IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF FELTED, WOVEN, AND SPUN FABRICS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Oivil Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF FELTED,
WOVEN, AND SPUN FABRICS." -A communication from abroad by
John Thomas Waring, of Yonkers, in the State of New York,
United States of America.
Sealed the 18th November 1873, and dated the 19th August 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward
Newton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 19th August 1873.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF
FELTED, WOVEN, AND SPUN FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention is not only applicable-to-cloths, both felted and woven,
and to yarns; but (and with particular advantage) to folted hats and

page_text: caps made of both wool and fur. The Invention in fact is designed to
be applied to any fabric or goods, either felted, spun, or woven, in which
puro wool or fur is mixed with shoddy or other material containing more
or less of cotton or other vegetable substance which it is difficult or
impossible to separate from the wool or fur, or in which wool is used
containing burrs, or other vegetable or extraneous substances.
.
The Invention consists in in treating fabric made of wool or fur com-
bined with cotton or other vegetable fibre or substance with an acid
solution such as dilute sulphuric acid which will act upon the vegetable
matter but not upon the wool or fur, and will destroy the vegetable fibre
or substance upon the surface of the fabric without injuriously affecting
the wool or fur, and then afterwards removing the acid from the fabric,
or neutralizing the same before dyeing the latter. This treatment of the
mixed fabric is made after it has been woven, spun, formed, or hardened,
and preferably before dyeing, as for instance in the case of felted goods,
at any stage in the process of felting or fulling, or between any two
stages thereof, or after the felting or fulling is completed. By this
treatment the goods may be uniformly dyed, and any speckled appearance
of the same will be avoided, thereby giving the goods the appearance of
all wool or fur. In this way economy of production is combined with
superiority of appearance.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said William
Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th
February 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, sond grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Edward Newton, Her special
licence that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Edward Newton,

page_text: my. executors, administrators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE TREATMENT OF FELTED, WOVEN, AND SPUN FABRICS," being a communica-
tion to me from abroad by John Thomas Waring, of Yonkers, in the
State of New York, United States of America, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors,
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and scals, 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 William Edward Newton, 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 (that is to say) :—
This Invention is not only applicable to the treatment of cloths, both
felted and woven, and to yarns, but (and with particular advantage) to
felt hats and caps made of both wool and fur. The Invention in fact
is designed to be applied to any fabric or goods, either felted, spun, or
woven, in which pure wool or fur is mixed with shoddy or other material
containing more or less of cotton or other vegetable substance which it
is difficult or impossible to separate from the wool or fur, or in which
wool is used containing burs or other vegetable or extraneous substances.
In manufacturing fabrics, including felt hats and caps, from stock of
this description, the vegetable substance in them has heretofore failed
to take the dye in the same manner as the wool or fur when the whole
is dyed together in the made article or fabric, thus giving a. speckled
appearance to the goods, so that what has been gained by using more or
less of shoddy or other cheap material containing vegetable substances
has been in a measure lost by the inferior appearance of the goods.
=
The present Invention consists in treating the fabrics made of wool or
fur combined with cotton or other vegetable fibro or substance with an
acid solution, such as dilute sulphuric acid, which will act upon the

page_text: vegetable matter but not upon the wool or fur, and will destroy the
vegetable fibre or substance upon the surface of the fabric without
injuriously affecting the wool or fur. The acid is afterwards removed
from the fabric or is ncutralized before dyeing the fabric. This treat-
ment of the mixed fabric is made after it has been woven, spun, formed,
or hardened, and preferably before dycing, as for instance in the case of
felted goods at any stage in the process of felting or fulling, or between.
any two stages thereof, or after the felting or fulling is completed. By
this treatment the goods may be uniformly dyed, and any speckled
appearance of the same will be avoided, thereby giving the goods the 1
appearance of all wool or fur. In this way economy of production is
combined with superiority of appearance.
In applying the Invention to (for instance) felt hat or cap bodies the
latter after the same have been formed and hardened, or at any stage in
the process of felting, or between any two of the felting stages, or after 1
the felting is completed, but preferably before dyeing, may be treated in
a bath of sulphuric acid solution, of a strength of from six degrees to
twelve degrees (more or less) of the Beaumé hydrometer, exposing the
hat or cap body therein for a period of from six to eight hours (more or
less). The body should then be dried (with the acid in it) at a tem-
perature of about one hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit (more or
less), and subsequently the acid be neutralized by alkalics or be soaked.
or washed out with water; but neutralizing by an alkali expedites the
process. After this the body is dyed, and should any surface dust remain
consequent on the killing of the vegetable substances it is removed by
the usual operation of pouncing and finishing the hat or cap body, so
that nothing remains on the surface of the latter but wool. By this
treatment a cheap hat or cap of a regular color or uniform dye on its
surface may be produced. Of course the particular kind of acid solution
may be changed, as also its strength; likewise the time of the body's
exposure thereto, and the temperature at which it is dried.
Spun yarns and felted or woven cloths made as described of wool
combined with cotton or other vegetable substances may be treated in
the same manner, such treatment, as in the case of wool or fur hats or
caps, to take place after the goods have been formed, that is, spun,
woven, or, where the goods are felted ones, hardened, or at any stage in
the fulling or felting process, or between any two of the felting stages,
or after the fulling or felting has been completed, but preferably before

page_text: dyeing, the result being a cheap spun yarn, or woven or felted cloth,
of a regular color or uniform dye on its surface, by reason of the killing
of the vegetable substances by the acid and subsequent neutralization or
washing out of the acid.
Having now described the Invention. which has been communicated
to me by my foreign correspondent, and having explained the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I claim as the Invention secured to me
by Letters Patent as aforesaid, the treatment of felted and woven fabrics,
and also woollen yarns, by means of an acid solution, substantially as
and for the purpose or purposes herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Eighteenth day of February, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.