Improvements in and relating to the Treatment of Ramie or China-grass.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 23th Apr., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 25th Jan., 1900-Accepted, 17th Mar., 1900
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to the Treatment of Ramie or
China-grass.
.
I, BAPTISTE HIPPOLYTE SAILLANT, of 56, Rue Rambuteau, Paris, France,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to the treatment of ramie and has for object to improve the
process and the apparatus for the chemical scouring or retting, decorticating, and
ungumming of ramie, so as to enable both green stalks and dry stalks to be treated
in a rational and methodical manner, with a saving in time and labour, a considerable
reduction in loss or waste, and a corresponding reduction in the cost of production of
the utilizable products.
Thus, whilst china-grass loses in ungumming from 30% to 32% and on
combing 30% to 35%, and the decorticated material obtained by the decorticai ng
machines, dry or green, used up to the present, loses under the same conditi os
although being always imperfect and often unfit for use-from 50% to 55% or
from 55% to 60% respectively, the product obtained by the process that I am about
to describe enables one to obtain a yield from dry stalks, or from 15% to 18%, of
❝ lanières " (hereinafter called strips) which are in relation to this china-grass half
ungummed or consequently do not lose more than 15% on ungumming (that
is 50% less than the china-grass) and a yield of from 30% to 35% on combing and
whilst permitting a saving to be obtained of a third in the chemicals employed for
ungumming the china-grass.
As regards the scouring, my process consists essentially in first of all subjecting the
green or dry ramie stalks in a digester vat to the action of a bath composed, for every
hundred parts by weight of water, of:-
:-
1 part by weight of carbonate of soda of 90/92° Baumé,
1 part by weight of caustic soda of 70/72° Baumé, and
1 part by weight of bisulphite of soda of 38° Baumé.
This bath is heated in a closed vessel by a steam worm to a temperature of
preferably about 130° Centigrade, corresponding to a pressure of about three
atmospheres in the digester, and the ramie stalks are left in for about half an hour,
after which they are withdrawn and then plunged into a second bath heated to a
temperature of from 80° to 90° Centigrade and composed of 1 part by weight of
bisulphite of soda per 100 parts by weight of water. This bath, in which the stalks
are allowed to macerate for about a quarter of an hour, has for object to destroy the
caustic remaining in the stalks after they leave the first bath and to facilitate the.
manual operation of taking off the pellicule of breaking, or scutching, the stalks,
coming from the bath, or dried.
For putting this process into practice I use apparatus an example of which is shown
in the accompany drawings, in which
Fig. 1 is an elevation of the complete apparatus
Fig. 2 a section corresponding to the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, and representing the
portion of the apparatus on the right-hand side of that line; and

page_text: Fig. 3 is a plan of the vat on the right-hand side of Fig. 1, the cover being
removed.
The apparatus is composed essentially of two parallel digester vats a and b of any
Each vat is closed by
suitable shape and size as, for example, shown in plan in Fig. 3.
a lid with a digester fastening of any suitable kind.
The lid of the right-hand vat b is supposed to be removed for the purpose of allowing
of charging or of the removal of material that has been treated. The lid c of the
vat a is shown in place in the position that it occupies when the vat is at work. It
carries, in addition to the escape or blow-off cock d, which permits communication
between the interior of the vat and the atmosphere, a safety valve e and a pressure-
gauge f.
At the bottom of each vat there is a worm g or h, in which steam, entering
at g or h, and leaving at g2 or 2 respectively circulates at the pressure required in
order to keep the bath contained in the vat at the proper temperature. Above the
worn a false bottom i or j, prevents the material under treatment from coming into
direct contact with the worm. Each vat is provided in addition with a draining
outlet, or l.
The two vats a and b which are arranged preferably side by side and at the same level,
as shown, are connected by two pipes or passages m and n, in each of which there is
The non-return valves are so
a stop-cock o or p, and a non-return valve q or 1.
arranged that whilst one of them, q for instance, permits the liquid to pass from the
vat b to the vat a in the direction of the arrow x but prevents it in the reverse
direction, the other, 7, permits passage from the vat a to the vat 6 in the direction
of the arrow y, but prevents it in the reverse direction.
Matters being so arranged, the operation is as follows:-
The vat a, for instance, being filled with the No. 1 bath, the composition of which
has been herein before given, and the cocks o and p being closed, the ramie stalks to
be treated are placed in the vat, and the lid c is put in place and properly fastened;
the temperature of the bath is then brought up to about 130° Centigrade (correspond-
ing to about three atmospheres on the pressure gauge f) by passing steam at the
After about half an hour of this treatment,
required pressure through the worm g.
the steam is stopped and the cock p is opened; the bath then passes from the vat a
to the vat b, which has been previously prepared, closed, and fed, in order to
recuperate the bath, with one part per thousand by weight of each of the components
of the new bath or in other words with ten parts by weight of new bath for every
hundred parts of the bath to be recuperated. Then the cock p is closed and one
proceeds next with the vat b as previously with the vat a, and so on, making the bath
pass, up to the point of exhaustion, from one vat to the other, recuperating it by the
addition, after each operation, of the proportion of new bath indicated.
Experience has shown me that one might with advantage recuperate these baths up
to ten times, which, if for example each vat can hold 30 kilogrammes of bath
permitting of the treatment of 200 kilogrammes of stalk at each operation, would give
for a series of ten operations, if all new bath were employed for the first and the bath
were recuperated each time, as explained, for the nine other operations, a total
expenditure of 30 kilogrammes of new bath plus 3 × 9 or 27 kilogrammes
successively added for recuperation ¿.e., in all 57 kilogrammes of No. 1 bath, enabling
2000 kilogrammes of stalks to be treated.
On coming from the first bath the stalks are subjected to the action of the second
bath which is composed as indicated above and which can be fed in the same way and
under the same conditions as the first, the operation being performed in an open
vessel.
After this, the stalks are deprived of their pellicules, broken, or scutched, manually
or mechanically, dried or damped to form strips, which are then submitted to the
process of ungumming.
This ungumming, which is effected in the same apparatus as that described above,
is carried out as follows: —
After having first macerated the strips of ramie or china-grass cold for about five
J
t

page_text: Improvements in and relating to the Treatment of Ramie or
China-grass.
I, BAPTISTE HIPPOLYTE SAILLANT, of 56, Rue Rambuteau, Paris, France, Manu-
facturer, 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:-
This invention relates to the treatment of ramie or china grass (hereinafter called
china-glass) and has for object to improve the process and the apparatus for the
chemical scouring or retting, decorticating, and ungumining of china-grass, so as to
enable both green stalks and dry stalks to be treated in a rational and methodical
manner, with a saving in time and labour, a considerable reduction in loss or waste,
and a corresponding reduction in the cost of production of the utilizable product.
It is known that china-grass loses, in ungumming, from 30% to 32% and, on
combing, 30% to 35 %, and the decorticated product obtained by the decorticating
machines, dry or green, used up to the present, loses under the same conditions-
although always imperfect and often unfit for use-from 50% to 55% or from 55% to
60% in each case respectively. The product obtained by the process that I am about
to describe enables one to obtain a yield from dry stalks, of from 15% to 18% of
" lanières " (hereinafter called strips) which are half gummed or consequently do
not lose more that 15% on ungumming (that is 50% less than the china-grass) and
which do not lose more than from 30% to 35% on combing and this whilst per-
mitting a saving to be obtained of a third in the chemicals employed for ungumming
the china-grass.
As regards the scouring, my process consists essentially in first of all subjecting
the green or dry china-grass stalks in a digester vat to the action of a bath composed,
for every hundred parts by weight of water, of:-
1 part by weight of carbonate of soda of from 90° to 92° (Baumé),
1 part by weight of caustic soda of from 70° to 72° (Baumé), and
1 part by weight of bisulphite of soda of 38° (Baumé).
This bath is heated in a closed vessel by a steam worm to a temperature of
preferably about 130° Centigrade, corresponding to a pressure of about three
atmospheres in the digester, and the china-grass stalks are left in for about half au
hour, after which they are withdrawn and then plunged into a second bath heated to
a temperature of from 80° to 90° Centigrade and composed of 1 part by weight of
bisulphite of soda per 100 parts by weight of water. This bath, in which the stalks
are allowed to macerate for about a quarter of an hour, has for object to destroy the
caustic remaining in the stalks after they leave the first bath and to facilitate the
manual operation of taking off the pellicule of, breaking, or scutching, the stalks,
coming from the bath, or dried.
For putting this process into practice I use apparatus an example of which is
shown in the drawings filed with my Provisional Specification, in which
Fig. 1 is au elevation of the complete apparatus;
Fig. 2 is a section corresponding to the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, and representing the
portion of the apparatus shown on the right hand side of that line ; and
Fig. 3 is a plan of the vat shown on the right hand side of Fig 1, the cover being
.removed.
The apparatus is composed essentially of two parallel digester vats a and b of any
suitable shape and size, as, for example, shown in plan in Fig. 3. Each vat is closed
by a lid with a digester fastening of any suitable kind.
The lid of the right hand vat b is supposed to be removed for the purpose of

page_text: allowing of the charging of the untreated material or of the removal of the treated
material. The lid c of the vat a is shown in place in the position that it occupies
when the vat is at work. It carries, in addition to the escape or blow-off cock d,
which permits communication between the interior of the vat and the atmosphere,
a safety-valve e and a pressure-gauge f. At the bottom of each vat there is a worm
g or h in which steam, entering at g' or h¹, and leaving at g² or h² respectively,
circulates at the pressure required in order to keep the bath contained in the vat at
the proper temperature. Above the worm a false bottom, i or j, prevents the
material under treatment from coming into direct contact with the worm. Each vat
is provided in addition with a draining outlet k or l.
by side and at the same
and n, in each of which
The non-return valves are
The two vats a and b, which are arranged preferably side
level, as shown, are connected by two pipes or passages m
there is a stop-cock o or p, and a non-return valve q or r.
so arranged that whilst one of them, q for instance, permits the liquid to pass from
the vat b to the vat a in the direction of the arrow x but prevents it from passing
in the reverse direction, the other, », permits passage from the vat a to the vat b in
the direction of the arrow y, but prevents it in the reverse direction.
Matters being so arranged, the operation is as follows:-
The vat a, for instance, being filled with the No. 1 bath, the composition of which
has been herein before stated, and the cocks o and p being closed, the china-grass
stalks to be treated are placed in the vat, and the lid c is put in place and properly
fastened; the temperature of the bath is then brought up to about 130° Centigrade
(corresponding to about three atmospheres on the pressure-gauge f) by passing steam
at the required pressure through the worm g. After about half an hour of this
treatment, the steam is stopped and the cock p is opened; the bath then passes from
the vat a to the vat b, which has been previously prepared, closed, and fed, in order to
regenerate the bath, with one part per thousand by weight of each of the components
of new bath or in other words with ten parts by weight of new bath for every hundred
parts of the bath to be regenerated. Then the cock p is closed and one proceeds next
with the vat b as previously with the vat a, and so on, making the bath pass, up to
the point of exhaustion, from one vat to the other, regenerating it by the addition,
after each operation, of the proportion of new bath indicated.
Experience has shewn ine that one might with advantage so regenerate these baths
as to make them serve up to ten times, which, if for example each vat can hold
30 kilogrammes of bath permitting of the treatment of 200 kilogrammes of stalk at
each operation, would give for a series of ten operations, if all new bath were employed
for the first and the bath were regenerated each time, as explained, for the nine other
operations, a total expenditure of 30 kilogrammes of new bath plus 3 × 9 or 27
kilogrammes successively added for regeneration-i.e., in all 57 kilogrammes of No. 1
bath, enabling 2000 kilogrammes of stalks to be treated.
On coming from the first bath the stalks are subjected to the action of the second
bath which is composed as hereinbefore indicated and can be fed in the same way and
under the same conditions as the first, the operation being performed in an open
vessel.
After this, the stalks are deprived of their pellicules, broken, or scutched, manually
or mechanically, dried or damped, to form strips, which are then submitted to the
process of ungumining.
This ungamming, which is effected in the same apparatus as that described above,
is carried out as follows:-
After having first macerated the strips of china-grass cold for about five hours in a
bath which for convenience' sake I will hereinafter call the A-bath composed
of

page_text: On taking the strips from this bath they are dried in a.centrifugal machine.
.In this way an ungummed material is obtained much superior to the products
obtained by processes employed up to now, with a reduction of from 50 % to 60 %
in the consumption of chemicals and fuel.
The strips are or may be next subjected to the action of the so-called preparing
machines, to combing, and, finally, to spinning by the usual or known methods.
The "turning oil" hereinbefore referred to is known commercially in France
under the name of "huile tournante fixée," or of "solubléine." It is an olive oil
which, in contradistinction to ordinary oils which form emulsions with water," turns"
or is changed, on the contrary, into a kind of soap, when poured into water heated
to a temperature of about 50° or 60° C. and agitated therewith.
6.
Turning oil" is a mixture of what is known in France in the trade as "huile de
recence "with "huile d'enfer"; "huile de recence" is olive oil produced by pressing,
after heating by steam, the pulp obtained from oil-cake and is used in the manufacture
of soap; "huile d'enfer" is an oil of disagreeable odour obtained by leaving the
water of the tanks to deposit (see "Dictionnaire de la Chimie" by Villon and
Guichard, Vol. III, article on "huile ").
The process hereinbefore described reduces the cost of production per kilogramme
of strips and thread to a figure much lower than can be attained by the usual
processes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I déclare that what I
claim is
1. The process of chemically scouring or retting and decorticating green or dry
china-grass stalks consisting in first subjecting the stalks in a closed vessel to the
action of a bath which is composed for every hundred parts by weight of water of one
part by weight of carbonate of soda or from 90° to 92° Baumé, one part by
weight of caustic soda of from 70° to 72° Baumé, and one part by weight of

page_text: bisulphite of soda of 38° Baumé, and in which the stalks are left for about half an
hour at a temperature of about 130° Centigrade; and then subjecting the said stalks
in an open vessel to the action of a second bath which is composed of 1 part by
weight of bisulphite of soda per hundred parts by weight of water and in which they
are left to macerate for a quarter of an hour at a temperature of from 80° to 90°
Centigrade, after which the operation of taking off the pellicule, breaking or
scutching the dried or damped stalks is proceeded with, substantially as and for the
purposes described.
2. In carrying out the process according to the preceding claim, regenerating the
bath after each operation by the addition to the bath of a suitable quantity of new
bath, substantially as described.
3. The ungumming of strips of china-grass by macerating them cold for 5 hours in
a first bath composed of 8 parts by weight of sulphuric acid of 53° Baumé and 2 parts
by weight of hydrochloric acid of 22° Baumé for every 1000 parts by weight of water,
next subjecting them in a digester at a pressure of four atmospheres for 2 hours to a
second bath accruing from the recovery, under pressure and without feeding, of a
second bath already employed once and composed of 12 parts by weight of caustic
soda of 70°-72° Baumé, 12 parts by weight of carbonate of soda of 90°-92° Baumé,
and 6 parts of bisulphite of soda of 38° Baumé for every 1000 parts by weight of
water; then subjecting the strips to a cold new maceration for 5 hours in the first
bath, and then to a second treatment for 3 hours in the digester with some fresh
second bath; macerating them for a third time cold in the first bath for five hours ;
and, finally, macerating them for 12 hours in a third bath at 70° Centigrade and
composed of 3 parts by weight of Marseilles soap and 1 part of turning oil for every
1000 parts of water, substantially as described.
4. For ungumming china-grass strips the employment of a bath composed of
sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid and water, substantially in the proportions set
forth.
5. Apparatus for carrying out the operations referred to in Claims 1 and 2, and
in Claim 3, comprising two digester vats connected together so as to allow the
bath, to the action of which the china-grass stalks or strips are to be subjected,
to be passed alternately from one vat to the other, substantially as described
and illustrated by way of example in the drawings filed with my Provisional
Specification.
Dated this 25th day of January 1900
F. WISE HOWORTH,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicant.