IMPROVEMENTS IN UTILIZING WASTE HEAT IN DRYING WOOL, HAIR, WOOLLEN AND LINSEY RAGS, WOOLLEN PIECE GOODS CHEMICALLY TREATED WITH ACIDS FOR REMOVING VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES THEREFROM
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Rydill, of Grove House, Dewsbury, in the County
of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN UTILIZING WASTE HEAT IN
DRYING WOOL, HAIR, WOOLLEN AND LINSEY RAGS, WOOLLEN PIECE GOODS
CHEMICALLY TREATED WITH ACIDS FOR REMOVING VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES
THEREFROM."
"
Sealed the 30th May 1876, and dated the 4th March 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Rydill at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th March 1876.
GEORGE RYDILL, of Grove House, Dewsbury, in the County of York. "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN UTILIZING WASTE HEAT IN DRYING WOOL, HAIR, WOOLLEN AND
LINSEY RAGS, WOOLLEN PIECE GOODS CHEMICALLY TREATED WITH ACIDS FOR
REMOVING VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES THEREFROM."
The object of this Invention is to operate upon and to remove more effectually
quickly, and economically vegetable substances from wool, noils, hair, woollen and
linsey rags, flocks, woollen waste, and woollen substances, and silk rags chemically
treated with dilute sulphuric, muriatic, nitric, or other acid liquids; also alum,
acid gases, or acid vapours by utilizing the waste heat from boiler furnaces, iron
smelting furnaces, brass furnaces, glasswork furnaces, gas retort furnaces, cinder
ovens, brick kilns, puddling furnaces, smith furnaces, lime kilns, dye pan furnaces,
bake ovens, charcoal fires, chemical retorts and furnaces, peat fires, cinder fires,
coal fires, dwelling-house fires; also waste heat from naptha, petroleum, oil, gas,
benzoline, or other mineral or vegetable oils, which heated products I utilize for
drying purposes by first constructing a room or chamber of brick, stone, iron, wood,
rubble and cement, lime, or other suitable material for constructing a hot or warm
air room or chamber, made either square, round, or any other form, of any required
dimensions; or old steam boilers may be converted into and used as a room or
chamber, which hot air room, rooms, or chambers are made tight, with the
exception of inlets and outlets. Into this room, rooms, or chambers I draw or
force the heated products of combustion by means of a fan or blowing engine, and
as such heated products of combustion are so high in temperature as to set fire or
destroy the wool or woollen material which I dry with the heated products of
Price AT

page_text: combustion I cause a fan or blowing engine to draw in atmospheric air by means
of a pipe or pipes attached to the supply pipe, culvert, or flue near the inlet or
inlets to the fan or blowing engine, to which pipe or pipes is attached a valve or
valves or sliding door, so as to admit and regulate any required quantity of cold
air, which the fan mixes with the heated products of combustion drawn and forced
direct from a furnace or furnaces, flues, or the heated products of mineral or
vegetable oils, which reduces the temperature of the products of combustion when
too highly heated, and raises the temperature of the atmospheric air, so as to make
it suitable for quick drying; or instead of one fan mixing the heated products of
combustion with cold atmospheric air I fix two or more fans, one to draw and
force the heated products of combustion into the hot air room or chamber, and the
other to draw and force cold atmospheric air into the room or chamber in order to
mix the two together suitable for drying material without injury. In this mixing
room or chamber, when of suitable dimensions, I place divisions of iron, brick, or
any other material at any required distance apart from each other, and so con-
structed that the air passes over one division and under another. Any requisite
number of these divisions may be fixed in the room or chamber, causing the
atmospheric air and heated products of combustion to travel in a serpentine manner,
so as to mix the same thoroughly together; or I construct the divisions with
numerous openings, not exactly opposite to each other, so as to distribute and mix
the hot products of combustion and the cold atmospheric air together in passing
from one division to another.
At the furthest end or any other suitable place of the mixing hot air room or
chamber I fix a pyrometer, to be seen from the outside, to ascertain the temperature
of the heated products, and to indicate the required temperature of the heated
products of combustion and atmospheric air to be admitted.
When the heated air and products of combustion are so reduced in temperature
as not to injure the material to be dried I allow the same to escape through valves
or dampers at the furthest end of the hot air room or chamber into metal tubes or
culverts leading to a drying room or rooms, and to distribute itself under a chamber
or area under perforated iron plates placed on iron beams or joists or formed of any
other suitable material or substance; or perforated earthenware, glass, bricks, wood,
or laths, over the top of which I place the chemically treated wool, noils, woollen
and linsey rngs, silk rags, woollen waste, flocks, picce goods, or other woollen
material; or the same may be suspended about the room over framework, or rods,
or carriages; or the drying room may have one set of pierced or perforated floors
placed one over another, so as to utilize the heat given off.
Drying room floors or rooms may be constructed of any required dimensions.
Along the top of this drying room or rooms are fixed hinged doors with sliding
valves or dampers to be adjusted at pleasure to let out the heated air, products of
combustion, and steam or moisture, which is conveyed away by means of a tube,
chamber, or culvert to a chimney stack or elsewhere; or the same may be allowed
to escape into the atmosphere.
In constructing a number of such drying chambers I erect them alongside of each
other, and a tube, chamber, or culvert is constructed to pass along the side or over
the top of any number of such drying rooms to serve as an escape chamber to any
number of such drying rooms. On each side of the drying room or rooms I
construct passages, one to answer as an inlet to enter the drying room through a
doorway with the damp material to be dried and extracted, and another doorway
out of the same drying room allows the dry and extracted material to be removed,
so that the damp material in one passage or room is not brought into contact with
the dry acid treated material, which has a great affinity for absorbing moisture.
The room or passage into which the dried material is removed from the drying
room is kept heated by warm air, water, or steam, so as to keep off the action of
damp air or moisture until the cotton or vegetable substances are removed. Con-
nected with each room is a tube or culvert to admit fresh warm air, at a temperature
so that a man can work amongst it in emptying the room or rooms; or the air is

page_text: entirely shut off and the room or rooms emptied, when the same is free from the
injurious heated air or products of combustion.
The temperature of each drying room may be raised or lowered as desired by
having air mixing rooms or chambers working at various temperatures; or I allow
more cold air to pass under one chamber drying floor than another.
I have named that the products of combustion enter under the drying chamber
floor and pass upwards and escape at the top, drawn or forced by a fan or blowing
engine through regulating outlets into a tube or chamber leading to a chimney
stack, or escape into the open air; but the drying rooms I also construct so that
the heated products of combustion enter at the top of the room and pass downwards
into a culvert, and are conveyed away to a chimney or any convenient place and
allowed to escape into the open air.
In drying wool, noils, woollen and linsey rags, piece goods, which have been
chemically treated with acids, for removing burrs, shieve, cotton, and vegetable
substances I first expose the material to be dried to a temperature of 80, 90, or
100 degrees until the material is thoroughly dry; I then supply a higher tempe-
rature of heated products of combustion or hot air for one, two, or more minutes
to act more effectually upon the vegetable substances, when the material is then
removed and freed from vegetable substances by a willow or other mechanical
appliances now long in use.
The object and novelty of the Invention of improvements in question are it will
be seen, the heating of atmospheric air with the heated products of combustion,
whether heated or of atmospheric temperature in the forms of streams, sheets,
films, or jets, as described in drying chemically treated wool, woollen material, or
silk rags, or the drying of wool and woollen material, in preparing the same for
chemical treatment, or otherwise.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said George Rydill in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 2nd September
1876.
"
GEORGE RYDILL, of Grove House, Dewsbury, in the County of York. 'IM-
PROVEMENTS IN UTILIZING WASTE HEAT IN DRYING WOOL, HAIR, WOOLLEN AND
LINSEY RAGS, WOOLLEN PIECE GOODS CHEMICALLY TREATED WITH ACIDS FOR
REMOVING VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES THEREFROM."
The object of this Invention is to operate upon and to remove more effectually,
quickly, and economically vegetable substances from wool, noils, bair, woollen and
linsey rags, flocks, woollen waste, and woollen substances, silk rags chemically
treated with dilute sulphuric, muriatic, nitric, or other acid liquids, also alum,
acid gases, or acid vapours by utilizing the waste heat from boiler furnaces, iron
smelting furnaces, brass furnaces, glasswork furnaces, gas retort furnaces, cinder
ovens, brick kilns, puddling furnaces, smith furnaces, lime kilns, dye pan furnaces,
bake ovens, charcoal fires, chemical retorts and furnaces, peat fires, cinder fires,
coal fires, dwelling-house fires, also waste heat from naptha, petroleum, oil, gas,
benzoline, or other mineral or vegetable oils, which heated products I utilize for
drying purposes by first constructing a room or chamber of brick, stone, iron, wood,
rubble and cement, lime, or other suitable material for constructing a hot or warm
air room or chamber, made either square, round, or any other form, of any required
dimensions; or old steam boilers may be converted into and used as a room or
chamber, which hot air room, rooms, or chambers are mado tight, with the
exception of inlets and outlets. Into this room, rooms, or chambers I draw or
force the heated products of combustion by means of a fan or blowing engine, and
as such heated products of combustion are so high in temperature as to set fire or
destroy the wool or woollen material, which I dry with the heated products of

page_text: combustion, I cause a fan or blowing engine to draw in atmospheric air by means
of a pipe or pipes attached to the supply pipe, culvert, or flue near the inlet or
inlets to the fan or blowing engine, to which pipe or pipes is attached a valve or
valves or sliding door, so as to admit and regulate any required quantity of cold
air, which the fan mixes with the heated products of combustion drawn or forced
direct from a furnace or furnaces, flues, or the heated products of mineral or
vegetable oils, which reduces the temperature of the products of combustion when
too highly heated, and raises the temperature of the atmospheric air, so as to make
it suitable for quick drying; or instead of one fan mixing the heated products of
combustion with cold atmospheric air I fix two or more fans, one to draw and
force the heated products of combustion into the hot air room or chamber, and the
other to draw and force cold atmospheric air into the room or chamber in order to
mix the two together suitable for drying material without injury. In this mixing
room or chamber, when of suitable dimensions, I place divisions of iron, brick, or
any other material at any required distance apart from each other, and so con-
structed that the air passes over one division and under another. Any requisite
number of these divisions may be fixed in the room or chamber, causing the
atmospheric air and heated products of combustion to travel in a serpentine manner,
so as to mix the same thoroughly together; or I construct the divisions with
numerous openings, not exactly opposite to each other, so as to distribute and mix
the hot products of combustion and the cold atmospheric air together in passing
from one division to another.
At the furthest end or any other suitable place of the mixing hot air room or
chamber I fix a pyrometer, to be seen from the outside, to ascertain the temperature
of the heated products, and to indicate the required temperature of the heated
products of combustion and atmospheric air to be admitted.
When the heated air and products of combustion are so reduced in temperature
as not to injure the material to be dried I allow the same to escape through valves
or dampers at the furthest end of the hot air room or chamber into metal tubes or
culverts leading to a drying room or rooms, and to distribute itself under a chamber
or area under perforated iron plates placed on iron beams or joists, or formed of any
other suitable material or substance; or perforated earthenware, glass, bricks, wood,
or laths, over the top of which I place the chemically treated wool, noils, woollen
and linsey rags, silk rags, woollen waste, flocks, piece goods, or other woollen
material; or the same may be suspended about the room over framework, or rods,
or carriages; or the drying room may have one set of pierced or perforated floors
placed one over another, so as to utilize the heat given off.
Drying room floors or rooms may be constructed of any required dimensions.
Along the top of this drying room or rooms are fixed hinged doors with sliding
valves or dampers to be adjusted at pleasure to let out the heated air, products of
combustion, and steam or moisture, which is conveyed away by means of a tube,
chamber, or culvert to a chimney stack or elsewhere; or the same may be allowed
to escape into the atmosphere.
In constructing a number of such drying chambers I erect them alongside of each
other, and a tube, chamber, or culvert is constructed to pass along the side or over
the top of any number of such drying rooms to serve as an escape chamber to any
number of such drying rooms. On each side of the drying room or rooms I
construct passages, one to answer as an inlet to enter the drying room through a
doorway with the damp material to be dried and extracted, and another doorway
out of the same drying room allows the dry and extracted material to be removed,
so that the damp material in one passage or room is not brought into contact with
the dry acid treated material, which has a great affinity for absorbing moisture.
The room or passage into which the dried material is removed from the drying
room is kept heated by warm air, water, or steam, so as to keep off the action of
damp air or moisture until the cotton or vegetable substances are removed. Con-
nected with each room is a tube or culvert to admit fresh warm air at a temperature
so that a man can work amongst it in emptying the room or rooms; or the air is

page_text: entirely shut off and the room or rooms emptied, when the same is free from the
injurious heated air or products of combustion.
The temperature of each drying room may be raised or lowered as desired by
having air mixing rooms or chambers working at various temperatures; or I allow
more cold air to pass under one chamber drying floor than another.
I have named that the products of combustion enter under the drying chamber.
floor and pass upwards and escape at the top, drawn or forced by a fan or blowing
engine through regulating outlets into a tube or chamber leading to a chimney
stack, or escape into the open air; but the drying rooms I also construct so that
the heated products of combustion enter at the top of the room and pass downwards
into a culvert, and are conveyed away to a chimney or any convenient place and
allowed to escape into the open air.
In drying wool, noils, woollen and linsey rags, pieco goods, which have been.
chemically treated with acids, for removing burrs, shieve, cotton and vegetable
substances I first expose the material to be dried to a temperature of 80, 90, or
100 degrees until the material is thoroughly dry; I then supply a higher tempe-
rature of 120, 140, or 160 degrees of heated products of combustion or hot air for
one, two, or three minutes to act more effectually upon the vegetable substances,
when the material is then removed and freed from vegetable substances by a willy
or other mechanical appliances now in use.
The object and novelty of the Invention of improvements in question are it will
be seen the heating of atmospheric air with the heated products of combustion,
whether heated or of atmospheric temperature, in the forms of streams, sheets,
films, or jets, as described in drying chemically treated wool, woollen material, or
silk rags; or the drying of wool and woollen material in preparing the same for
chemical treatment, or otherwise.
This Invention of improvements forms a connecting link to work in connection
with my Specification and Patent dated March 4th, 1876, No. 945, and constitutes
part of the Patents taken out in the completion of an entire system for removing
burrs from wool and noils, and the separation of fibres of animal origin from fibros
of vegetable origin where mixed together in the same substances, either as angola,
or a cotton warp and a woollen weft; or the cotton, vegetable, and silk threads in
garments, chiefly of rags, cuttings, and waste yarns of woven fabrics, which
improvements are to cause thousands of tons of woollen and linsey rags now sold
as a manure at from £1, £2, or £3 per ton to be utilized and made worth as a
woollen material for the manufacture of cloth, blankets, rugs, carpets, and other
fabrics from £30 to £70, or even more, per ton.
These improvements are to form a foundation of a business capable of rendering
a valuable service to the world of several millions sterling per annum, as that
which is now a waste can be utilized. Statistics shew that about 26,000 tons of
foreign woollen rags are imported per annum to be torn up and used as wool. In
addition to this large importation of foreign rags there is the collection of woollen
and linsey rags of the United Kingdom, which has been estimated at upwards of
60,000 tons per annum. Further, may be added woollen waste, and upwards of
100,000 packs of burry wool. Wool heavily laden with burrs is now sold in the
open market at 21, d. per lb., which is known to be worth one shilling per lb. if
free from burr, and the waste would not be very considerable.
This Invention of improvements opens out a field of industry and wealth for the
comfort and well-being of millions.
Hitherto the drying of wool, woollen and linsey rags, animal and vegetable
fibres, and piece goods has been accomplished at considerable cost in coal, cinders,
gas, mineral and vegetable oils, in producing steam, and passing the same through
metal pipes and producing hot air for drying purposes.
These my improvements are really to produce hot air, and dry with waste heat
at no cost at all, except the first outlay in the erection of tubes, culverts,
floors, chambers, and buildings, and the working of a fan or fans. The heat
so obtained is about double the temperature of steam heat or hot air, which on

page_text: being reduced in temperature with atmospheric air prevents the wear and tear of
tubes and culverts, besides increasing the volume of heated air for producing hot
air for heating and drying purposes of animal and vegetable fibres.
By the adoption of these improvements and improved means and apparatus or
appliances which form the said Invention and conditions of construction, arrange-
mont, and action of which are fully described in utilizing waste heat.
Having thus particularly described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is or may be used or carried into effect, I may observe in
conclusion that I do not confine or restrict myself to the precise details, modifi-
cations, or arrangements which I have had occasion to describe, delineate, and
refer to, as variations of and from these may be made without departing from the
main or essential features of my said Invention; neither do I claim to have
invented the form and construction of some of the minor parts or their modes of
attachment, which I have occasion to describe and refer to, except in so far as these
have essential reference to or from part of my said Invention, but what I consider
novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First. I claim utilizing waste heat and the construction and arrangement of
parts in drying wool, noils, hair, woollen and linsey rags, flocks, woollen waste,
piece goods, and woollen substances, and for removing economically vegetable
substances quickly and effectually from burry wool, noils, cotton threads, and
vegetable substances from wool, woollen and linsey rags, silk rags, flannel, French
merinoes, Scotch and other woollen waste, new and old linsey cloth rags, uncut
cloth, fringe, hosiery, woollen waste, clippings, shirtings, woollen piece goods, woollen
flocks, woollen substances, hair, stockings, and animal fibres by chemically treating
the same with dilute sulphuric, muriatic, nitric, or other acid liquids; also alum,
acid gases and acid vapours, all substantially in the new or improved manner
herein described.
Second. The drying and removing of vegetable substances by utilizing waste
heat from boiler furnaces, iron smelting furnaces, brass furnaces, gas retort furnaces,
cinder ovens, brick kilos, puddling furnaces, smith furnaces, lime kilns, dye pan
furnaces, bake ovens, charcoal fires, chemical retorts and furnaces, peat fires, cinder
fires, dwelling-house fires; also waste heat from naptha, petroleum oil, gas,
benzoline, or other mineral or vegetable oils, all substantially as herein described.
Third. The construction of a room or chamber, with or without divisions, as a
mixing room in order to mix and reduce the temperature of the heated products of
combustion with atmospheric air, and to distribute the same for producing hot air
for drying purposes by passing the heated products of combustion through metal
tubes or culverts, and further distribute itself under a chamber or area under
perforated iron plates, earthenware, glass, bricks, wood, or laths, acting substantially
and being capable of modifications as herein described.
Fourth. The drawing and forcing the heated products of combustion or hot air
by a fan or blowing engine for drying animal and vegetable substances, either in a
manufactured or unmanufactured state, in the manner and for the purposes heroin
described.
Fifth. The application of fresh warm air to rooms in emptying and filling the
rooms with material, and in the construction of a tube, chamber, or culvert for
conducting the escaping heated air or products of combustion to a chimney stack,
all substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Rydill, have hereunto set my hand and
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