IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COMPOSITION OF INK SUITABLE FOR PRINTING AND COLORING OR SHADING BANK NOTES AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS AND DOCUMENTS BY THE COPPER-PLATE, LITHOGRAPHIC, TYPOGRAPHIC, XYLOGRAPHIC, OR OTHER PROCESSES OF PRINTING
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Thomas Hughes, of the Firm of Hughes and
Son, Patent Agents, 123, Chancery Lane, London, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COMPOSITION OF INK SUITABLE FOR PRINTING AND
COLORING OR SHADING BANK NOTES AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS AND DOCUMENTS
BY THE COPPER-PLATE, LITHOGRAPHIC, TYPOGRAPHIC, XYLOGRAPHIC, OR OTHER
PROCESSES OF PRINTING."-A communication from abroad by Tracy Edson;
of New York, United States of America.
Sealed the 26th April 1864, and dated une 19th December 1868
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Edward Thomas Hughes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration
on the 19th December 1863, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent
Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent Agents, 123,
Chancery Lane, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE COMPOSITION OF INK SUITABLE FOR PRINTING AND COLORING OR SHADING BANK
NOTES AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS AND DOCUMENTS BY THE COPPER-PLATE, LITHO

page_text: GRAPHIC, TYPOGRAPHIC, XYLOGRAPHIC, OR OTHER PROCESSES OF PRINTING," and have
petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn
Declaration that the same is a communication to me from abroad by Tracy
Edson, of New York, United States of America.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification under my hand and seal
fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following statement, that
is to say:
This improved composition has for its bases aud coloring ingredients a
compound of stannic acid (peroxide of tin), with a small proportion of oxide
of chromium, forming what is generally called mineral lake. This colour and
similar compounds produced by the partial or complete replacement of the
oxide of chromium in the compound of stannic acid may be modified by the
use of one or more of the following oxides, namely, oxides of gold, ceranium,
copper, lead, cobalt, nickel, iron, manganese, and cerium, or of any coloured
compounds of stannic acid with a metallic base. The said colors may be
prepared in various ways, but the best is to oxidize metallic tin with nitric
acid, and then to impregnate the washed peroxide of tin thus obtained with a
solution of the chromium or other metal in the state of nitrate, and afterwards
to calcine the mixture; or the metallic tin may be oxidized by nitric acid,
holding in solution the chromium or other metal. From three to five
hundredths of the weight of tin in bichromate of potash may be used, from
which results a greenish compound of stannic acid (or peroxide of tin) with
chromium, which is to be washed, dried, and heated to redness, or calcined as
before stated, when the mineral lake is obtained in lumps or granular masses
of a fine purple color, which lumps are then triturated or otherwise reduced
to a fine powder. For making and converting this powder into ink for
printing by any of the printing processes already mentioned it is ground or
triturated by any of the ordinary methods with a sufficient quantity of boiled
or burned linseed oil (sometimes called printers' varnish); the ink is then
spread or placed upon the steel, copper, or other plates or types in the usual
manner adopted for printing. The ink thus made from the calcined com-
pound of peroxide of tin when printed upon bank-note paper or other paper
commonly used in printing is not changed by air or light, and cannot be
removed from the paper by any dissolvents or by any other means except such
as will remove the ordinary black ink used by printers, so that when this
improved metallic ink is used in connection with the ordinary black printing

page_text: ink a great security is obtained against alteration and counterfeiting by
photography or other known processes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Thomas Hughes, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
E. T. HUGHES. (L.S.)