Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Aug., 1887
Complete Left, 22nd May, 1888
Complete Accepted, 22nd June, 1888
I, WILLIAM JULES SAMUEL GRAWITZ of 24 Rue d'Alsace-Lorraine, St. Maur-les-
Fossés (Seine) France Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
It is very difficult to dye cotton before it is spun, and if slivers of cotton from the
carding or combing machine be formed into hanks, they break easily in handling.
According to my invention, I obviate this objection by boiling the hanks in pure or
alkaline water, the hanks being for this purpose either placed in bags made of open
fabric or clamped between frames or otherwise prevented from movement while
immersed in the liquid. Hanks formed of the slivers from the carding or combing
machine, and even rovings from the bobbin and fly frame, after being thus treated,
are capable of undergoing all the most complicated dyeing operations equally well as
if the hanks were formed of finished yarn.
W. J. S. GRAWITZ.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, W.C.,
Patent Agents:

page_text: I, WILLIAM JULES SAMUEL GRAWITZ, of 24, Rue d'Alsace-Lorraine, St. Maur-
les-Fossés (Seine) France, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-—
It is very difficult to dye cotton before it is spun, owing to the imperfect
circulation of the dye liquors among the fibres of raw cotton, which consequently
become dyed irregularly or in parts only; and also, owing to the matting together
of the fibres when they are stirred with poles in the dye bath, which renders the
subsequent operation of spinning very difficult. These objections may be obviated by
dyeing the cotton in hanks formed of slivers from the carding or combing machine,
but hanks thus formed are very liable to break in handling.
According to.my invention, I obviate this latter objection and impart the necessary
strength to the slivers to admit of their being handled, by boiling the hanks in pure
or alkaline water, the banks being for this purpose either placed in bags made of open
fabric, or clamped between frames, or otherwise prevented from movement while
immersed in the liquid. Slivers from the combing or carding machine, and even
rovings from the bobbin and fly-frame, formed into hanks, are after being thus
treated capable of undergoing all the most complicated dyeing operations equally as
well as hanks of finished yarn.
In submitting the cotton to this preliminary treatment, it is advisable that each
hank should not exceed from 3 to 5 ozs. in weight, as otherwise in the operations of
dyeing and washing, the cotton would absorb so much water as to cause the hank to
break, in the subsequent handling. For the same reason it is necessary that the
length of the hank should not exceed sixteen inches, as it stretches considerably under
its own weight when wet, and is therefore liable to break.
The lanks to be treated are, as before mentioned, placed in bags of open fabric or
clamped on frames, and in either case the liquid has free access to them. If bags are
used, each bag would contain about 22 lbs. of cotton, and several of these would be
placed in a vat similar to those now in use, and boiled for three to four hours at the
ordinary pressure used in boiling cotton yarns, or for six to seven hours without
pressure.
To the water in the vat is to be added from two to three per cent. of the weight of
the cotton, of solution of caustic soda at about 36° Beaumé. Before removing the
cotton from the bags, the hanks, if they have been boiled in an alkaline liquid, are
rinsed in the vat itself, with pure water. In the operations of dyeing and washing,
it is preferable to place only from 17 ozs. to 20 ozs. of cotton on each rod or four
hanks of 5 ozs. each.
It is advisable that the liquid in the dye bath should be at such a level as to
immerse one half only of the banks at a time, so that the liquid which impregnates
the immersed portion shall drain naturally downwards when the hank is reversed in

page_text: the bath; This method of dyeing greatly facilitates the drying, which is ordinarily
attended with much difficulty in the case of unspun cotton.
It is preferable to treat the cotton in the form of slivers from the carding, rather
than those from the combing, machine.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed; I declare that what I
claim is:-
The herein described method of treating unspun cotton, which consists in forming
the slivers from the carding, or combing, machine, into hanks and boiling the same
with, or without, pressure, previous to dyeing the hanks, as specified.
W. J. S. GRAWITZ.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London,
Patent Agents.