Process and Machinery for the Mechanical "Debavage" or Cleaning of Cocoons after Brushing.
Year: 1887

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Process and Machinery for the Mechanical "Debavage" or Cleaning
of Cocoons after Brushing.
I, EDWARD WILLIAM SERRELL junior civil engineer of New York, United States,
temporarily residing in Chabeuil, Department of the Drome, France do hereby declare
the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to bo
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:—
When the cocoons have been submitted to the preliminary operations employed to
soften the gum and to loosen and partially detach the floss, they still have to undergo
another operation before they are ready to be recled :-The "debavage," " purgeage
or cleaning.
"
By the operations of cooking and brushing or their equivalents, the outer floss and
broken ends are to a greater or less extent loosened from the cocoon, but are not, as a
rule, entirely detached from it.
In order that the cocoon may be reeled it is necessary to completely detach the floss
and broken ends, so that the true end will appear issueing from compact layers of
undisturbed filament.
The performance of this work, the "Cleaning" is a hand operation requiring great
skill, patience and labour, without which heavy waste is involved. Every particle of
floss or tangled end which is not removed from the cocoon causes delay in the reeling,
and damage to the whole skein of silk, and the value of every particle which is
removed unecessarily is diminished as a product to a small fraction of its value as silk,
because it can afterwards be utilized only as waste.
As the cleaning has up to this time been done, each cocoon must be delicately taken
by the floss and shaken loose. To make a kilogramme of silk requires about 6000
European cocoons. Each cocoon with good running, averages two brushings and
cleanings, so that to reel a kilogramme of silk the operative has to clean at least
the equivalent of 10,000 cocoons. The labour required is thus very considerable, and
is much more than is supposed if an effort is made to get as much silk as possible.
The following general rules may be considered as governing the operation of
cleaning.

page_text: 1. 10 remove the loss, the best and gentlest means is to agitate the cocoons in hot
water while holding the floss near the cocoon.
20. The cocoon should be as free to move about as possible while this is being
donc.
3°. The water should be boiling.
4°. Repeated agitations in the water while the floss is gently pulled off, are better
than repeated snatchings of the floss from a cocoon at rest upon the water, as usually
practised.
5°. Any given cocoon should be exposed to the boiling water for as short a time as
possible.
It has hitherto been extremely difficult to carry these rules out practically because
the operative cannot support the heat of the water, into which she is obliged to
plunge her fingers, if the water is as hot as it should be, and in any case, she can only
snatch at the cocoons, stopping each time to cool her fingers in cold water.
In order to practically operate my present invention, I add to the water basin or
recipient a special apparatus which also forms part of my present invention. This
apparatus consists essentially in one or several plates or guides, supported above the
water of the basin, having slits, openings or edges against which, at a point near
the surface of the water, the cocoons to be cleaned can be held.
To this apparatus I impart a horizontal or, if necessary, a vertical motion so, that
when the ends of the silk of the cocoons are pressing against an edge or between an
opening, the cocoons are washed to and fro on the surface of the water which detaches
the remainder of the tangled silk which are then pulled up out of the apparatus
either by hand or mechanically and the cocoons are ready to be reeled.
I do not
limit myself to any particular form or disposition for this apparatus as my invention
consists essentially in pulling the ends or frisons" of the cocoons through an
apparatus. which retains the cocoons on or in the water. But, in order to give an idea
of one of the ways in which my invention can be carried out, I now proceed to
described an apparatus which I have constructed and which is now in practical operation
in France at my Workshop, at Chabeuil.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ESSENTIAL PARTS OF THE MACHINE.
A channel or water space is provided, as, for instance, the channel between the
basins A and B fig. 3. Means are provided for heating the water in this channel and
the basins with which it connects. Two plates or guides CC are held over the water,
paralel and a little apart from one another by the supports D D extending to a frame
under the basins. This frame is mounted on a slide so that the plates CC can be
laterally moved back and forth across the channel while conserving their relative
position to one another. Any suitable means, as a crank E, may be used to produce
the motion. The above are the essential parts of the machine but many others may
be added to secure the regularity of speed &c.
OPERATION OF THE MACHINE.
Uncleaned cocoons are put in one basin. A group of forty or fifty are then taken
and their floss slipped between the plates CC. These plates are kept in constant.
motion back and forth in a direction at right angles to the line of the opening between
them. This movement may be of about 8 to 10 centimeters in extent and the crank
producing it may be run at about a hundred revolutions a minute, so that the plates
and their opening have a movement of 8 centimeters each way, one hundred times
per minute or two hundred movements per minute in all.
The simplest way of operating the apparatus is that of drawing the frison by hand,
as shown in fig. 4. The operative having slipped the frison between the plates, gently
pulls upon it so as to gather it in at the rate of two or three metres a minute.
The cocoons which are under the plates immediately begin to act differently one
from another, according to the state of their floss. Those cocoons which are still
A channel or water space is provided, as, for instance, the channel between the
basins A and B fig. 3. Means are provided for heating the water in this channel and
the basins with which it connects. Two plates or guides CC are held over the water,
paralel and a little apart from one another by the supports D D extending to a frame
under the basins. This frame is mounted on a slide so that the plates CC can be
laterally moved back and forth across the channel while conserving their relative
position to one another. Any suitable means, as a crank E, may be used to produce
the motion. The above are the essential parts of the machine but many others may
be added to secure the regularity of speed &c.
OPERATION OF THE MACHINE.
Uncleaned cocoons are put in one basin. A group of forty or fifty are then taken
and their floss slipped between the plates CC. These plates are kept in constant
motion back and forth in a direction at right angles to the line of the opening between
them. This movement may be of about 8 to 10 centimeters in extent and the crank
producing it may be run at about a hundred revolutions a minute, so that the plates
and their opening have a movement of 8 centimeters each way, one hundred times
per minute or two hundred movements per minute in all.
The simplest way of operating the apparatus is that of drawing the frison by hand,
as shown in fig. 4. The operative having slipped the frison between the plates, gently
pulls upon it so as to gather it in at the rate of two or three metres a minute.
The cocoons which are under the plates immediately begin to act differently one
from another, according to the state of their floss. Those cocoons which are still

page_text: surrounded by a mesh of only partially loosened floss are drawn up close to the
opening between the plates, and are washed rapidly back and fourth in the water by
the motion of these latter, so that the floss quickly becomes loosened and dragged up
through the openings between the plates, leaving the cocoon clear. Cocoons which
are more nearly clear part with what remains of their floss more easily and only follow
the movements of the plates in part, so as in effect to be only gently agitated one
way and the other by the floss following the plates as it leaves the cocoons.
which have become thoroughly cleaned give off their ends so freely in the very hot
water that they are scarcely affected by the movements of the plates and in general
remain near one or the other side of the channel, yielding the little length of
filament required by the pulling of the frison, without moving from their place.
Cocoons
As the operative continues to pull up the frison she moves her hand away from the
point at which the cocoons entered the channel and towards the other basin.
At the end of a certain time the cocoons will be found to be cleaned, and the
operative has only to attach the clear filaments which have replaced the frison, to a
peg at the side of the receiving basin, drawing the cocoons out from under the plates
at the same time, and by the act of drawing the filaments up to the peg.
cocoons are now ready to be recled.
The
It is also evident that any suitable mechanism can be substituted for the hand of
the operative, and furthermore that several groups of uncleaned cocoons may be
passed simultaneously along and through the slot during the operation in order to
insure a continuous or nearly continuous feeding.
From the foregoing description of my invention it will easily be understood that
one of its main features is that it is the water itself which causes the agitation of the
Cocoons and keeps them away from the slot or passage by which the frisons are drawn
up, and I expressly reserve the right to this operation either by water currents or
tutions without the unides or in combination with them
10. The improved process for cleaning cocoons consisting substantially in drawing
the frisons or waste of the cocoons through or against an apparatus capable of
agitating the cocoons in the water of a basin and of preventing the said cocoons from
following the said frisons.
2°. The combination in a machine for cleaning cocoons, or removing the waste
therefrom, of a hot water basin and moving plates or guides capable of agitating the
cocoons in the water, and of preventing them from being raised out thereof, while the
frison is being drawn.
30. The combination of the basin A B and the guides CC with a support projecting
over the edge of the basin in such manner that the guides can be set in the required
positions in relation to each other, and leaving a free passage from one end to the
other of the said guides for the passage of the frison.
4°. The combination of the basin A B, guides CC₁ and framework for supporting
the same, with a crank or other suitable device for imparting to the guides the requisite
motion during the operation.
50. In a machine for cleaning or removing the waste from cocoons mechanically,
the combination of the water basin with one or more moveable plates which hold the
cocoons in the water and prevent them from raising while the frisons are being
drawn up either through a slot or passage between the plates, or against the edge of
a plate.
BRANDON & SON,
Agents for Applicant.