Improvements in the Method of and Means for "Mercerising” Yarn..
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Dec., 1898-Accepted, 4th Feb., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Method of and Means for "Mercerising”
Yarn..
I, JOSHUA ENTWISLE, of the Firm of E. K. Dutton & Co., of 5, John Dalton
Street, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Fellow of the Chartered Institute
of Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this invention (communicated
to me from abroad by Bernhard Cohnen, of Grevenbroich, in the Empire of
Germany, Manufacturer and Machine Maker) and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
-
My said invention relates to improvements in means for mercerising vegetable
fibres as is well understood.
Under present practice it is customary to put the fibres under tension or stretch
the same either during the process of mercerising or afterwards.
An alternative plan is sometimes adopted of chemically treating the material
prior to mercerising with the object of preventing shrinkage of the goods during
the mercerising treatment.
My improved method of mercerising consists in subjecting the fibres during the
mercerising process to a rapid alternate stretching and releasing action.
I have found by experiment by so putting the fibres alternately under tension
and releasing them from such tension that the goods obtain a better lustre and
silky appearance than can be obtained by the processes at present employed.
This rapid alternate stretching and slackening of the material is effected by
suitable means.
For instance the hanks may be mounted upon a pair of revolving rollers and the
periphery of one, or it might be of both rollers, being formed of two, three or more
staves so that as the rollers revolve, the unequal periphery or peripheries exert
alternately a rapid stretching and slackening action on the hanks of fibrous
material.
The accompanying sheet of drawings illustrates this method more clearly.
In Fig. 1 the hank yarn is disposed around two rollers shown in cross section
which are driven on their axes by any suitable means.
One of these rollers is circular but the other roller b consists of two end discs ce
mounted upon a shaft d and between the discs, so as to form an unequal or
excentric periphery, I mount three staves e.
Fig. 2 shows a view of the rollers a and b at right angles to Fig. 1.
In Fig. 1 the yarn is under tension or is being stretched but when the staves
assume the position shown in Fig. 3 the yarn is slackened.
Any known means or apparatus may. be employed in conjunction with the
described rollers to effect the mercerising process.
For instance an apparatus for sizing hank yarn and described in the Specification
of Letters Patent No. 23993 of 1896 is admirably adapted for the mercerising of
Sbres in the hank, one or both of the rollers of each pair being formed with staves
as illustrated so as to secure the requisite alternate stretching and slackening of
the fibres. Instead of constructing the rollers as described plain rollers may be

page_text: employed one or both of them being mounted excentrically which would also act
to put the yarn under a rapid alternate stretching and releasing action.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is:
1. The improved process of mercerising vegetable fibres consisting in subject-
ing the material during the mercerising process to a rapid alternate stretching and
releasing action substantially as described.
2. In mercerising vegetable fibres the employment of a pair of rollers for carry-
ing the yarn, the periphery of one, or both, of such rollers being formed of staves
or arranged excentrically to the axis of the roller so as to effect a rapid alternate
stretching and releasing action on the yarn substantially as described and
illustrated.
Dated this 17th day of December 1898.
For the Applicant,
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
Chartered Patent Agents, 5, John Dalton Street, Manchester.