Improved Process for Removal of Gum from 'Grass and Plants.
Year: 1885

page_text: -Improved Process for Removal of Gum from 'Grass and Plants.
:
I, HERBERT JOHN HADDAN, of 67 Strand, in the County of Middlesex," "Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention a communication to
me from abroad by Louis Emile Vial, Chemist, of Marseilles, France, ¡to be as
follows:-
Considering that the fibres of China grass, of the larger nettle, of hemp, of the
mulberry tree and textile plants in general, adhere to each other and to the epidermic
sheath which contains them by means of a resin like or gummy substance the
separation or the destruction of which generally takes a great deal of time and is
often very difficult, I resolved to destroy this adherence, economically and rapidly
by the following process:
After having been stripped of its boon or simply flattened by means of cylinders,
the textile stalk is kept in a bath of oil, oleic acid or any other fat body in a fluid
or saponaceous state, until the barky substance of the plant is fully impregnated,
so that the fat body may dissolve, deliquate the resin like or gummy substance
which adheres to that part.
Once this first result obtained, I remove the textile stalk which has been freed
by means of a drying process, or by expression, of all superfluous fat into a second
alkaline bath composed either of an aqueous dissolution of neutral carbonate of
sodium or potash, or a dissolution of caustic soda or potash in a sufficiently large
quantity to allow the fat absorbed by the textile stalk in the preceding bath to
melt into a soapy fluid in the alkaline bath; in order to increase the rapidity of
the operation, the latter should be maintained at a somewhat high temperature yet
inferior to boiling heat.
When there is no free fat left in the textile stalk-this I easily see at the
spontaneous disaggregation of the epidermic pellicle which covers it-I dip the
scoured material into a third bath of acidified water which not only removes all
superfluous soap, but also dissolves at once the latter and liberates the fat. body
which can then easily be taken out.
The chemical operation is then at an end. .I have only to wash the material in a
reservoir by stirring it, or if need be, by dressing it under the water so as to free
it from all heterogeneous matter to obtain very fine heckled flax perfectly free from
gum and disaggregated which only requires to be dried, dressed and bleached
according to the processes already known.
It is scarcely necessary to add that the soluble soap formed in the alkaline bath
can easily be turned into insoluble soap by the addition of lime-wash. It only

page_text: wants parting the calcareous soap and dissolving it by means of sulphuric acid to
regenerate and recover the almost totality of the fat body converted into soap.
When the textile plant has been freed by means of a drying process, by expression
or mere dripping, of all the superfluous fat absorbed by it in the first bath I dip it
into the alkaline bath composed of a dissolution of alkaline carbonate or caustic
alkali (but preferably of crystallized carbonate of sodium) where I leave it long
enough from 2 to 4 hours, not more, to allow part of the fat body to become soap.
The result of this second maceration is that the resin-like substance dissolved by
the fat body, is removed with the latter, and that the Pectose, so abundant in
China-grass particularly is turned into an Alkaline Pectate. It is true that the
fibre after this maceration, does not appear to have lost much of its gum or to be
disaggregated, the reason is that Alkaline Pectate is insoluble in the element where
it has been formed, but if I dip the textile plant in a third bath of pure water, or
water slightly alkalized the pectic substance is at once dissolved and the disaggre-
gation takes place in a very short time. I have only to wash the material in a
reservoir to obtain very fine heckled hemp free from epidermis and perfectly free
from gum.
After this operation I find in the rinsing basins:
1. An upper stratum of liquid fat, insoluble in water and which is easily taken
out by decantation.
2. A dissolution of Pectate which can be obtained integrally either in the state
of gelatinous Pectic acid, if the liquid mass is treated with an acid, or under the
form of a Precipitate of Pectate, if the alkaline bath is fed with the water in which
this salt has been allowed to melt.
3. Some soap which is easily rendered insoluble by the addition of a sufficient
quantity of sea salt to the alkaline baths. The carbonate or alkaline hydrate is
then easily parted from this salt by evaporating the old alkaline baths until they
are perfectly dry and treating the salt work by lixiviation.
On applying my process to China-grass stalks of the last crop, I noticed that the
soaking of this plant in a first bath of fat could be suspended before the complete
impregnation of the barky and textile part, and even entirely suppressed, without
interfering at all with the final result of the operation, the sole object of which is
to extract the aggregated fibres and wash the gum out of them. It struck me
however that the separation of the gum owing to this modification, was afterwards
much more difficult to operate. This improvement, however, only modifies the
other operations in this respect that there is no need when applying it, of taking
out the fut body nor therefore of precipitating formed soap. It is of course
understood that the absolute necessity of turning the Pectose into alkaline Pectate
and of dissolving the alkaline Pectate-all particulars of which I have already
given and which forms an integral part of my invention and process-is never-
theless fully maintained.
It will thus be seen that my process which can be applied on a large scale to
considerable masses of fibres, rests upon the property which all fat bodies possess
to penetrate intimately into the vegetable tissue, to dissolve there and deliquate
the resin like substance, and to remove the latter easily by being transformed and
dissolved into soap. It is by turning into soap the fat body of the plant that
I succeed in decorticating and disaggregating with the greatest facility its textile
fibres, especially those of China grass, for suitably disaggregating which there has
been to this day no practical and industrial means.
Dated thin 15th ..
11005

page_text: I, HERBERT JOHN HADDAN, of 67 Strand in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, a communication to me
from abroad by Louis Emile Vial, Chemist, of Marseilles, France, and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
The fibres of China-grass, of the larger nettle, of hemp, of the the mulberry-tree
and textile plants in general, adhere to each other and to the epidermic sheath
which contains them by means of a resin-like or gummy substance the separation
or the destruction of which generally takes a great deal of time and is often very
difficult. I destroy this adherence, economically and rapidly by the following
process:
After having been stripped of its boon or simply flattened by means of cylinders,
the textile stalk is kept in a bath of oil, oleic acid or any other fat body in a fluid
or saponaceous state, until the barky substance of the plant is fully impregnated,
so that the fat body may dissolve, or deliquate the resin-like or gummy substance
which adheres to that part.
.
Once this first result obtained, I remove the textile stalk which has been freed
of all superfluous fat, by means of a drying process, or by expression, into a second
alkaline bath composed either of an aqueous solution of neutral carbonate of
sodium or potash, or a solution of caustic soda or potash in a sufficiently large
quantity to allow the fat absorbed by the textile stalk in the preceding bath to
transform into a saponaceous fluid in the alkaline bath; in order to increase the
rapidity of the operation, the latter should be maintained at a somewhat high
temperature yet inferior to boiling heat.
When there is no free fat left in the textile stalk-which I easily see by the
spontaneous disaggregation of the epidermic pellicle which covers it-I dip the
scoured material into a third bath of acidified water which not only removes all
superfluous soap, but also decomposes the latter at once and liberates the fat body
which can then be easily removed.
The chemical operation is then at an end. I have only to wash the material in
a reservoir by stirring it, or if need be, by dressing it under the water so as to free
it from all heterogeneous matter, to obtain very fine flax perfectly free from gum
and disaggregated which only requires to be dried, dressed and bleached according
to the processes already known.
.
It is scarcely necessary to add that the soluble soap formed in the alkaline bath
can easily be turned into insoluble soap by the addition of lime water. It is only
necessary to separate the calcareous soap and decompose it by means of sulphuric
acid so as to regenerate and recover almost all of the fat converted into soap.
When the textile plant has been freed by means of a drying process, by
expression or mere dripping, of all the superfluous fat absorbed by it in the first
bath, I dip it into the alkaline bath composed of a solution of alkaline carbonate
or caustic alkali (but preferably of crystallized carbonate of sodium), where I leave
it long enough (from 2 to 4 hours, not more) to allow part of the fat body to
become soap.
The result of this second maceration is that the resin-like substance dissolved
by the fat body is removed with the latter, and that the Pectose, so abunɖant in

page_text: China-grass particularly is turned into an alkaline Pectate. It is true that the
fibre after this maceration does not appear to have lost much of its gum or to be
disaggregated; the reason is that alkaline Pectate is insoluble in the element where
it has been formed, but if I dip the textile plants in a third bath of pure water, or
water slightly acidified the pectic substance is at once dissolved and the dis-
aggregation takes place in a very short time. I have only to wash the material
in a reservoir to obtain very fine hemp, free from epidermis and perfectly free
from gum.
After this operation I find in the rinsing basins: 1) An upper stratum of liquid
fat, insoluble in water & which is easily removed by decantation; 2) A solution of
Pectate which can be obtained integrally either in the state of gelatinous Pectic
acid, if the liquid mass is treated with an acid, or under the form of a precipitate
of Pectate, if the alkaline bath is fed with the water in which this salt has been
allowed to dissolve; 3) Some soap which is easily rendered insoluble by the
addition of a sufficient quantity of sea salt to the alkaline baths. The carbonate or
alkaline hydrate is then easily parted from this salt by evaporating the old
alkaline baths until they are perfectly dry and treating the salt by lixiviation.
On applying my process to China-grass stalks of the last crop, the soaking of
this plant in a first bath of fat could be suspended before the complete impreg-
nation of the barky and textile part, and even entirely dispensed with, without
interfering at all with the final result of the operation, the sole object of which is
to separate the aggregated fibres and wash the gum out of them. The separation
of the gum by this modified process is however, afterwards, much more difficult to
⚫ operate.
This improvement, however, only modifies the other operations in this respect
that there is no need when applying it of removing the fat nor therefore of
precipitating the soap formed. It is of course understood that the absolute
necessity of turning the Pectose into alkaline Pectate and of dissolving the
alkaline Pectate all particulars of which I have already given and which form an
integral part of my invention and process-is nevertheless fully maintained.
It will thus be seen that my process which can be applied on a large scale to
considerable masses of fibres, rests upon the property which all fat bodies possess
of penetrating intimately into vegetable tissue, to dissolve there and deliquate the
resin and like substances and to remove the latter easily by being transformed and
dissolved into soap. It is by turning into soap the fat of the plant that I succeed
in decorticating and disaggregating with the greatest facility its textile fibres,
especially those of China-grass, for suitably disaggregating which there has been to
this day no practical and industrial means.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is :-
The steeping of raw flax, China-grass and other textile vegetable matter for the
purpose of removing the gummy matter therein,
In oil or oleic or other fatty acid, or solution of the same saponified.
In solution of carbonate of soda or potash or caustic soda or potash.
In slightly acidified water.
All substantially as and for the purpose described.