CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZEING, STIFFENING, AND FINISHING TEXTILE FABRICS OR MATERIALS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Greenwood, of Irwell Springs, near Bacup, in
the County of Lancaster, Turkey Red Dyer, for the Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZEING, STIFFENING, AND FINISHING TEXTILE FABRICS OR
MATERIALS."
Sealed the 18th May 1855, and dated the 13th January 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Greenwood at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th January 1855.
I, JOHN GREENWOOD, of Irwell Springs, near Bacup, in the County of
Lancaster, Turkey Red Dyer, do hereby declare the nature of my said Inven-
tion for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZEING, STIFFENING, AND FINISHING TEXTILE
FABRICS OR MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, first, in the use of barley flour for such purposes;
secondly, in the use of barley flour, combined or mixed with chloride of
calcium or chloride of magnesium (commonly called muriate of lime and
muriate of magnesia), for such purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Greenwood in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th July 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GREENWOOD, of Irwell Springs, near Bacup, in the County of Lancaster, .
Turkey Red Dyer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Greenwood, Her special license that I, the said John
Greenwood, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said John Greenwood, my executors, administrators, or 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
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZEING, STIFFENING, AND FINISHING, TEXTILE FABRICS
OR MATERIALS, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Greenwood, 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 John Greenwood, 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, first, in the making or producing of a new description
of size, which I make of barley flour, for the purpose of sizeing, stiffening, and
finishing textile fabrics materials; and, secondly, in the making and producing
of a new description of size of barley flour, combined or mixed with chloride of
calcium or chloride of magnesium (commonly called muriate of lime and
muriate of magnesia), for the purposes of sizeing, stiffening, and finishing
textile fabrics and materials.
In using barley flour for making a sizeing material (which may be called
barley size), I take (say) for example, two hundred and forty pounds of barley
flour, ground in the same manner as wheaten flour is usually ground, for the
purpose of being made into size, and I mix it with fifty gallons of water (either
in a vessel that has had stale "blend" or old size in it before, or I mix a little
old blend" with it,) and allow the whole to remain nine or ten days in any
convenient vat or vessel at a temperature of about eighty degrees or ninety
degrees, when it will have been sufficiently worked or fermented. Instead of
mixing the barley flour with water and blend, it may be mixed with fifty

page_text: gallons of bran liquor at the temperature above mentioned. The quantity, of
bran liquor which I have mentioned I make by infusing from, about ten or
twelve pounds of wheaten bran in water, at a temperature of about one hun-
dred and twenty degrees or one hundred and thirty degrees of Fahrenheit, in
three successive portions, allowing the bran to be infused about ten minutes in
each of those three portions of water. The barley flour having been mixed
with the bran liquor, at the temperature of about eighty degrees or ninety
degrees, in the proportions above mentioned, I allow it to remain in a vat
or other convenient vessel about nine or ten days, in order that it may be
sufficiently worked or fermented. The product obtained by either of those pro-
cesses is, then to be boiled with as much water as may be necessary to make
size of the required consistence; after which the size thus produced may be used
in the regular way, as is well understood in the ordinary processes of sizeing,
stiffening, &c., except for bleached white goods, or for printed, or dyed, or
finished goods. For printed, dyed, white, or finished goods, I take the fer-
mented mixture, after it has been worked or fermented in manner above
mentioned, but before it has been boiled, and I wash it about three times in
fifty or sixty gallons of fresh water, to deprive it of its acid and other, soluble
impurities, each time agitating and thoroughly mixing it with the water, and
then allowing the mixture to remain in a state of rest until the washed mate-
rial subsides; after which I decant or drain off the water, leaving the washed
material at the bottom of the vessel, and repeat the operation until I have
washed away the acid and other soluble impurities. When the fermented.
material has been sufficiently washed in this way, I strain it through a fine
sieve to separate it from any bran or impurities which it may contain; and as
it would be difficult to pass it through a sieve when alone or unmixed with any
material, I wash it through the sieve by means of clean water. The strained
material is then to be boiled with as much water as may be necessary to make.
size of the required consistence, and for this purpose the whole or a portion of
the water by which the strained material has been washed through the sieve
may be retained amongst it. The boiling is performed in the way usually
adopted in making wheaten flour size, after which it is ready for use in the
ordinary process of sizing, stiffening, and finishing, &c. The size may be made
of barley flour without being worked or fermented, as above described; in which.
I take two hundred and forty pounds of barley flour, and mix it with
from about eighty to one hundred gallons of water, and with four or five quarts
of acetic acid of nine degrees of Twaddle's hydrometer, and then boil it in the
usual way, adding from time to time as much water as may be necessary to
case

page_text: make size of the required consistence; after which it may be used for the
sizing, stiffening, &c. of unfinished goods in the ordinary manner, as well
understood.
Secondly, when I make a size composed of barley flour, combined or mixed
with chloride of calcium or chloride of magnesium (commonly called muriate
of lime and muriate of magnesia), for the purposes of sizing or stiffening, I
take two hundred and forty pounds of barley flour, and mix forty or fifty gallons
of water with it; I then add one hundred gallons of a solution of muriate of
lime or of muriate of magnesia in water of forty degrees of Twaddle's hydro-
meter, and also three or four quarts of acetic acid of nine degrees of Twaddle's
hydrometer, then add water sufficient to make up the whole quantity to about
two hundred gallons, and boil in the ordinary manner, as is well understood;
after which it will be fit for use. When the size is to be applied to textile
goods for "finishing," I take two hundred and forty pounds of barley flour, and
mix with it one hundred and twenty gallons of water, one hundred gallons of
a solution of muriate of lime, or one hundred gallons of a solution of muriate
of magnesia (such as above mentioned), and boil the mixture until it becomes
clear and transparent; then add two quarts of acetic acid of nine degrees
Twaddle's hydrometer, the whole to be well mixed together; after which
it may be used in the ordinary manner of sizing and stiffening, as is well
understood.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is performed, I hereby declare that I do not claim as of my Invention
any of the several processes herein-before referred to separate or apart from
the use or application thereof in the making of size of barley flour for the
sizeing, stiffening, and finishing textile fabrics or materials; but what I claim
as my Invention is, the making or producing of a size for sizeing, stiffening,
and finishing textile fabrics or materials from barley flour, either alone or in
combination with other substances, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Greenwood, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Tenth day of July, One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-five.
JOHN GREENWOOD. (L.S.)