A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS OF BLEACHING VEGETABLE FIBRE
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Wharton Burdon, of the Town and County
of the Town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Esquire, for the Invention of "A
Sealed the 10th March 1868, and dated the 18th September 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Wharton Burdon
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th September 1867.
I, WILLIAM WHARTON BURDON, of the Town and County of the Town of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Esquire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS OF BLEACHING VEGETABLE FIBRE," to be
as follows:
My Invention consists of a new or improved process of bleaching vegetable
fibre. I proceed as follows:-I first take the fibre or material to be operated
on and dry it well by artificial beat; I boil the soft material and reduce the
hard to shavings; I then put it into a caustic alkaline solution and boil;
I next wash it well from all impurities and expose it to the light; I then put
it into a solution of chloride of lime or a solution of lime and water and allow
it to remain some time; next I add sulphuric acid or hydrochloric acid and
let it steep, then wash and expose to the air on a floor or the grass; I then
boil again as before and expose to light, and I wash again and repeat lying-in-
the solution and boiling, and expose for some time to the air and light;

page_text: and I use the sulphate of magnesia, steeping the material in it and adding
sulphurous acid, and I also use chloride of barium and sulphuric acid, also
and I use the sulphate of magnesia, steeping the material in it and adding
sulphurous acid, and I also use chloride of barium and sulphuric acid, also
nitric acid and hydrochloric acid as I find necessary or convenient.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Wharton Burdon in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 13th March 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WHARTON BURDON, of the Town and County of the Town of Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Wharton Burdon, Her special licence that I, the said
William Wharton Burdon, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Wharton Burdon; my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS OF BLEACHING VEGETABLE
FIBRE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Wharton
Burdon, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent. ...
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Wharton Burdon, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of a new or improved process of bleaching vegetable
fibre. I proceed as follows:--I first take the fibre or material to be operated
on and dry it well by artificial heat; I boil the soft material and reduce the
hard to shavings; I then put it into a caustic alkaline solution and boil; I
.

page_text: next wash it well from all impurities and expose it to the light; I then put
it into a solution of chloride of lime or a solution of lime and water and allow
it to remain some time; next I add sulphuric acid or hydrochloric acid and
let it steep, then wash and expose to the air on a floor or the grass; I then
boil again as before and expose to light, and I wash again and repeat lying
in the solution and boiling, and expose for some time to the air and light; and
I use the sulphate of magnesia, steeping the material in it and adding
sulphurous acid, and I also use chloride of barium and sulphuric acid, also
nitric acid and hydrochloric acid as I find necessary or convenient.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim bleaching
vegetable fibre by the means and in manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Wharton Burdon, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of March, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-eight.