for example, hydrochloric acid, after which I
remove from the earth or other vehicle any excess of acid and the chloride of iron
by washing with water either by filtration or decantation. The earth or other
vehicle is now ready for the bleaching operation, which may be performed by any
ordinary bleaching process. The process which I find convenient for earth is by
the employment of what is known in commerce as chlorozone in the proportion of,
say, about three and a half ounces of chlorozone bleach to one pound of earth, such
as is found in the State of Maine, in the United States of America, but the
quantity of chlorozone bleach used is varied according to the particular kind of
earth selected. I prefer to take the chlorozone in the condition in which it is
prepared ready for use. After the bleaching has been effected the earth is washed
perfectly free either by filtration or otherwise from the chlorozone used as the
bleaching agent, as any traces of it left on the earth would have an injurious effect
on the colours when applied to the earth. In lieu of chlorozone I may employ
other well known bleaching agents, as, for example, liquor produced from
bleaching powder (chloride of lime) by agitating the powder with water and
allowing the same to settle and drawing over the clear liquor.
•
By this Invention I am enabled to obtain better and brighter effects than when
the infusorial earth or other vehicle for the color or color and mordant is employed
in an unbleached state.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and original,
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the hereinbefore in part
recited Letters Patent is,-
In the process hereinbefore referred to of coloring fibrous materials, subjecting

page_text: the infusorial earth or other vehicle for the color or color and mordant to a
preparatory bleaching process, substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Young, junior, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of July, One thousand
eight hundred and eighty one.
JAMES YOUNG, JR. (L.S.)