IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING COLORING MATTER, ALSO APPLICABLE FOR EXTRACTING SIZE OR GLUE FROM ANIMAL SUBSTANCES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Louis Christian Koeffler, of Rochdale; in the County
of Lancaster, Bleacher and Dyer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
EXTRACTING COLORING MATTER, ALSO APPLICABLE FOR EXTRACTING SIZE OR
GLUE FROM ANIMAL SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 13th February 1855, and dated the 17th August 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Louis Christian Koeffler
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th August 1854.
I, LOUIS CHRISTIAN KOEFFLER, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster,
Bleacher and Dyer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING COLORING MATTER, ALSO APPLICABLE FOR
EXTRACTING SIZE OR GLUE FROM ANIMAL SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to methods of conducting processes for extracting
coloring matters for dyeing purposes within closed vessels or "kiers," and
consists, firstly, in connecting together two or more of such apparatus, within
which the substances containing the matters is to be treated, in such a manner
that the extracts or coloring liquid when made can be allowed to pass from
one vessel to the other, as hereafter described, or can be discharged at once
from each into cisterns placed in any suitable position.

page_text: Secondly, my Invention consists in operating upon the substances so placed
as above with steam, heat, and hot water, in the following manner:-The
apparatus is provided with suitablo contrivances for the inlet and outlet of the
steam and hot water. The wood or other substances from which the color is
to be extracted is reduced to chips, and placed within the apparatus upon per-
forated false bottoms, and the hot water is admitted on the top until the body is
properly surrounded. The water is then shut off, and the steam is allowed to
enter at the bottom, and (by means of a stand pipe in the interior) to rise above
the surface of the water, causing it to boil for a time requisite for making the
extract. A suitable outlet may now be opened. at the bottom, and the coloring
liquor, by the pressure of steam, is forced through the perforated bottom (which
will screen it from all impurities), and conducted off by means of pipes to the
cisterns above mentioned. Or, when all the kiers are charged at once, the
above operation may be performed in one, and the liquor or coloring matter so
obtained may flow into the cistern, when a second (or more, if necessary,)
operation may be performed on the same substance. This coloring matter
may be passed into the second apparatus, and may then be mixed with the
liquid arising from the extracts thus produced by a similar operation.
Thirdly, my Invention relates to certain means of facilitating the operations
of charging and emptying of the vessels or kiers. This is accomplished by
suspending the vessels, by hollow trunnions or axles in suitable bearings, to
allow them to turn into convenient positions, these hollow trunnions forming
at the same time the inlet and outlet pipes for the steam and hot water, and
also the communications between each apparatus and the cisterns or vessels
for the reception of the coloring matter.
The method I adopt for obtaining or extracting glue or size from animal
substances is similar to the above; namely, placing the skins or other animal
substances within the vessels or kiers, and boiling them as aforesaid, the
extract being also run off, as before mentioned.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Louis Christian Koeffler in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th February 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LOUIS
CHRISTIAN KOEFFLER, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, Bleacher and
Dyer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Louis Christian Koeffler, Her especial license that I, the said Louis
Christian Koeffler, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Louis Christian Koeffler, 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 night
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING COLORING MATTER, ALCO APPLICABLE FOR EXTRACTING
SIZE OR GLUE FROM ANIMAL SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Louis Christian Koeffler, 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 is 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 Louis Christian Koeffler, 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 and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):-
.
My Invention relates to methods of conducting extracting processes within
closed vessels or kiers. The accompanying Drawing represents the apparatus
I employ in vertical section, there being in this instance two "kiers" com-
bined. These vessels are formed of copper a, a, and are provided with covers.
b, 6, which may be removed at pleasure, and secured when returned to their
places by bolts or other suitable fastenings. At the lower parts of the kiers
are gratings c, c, which support central stand pipes d, d*, provided at top with
valves p, p, and bonnets e, e, after the manner of an ordinary bleaching
kier." The kiers are supported in bearings f by means of hollow axes
g', g', g, g', formed upon pipes h', ha, ha, h, with the interiors of which the
hollow axis g', &c. communicate. The axes g', g², g', g', are situate in stuffing
boxes i, fixed within the bearings f, and are provided with pipes ³, k, k³, kª, k³, kª,
communicating with their interiors by this arrangement; therefore, the kiers
and their pipes h, ha, h³, h, may be turned independently of each other upon-
the axes g', &c., and at the same time retain a water-tight communication
with the pipes k, k, k, k,, . The pipes h', h, and h³, h, are connected
at bottom by pipes 1, 1, which pipes are provided with openings m, m*, leading

page_text: to the interior of the kiers a, a, below the gratings c, c. The several pipes
above mentioned are provided with cocks 1 to 15 inclusive, to be used as will
hereafter be described. The pipes 1, 14, communicate with a boiler or reser-
voir containing water or other solvent, and those shewn at 2, 15, are adapted
to a steam generator in any convenient situation. The pipes k³, k, lead into
one at n, which terminates in a vessel for receiving the intended extract.
Having thus described the general arrangement and construction of the
apparatus, I will proceed to point out how the same way be used; but as a
part of my Invention may be carried out by the use of ono only of the vessels
above described, I shall in the first place refer to a single apparatus. Upon
commencing operations, and the several cocks being closed, the material (log-
wood, for instance,) is introduced into one of the kiers (say, that shewn at a,)
through the cover b, in which vessel it is supported by the grating c. The
cover is now replaced, a small cock o opened for the escape of air, and water
admitted by opening the cock 1, which, flowing through the hollow axle g',
will pass upward through the cock 3, also opened into the upper part of the
kier; when a sufficient quantity shall have entered, the cocks 1, 3, are closed,
and steam is allowed to pass into the lower part of the kier by opening the
cocks 2, 4. The effect of this will be the boiling of the liquor, and the causing
it to pass upward through the central pipe d, the valve P at the top of which
will be lifted, so as to allow the fluid to be directed again on to the top of the
dye wood by the bonnet e, and the circulation may thus be kept up as long as
may be considered necessary for obtaining the required extract. This' having
been accomplished, the cock 4 is to be closed, and those shewn at 3, 6, 7,
opened, by which altered arrangement steam from the pipe 2 will be allowed.
to flow through the pipe h¹ on to the surface of the fluid extract, and will force
it through the grating c and opening m into tho pipe h2, from whence it will
proceed through the opened cock 7 to any suitable reservoir. This having
been accomplished, the cover b may be removed, and the kier a turned over
upon its hollow axes g', g², so as to discharge the material from which the
extract has been obtained, and the vessel is, upon being returned to the position
shewn, ready for another charge. If desired, however, the material may
remain in the kier for another treatment, after the manner above described.
At q is a cock, through which water of condensation or other remaining fluid
may be drawn off. The above is a method which may be adopted, and which
involves a portion of my Invention; but I will now proceed to describe a
course of operation which may be carried on by the combination of two or
more kiers. Suppose an extract to have been obtained, as above described,
and that within the second kier a* is also placed a supply of logwood or other

page_text: material: instead of opening the cock 7, as before mentioned, I keep it closed,
and open those shewn at 9, 10; the steam, therefore, pressing on the surface of
the extract in the vessel a, will force it through the hollow axis g², g³, and pipe
h³ into the upper part of the kier a; after which the cock 10 is closed, and
steam allowed to pass by the pipe 15 through the hollow axis g', cock 13, and
opening m, to the bottom of the kier a*, there acting, as above described in
reference to the other kier, by boiling and causing the fluid to circulate. This
operation having been carried on for the required time, the cock 13 is to be
closed, and the steam directed through the pipe ' and cock 12 on to the
surface of the fluid, so as to force it through the pipe 7, hollow axis g', and
pipe k', into the reservoir, the cocks 11, 8, having been opened for this purpose.
By these operations, an extract has been produced by boiling the first mass
of material with water, and the second with the extract so obtained.
I now.
therefore, reverse the operation, and admit water through the cock 14 into the
kier a, and there boil it by admitting steam through the cock 15 during the
time occupied, by which the vessel a may be discharged, and another quantity
of material placed therein, ready to be boiled in the extract obtained in the
vessel a. In order to effect this the cock 13 is to be closed, and those shown
at 12, 11, 9, 5, opened, so as to allow steam to pass through the pipe h', and by
pressing upon the surface of the fluid, drive it through the opening m*, hollow
axles 3, 9, and pipe h³, into the vessel a, and so on, the two kiers being
alternately supplied with fresh material; by which method of operation each
charge will be boiled by water and by dye extract, and discharged into the
reservoir by the pipes, . I have above described two boiling operations
only, but it will be evident that the liquor may be transferred from one to the
other kier as many times as may be desired, and by this arrangement the extract
may always be drawn off from fresh material. I have also shewn and described
two kiers only, but three or more may in like manner be combined, so as to
obtain a more concentrated extract. Although I have in the above description
referred particularly to dye extracts, the operation will be precisely the same
for extracting size or glue from animal substances.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be under-
stood that I claim, as secured to me under the above in part recited Letters
Patent,
Firstly, as applied to the purposes above set forth, the application of two
or more vessels connected together in such a manner that the extract can be
transferred from the one to the other, at pleasure, by steam or other pressure,
and can be discharged into cisterns placed in any convenient situation.

page_text: Secondly, the construction of kier or vessel above described, furnished with
a stand pipe, as at d, and by which arrangement the heated fluid is caused to
circulate.
Thirdly, mounting the vessels or kiers either singly or in series upon hollow
axes, such axes affording channels for the passage of steam to the upper
and lower parts of the kiers or vessels, and also for the admission of
water.
In witness whereof, I, the said Louis Christian Koeffler, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
L. C. KOEFFLER. (L.S.)