CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR BLEACH- ING OR CLEANSING LINENS, COTTONS, OR OTHER FABRICS. GOODS, OR OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESEN SHALL COME, I, LEMUEL
WELLMAN WRIGHT, late of Manchester, in the County Palatine of Lancaster,
but now of Elland, near Halifax, in the County of York, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His late most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of April, in the seventh year of His
reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-
seven, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors give and grant unto me, the
said Lemuel Wellman Wright, His especial license, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Lemuel Wellman Wright, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Lemuel Wellman
Wright, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR BLEACH-
ING OR CLEANSING LINENS, COTTONS, OR OTHER FABRICS. GOODS, OR OTHER FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Lemuel Wellman Wright, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
[Price 8d.1

page_text: same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Lemuel Wellman Wright, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say):-
My improvements in machinery or apparatus for bleaching or cleansing
linens, cottons, or other fibrous substances are improvements upon the Inven-
tion for which a Patent was granted by His late Majesty King George the
Fourth to me, the said Lemuel Wellman Wright, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, dated at Westminster, the Twentieth day of April, in the
sixth year
of, His reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-five.
Now, these my present improvements consist, firstly, in the peculiar con-
struction of a steam or air-tight vessel, in which the goods or fibrous materials
intended to be bleached are to be packed in close contact; secondly, in
the manner of passing the alkaline solutions through the compact mass
of goods or fibrous materials, by the agency of steam at a high pressure,
which has the effect of opening the fibres of the material under operation;
thirdly, in the mode of rinsing or washing out the alkali or other chemical
matters used in the process of bleaching by means of high-pressure steam;
fourthly, in the manner of forcing the solution of chloride of lime and
sulphuric acid through the goods in the bleaching vessel by hydraulic and
pneumatic pressure; and, fifthly, in the mode of cleansing or rinsing the
chemical matters from the goods after the bleaching operation has been
completed.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 represents the complete apparatus
as seen in front elevation, with the pipes employed for conducting the fluids
into and out of the several vessels. The entire length of the pipes is not
represented, in order to bring the important parts of the apparatus conveniently
into one Drawing, but the length of the pipe omitted is about twenty feet.
Fig. 2 is a side or end elevation of the same, in which the positions and forms
of some of the pipes are more ebidently seen than in the former Figure; Fig. 3
is a plan or horizontal representation of the same apparatusas it would appear
seen from above; and Fig. 4 is a sectional elevation of the complete
if

page_text: apparatus taken through the vessel in which the packed goods are to undergo
the bleaching and cleansing process, through the vessel intended to contain the
alkaline solution, and through some of the pipes or tubes communicating with
the several vessels. The same letters of reference pointing out the same parts
of the apparatus in the several Figures.
The keir or bleaching vessel a, a, a, is of a rectangular form, made of
cast iron, and tapering downwards at the sides and ends near the bottom,
as represented in the Drawing. This vessel I propose to line with slabs
of slate, or any stone or other material that will not be subject to be
acted upon by the chemical matters which have to pass through the vessel,
but I think slate the best. A lid or cover of the same materials is made
to fit, being air and steamtight, and is held down by swivel bolts and
screw caps or nuts. A false or double bottom b, of slate or other such
material, with ribs on its under side, fits into the lower part of the vessel,
and is perforated with small holes for the purpose of allowing the liquors to
flow through into the pipe c below. The goods (say, raw flax or linen) being
packed in the vessel a, as at d, d, to the height of the bevelled or tapering part,
and resting upon the false bottom, are to be pressed down by a grating e, e,
made of large slabs of slate or other suitable material, which grating may be
weighted by blocks of stone if necessary. A vesself contains the alkaline ley,
which should be of about the strength of thirty pounds of soda ash to six
hundred gallons of water, according to the nature of the goods under operation,
which must in some measure be determined by the judgment of the operator.
The alkaline ley is admitted into the kier a through the pipe g, and when the
kier a is nearly full, that is, up to the height of the pipe g, the stop-cock his
then to be closed. Steam at a high pressure (say, from thirty to one hundred
pounds upon the square inch, according to the nature of the materials to be
operated upon) is now to be admitted into the kier a by a pipe i leading from
a steam boiler situate in any convenient place nearly contiguous. The steam
thus introduced being allowed to continue acting upon the alkaline liquor in
the close vessel a for a considerable time, it will cause the liquor to boil, and
the ebullition thus produced under the great pressure of the steam will force
the alkaline liquor through the substance of the compact goods, and in so
doing open or separate the fibres of the material, and soften the gummy and
coloring matters. When the liquor has completely penetrated through the
entire mass of the material intended to be bleached, the stop-cock j in the pipe
c is to be opened, which will allow the whole of the liquor in the vessel or kier <<,
by the force of the steam, to be driven through the goods or materials under
operation, and to rise and return back again through the pipe c, c, c, into the

page_text: vessel f.
This operation must be repeated according to the nature of the
articles operated upon, (that is to say,) the alkaline liquor from the vessel
must be passed through the pipe g into the kier a, and then, by letting on the
steam as before, the alkaline liquor must, as above, be forced through the
material again and again until the gummy or coloring matter is sufficiently
removed. The alkaline liquor must now be discharged from the vessel a,
which is done by closing the cock j and opening the cock in the descending
pipe, when by the pressure of the steam the liquor will be forced through
the goods, and through the pipe , into a stone cistern below. In order to
remove the remaining alkali from the goods, the vesself must be filled with
clean water, and this water be passed through the goods several times in the
same way and by the same means as the operations of the alkaline solution
were performed, occasionally withdrawing the foul water and supplying clean
water, as may be required for rinsing the alkali out of the goods. The goods
in the vessel a should now be cooled down to about 100° Fahrenheit by
passing cold water through them, merely by hydraulic pressure unassisted by
the force of steam, which is done by the altitude of the water flowing from the
vesself, (about thirty feet,) or by the pressure of air forced into the vessel a
by an air pump, the stop-cocks in the several connecting pipes being closed.
Having thus reduced the temperature of the goods or fibrous materials a
solution of chloride of lime or bleaching powder, with the ordinary proportions
of water, is now to be passed through them from the stone cistern 1, by the
pipe m and cock 1, and this pipe m communicating with the induction pipe g
of the vessel a, the liquor is made to percolate through the goods by hydraulic
or pneumatic pressure, and flow away by the eduction pipe c, and through the
cock o and branch pipe p, into a cistern 9 below. From this cistern the
chloride liquor is to be raised by a pump r, through the pipe s, again into the
vessel 7, and the operation upon the materials may be repeated according to
the judgment of the operator, depending on the strength of the alkali and the
nature of the goods under process; generally from four to five hours would
suffice for manufactured goods, and from two to three for the raw material of
hemp or flax, with a solution of the ordinary strength; and having passed'the
bleaching liquor through the goods as many times as may be required; it is
left in the cistern g below. In order to wash the chloride from the goods or
fibrous materials, clean water from the vessel f must be forced through by
steam pressure, as before described, taking care to close all the cocks except
those which pass the water from the vessel through the kier. The operation
called souring is performed by conducting a weak solution of sulphuric acid
and water (such as is commonly used by bleachers) through the goods or

page_text: fibrous materials in the kier a, from the vessel t, by the pipes u, in the same
manner as the chloride liquor was conducted; and after this sour liquor has
passed through the goods in the kier, it is discharged by the pipe v into the
cistern w, and the operation repeated if required. In order to remove all the
acid from the fibres of the goods, rincing water must be forced by high-
pressure steam through the kier a, in the manner before described; and when
the rinsing has been completed, high-pressure steam alone is allowed to pass
through the goods or fibrous materials, which will remove the moisture and
leave the goods nearly dry. Or the "chloride "and" souring" operations or
processes may be performed in another kier or vessel of the same size and
shape, which may be made of stone, the goods being removed from the kier a
for this purpose, and then returned for the rinsing, and alkali, and other
operations, and in this case the kier a need not be lined with stone. This will
also facilitate the operations or working.
Now, whereas it is obvious that this my Invention of improvements may be
carried into effect with great variety in the detail of parts, according to
circumstances, I do not claim any of the separate parts of the machinery or
apparatus above mentioned, or their mode of working when separate; but I do
claim as my Invention of certain improvements the combination thereof for
the purposes herein-before set forth, as above described and explained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Lemuel Wellman Wright, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of October, in the year of
our Lord Ona thousand sight hundead and thinke
LEMUEL (L.S.) W. WRIGHT.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of October, in the
first year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Lemuel
Wellman Wright, came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery,
and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Nineteenth day of October, One thousand eight hundred and