A METHOD OP PRODUCING FAST GREENS ON COTTONS AND VARIOUS OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1809

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
ILETT, of Stratford, in the County of Essex, Calico Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of
February, in the forty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Jeseph Ilett, my exors, adññors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Joseph Ilett, my exors,
adiñors, and assigns, during the term of fourteen years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A METHOD
OP PRODUCING FAST GREENS ON COTTONS AND VARIOUS OTHER ARTICLES;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Joseph
Ilett, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within one calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at
large appear..
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Ilett, do hereby declare that my said Invention consists in combining a
yellow mordant with indigo blue, and thereby producing fast greens on cottons
cambricks, linens, and other vegetable cloaths, and which I do produce in
manner following (that is to say) :-

page_text: Preparation of the Solution of Tins.-Take twelve quarts of muriatic
acid, add by degrees or small quantities one quart of nitrous acid, then
add by degrees or small quantities grain tin, feathered or in shavings,
till the acid will not dissolve any more tin, put the whole into a stone
or other proper vessel large enough to hold four times the quantity, place
it over a slow fire, and let it boil till about two-thirds are evaporated;
or I sometimes neutralize the solution in the following manner :-I boil
for one hour in an iron or other proper vessel one pound of fresh slacked
lime, one pound of potash or pearlash, or soda, in one gallon of water, filter
the solution, and keep the clear solution in corked bottles or other proper
vessels from the air, then set it in a proper place to cool; other solutions of
tin or sugar of lead may be used, but I prefer the above; in fact all metals
that will go through the processes herein-after mentioned may answer the
purpose.
Preparation of the Indigo for Mixing with the above Solution.-Take nine
pounds of Spanish or best East India indigo, and half a pound of orange
orpement, grind it in about four quarts of water, then take three pounds of
gum Senegall, and dissolve it in four quarts of water, let it be well mixed
with the indigo, then grind the whole in the usual way.
N.B. I have sometimes omitted using the orange orpement without making
any material difference in the colour.
The Manner of Mixing the Solution of Tin with the Prepared Indigo to
make it fit for Printing.-Take two gallons of the indigo prepared as above,
then add to it by degrees or small quantities one gallon of the evaporated
or neutralized solution of tin, neutralized by adding as much caustic alkali,
prepared as above, as can be added without precipitating the tin from the
acids, keep it stirring all the time it is mixing, and it will be fit for use, and
may be applied in the usual way of printing on cotton, &c. For a lighter
shade of green less indigo will be necessary.
the usual way of dipping
but must be moved from
After being printed, the goods are to be dipped in
China blues, but they must not be allowed to drain,
one back or vat to the other as quick as possible, then to be cleansed in the
usual way in a sour vat or back in the proportion of about one hundred
and fifty gallons of water to one gallon of oil of vitriol, then to be well
washed in the usual method of goods for raising in decoctions of weld and
other yellow colouring drugs, then in the usual way to be branned or
bleached till they become white. Although I have mentioned exact pro-
portions, yet I would have it understood that I do not confine myself

page_text: to the same, as they may in some degree be varied or altered and yet
produce the same effect; but I conceive the given proportion will answer the
purpose best.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Ilett, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and nine.