Improvements connected with the Manufacture of Yarns and Fabrics from Waste Silk, and with the Washing of the Resulting Material or of the Clothing Produced therefrom.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 28th July, 1891-Accepted, 5th Sept., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements connected with the Manufacture of Yarns and Fabrics
from Waste Silk, and with the Washing of the Resulting Material
or of the Clothing Produced therefrom.
A communication from BRUNO BEYER, of 627 Steinweg, Grossenhain, in the
Empire of Germany, Botanist and Physician.
I ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
M.I.M.E., 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 :-
Silk clothes are universally appreciated, not only because more pleasant to the
touch than any other material, but also because more healthy, inasmuch as silk will
not absorb the emanations from the human body, and provided it has no smell of
its own, will remain inodorous after wearing.
These properties would undoubtedly ensure silk clothes a general preference
over others were it not for their costliness.
Now the object of this invention is to enable sanitary underclothing of waste raw
silk (burr "bourrette") to be produced, which, while possessing the good qualities
of silk goods, will not be much more expensive than if they were made of wool.
This object may not, however be satisfactorily accomplished unless the waste
silk or burr is so treated as to be freed from the offensive smell which it is well
known to retain owing to the bast adhering to it, and which even the ordinary
chemical bleaching cannot remove; or unless it is made incapable of readily
absorbing and retaining surrounding odours as in its natural condition it is rather
apt to do.
In order, therefore, to render yarn made of silk-burr, or the fabrics manufactured
therefrom free from, and proof against, offensive odours, it is necessary to submit
the same both to a mechanical and a chemical treatment. In a bath prepared with
oil-soap, the yarn or fabric is boiled for 15 minutes daily for a number of days.
When removed from the bath the material is washed in cold water, and then
conveyed into a steam bath in which it is left for several hours. While in this
bath the material is sprinkled with a thin layer of chloride of sodium (common
salt). The salt is dissolved by the steam and caused thoroughly to permeate the
yarn or fabric. After steaming, the material is again washed and then, while yet
meist, spread for bleaching on the turf, or else conveyed into a drying chamber in
which a moderate temperature is maintained. After drying, the material is
removed and submitted to the same treatment next day, i.e. again placed into a
soap-bath, and so on. This operation is repeated daily for preferably at least
20 days, after which the material is suspended in a water course so as to be
thoroughly washed by the water as it flows. This is continued for 24 hours. The
yarn or fabric will then be found to have assumed a dull white colour and become
perfectly inodorous. When this result is attained, the material is fit for use in
making articles of wearing apparel, underclothing, or the like. It should not be
dyed, but the finished articles must be washed in a cold water bath containing
permanganate of potash and then once more steeped in a weak solution of chloride
of sodium. The same solution should be used for washing the clothes when worn.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The process of treating waste raw silk or hurr consisting in steaming the warn

page_text: or fabrics with the addition of chloride of sodium (common salt) for the purpose
specified.
2. The treatment of silk waste with repeated oil-soap, cold water and salt-steam
baths, bleaching or drying and the ultimate application of running cold water
substantially as and for the purpose specified..
3. In the preparation of silk, waste for, the manufacture of clothing the
combination with the treatment described in Claim two of the treatment of the
finished articles with permanganate of potash.
Dated this 28th day of you
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.