Patent GB-190526811-A (GB)
Title: Improved Apparatus for Extracting the Yolk out of Wool.
Inventor: MALARD GEORGES
Filed: 1905-12-22
Granted: 1906-12-22
Abstract: 26,811. Malard, G. Dec. 22. Washing.-In an apparatus for removing the yolk from raw wool by sprinkling with liquid, there is an inclined conduit, down which the wool slides in the form of a layer or mattress. The wool is treated with washing-liquors, of gradually decreasing concentrations. The channel B has its bottom suitably perforated, and may be made of cast or sheet iron, enamelled sheet iron, ebonite or armoured glass or the like. The wool is introduced into a vertical feeding - conduit A, where it is moulded into a mattress, the requisite thickness being adjusted by moving a panel C laterally. The liquids of various concentration are contained in the compartments 1 ... 6, placed in front of the first washing-vat, and are forced up to the various sprays by appropriate lifting-devices, such as centrifugal pumps, which may be coupled together. The pulleys of the pumps driven by a single belt have gradually decreasing diameters towards the stronger solutions so as to increase the speed of rotation for the greater heights to which the liquids have to be forced. A tap 25 on each force pipe enables the delivery to be regulated, or the complete stoppage of the pump. If piston pumps are employed, the delivery may be regulated by a tap connecting the suction and force pipes. The liquid from the first compartment 1 is forced to the top of the feed conduit A to sprinkle the wool therein. It filters through the wool, giving concentrated and clear grease waters which are run through a pipe 11 into a vessel K, from which, when sufficiently concentrated, they are sent to the potash works by means of a device to be described. The wool is then sprinkled from the next spray, which derives its liquor, of a less concentration, from the next compartment 2. The liquor, after filtering through the wool, runs back into a small trough I extending partly across the two liquid compartments 1, 2, and so on for the other sprays and compartments. The inclined bottoms of the troughs I have two holes, one over each of the compartments underneath ; the higher is always open to allow excess of liquid to return to the original compartment, while the lower is provided with a flap valve. Floats of metal, glass, or ebonite in the several compartments open these valves to an increased extent as they descend, and so maintain the several liquors at the same level. The float J of the last compartment 6 opens a tap for the supply of water for the last spray 31, which water percolates through the wool into the various compartments below. In this matter the first compartment, which is constantly losing liquor delivered to the potash works, receives an equivalent quantity from the second, and the second from the third, and so on. The compartments may be emptied of sediment successively while the apparatus is working. At the bottom of the channel B, two driven rollers D, E draw along the mattress of wool, press it out, and deliver it on a carrier, e.g. an endless carrier F passing over rollers G, R. The position of lower squeeziogroller E is fixed, while the upper roller D has its shaft mounted to slide in guides with regulatable pressure means. The lower roller E may be perforated so that liquid squeezed out of the wool may escape therein and run away through orifices in its end plates. A second pair of squeezing- rollers G, H may be employed, the final sprinkling then taking place on the endless carrier F. The liquid from such final sprinkling may be received in a seventh liquid compartment 7 that, in cases where there are but six pumps, communicates with the compartment 6 by a siphon 7<1>. If the conveyer band is permeable, a dish or trough may be placed under it to receive and discharge its contents into the compartment 6, or a dish or trough opening into the previous compartment 5 might be placed below the perforated roller E. After passing through the second pair of squeezing-rollers G, H, it may be seized by a roll 32 or the like provided with projections or wings. In a modification in which the carrier F is omitted and the squeezing- rollers D, E are arranged above the last compartment 7, the wool at its exit from the rollers is unravelled and broken up for the first washing-bath by a bladed roller. The vessel K comprises two compartments, connected in the lower part the first of these receiving the grease liquid from the pipe 11. In the second compartment, a series of baffle-plates retain impurities and moderate the turbulent motion of the liquid from the first compartment. In the same compartment a float is suspended from a double-arm lever, the other end uf which actuates a sliding shutter in such a matter that, if the density of the solution increases, the channel which leads the overflowing liquid back to the first compartment 1 through an uutlet 41 is closed more or less, so that the liquid finds its way less or more through another oritice and thence through a sieve into a conduit which leads to the potash works. The tapered bottom of the vessel K has a discharge pipe 48 which connects it with the first compartment 1 so that it may be cleaned from residues. This pipe 48 is provided with a cock 18 automatically opened and closed by the stopping and starting of the machine. Turning freely on the driving-shaft L, Fig. 3, is a bush 33, on which are mounted a loose pulley 21 and a fixed pulley 20 driven from a main shaft. Fixed on the same bush are the driving pulley 22 for the pumps and a pinion M which drives, through intermediate gear N rotating on a fixed axle 34, a gear-wheel 0 fixed on the shaft L. In this way the rotary movement transmitted to the squeezing-rollers D, E from the shaft L, by means of an endless screw and other gear-wheels, has a much smaller speed than that necessary for efficiently working the pumps.