IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING WOOLLEN, COTTON, SILK, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE FABRICS, FOR EXTRACTING VEGETABLE FIBRES THERE- FROM. AND FOR CLEANING THE SAME
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Rydill, of Southampton Buildings, London, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING WOOLLEN, COTTON, SILK,
AND OTHER SUCH LIKE FABRICS, FOR EXTRACTING VEGETABLE FIBRES THERE-
FROM. AND FOR CLEANING THE SAME."
Sealed the 28th April 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 Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PREPARING WOOLLEN, COTTON, SILK, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE FABRICS, FOR
EXTRACTING VEGETABLE FIBRES THEREFROM, AND FOR CLEANING THE SAME."
My Invention consists in the cleansing or moistening of wool, woollen material,
silk, cotton, and mixed fabrics previous to being saturated in acid liquids or exposed
to the action of acid gases or acid vapours, such as burry and shivey wool noils,
woollen and linsey rags, stockings, flannels, French merinoes, Scotch and other
woollen waste, angolas, new and old linsey, cloth, rags, carpets, fringe, hosiery
waste and clippings, shirtings, silk, rags, felted cloths, shallies, woollen flocks,
woollen piece goods, and woollen material composed of vegetable fibres, such as
cotton, cotton threads, jute, flax, China grass, or other vegetable fibres, and mixed
woollen or silk fabrics before being acted upon by chemicals for removing vegetable
substances, and also for removing vegetable substances more effectually and
economically therefrom, and for facilitating the working and preserving the colour
and staple of wool and woollen fabrics.
Rags in this country are mostly collected in a dirty state, many being impreg
nated or stained with grease, oil, alkali, lime, paint, and other foreign matters, and
when chemically treated in this unclean state for removing vegetable substances
from mixed fabrics or fibres such dirt tends to neutralize diluted, sulphuric,
muriatic, or nitric acid liquid or other acid liquids, as well as to have most
injurious effects upon sulphuric acid gas, muriatic or hydrochloric acid gas or other
acid gases, or sulphuric or muriatic acid vapours. Now I have found that
uncleansed wool, woollen waste, woollen rags, woollen material, and silk rags
possess most, injurious neutralizing properties, which after a few steepings in diluted
sulphuric, muriatic, or nitric acid liquid waters cause the acid liquids to become so
neutralized that the acids have no destroying action upon the cotton or vegetable
[Price]

page_text: substances in a drying room raised to a considerably high temperature. Such
neutralizing effects upon acid liquids requires the acid liquids to be considerably
increased in strength with fresh acids, which has a most damaging influence upon
the wool and woollen fibres, changing most of the colours to a brown, and in drying
under heat the great strength of the acids considerably reduces the strength of the
wool and woollen fibres in their elasticity, which destroys the small feathery
branches of the wool and impairs if not destroys the milling or felting properties.
To obviate these injurious effects I first subject the wool noils, hair, or other
materials to a steeping process in water, caustic soda liquid, ammoniac, urine, soap,
soda ash, fullers' earth, or other diluted alkalies, and then thoroughly cleanse or
wash out the dust, dirt, grease, caustic soda, ammoniac, urine, soap, soda ash, lime,
acids, fullers' earth, carthy substances, and foreign matter in a fulling stock or
stocks, or washing apparatus; when thoroughly cleansed of the neutralizing effects
to the action of acid liquids, acid gases, or vapours, I place the wool noils, hair,
rags, or other materials in an hydro-extractor to remove all liquid or moisture
possible.
When the burry or shivey wool noils, rags, woollen waste, or other materials are
not washed, I place them in cold or hot water or steam them, or I place them in a
room and apply water to damp them; but I prefer to wash them. It will be
readily understood that when such materials are in a moist state, the fibres of wool,
woollen, cotton, or other vegetable substances form ready conductors for acid
liquids, gases, sulphuric or muriatic acid vapours when exposed to their action. I
therefore prepare a bath or vessel with diluted sulphuric acid and alum, or
sulphuric acid and water, muriatic acid, nitric acid, or a combination of the acids
and iron filings at a strength of from say 2 to 20 degrees of Twaddle's hydrometer,
and I place the materials to be operated upon in the acid liquid or liquids, when
they are instantly saturated, and I then immediately remove them from the acid
liquids and place them in an hydro-extractor or pass the same between rollers to
remove surplus acid liquid, so that before the action of the acid has time to injure
or lift the dye colouring matter the excess of acid liquid or moisture is removed.
The process of steeping burry or shivey wool noils, rags, woollen waste, piece goods,
flocks, or other materials, and preparing them for drying is therefore the work of a
few seconds or minutes, according to the quantity treated.
If desired the saturated material may lay on a framework and drain, but I
prefer to steep the wool or other materials as quickly as possible, and remove any
surplus sulphuric, muriatic, or nitric acid liquid by the readiest possible means, and
to dry the material without delay.
I also find that acid gases or vapours act more readily upon wool or woollen
material when thoroughly cleansed of all dirt or gummy and foreign substances, I
therefore cause the acid vapours to be given off from sulphuric, muriatic, or hydro-
chloric acid by placing a vessel containing a coil of lead piping, through which I
pass steam to raise the temperature of sulphuric, muriatic, or hydrochloric acid, the
steam being carried away and not brought into contact with the acid vapours; or I
allow the steam to pass direct into the vessel containing sulphuric, muriatic, or
hydrochloric acid to raise the temperature and give off acid vapours, which vapours
are raised in a chamber or under a perforated floor formed of glass, earthenware,
bricks, wood, iron, or any other suitable material.
For cheapness I prefer to mix together sulphuric acid and chloride of sodium, I
then apply heat to give off the acid vapours to act upon the wool, woollen or silk
rags or waste, or I apply steam. The materials to be acted upon by acid vapours
may be suspended about on rods in a closed room. The time required for the acid
vapours to act upon the cotton or vegetable substances is according to the strength
of the acid liquid acted upon with heat.
Hitherto the cleansing of rags before classing their qualities, cutting, seaming, or
sorting them for extracting vegetable substances therefrom has been looked upon
not only as incurring too much expense, but as an impossibility for it to pay on
account of the expense in washing, cleansing, and drying wet material aftewards.

page_text: Rags are therefore classed, cut, or seamed and sorted in a dirty state, in which
they are collected, and as these rags are known to contain almost every kind of
filth and vermin it is difficult to obtain the necessary labour to perform the work.
Now in order to entirely destroy all the vermin therein and to loosen the dirt and
cause the material to be readily cleansed, and to saturate thoroughly burry wool
seeds in burry wool, and shive in wool, woollen and linsey rags, as well as piece
goods, I subject the same to a steeping process under hydraulic pressure in a
strongly made cylindrical vessel of iron, wood, or other suitable material; or the
woollen material may be sunk to the bottom of a deep pit, well, or vessel con-
taining water to steep or saturato such material; but I prefer to place a strong
made metal cylindrical vessel in a horizontal position having a well fitted lid which
can be swung to by a crane or run to on wheels with bolts, nuts, or screws, and
which is made secure to resist internal pressure.
To facilitate steeping operations I place rails along the bottom of the vessel, and
I fill a carriage or carriages running on wheels formed with pierced sides to suit the
shape of the vessel with burry or shivey wool noils, woollen and linsey rags,
woollen material, piece goods, and silk rags, and I run in charged or filled carriages
close to each other until the vessel is filled; or the wool or rags may be carried in
in bags or in a loose state until the vessel is filled; I then fasten the lid securely to
the vessel, and being fitted with an india-rubber ring or other suitable washer in
order to resist pressure it is fastoned down with clamps and screws; I then open
two or more valves which are fitted to the vessel, one to fill the vessel with water
or alkali liquids, and the other to let out the air. In most cases water will answer
for softening the dirt. When the vessel is filled I close the valves and open
another valve connected to a hydraulic pump, and I pump in water or alkali until
pressure acts upon the burry and shivey wool, burr seeds, rags, woollen material,
and silk rags, at a pressure of from 2 lbs. to 200 lbs. on the square inch, according
to the strength of the vessel. Instead of a force pump water from hydraulic mains
or from some elevated position may be attached and regulated with valves to give
hydraulic pressure.
The importance of steeping under hydraulic pressure is that vermin of every
description is killed, and the premises are kept cleaner and healthier than they
otherwise could be; the dust, dirt, and seeds in burry and shivey wool or rags is so
thoroughly moistened and loosened that the washing of the material is afterwards
quickly effected in a stock milling or washing machine without milling or felting
up the wool or woollen material.
By my Invention the following advantages are obtained
First. The acid liquids almost instantly penetrate the fibres of wool, woollen
cotton, and vegetable substances without neutralizing the acid liquids.
Second. Heat is not wasted in drying considerable quantities of dirt and dust,
which rags in particular are known to contain, also unpleasant and injurious odours
to health in working are prevented, besides facilitating operations in working, as
the clean material is more quickly dried than if it was charged with neutralizing
dirt, acids, alkalies, earths, and foreign matter.
Third. The colour and staple of wool, woollen material, and silk rags are preserved
as well as the lustre and brightness.
Fourth. The burrs and shive in wool noils, and vegetable substances in rags
after being chemically treated and dried in a drying room are more readily and
effectually removed.
Fifth. The wool or animal fibre when thoroughly dried is more readily opened
out by a willow or other machine, washed in water, and then subjected to weak
caustic soda liquid to neutralize the acid, and then to a bath of soap and water or
other cleansing alkalies..

page_text: 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 Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PREPARING WOOLLEN, COTTON, SILK, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE FABRICS, FOR
EXTRACTING VEGETABLE FIBRES THEREFROM, AND FOR CLEANING THE SAME."
My Invention consists in the cleansing or moistening of wool, woollen material,
silk, cotton, and mixed fabrics, previous to being saturated in acid liquids or exposed
to the action of acid gases or acid vapours, such as burry and shivey wool noils,
woollen and linsey rags, stockings, flannels, French merinoes, Scotch and other
woollen waste, angolas, new and old linsey cloth rags, carpets, fringe, hosiery waste
and clippings, silk rags, felted cloths, shallies, woollen flocks, woollen piece goods,
and woollen material composed of vegetable fibres, such as cotton, cotton threads,
jute, flax, China grass, or other vegetable fibres, and mixed woollen or silk fabrics,
before being acted upon by chemicals for removing vegetable substances, and also
for removing vegetable substances more effectually and economically therefrom,
and for facilitating the working, and for preserving the colour and staple of wool and
woollen fabrics.
Rags in this country are mostly collected in a dirty state, many being impregnated
or stained with grease, oil, alkali, lime, paint, or other foreign matters, and when
chemically treated in this unclean state for removing vegetable substances from
mixed fabrics or fibres, such dirt tends to neutralise diluted sulphuric, muriatic, or
nitric acid liquids, or other acid liquids, as well as to have most injurious effects
upon sulphuric acid gas, muriatic or hydrochloric acid gas, or other acid gases, or
sulphuric or muriatic acid vapours. Now I have found that uncleansed wool,
woollen waste, woollen rags, woollen material, and silk rags, possess most injurious
neutralising properties which after a few steepings in diluted sulphuric, muriatic, or
nitric acid liquid waters, cause the acid liquids to become so neutralized that the
acids have no destroying action upon the cotton or vegetable substances in a drying
room raised to a considerable high temperature. Such neutralizing effects upon acid
liquids require the acid liquids to be considerably increased in strength with fresh
acids, which has a most damaging influence upon the wool and woollen fibres,
changing most of the colours to a brown, and in drying under heat the great
strength of the acids considerably reduces the strength of the wool and woollen
fibres in their elasticity which destroys the small feathery branches of the wool and
impairs if not destroys the milling or fulling properties. To obviate these injurious
effects I first subject the wool, noils, hair, or other materials, to a steeping process in
water, caustic soda, liquid ammonia, urine, soap, soda ash, fullers' earth, or other
diluted alkalies, and then thoroughly cleanse or wash out the dust, dirt, grease,
caustic soda, ammoniac, urine, soap, soda ash, lime, acids, fullers' earth, earthy
substances and foreign matter in a fulling stock or stocks or washing apparatus.
When thoroughly cleansed of the neutralizing effects to the action of acid liquids,
acid gases, or vapours, I place the wool noils, hair, rags, or other materials in an
hydro-extractor to remove all liquid or moisture as far as possible therefrom.
When the burry or shivey wool noils, rags, woollen waste, or other materials are
not washed I place them in cold or hot water or steam them, or I place them in a
room and apply water to damp them, but I prefer to wash them. It will be readily
understood that when such materials are in a moist state the fibres of wool, woollen,
cotton, or other vegetable substances, form ready conductors for acid liquids, gases,
or sulphuric or muriatic acid vapours when exposed to their action. I therefore
prepare a bath or vessel with diluted sulphuric acid and alum, or sulphuric acid and
water, muriatic acid, nitric acid, or a combination of the acids and iron filings at a
strength of from, say, 2 to 20 degrees of Twaddle's hydrometer, and I place the
materials to be operated upon in the acid liquid or liquids when they are instantly
saturated, and I then immediately remove them from the acid liquids and place them

page_text: in an hydro-extractor, or pass the same between rollers to remove all surplus acid
liquid, so that before the action of the acid has time to injure or lift the dye colouring
matter the excess of acid liquid or moisture is removed. The process of steeping
burry or shivey wool noils, rags, woollen waste, piece goods, flocks, or other materials,
and preparing them for drying is therefore the work of only a few seconds or
minutes, according to the quantity treated.
If desired the saturated material may lay on a framework and drain, but I
prefer to steep the wool or other materials as quickly as possible and remove any
surplus sulphuric, muriatic, or nitric acid liquid by the readiest possible means and
to dry the material without delay.
I also find that acid gases or vapours act more readily upon wool or woollen
material when thoroughly cleansed of all dirt or gummy and foreign substances, I
therefore cause the acid vapours to be given off from sulphuric, muriatic, or hydro-
chloric acid by placing a vessel containing a coil of lead piping, through which I
pass steam to raise the temperature of sulphuric, muriatic, or hydrochloric acid, the
steam being carried away and not brought in contact with the acid vapours, or I
allow the steam to pass direct into the vessel containing sulphuric, muriatic, or
hydrochloric acid to raise the temperature and give off the acid vapours, which
vapours are raised in a chamber or under a perforated floor formed of glass, carthen-
ware, bricks, wood, iron, or any other suitable material.
For cheapness I prefer to mix together sulphuric acid and chloride of sod ; I
then apply heat to give off the acid vapours to act upon the wool, woollen, or silk.
rags or waste, or I apply steam. The materials to be acted upon by acid vapours
may be suspended about on rods in a closed room. The time required for the acid
vapours to act upon the cotton or vegetable substances is according to the strength
of the acid liquid acted upon with heat.
Hitherto the cleansing of rags before classing their qualities, cutting, seaming, or
sorting them, for extracting vegetable substances therefrom, has been looked upon
not only as incurring too much expense, but as an impossibility for it to pay on
account of the expense in washing, cleansing, and drying wet material afterwards.
Rags are therefore classed, cut, or seamed and sorted in the dirty state in which they
are collected, and as these rags are known to contain almost every kind of filth and
vermin it is difficult to obtain the necessary labour to perform this work. Now in
order to destroy all the vermin therein and to loosen the dirt and cause the material
to be readily cleansed, and to saturate thoroughly burry wool, seeds in burry wool,
and shieve in wool, woollen and linsey rags, as well as piece goods, I subject the
same to a steeping process under hydraulic pressure in a strongly made cylindrical
vessel of iron, wood, or other suitable material, or the woollen material may be sunk
to the bottom of a deep pit, well, or vessel, containing water to steep or saturate
such material, but I prefer to place a strong made cylindrical vessel in a horizontal
position having a well fitting lid which can be swung to by a crane, or run to on
wheels with bolts, nuts, or screws, and which is made secure to resist internal
pressure.
To facilitate steeping operations I place rails along the bottom of the vessel, and
I fill a carriage or carriages running on wheels formed with pierced sides to suit the
shape of the vessel with burry or shievy wool noils, woollen and linsey rags, woollen
material, picco goods, and silk rags, and I run in charged or filled carriages close to
each other until the vessel is filled, or the wool or rags may be carried in in bags or
in a loose state until the vessel is filled. I then fasten the lid securely to the vessel,
such lid or vessel being fitted with an india-rubber ring or other suitable washer in
order to resist pressure, and I then fasten such lid down with clamps and screws or
otherwise. I then open two or more valves which are fitted to the vessel, one to
fill the vessel with water or alkali liquids, and the other to let out the air. In most
cases water will answer for softening the dirt. When the vessel is filled I close the
valves and open another valve connected to a hydraulic pump, and I pump in
water or alkali until a pressure acts upon the burry and shievy wool, burr seeds,
rags, woollen material, and silk rags, at a pressure of from 2 lbs. to 200 lbs. on the

page_text: square inch, according to the strength of the vessel. Instead of a force pump water
from hydraulic mains or from some elevated position may be attached and regulated
with valves to give hydraulic pressure.
The importance of steeping under hydraulic pressure is that vermin of every
description is killed, and the premises are kept cleaner and healthier than they
otherwise would be. The dust, dirt, and seeds in bury and shievy wool or rags
are so thoroughly moistened and loosened that the washing of the material is after-
wards quickly effected in a stock milling or washing machine without milling or
felting up the wool or woollen material.
By my Invention the following advantages are obtained,
First. The acid liquids almost instantly penetrate the fibres of wool, woollen,
cotton, and vegetable substances without neutralizing the acid liquids.
Second. Heat is not wasted in drying considerable quantities of dirt and dust,
which rags in particular are known to contain, also unpleasant and injurious odours
to health in working are prevented, besides facilitating operations in working, as
the clean material is more quickly dried than if it was charged with neutralising
dirt, acids, alkalies, earths, and foreign matter.
Third. The colour and staple of wool, woollen material, and silk rags are
preserved as well as the lustre and brightness.
Fourth. The burrs and shieve in wool noils and vegetable substances in rags
after being chemically treated and dried in a drying room are more readily and
effectually removed.
Fifth. The wool or animal fibre when thoroughly dried is more readily opened
out by a Willy or other machine, washed in water, and then subjected to weak
caustic soda liquid to neutralize the acid, and then to a bath of soap and water or
other cleansing alkalies.
My Invention though remarkably simple is probably one of the most important
ever introduced since the discovery of the manufacture of rags into wool. It is
estimated that upwards of 80,000 tons of woollen and linsey rags per annum are
imported and collected in this country. Millions of tons of woollen and linsey rags
since the discovery by the late Benjamin Law, of Batley, of "shoddy" wool, and
the discovery of "mungo" by the late Samuel Parr, of Batley, have been rescued
from the manure heap. By their labours woollen rags which were once valueless
for reuse as cloth, blankets, yarns, carpets, and other textile fabrics are now used
for re-clothing millions of people, and so made subservient to wealth, industry, and
the comfort of millions. Villages have sprung up into large and prosperous towns,
woollen mills are to be seen on every hand, and stately mansions on every side,
the result of the labours of the Batley genius, seen but not acknowledged, as they
ended their days in poverty.
The Committee of the Council on Education, Science and Art Department, South
Kensington, says :-Stop the supply of shoddy and mungo and you may reasonably
expect to double the price of wool and deprive millions of their warm and cheap
winter garments and their light and useful summer ones. Stop the supply of
shoddy and mungo and you will close one third of the woollen mills in the Kingdom
and bring distress upon the West Riding of Yorkshire.
68
Shoddy wool" is wool reproduced from loose textile fabrics such as blankets,
French merino, flannels, comforters, stockings, and other loose knitted or woven
fabrics, carpets, &c., &c.
"
Mungo" is a wool produced from torn-up milled, fulled, or felted cloth fabrics
such as old worn pieces of coats, vests, and trousers. "New mungo" is produced from
tailor's shreds and clippings, from which the best qualities of cloth are mostly
made.
It will be readily understood that rags collected from every imaginable source
must contain dirt and filth, and as female labour chiefly has to perform the sorting
of rags into colours and qualities, it is easy to imagine how disagreeable and repulsive
an occupation this must be, the impurities of which being often injurious to health.
Yet while the rags are in this unclean state, rooms filled with young girls and

page_text: women are to be seen seated on low stools with shears cutting off the seams which
contain cotton threads. This is called seaming. Sights of this kind are to be seen
in every town throughout the country. The female garments being covered with
dust as well as filth, in the shape of fleas and bugs, a state of things not in
accordance with the times and refinement of the present day, and being one which
has long required government interference. The grinding up of the rags into wool
in this dirty state requires to be witnessed to be truthfully understood, as the men
who attend to this work have their mouths covered with a hankerchief, and their
nostrils filled with ground up shoddy wool so as to filter the air they breath.
"Flocks" are ground up from old rags and seams cut off from garments shook in
a willy to remove the dust, and then sold for beds and upholstery to taint rooms
with smells as of dampness, and to be purchased by innocent people to sleep upon,
which no doubt causes thousands of cases of disease, sickness, and death.
It is remarkable that the manufacturers who have to blend, card, spin, and
weave dirty material have not long discovered that dirt is not wool, and when
washed or cleansed in the process of fulling not only reduces the substance of the
apparent heavy yarns and piece goods, but the carding machines are choked up
with small particles of dirt, and money is paid for spinning and weaving dirt which
is afterwards washed out.
It is estimated that upwards of 80 millions of tons of woollen rags are annually
imported and collected in the United Kingdom, all of which require to be classed,
sorted, or scamed, and prepared for re-manufacture at a great cost and waste,
instead of small cost and little waste. The importation of wool for the six months
ending June 30th of this year, was 280,977,940 lbs. or over 125,436, tons, a great
portion of which requires to be freed from burr and treated in the first place as
this my Invention of improvements describes. These burrs not only form a con-
siderable weight of worthless freight, but they reduce the real value of the wool in
the market to an extent of hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not millions.
My Invention of improvements refers to a very simple and inexpensive means
and economical apparatus, which accomplishes a great and important object in a
perfect and satisfactory manner.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, I would have it under-
that what I claim is,-
First the cleansing by washing, steeping, or moistening with cold water, warm
water, or steam previous to and for the purpose of being acted upon with diluted
acid liquids, acid gases, or acid vapours, animal and vegetable substances, such as
burry and shievy wool noils, woollen and linsey rags, stockings, flannels, French
merinoes; Scotch and other woollen waste, angolas, new and old linsey cloth, rags,
carpets, fringe, hosiery waste, and clippings, shirtings, silk rags, felted coths, shallies,
woollen flocks, woollen piece goods, and woollen materials composed of vegetable
fibres, such as cotton, cotton threads, jute, flax, China grass, or other vegetable
fibres.
Second. The steeping and cleansing of animal and vegetable substances as herein
described with water and caustic soda liquid, ammonia, urine, soap, soda ash, fullers'
earth, or other diluted alkalies previous to and for the purposes of being treated or
acted upon with dilute acid liquids, gases, or vapours.
Third. The steeping of animal and vegetable substances in warm or cold water,
or weak alkalies under hydraulic pressure in a closed vessel, or the material may be
sunk to the bottom of a pit, well, or vessel to obtain steeping under hydraulic
pressure, as herein-before described.
Fourth. The steeping of cleansed animal and vegetable substances so cleansed in
dilute acid liquids, or exposing the same to acid gases or vapours as herein described
for the purposes of removing vegetable fibres and substances from animal fibres.
Fifth. The cleansing of woollen and linsey rags in a stock milling or washing
machine as herein described, previous to and for the purposes of being treated or
acted upon with dilute acid liquids, gases, or vapours, and removing the surplus

page_text: water therefrom by an hydro-extractor to prepare the rags for taking readily the
acid liquids or gases, and thereby preserving the colour and staple thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Rydill, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Second day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
GEORGE RYDILL.
(L.S.)