IMPROVE- MENTS IN SIZING, DRESSING, OR PREPARING YARNS OR THREADS AND WOVEN. FABRICS OF COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, APPLICABLE ALSO TO COLOURING THE SAID YARNS OR THREADS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Wilkinson, of Manchester, in the .
County of Lancaster, Yarn Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SIZING, DRESSING, OR PREPARING YARNS OR THREADS AND WOVEN.
FABRICS OF COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, APPLICABLE ALSO TO
COLOURING THE SAID YARNS OR THREADS."
Sealed the 3rd June 1873, and dated the 6th December 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Wilkinson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 6th December 1872.
I, FREDERICK WILKINSON, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Yarn Agent,. do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZING, DRESSING, OR PREPARING YARNS OR THREADS AND
WOVEN FABRICS OF COTTON AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, APPLICABLE ALSO
TO COLOURING THE SAID YARNS OR THREADS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in a method of treating yarns of cotton and,
other fibrous materials and woven fabrics thereof, whereby I can
impregnate them with China clay (now used for that purpose) or with

page_text: similar substances in such manner as to render them permanently
attached thereto. For this purpose I pass the yarns or threads or
woven fabrics, or otherwise apply to them a mixture of China clay or
similar substance and another which may subsequently be rendered
insoluble.
In carrying out my Invention I take China clay and commercial
albumen derived from the blood of animals, and having mixed them
together the yarn or thread or woven fabric is passed through the
composition and subsequently submitted to the action of heat, which by
coagulating the albumen renders it insoluble and imprisons as it were
the China clay or similar substance. Or the albumen may be applied
subsequently to the China clay or other such substance. I propose also
to substitute coloring matters for the China clay, and when yarns or
threads are thus treated a winding thereof for subsequent weaving may
be avoided, which according to the present process of dyeing is
necessary.
The proportions of China clay or similar material and albumen will
simply depend upon the quantity it is desired to add, so as to afford
according to ordinary requirements a certain effect.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Wilkinson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 6th June 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
WILKINSON, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Yarn Agent,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of December, One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Frederick Wilkinson, Her special license that I, the said Frederick
Wilkinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Frederick Wilkinson, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
י'

page_text: 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 SIZING,
DRESSING, OR PREPARING YARNS OR THREADS AND WOVEN FABRICS OF COTTON
AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, APPLICABLE ALSO TO COLOURING THE SAID YARNS
OR THREADS," upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the said
Frederick Wilkinson, 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 Frederick Wilkinson, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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:-
:-
My Invention consists, firstly, in a method of dressing yarns or threads
of cotton and other fibrous materials and woven fabrics requiring such
treatment whereby the China clay or similar material now employed for
dressing is more permanently attached to the fibres. For this purpose
I employ a combined treatment of China clay and albuminous matter,
the latter of which being subsequently rendered insoluble by coagulation
imprisons as it were the said China clay or other such substance.
In carrying out my Invention I use for yarns or threads the ordinary
"slasher " or other seizing machine now employed, but instead of
charging the sizing trough with the usual composition I place therein
a mixture of albumen of commerce, or as it is sometimes called serum,
dissolved in water, and add thereto a quantity of China clay, the quantity
of which will vary according to the character of the sizing intended
to be imparted just as it now does in the ordinary process.
As the tapes
of yarn are formed they pass through the mixture and become impreg-
nated therewith as with the ordinary size, and they then pass through
the usual squeezing rollers whereby the superfluous quantity is removed.
I now conduct the yarns or threads through any suitable chamber'
heated in any convenient manner to about 300° Ft., and as they pass
through this chamber the albumen becomes coagulated and insoluble
and is consequently together with the China clay or other such sub-

page_text: stance, fixed to the fibres. The temperature mentioned I have formed
to answer the purpose, but coagulation will take place as is well known
at a lower temperature, and the completeness of that conversion will vary
with the time that the yarns are subjected to the heat, and this will of
course be regulated by the length of the chamber employed and the
speed at which the said yarns travel, particulars which experience will
readily supply. After this coagulating process the yarns or threads are
beamed as usual.
According to the usual method of seizing yarns or threads, they are
dried by being passed over cylinders which are heated by steam, but it
will have been seen that I do not mention these cylinders as being used
in the practice of my Invention, for I have found when that has
been done that the albumen is taken from the yarn by the surfaces of
the said cylinders, and is coagulated thereon. For that reason I use
instead the heated chamber above-mentioned; if however the yarns are
simply dried without the albumen being completely coagulated that
process may be completed by their passage over the surface of heated
cylinders.
In place of the above-described method the operation may be varied
by using two troughs, the first containing China clay or other such matter
mixed with water and the second an albuminous solution. The yarns
having passed through the first of these and having taken up the clay
are relieved of the superfluous quantity of moisture by squeezing rollers
or other such apparatus, after which they are dried in any convenient
manner and drawn through the albumen solution, the following treat-
ment being the same as that first described. Another variation in the
process may be adopted by sizing the yarns in the usual manner with
starch and China clay or other substances now employed for that purpose,
and then albumenizing them to be coagulated as above described.
"
In the treatment of woven fabrics the process is conducted in a
similar manner, excepting that those ordinary parts of sizing machines
which are provided for manipulating yarns are not used, the fabric being
drawn into the trough or troughs and through the heated chamber from
a beam, pleats, or other ordinary arrangement.
Another part of my Invention, and based upon the same principle as
that already described, consists in a method of colouring yarns or
threads. For this purpose I use the albumen or serum and combine

page_text: therewith a pigment or other colouring matter instead of or in combi-
nation with the China clay or other such substance, and this combination
may be effected as above described, either in one or in more than one
troughs, the process being varied in precisely the same manner,
except that for the purpose of this part of my Invention I add pig-
ments or other colouring matter to be subsequently imprisoned by the
coagulation of the albumen.
By adopting this method of colouring yarns or threads it will be seen
that a winding process now adopted is rendered unnecessary, because
they are coloured during the operation of sizing and beaming, and are
consequently ready for being woven, while according to the ordinary
method they have to be wound after having been dyed.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said In-
vention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I
believe it to be understood that I claim as secured to me under the
above in part recited Letters Patent,―
Firstly, and as applied to yarns or threads and woven fabrics, treating
them with albuminous matter and China clay or other such substance
either separately or in combination, and subsequently to a process for
coagulating the albuminous matter.
Secondly, as applied to yarns or threads, treating them with albu-
minous substance and pigments, or other colouring matter, separately
or in combination and subsequently coagulating the albumen.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Wilkinson, have here-
unto set my hand this Fifth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
FREDK. WILKINSON. (L.S.)