IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF PREPARING FLAX OR SIMILAR FIBROUS MATERIAL, AND RENDERING IT FIT FOR SPINNING AND WEAVING
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Hill Dickson, of Evelyn Street, Lower
Road, Deptford, in the County of Kent, Flax Manufacturer and
Flax Machinist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PROCESS OF PREPARING FLAX OR SIMILAR FIBROUS MATERIAL, AND
RENDERING IT FIT FOR SPINNING AND WEAVING."
Sealed the 9th May 1854, and dated the 11th November 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Hill Dickson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 11th November 1853.
I, JAMES HILL DICKSON, do hereby declare the nature of, the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF PREPARING FLAX OR
SIMILAR FIBROUS MATERIAL, AND RENDERING IT FIT FOR SPINNING AND
WEAVING," to be as follows:-
By these improvements I separate the flax fibres and desolve the
gummy & resinous matter contained in flax, hemp, Chinese grass, and
New Zealand flax, whereby the fibres are made finer. more silk like,

page_text: and better adapted for spinning and manufacturing; the same process
being applicable to the preparation of cocoa nut, aloc, and plantain
fibre; also improvements in joining the plantain fibres so that it may
be manufactured without being spun.
The first part of the Invention or process consists in improvements
in releasing the fibres of the flax & hemp plants from the green color
adhesive matter that is contained in the fibres, after being separated
from the straw on which it has been produced, by the Inventor's patent
machinery without the water retting system, on the application of any
of the lately discovered systems in which acids are deposited on, causing
decomposition and rottenness to the fibre; the applicant being able by
this Invention to prepare flax & other fibres without the process of
decomposition, and to collect all the fibre from the straw, producing
fully a third more in weight than if decomposition or any other method
of preparing the fibre had been resorted to, & also to prepare flax without
being scutched, saving the expence and great loss in that process.
The flax straw having been prepared as it is taken from the field in
the green state by Dickson's patent machine, without any mode of
steeping or retting, is operated on as follows:-Long flax being the
most valuable, the green fibre is bound by india-rubber bands in lots of
about as much as a man can grasp in his hand; these lots are placed in
five drawers with a grate-like bottom, all of which are filled with the
fibre; the drawers are then placed one over the other in a skeleton
frame, made to also fit vats that are made to receive them; the vats then
being half filled with one gallon of cows urine to every 6 gallons of
water, the skeleton frame & drawers are lowered into the vat, & the
steam being let on, the liquid is brought up to 100 degrees temperature,
& kept at that heat for 2 hours. These skeleton vats being suspended
by a crank shaft which can be worked by the engine are then put in
motion, and as they rise up and down in the vats the liquid ascends and
'descends through the grate-like drawers & through the fibre, and a
charger with water heated to water boil, 210 degrees temperature, being
elevated above the vats, supply them with fresh water to wash away the
impurities that the liquid had desolved, & the liquid being let off into
a manure tank made to receive it, the washing out by the fresh water

page_text: commences by the crank shaft being again put in motion for one hour,
when it will be found the gum-like substance or matter has been almost
got rid of, and any shives or woody parts that had not been broken off
the fibre will be perfectly free and very much washed away over the
sides of the vats by the rise & fall of the skeleton frame & drawers
containing the flax; the contents of the drawers are then passed through
Dickson's wringing machine on an endless band, and is then prepared
for the next process.
The second part of the process or Invention consists in the following
mode of finally discharging all the gummy or glutinous matter, &
freeing the fibre from everything that is adhesive, but retaining the oily
& natural silk-like appearance that well-prepared flax possesses:-
Vat No. 2, being fitted with a skeleton frame & drawers like No. 1 vat,
is then charged with 160 gallons of water, and the steam being turned
on it is boiled or brought up 210 degrees; 40 lbs. of soap is cut up
& thrown into the above quantity of water, and when desolved and
properly mixed by stirring with a pole, 112 lbs. of the washed flax, still
bound as before in the india-rubber bands, is placed on the drawers and
emersed in the vat & kept 3 hours in the boiling state, 2 hours steady
boil and one hour with the crank shaft at work. By this process the
soap water is forced up through the drawers & flax, & finally splits &
separates the finest fillaments of the fibre, not as scutching machinery
of any description would do it, by cutting or scrapeing, but simply
by the force of the heated water, softened the soap, so as to extract
all discoloring and other adhesive matter that binds the fibre together.
This soap boil leaves in its natural silk-like glossy appearance without
in any way causing weakness to the fibre, and prepares to be colored or
dyed and worked in with silk or wool. Flax so prepared will make
stronger & better yarn for linen or cambric, for as it will not require
being boiled, as the manufacturers do it, in soda ash or dropped in
manganeese, which weakens & reduces its weight, and renders it finer
& weaker, the manufacturer will have the advantage of having good
hard yarn weightier than boiled yarn and equally as fine in the thead,
& no impurities being in the twisted thread the finishing or bleaching
process of linen or cambric made from flax so prepared will not be

page_text: attended with the risk or expence that is now incurred, and what is
of more & the greatest importance, the goods when finished will not
be found to fall or reduce, as often fine goods do, to a thin rag when
bleached, although when gray they appear as strong cloth.
Finally, the finishing parts of the Invention or system are, viz., the
contents of No. 2 drawers are passed through the ringing machine and
placed in the drawers of No. 3 vat, which is half filed with water heated
to 100 degrees, and the crank shaft being worked one hour the soap
& all impurities, the resin or gummy matter, loose shives, &c. &c.,
are all forced up to the top by the pressure downwards of the drawers;
and the supply of clear water from the charger and the constant action
of the crank shaft forces the sheves to float over the sides of the vats
.until every particle is got rid of. The contents of No. 3 drawers are
then taken out & placed on the endless band of the wringing machine,
and the flax is by this process finished and ready to be got dried and
hackled for market..
The Inventor claims his right of Patent for the same process or
liquid in preparing cocoa nut, aloe, & plantain fibre, Chinese grass, &
New Zealand flax, or other fibrous substances, and. also improvements
in joining the single fibre of the plantain, so that it may be woven
without being spun. The plantain, after being passed through Dick-
'son's patent machines and liquid, is freed from the pulp that confines
the fibres together; a plaste of gum & wheaten flour is prepared, &
one end of the fibre being placed or fastened on a spool or spindle
driven by the foot, the paste is supplied with the finger and thumb of
a girl or boy to the end of each fibre, with a short twist over the relay
of a second & other fibres, being pulled from a bunch or parcel, & by
this means a thread or yarn of any length is produced either for warp
'or weft.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Hill Dickson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 11th May 1854.
:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JAMES HILL DICKSON, of Evelyn Street, Lower Road, Deptford, in
the County of Kent, Flax Manufacturer and Flax Machinist, send.
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of November, in the year
of our Lord Oue thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-.
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Hill Dickson, Her special
licence that I, the said James Hill Dickson, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Hill Dickson,
my executors, administrators, and 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 "IMPROVEMENTS:
IN THE PROCESS OF PREPARING FLAX OR SIMILAR FIBROUS MATERIAL, AND
RENDERING IT FIT FOR SPINNING AND WEAVING," upon the condition
(amongst others) that 1, the said James Hill Dickson, by an instru-
ment 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Hill Dickson, 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:
This Invention has for its objects the separating of the flax fibres
and fibres of other similar fibrous substances, dissolving the gummy and
resinous matter contained in flax, hemp, Chinese grass, New Zealand
flax, and other-fibres, whereby the fibres are made finer, more silk like;

page_text: and better adapted for spinning and manufacturing (weaving); the same
process being applicable to the preparation of cocoa nut, aloe, platain,
and other East Indian fibres; also in joining the plantain fibres, so that
the same may be manufactured (woven) without being spun.
Firstly, this Invention or process consists in improvements in releas-
ing the fibres of the flax, hemp, and other plants from the green coloring
or adhesive matter that is contained in the fibres, after being separated
from the straw on which it has been produced, by my machinery for the
preparation of flax and other fibrous substances, as described in the
Specification of certain Letters Patent granted to me, dated Thirteenth
September, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, without the
water retting system or the application of any of the lately discovered
systems in which acids are depended on, which cause decomposition
and rottenness to the fibre, whilst I can prepare flax and other fibres
without the process of decomposition, and collect all the fibre from
the straw, producing fully a third more in weight than if decomposition
or any other method of preparing the fibres had been resorted to.
And I can prepare flax without being scutched, thereby saving the
expence and great loss in that process. This part of my Invention or
process consists in the improved method of preparing flax or tow of
flax, hemp or tow of hemp, and other fibrous substances for spinning.
Flax straw having been prepared as it is taken from the field in the
green state by my patent machinery aforesaid, without any mode
of steeping or retting, is operated on as follows:-Long flax, being
the most valuable, the green fibre being bound by india-rubber bands
in lots of about as much as a man can grasp in his hand, these
lots are placed in five drawers (Number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,) with a grate-
like bottom, all of which are filled with the fibre; the drawers are
then placed one over the other in skeleton frames, made also to fit vats
made to receive them, an illustrative Drawing whereof is hereto an-
nexed. The vats being then half filled with one gallon of cows urine to
every six gallons of water, the skeleton frame and drawers are lowered
into the vat Number 1, by a crank shaft, which, if the vats and crank
shaft, &c. are arranged as shewn by the Drawing, may be effected in this
or in any other case by disconnecting the connecting rods attached to the
drawers working in the other vats. The crank shafts being connected

page_text: with a steam engine and the steam let on, then the liquid is brought up
to two hundred degrees temperature, and kept at that heat for two hours,
at the end of which time the liquid is let off into a manure tank made
to receive it in the yard, and a supply of clean water is let on, and the.
skeleton frames containing the five drawers each 'are then put in motion,
and as they rise up and down in the vats the liquid or water ascends and
descends through the grate-like drawers and through the fibre, receiving
half an hour's washing by this method, in water heated to two hundred
and ten degrees temperature, in a vat elevated above the frame and:
drawers to supply them with fresh water to wash away the impurities.
that the liquid had dissolved. When the washing out by the fresh water
agitated by the crank shaft being put in motion, and after this one half-
hour is over, it will be found the green-like substance or matter has
been alinost got rid of, and any shives or woody parts that have not been
broken off the fibre will be then properly free, and very much washed
away over the sides of the vats by the rise and fall of the skeleton frame.
and drawers containing the flax. The contents of the drawers are now
passed through a wringing machine on an endless band, and is then
prepared for the next process.
Secondly, the process or Invention consists in the following mode
of finally discharging all the gummy or glutinous matter, and freeing
the fibre from every thing that is adhesive, but retaining the oily and
naturally silk-like appearance that well-prepared flax possesses:-Vat
Number 2 in the Drawing annexed, being fitted with a skeleton frame
and drawers, like Number 1 vat, is then charged with one hundred and
sixty gallons of water, and the steam being turned on it is boiled or
brought up to two hundred and ten degrees, when forty lbs. of the best
soap is cut up and thrown into the above quantity of water, and when
dissolved and properly mixed by stirring with a pole, one hundred and
twelve lbs. of washed flax, still bound as before in the india-rubber:
bands, is placed in the drawers and emersed in the vat, and kept three
hours in the boiling state, two hours steady boil and one hour with the
crank shaft at work raising and depressing the drawers; by this the soap.
water is forced up through the drawers and flax, and finally splits and
separates the finest fillaments of the fibre, not as scutching machinery,

page_text: of any description would do it, by cutting or scraping, but simply by
the force of heated water softened by the soap, so as to extract all dis-
coloring and other adhesive matter that binds the fibres together. This
soap boil leaves it white and in its natural silk-like glossy appearance
without in any way causing weakness to the fibre, and prepares it to be
colored or dyed and worked in or mixed with silk or wool. Flax so.
prepared will make stronger and better yarn for linen and cambric, for
as it will not require. being boiled, as the manufacturers prepare it,. in.
soda ash or dipped in maganese, which weakens or reduces its weight,
and renders it finer and weaker, the manufacturer will have the advan-
tage of having good hard yarn, weightier than boiled yarn and equally.
as fine in the thread, and no impurities in the twisted thread; the
finishing or bleaching process of linen or cambric made from flax so
prepared will not be attended with the. risk or expence that is now
incurred, and what is of more and the greatest importance, the goods
when finished will not be found to fall or reduce, as often fine goods, do,
to a thin rag when bleached, although when gray they appear as strong
as canvass cloth, from being filled with potatoe dressing and tallow, all,
of which is rubbed into the cloth by the weaver..
Finally, for the finishing part of the Invention or process, the con-
tents of the drawers in Number 2 vat are passed through the wringing
machine, and are then placed in the drawers of Number 3 vat, which is
half filled with water heated to two hundred and ten degrees, and the
crank being worked one hour, the soap and all impurities, the resin
or gummy matter, loose shives, &c., are all forced up to the top by
the pressure of the drawers downwards, and the supply of clear water
from the charger, and the constant action of the crank shaft, forces the
shives to float over the sides of the vats until every particle is got rid
of. The contents of Number 3 drawers are then taken out and placed
on the endless band of a wringing machine, and the flax is by this
finished operation, and ready to be dried and prepared for market.
The same process and liquid may be adopted not only in preparing flax
and hemp, but cocoa nut, aloe, and plantain fibre, Chinese
grass, Indian
grass, New Zealand flax, and other fibrous substances. The same pro-
cess may likewise be observed with Numbers 4 and 5 drawers.
And

page_text: if the material be required with still less color, vats 4, 5, & 6 may be
resorted to successively, stopping when the desideratum is obtained.
For joining the single fibre of the plantain so that it may be woven
without being spun, the plantain, after being passed through Dickson's
patent flax breaking machine and liquids, is freed from the pulp that
confines the fibres together; a paste of gum and wheaten flour is pre-
pared, and one end of the fibre being placed or fastened on a spool or
spindle, driven by the foot or engine, the spool is supplied with the
finger and thumb of a girl or boy to the end of each fibre, with a short
twist over the relay of a second, and other fibres being pulled from
the bunch or parcel, and by this means a thread or yarn of any length
is produced either for warp or weft. The liquids aforesaid, made from
water, urine, and soap, for preparing flax, hemp, and all the other fibres
named, may for some purposes be used with great effect in the cold
state after being boiled, as by steeping the fibres a few hours they
can be washed out by hand and made free of the resin or gum with as
much ease as a handkerchief can be washed; this is particularly adapted
to the Chinese grass and all the Indian fibres.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim in
respect thereto is, the improvements in the process of preparing fibrous
substances effected by the use and adaptation of the liquid described in
a hot or cold state, as set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Hill Dickson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
JAMES HILL DICKSON. (L.s.)
Signed and sealed in my presence,
F. W. CAMPIN,
Patent Agent,
156, Strand.