CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FIBROUS SUB- STANCES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Armand Le Comte de Fontaine Mo-
reau, of the English and Foreign Patent Office, 4, South Street,
Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, for the
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FIBROUS SUB-
STANCES."A communication.
Sealed the 7th June 1853, and dated the 14th February 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Armand Le
Comte de Fontaine Moreau at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th February 1853.
I, PETER ARMAND LE COMTE DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of the English
and Foreign Patent Office, 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, and
39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, do hereby declare the nature of the
Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FIBROUS SUB-
STANCES" to be as follows:-
-The Invention consists in drying fibrous substances in order to
obtain their absolute desiccation. I effect this by means of a current
of air heated to a high degree of temperature, the greatest part of
the humidity of the said heated air having been previously with-
drawn. To obtain this I cause the heated air to pass through sub-

page_text: stances or chemical.compounds, having a great affinity for water,
and by using forcing or sucking pumps, or of bellows acting with a
continuous blast. The dry and heated air acted upon by the
aforesaid nechanical means passes either from bottom to top, or
vice versa, or again horizontally through the apparatus containing
the wool, silk, or other fibrous substances with which it may be in
immediate contact.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said Peter Armand Le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th August
1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
PETER ARMAND LE COMTE DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of the English and
Foreign Patent Office, 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, and 39,
Rue de l'Ecchiquier, Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Peter Armand Le Comte de Fon-
taine Moreau, Her special licence that I, the said Peter Armand
Le Cointe de Fontaine Moreau, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter Armand Le Comte de Fon-
taine Moreau, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should át:
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times!
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
night make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man;
an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FIBROUS SUB-
STANCES," communicated to me from a foreigner residing abroad, upon.

page_text: the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Peter Arinand Le
Comte de Fontaine Moreau, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain 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 Peter Armand Le Comte de
Fontaine Moreau, do hereby declare the nature of the 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,.
reference being had to the figures of the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters of reference marked therein, that is to say:
The Invention communicated to me consists in the drying of
fibrous substances, such as silk, wool, cotton, &c., to produce by
their absolute and complete dessiccation the dilatation and expansion
of their fibres by means of a current of air heated to a high tein-
perature, which may be obtained from any suitable caloric generator,
heated either by the combustion of a solid, liquid, or gaseous
matter. I separate from the air some of the moisture it may con-
tain by compelling it to pass through substances or: chymical
compounds having a strong affinity for water, such as lime, chloride
of calcium, &c. &c. To generate the required caloric I inake-use
of a stove, or of any other apparatus having the convenient form
and dimension for heating the air by thin surfaces, without
allowing the hot air to mix with smoke and gases created by the
combustion; this generator is surrounded by a casing, and the. cold
air which is to be heated is called in at a distance from the fire-
place.
✓
;
Figure 1, of the Drawing represents a section of a drying' appa-
ratus, in which A, A, is a tube conveying the products of the com-
bustion into the space B, B, formed between two cylindrical casings
C, C, and D, D. An internal tube E, E, surrounded by tube A, A,
serves to bring the heated air produced by the generating apparatus

page_text: into the space G, G, between the casing D, D, and the partition
H, H, of the chamber K. I, I, are interstices prepared in the
upper part of the chamber K, serving to introduce the heated air
from the space G, G, into the interior of the said chamber K, which
encloses the substances to be dried and expanded. L, L, is a
tube putting the chamber K, in communication with a chimney.
M, M, pipe for discharging into the chimney the products of com-
bustion after they have circulated through the space B, B, and the
heated air after having acted on the fibrous substances. S, S, keys,
registers, or taps, serving to regulate the current of heated air, and
S', the rapidity of the combustion. T, T, is the lid of the bell or
chamber K, for introducing the substances, and is provided with
a slide affording an ingress to the rod of the balance and thermo-
meter Z, provided outside with a scale. The air being heated
ascends naturally into the tube E, and reaching G, G, enters the
chamber K, by the interstices I, I, traverses K, from the top to the
bottom parts, and is drawn off by the discharge tube L, L, in
communication with a chimney or sucking pump. The heated air
is replaced by a fresh supply of cold air, which in turn is heated
and so on continually, which therefore establishes the current.
Figure 2, represents a section of another dessiccating. apparatus,
in which A, A, represents the tube bringing the products of com-
bustion into the space B, B, which forms the double casing of the
chamber D; C, C, tube inside A, A, supplying heated air to the
chamber D, which contains the fibrous substances to be operated
upon. In this apparatus the current of heated air operates from
the lower to the upper part of the chamber D. It escapes from
the last laterally by means of the interstices E, E, to the space G, G,
and is conveyed hence through the tube H, H, which is in commu-
nication with a chimney or a sucking pump. I, I, discharge pipe,
to carry into the chimney the products of the combustion after
their having circulated into the double casing B, B, and also
the heated air after it has operated upon the fibrous substances.
M, M, are registers, keys, or taps, serving to regulate the current

page_text: of heated air, and M', the combustion; P, P, is the lid for introdu-
cing the fibrous substances into D, having a slide which affords a
passage for the rod of the scale, and a thermometer T, with an out-
side graduated scale.
1
The herein described apparatuses. can be constructed of wrought
or cast iron, brass, or other metal or suitable material, their capacity
and forms varying in order to facilitate the operation, and according
to the quantity and nature of the substances which are to be
operated upon. I do not limit myself therefore to the form shewn
by the Figures of the Drawing, nor to the number of casings which
surround the chambers K, and D, nor either to the quantity of
pipes conducting the cold and heated air, or to the means by which
the heat is obtained.
When the draft produced by the chimney is not sufficiently
strong I make use of a forcing and sucking pump, of. rotative bel-
lows, or of any other apparatus producing the same effect; that is
to say, attracting the air, or forcing it over the absorbent : agents
herein-before mentioned, and being heated to cause it to pass through
the substances on which I operate. One fire-pláce can generate át
the same time the caloric for many apparatuses, a single sucking
and forcing pump or other machine, producing the same effect, can
also suffice for working several apparatuses.
I have herein-before represented in Figures I and II.. the fibrous
substances introduced into a recipient or chamber having the form
of an inverted bell from the top of the apparatus; but in a large
apparatus, the top of it being shut, I introduce the substances.to be
treated by one or two lateral openings. Whatever may be the
shape and dimension of the apparatus, the principle on which they
are constructed is always the same, namely, to heat the air until it
is ready for operating, and, the air current being interrupted, to
maintain by the radiation of heat a high temperature around the
substances which are treated.
The water contained in the fibrous substances is drawn out by
the current of heated air as soon as it becomes in a state of steain

page_text: .
by the effect of the caloric, and the heated air, regulated as before
described, acts at the same time with all the power generated by the
unintermittent supply of caloric which it is receiving on the fibrous
substances which it dries and expands. The rapid expansion of
the fibres of the silk has the very great advantage of opening its
pores, and of rendering it fit for labsorbing and keeping a larger
quantity of dyeing stuffs, giving in the meantime more covering
and feel to the tissue.
I must observe, that cocoons are placed into the drying apparatus
upon moveable trays. or baskets to which a rotary motion can be
given. The operation on a large scale, such as a bale of silk, dries
and enlarges rapidly the fibres, and when operating upon cocoons
renders a larger amount of silk more easily wound up. The chry-
salises being in part dried, the cocoons are in a better state of
préservation.
To ascertain that the dessiccation of the silk or other fibrous sub-
stances is absolute.and. complete.I weigh them in the apparatus
which has been used for their dessiccation, having previously stopped
the current of the heated air in order that the operation of weighing
could take place in a steady medium. If the dessiccation is complete
and absolute, the weights.placed. in the scale will remain in equili-
brium with the fibrous substances. This last operation takes place
at a temperature of about two hundred and twenty degrees to two
hundred and thirty. degrees Fahrenheit: .::
And having now. described the Invention communicated to me,
and the best manner of performing the same, I wish it to be under-
stood that. I do not claim as the Invention any of the apparatus
herein. described, and I do not confine myself to the precise details
herein-before described, nor to any special form, dimension, or pro-
portion of apparatus, as the same.may be varied without departing
from the nature of the said Invention.; but what I do claim as the
Invention, and intend to be protected by the aforesaid Letters
Patent, is -
The mode of treating silk and other fibrous substances to obtain

page_text: their absolute and complete dessiccation by means of a current of
dry and hot air raised to a high degree of temperature, as herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Armand Le Comte de
Fontaine Moreau, have hereto set my hand and seal, this
Thirteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
A. E. DONIOL.
L' DE FONTAINE MOREAU. (L.S.)