IMPROVED SLUBS OR ROVINGS (IN HEMP, AND OTHER, FILAMENTOUS- MATERIALS) PRODUCED BY THE F SLUBBING. FRAME, AND DESTINED. FOR FINE: SPINNING, AS ALSO FOR IMPROVED APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1863

page_text: aure
ournal,
Belgium, Spinner; for the Invention of "IMPROVED SLUBS OR ROVINGS
(IN HEMP, AND OTHER, FILAMENTOUS- MATERIALS) PRODUCED BY THE
F
SLUBBING. FRAME, AND DESTINED. FOR FINE: SPINNING, AS ALSO FOR IMPROVED
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Sealed the 16th July. 1863, and dated the 16th January 1863.
1..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Lewis Verdure at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
January 1863
ย
*I, LEWIS VERDURE, of Tournai, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Spinner, do
hereby declarethemature of the said Juvention for" IMPROVED SLUBS OR ROVINGS
(IN FLA HEMP, AND OTHER FILAMENTOUS MATERIALS) PRODUCED BY THE SLUBBING
FRAME, AND DESTINED FOR "FINE SPINNING,' AS ALSO FOR IMPROVED APPARATUS
EMPLOYED; THEREIN) to be as follows:-".
This Invention consists of-using a steam chest surrounded with a water
tight jacket, in the said chest is placed the flax or material to be operated
upon on a frame or frames of trelliswork, or other suitable apparatus so that
the material can be kept as open and separate as possible to receive the steam
ום...מ

page_text: which is admitted by ordinary steam pipes. In addition to the said steam
chest there is a cistern or reservoir containing water or alkaline heated to a
suitable heat. Steam is admitted into the chest so as to soak or saturate the
material, after which the steam is condensed by admitting cold water into the
jacket or expelled by atmospheric pressure or other suitable means, and the
water or alkaline from the cistern or reservoir by means of a tap is admitted
into the chest to submerge the material for about twenty to thirty minutes
when the water or alkaline is run off, and the material is ready for use. By
this process the gummy or resinous substances are removed from the material,
improving the quality and rendering it more easy to spin, diminishing the
quantity of waste, and preventing the noxious effluvia caused by fermentation
during the ordinary process of preparation.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Lewis Verdure in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th
July 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LEWIS
VERDURE, of Tournai, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Spinner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Lewis Verdure, Her special licence that I, the said Lewis
Verdure, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
Lewis Verdure, 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 "IMPROVED SLUBS
OR ROVINGS (IN FLAX, HM, AND OTHER FILAMENTOUS MATERIALS,) PRODUCED
BY THE SLUBBING FRAME, AND DESTINED FOR FINE SPINNING, AS ALSO FOR
IMPROVED APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Louis Verdure, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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

page_text: 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 Lewis Verdure, 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, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in the employment of a rectangular steam chest
provided with a steam-tight cover.
In the said chest there are cross bars
or trellises for supporting a number of bobbins covered with the slubs or
rovings, and the bobbins are so placed that they do not touch each other.
In the interior of the chest, near the bottom, there is a perforated pipe com-
municating by an outside pipe with a steam boiler, and at the lower part of
the chest there is a pipe connected to a cistern or reservoir containing heated
water or alkaline solution. When the bobbins are properly placed, and the
chest covered, steam is admitted into the interior and kept in action so as to
soak and heat the material on the bobbins, after which the steam cock
is closed and the water or solution is admitted to the interior to submerge
the material for a time varying according to the nature and quality of the
material, and when the water or solution is run off and the bobbins removed
the slubs or rovings are prepared for fiue spinning. By this process the gum
resinous matters are removed from the material thereby improving it in
quality and rendering it more easy to spin fine numbers, and at the same
time diminishing the quantity of waste and preventing the noxious effluvia
caused by the fermentation, which takes place in the ordinary troughs through
which the slubs or rovings pass from the creel to the drawing rollers of the
spinning machine.
°
This Invention will be clearly understood by referring to the letters marked
on the accompanying Drawing, which is a vertical section of one arrangement
my improvements.
of
A, represents the rectangular chest; B, the bobbins; C, the cover; D, the
pipe for the supply of the water or alkaline solution; E, the steam pipe,
and F the cross bars or trellises for supporting the bobbius. The chest A is
of wood or metal and made of auy suitable dimensions according to the size
of the bobbins and the number to be acted upon at one operation. The sides
of the moveable cover C are placed in channels C³, filled with water in order
to make the cover steam tight. The steam pipe in the interior of the chest is
perforated, and at the outside it is provided with a cock E¹ for regulating the
supply of steam to the interior of the chest, and another pipe G provided with

page_text: a cock is placed on the cover or on one of the sides of the chest for regulating
the escape of the excess of steam. The cross bars or trellises Fare of wood
they are supported in the interior of the chest, and carry the bobbins B
covered with the slubs or rovings of flax, hemp, or other similar material and
placed side by side without touching each other. In order to prevent the
upper series of bobbins from floating there is placed upon them another
trellis F, which keeps them in their proper position. Between the bottom
of the lowest trellis, and the bottom of the chest there is a space H, which
allows first the steam and then the water to flow over the surface of the
bottom, and then fill the interior of the chest. When the bobbins are
properly arranged, and the cover placed in the channels of water at the top
of the chest, the cock E¹ is opened to allow the passage of steam to the per
forated pipe, and from thence through the holes to the interior of the chest,
and the cock G is opened to allow the escape of any excess of steam when
required. The elasticity of the steam is about equal to the pressure of the
atmosphere and is allowed to act upon the slubs or rovings until they are
completely soaked and sufficiently heated. The length of time the flax and
its tow are to be exposed to the action of the steam is generally from fifteen
to thirty minutes, and for hemp and its tow from forty minutes to an hour.
When the current of steam has been moderately maintained for the time
required the cock E' is shut, and the cock D¹, connected to the large pipe D
opened to allow the passage of water or alkaline solution from a cistern,
first to the space or chamber at the bottom of the chest, and then into the
interior to the bobbins. The alkaline solution may be made from crystals of
soda or other alkaline carbonate, and be diluted to a specific gravity of about
1.00699, and raised to a heat of from 100 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The
temperature may be lowered, but in most cases it would be prejudicial to do
so especially with those fibrous materials in which the fibre is hard and dry,
such as hemp and certain varieties of flax. It is not absolutely necessary to
employ an alkali, but it greatly assists in dissolving the gummy resinous
matter which adheres to the filaments. The action of the alkali divides and
softens the fibres and renders thom supple and capable of producing a higher
number of counts for spinning. As soon as the slubs or rovings are covered
with the water or solution they are immediately impregnated with it by means
of the vacuum caused by the condensation of the steam, and they are allowed
to remain in this condition from twenty to thirty minutes or longer when
found advantageous. The impregnation being sufficient the water or solution
is allowed to run off from the chest by opening the cock J, and the bobbins

page_text: are removed to the creels for fine numbers from which creels the slubs or
rovings pass in the ordinary manner to the troughs containing hot or cold
water, and then spuu as required. With this system of steaming and impreg-
nating the passage of the slubs and rovings through the water is for no other
object than to wash them, and keep the drawing rollers or cylinders constantly
wet or moistened.
I now describe a modification of the arrangement which may be in some
cases preferred. In a metal chest or receptacle which can be hermetically
closed the bobbins covered with slubs or rovings are placed in a similar
manner to that before described. To the chest is fixed a pipe provided with
a cock and communicating with a reservoir containing water or alkaline
solution. The chest being closed hermetically is emptied of air by tho
introduction of steam at the pressure of the atmosphere, which steam is
allowed to remain during fifteen to thirty minutes for flax and its tow, and
forty minutes to an hour for hemp. This time expired, the steam in the chest
is condensed by watering the exterior with cold water, or in placing the chest
in a cistern containing cold water, or in short by any of the means employed
in condensing steam engines. When the vacuum is complete the cock in the
pipe communicating with the hot water or alkaline solution is opened, and the
liquor enters the chest, and immediately covers and penetrates the fibrous
materials on the bobbins which are left in this condition for the required time,
and then the covered bobbins are ready to be placed on the creels and passed
to the rollers of fine spinning machines.
The principal advantages of these processos consist, firstly, in being able to
spin the common and middling qualities of hemp and flax, and also their tows
with great facility and regularity, and it is well known that hemp and its tow
has not been spun by the ordinary means except with great difficulty and then
in low numbers or counts of spinning.
Secondly, in obtaining from textile materials such as hemp, flax, and their
tows, threads, or yarns, of great softness and suppleness and in every way
of superior quility than those obtained by the ordinary process and with much
less waste.
Thirdly, in preventing in a great measure the unpleasant effluvia which is
emitted during the ordinary process of spinning.
And, fourthly, in avoiding the necessity of warming or heating the troughs
through which the threads or yarns pass from the creels to the rollers, and
thus effect a great saving in fuel.
Having now described the nature and particulars of my. said Invention and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be understood
that I claim the improved system of placing the slubs or rovings of flax, hemp,
their tows, and other similarfilamentousmaterialsinanapparatussoconstructed
that they can be subjected to the action of steam, and then impregnated
with moderately heated water or alkaline solution, as such improvements
are herein described and illustrated in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Lewis Verdure, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
L. VERDURE. (L.S.)