IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING, DYEING, AND FINISHING LINEN YARNS AND THREADS FOR SEWING MACHINE USE, AND FOR WEAVING PURPOSES, ALSO IN APPARATUS TO NECTED WITH SEWING MACHINES FOR LUBRICATING LINEN YARNS AND THREADS USED THEREIN
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Blain, of Rydal Mount, in the City of Manchester,
for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING,
DYEING, AND FINISHING LINEN YARNS AND THREADS FOR SEWING MACHINE
USE, AND FOR WEAVING PURPOSES, ALSO IN APPARATUS TO
NECTED WITH SEWING MACHINES FOR LUBRICATING LINEN YARNS AND
THREADS USED THEREIN."
BE CON-
Sealed the 23rd March 1880, and dated the 18th September 1879.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Blain at the Office of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th September 1879.
JAMES BLAIN, of Rydal Mount, in the City of Manchester.
AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING, DYEING, AND FINISHING LINEN YARNS AND
THREADS FOR SEWING MACHINE USE, AND FOR WEAVING PURPOSES, ALSO IN
APPARATUS TO BE CONNECTED WITH SEWING MACHINES FOR LUBRICATING LINEN
YARNS AND THREADS USED THEREIN."
The first part of this Invention relates to the manufacture of a single linen yarn
or monoline thread suitable for being used in sewing machines as a substitute for
the double yarns or 2, 3, or more cords linen thread hitherto in use. In performing
this part of my Invention I make a careful selection of good strong flax from 5 to
20 numbers finer than is usually put into each No. (that is to say), the flax usually
selected for spinning No. 40's I spin into No. 20's, and so on), and by adding to the
usual twist, say, from 20 to 25 per cent. I produce a single yarn which, after under-
going my further treatment as hereinafter described, is suitable for the purposes
of
this Invention. The boiling must not under any circumstances be violent or severe
to ensure the tread not being broken on the surface, and special care must be taken
in the dyeing, as this thread imbibes the dye stuffs much more freely than the
usual linen threads. After dyeing I steep the yarn in a hot or cold solution of
white oil soap, and I squeeze out the water by hydraulic pressure, not by the
[Price 2dl

page_text: "
wringer." The drying is preferred to be effected in the open air upon poles
having weights or screws applied, so as to put on the threads as much tension as
they will bear whilst drying. After being treated as aforesaid the thread is ready
to undergo the finishing process, which is performed as follows:-I arrange a
finishing machine to draw the thread at a speed of from 60 to 80 yards per minute
through a thickish mixture of heated starch (which in the case of the yarns being
dyed is mixed with the corresponding coloring ingredients used in dyeing the
threads). In this starch I also introduce a quantity of colza or other oil and white
wax. Upon emerging from this heated mixture the thread is drawn over a calender
or roller heated by steam, and if necessary again enters a similar heated mixture,
and passes over a second heated roller, when it is finally drawn between two pads
formed of coarse linen quite dry, and which pads are pressed together with as much
pressure as the threads will bear; the threads being then finished are ready for
being spooled or balled for use. The heated mixture of colored starch serves to
give more brilliancy to the color of the thread, and renders such color much faster.
Warp yarns for weaving purposes may be finished in a similar manner, substituting
a mixture of cold starch, through which such yarns are passed once, and then under
pressure through the dry pads.
This Invention further relates to a process and apparatus for lubricating the
"monoline thread," or the usual cords and 3 cords linen threads used in sewing
machines, and consists in the use and application of thin starch or clean water, the
starch preferred. I put the starch into gauze like material made into the shape of
small purses, and I pull the thread by the sewing machine between two of these
purses, which slightly damps such thread and so increases its sewing qualities, and
renders it stronger to resist roughening or breaking. This treatment will cause
any thread, however inferior or weak, to work smoothly and well through sewing
machines.