AN- IMPROVED PENCIL FOR WRITING OF MARKING UPON TEXTILE. FABRICS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alfred Vincent Newton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
March 1866. A communication from abroad, by Edward Augustus
Whitney, Henry Roberts, and William Bainbridge Hale, all of North-
ampton, Massachusetts, in the United States of America.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, for "AN- IMPROVED PENCIL FOR WRITING OF
MARKING UPON TEXTILE. FABRICS," to be as follows:
This Invention consists in so treating nitrate of silver or combining it with
other substances as to produce a pencil that the marks made with it shall have
the property of indelibility. One mode of compounding nitrate of silver
with other substances to be used for the object of the present Invention is to
combine with the nitrate of silver nitric acid, glue or gelatine, lampblack,
and brown or other sugar in or about the following proportions, viz., nitrate
of silver, half an ounce; nitric acid, six to ten drops; glue, one ounce; lamp-
black, half an ounce; brown or other sugar, one drachm. The mixture of
lampblack, glue, and sugar is stirred or otherwise agitated until the ingredients
are completely incorporated, and it is then put into an earthen, glass, or other
suitable dish or receptacle, and allowed to become slightly cool, but continually

page_text: agitated or stirred so that it cannot "set." The nitrate of silver first having
been dissolved separately in the least possible amount or quantity of distilled
water, with the addition of nitric acid, is then poured into the vessel containing
the above compound, and the whole well stirred and mixed together. The
compound is next spread in a thickness of from one-sixteenth to one-eighth
of an inch upon paper in such manner as to leave a clean margin entirely
around the same, and having become "set" it is covered with another and a
similar sheet of paper. The compound.thus spread upon and between paper
sheets is then pressed and dried, and cut into small strips corresponding in
shape to the "leads" so termed of ordinary lead pencils. These "leads"
thus formed are then encased to give them sufficient stiffness to be used.
When using the pencil the portion of the cloth or textile fabric to be marked
is first moistened with water or an alkaline solution, and the pencil is applied
to the moistened surface, as when writing with a common pencil; by exposing
to the sun's rays for a short time, and pressing or smoothing the cloth or textile
fabric with a hot, flat, or sadiron, the marks or writing will become perfectly
indelible so far as the ordinary washing and cleansing or wear and use of the
cloth can affect it. In lien of the substances' used in combination with the
nitrate of silver it may be combined with gypsum and plumbago in or about
the following proportions, viz., three parts nitrate of silver, two parts, gypsum,
and one, part plumbago, and the same result will be produced;, the-several
ingredients,being, manipulated in a manner substantially similar to that
explained for the compound composed of the nitrate of silver mixed with the
lampblack and glue.
A
10
T
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