IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING WOOL IN CLEANSE IT PROM BURRS. SEEDS, AND OTHER FOREIGN MATTERS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Sikes, of Rushfield, near Almondbury, in the
County of York, Woollen Cloth Manufacturer, and George Jarmain, of
East Parade, Huddersfield, in the said County, Analytical Chemist,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING WOOL IN
CLEANSE IT PROM BURRS. SEEDS, AND OTHER FOREIGN MATTERS."
Sealed the 10th October 1865, and dated the 12th April 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Sikes and George
Jarmain at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 12th April 1865.
We, HENRY SIKES, of Rushfield, near Almondbury, in the County of York,
Woollen Cloth Manufacturer, and GEORGE JARMAIN, of East Parade, Hudders-
field, in the said County, Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING WOOL IN ORDER TO
CLEANSE IT FROM BURRS, SEEDS, AND OTHER FOREIGN MATTERS," to be as follows:-
Our improvements have for their object the cleansing of wool from burrs,
seeds, and other foreign matters. This has heretofore been done in the case
'

page_text: of refuse wool from the moating machine by steeping the wool in dilute
sulphuric acid for a considerable time, after which it has been drained, dried,
and passed through the willowing machine.
Now our Invention is intended to obviate the injury done to the wool by
the use of acid in the manner heretofore practised in operating on waste
wool, and is applicable not only to waste wool but to wool in general, and
consists in the use of hydrochloric or sulphuric acid diluted as berein-after
stated, and in the subsequent processes of washing and drying the wool and
rolling or crushing and beating and blowing the same by machinery.
In treating wool by means of hydrochloric acid, we proceed as follows:-
We steep the wool for from ten to twenty minutes in a mixture of hydrochloric
acid and water, the said mixture being made by adding one measure of
hydrochloric acid of a specific gravity of 1.14 to from six to eight measures
of water, the mixture being heated to about 200° Fahrenheit. We then
slightly wash or rinse the wool in water before drying so that the greater
portion of the acid may be removed from the wool, enough acid being still left
in the burrs or other foreign matters to render them sufficiently friable after
the wool is dried to admit of their being separated from the wool during the
rolling, or crushing, and beating, and blowing processes.
In treating wool by means of sulphuric acid, we steep the wool for from
ten to fifteen hours in a cold mixture of water and sulphuric acid, in the
proportion of from four to six per cent. by volume of acid of a specific gravity
of 1-85. We then remove the wool and treat it in the manner herein-before
described with reference to wool treated by means of bydrochloric acid.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed 2
by the said Henry Sikes and George Jarmain in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 11th October 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
SIKES, of Rushfield, near Almondbury, in the County of York, Woollen Cloth
Manufacturer, and GEORGE JARMAIN, of East Parade, Huddersfield, in the 3
said County, Analytical Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of April, in the year of our Lord One

page_text: thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Henry Sikes and George Jarmain, Her special licence that we, the said
Henry Sikes and George Jarmain, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Henry Sikes and George Jarmain, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during theterm 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 TREATING WOOL IN
ORDER TO CLEANSE IT FROM BURRS, SEEDS, AND OTHER FOREIGN MATTERS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Henry Sikes and George
Jarmain, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or
them, 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 we, the said Henry Sikes and George Jarmain,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
Our improvements have for their object the cleansing of wool from burrs,
seeds, and other foreign matters. This has heretofore been done in the
case of refuse wool from the moating machine by steeping the wool in dilute
sulphuric acid for a considerable time, after which it has been drained, dried,
and passed through the willowing machine.
Now our Invention is intended to obviate the injury done to the wool by
the use of acid in the manner heretofore practised in operating on waste
wool, and is applicable not only to waste wool, but to wool in general, and
consists in the use of hydrochloric or sulphuric acid diluted as herein-after
stated, and in the subsequent processes of washing and drying the wool, and
rolling or crushing, and beating and blowing the same by machinery.
In treating wool by means of bydrochloric acid we proceed as follows:-
We steep the wool for from ten to twenty minutes in a mixture of bydrochloric
acid and water, the said mixture being made by adding one measure of
bydrochloric acid of a specific gravity of 114 to from six to eight measures

page_text: of water, the mixture being heated to about 200° Fahrenheit. We then
slightly wash or rinse the wool in water before drying so that the greater
portion of the acid may be removed from the wool, enough acid being still
Jeft in the burrs or other foreign matters to render them sufficiently friable
after the wool is dried to admit of their being separated from the wool during
the rolling, or crushing and beating, and blowing processes.
In treating wool by means of sulphuric acid wo steep the wool for from
ten to fifteen hours in a cold mixture of water and sulphuric acid in the
by volume
proportion of from four to six per cent. of acid of a specific gravity of 1-85.
We then remove the wool and treat it in the manner herein-before described 1
with reference to wool treated by means of hydrochloric acid.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, we will proceed to
describe the manner in which the same is to be performed.
The wool is first of all scoured in the usual way with either soda ash or
stale urine, and after being well washed in water it is allowed to drain until
water ceases to flow from it. The wool is then steeped either for 12 hours
in a cold mixture of water and sulphuric acid made by mixing 1 measure
of commercial sulphuric acid, specific gravity 1845 with 19 measures of
water or for 15 minutes in a mixture of hydrochloric acid and water heated
to about Fahrenheit, by steam or otherwise, the said mixture being made
by mixing ono measure of strong commercial bydrochloric acid of a specific
or thereabouts,
A
200°
^
or thereabouts
or thereabouts.
gravity of 114, with 7 measures of water.^ We find, however, that the
treatment with dilute sulphuric acid is better than that with hydrochloric acid,
the wool being less changed in colour. After the wool has been steeped the
'proper time it is removed from the liquid and placed upon a "coach" or hand
bearer to drain; when the liquid has ceased to flow, the wool, in quantities of
3 or 4 lbs. at once, is immersed in clean water, and immediately removed
again and placed once more on a "coach" or hand bearer to drain. When
sufficiently drained the said wool is spread upon a stove and dried in the way
in which wool is usually dried. It is known to be sufficiently dried when the
seeds or burrs contained therein will admit of being crushed to dust between
the finger and thumb. The dried wool while still warm is passed through a
pair or pairs of fluted rollers in order that the seeds or burrs may be
crushed, and then through a beating and blowing machine. The machine we
find to answer best for this purpose is that known as Hick's Patent, but
similar
any other machine combining fluted rollers and a beating and blowing

page_text: arrangement would do. The wool is now ready to be passed through tho
scribbling machine, but we prefer to give it a final washing in clean water
until the wash water ceases to redden litmus paper, when the said wool is
wool
^
dried on the stove in the way in which it is usually dried. It is then
ready to be passed through the scribbler. The vessels we use to contain the
dilute acids for steeping the wool are stone cisterns. The dilute acid after
we havo once steeped wool in it we find is always weaker than the standard
strength named above. In order therefore to bring it up to the proper
strength before another batch of wool is steeped in it wo add an additional
quantity of acid. In order to find out what the quantity to be added is
such respective
A
we prepare a standard solutions of caustic soda of a strengths such that 100
measures of the standard caustic soda solution will saturate 100 measures
respectively,
of the dilute sulphuric acid, or the dilute bydrochloric acid aforesaid, viz.,
dilute sulphuric acid made by adding 1 measure sulphuric acid, specific gravity
1.845, to 19 measures of water, or dilute hydrochloric acid, made by adding
sp. gr. 1-14
1 measure of strong commercial bydrochloric acid, to 7 measures of water.
We then take out 100 measures of the acid liquid which requires to be
strengthened, and having filled a graduated burette containing 100 measures
applicable to it respectively.
^
with the standard solution of caustic soda, we add the caustic soda solution.
until the 100 measures of acid are saturated, which point of saturation we
ascertain in the usual way by the change in colour of litmus paper. The
number of measures of soda solution left in the burette indicate the quantity
of water in the liquid which requires acid adding to it. For example,
suppose the steeping vessel contains 100 gallons of acid liquor, and that 90
measures of caustic soda solution saturate 100 measures of the liquid, we
know that there is only sufficient acid for 90 gallons, and that sufficient strong
acid must therefore be added for 10 gallons of water, namely, about half a
gallon of sulphuric acid or 1½ gallons of hydrochloric acid, as the case may be.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, we claim as of our said Invention the
use for the purpose described of hydrochloric or sulphuric acid and water in
the proportions specified, and the graduation or adaptation of the strength of
the acid liquor, so as to render the process applicable to the treatment of wool
in general; also the combined processes of steeping the wool in the mixture
5 and afterwards washing the same (for the purpose of removing the acid in
great measure from the wool while leaving it in the burrs or seeds contained

page_text: therein) and finally drying and passing the said wool between rollers, and
through the beating and blowing machine.
In witness whereof, we, the said Henry Sikes and George Jarmain,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.