AN IMPROVED MODE OF BOWKING OR BUCKING CLOTH
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Andrew Robeson, junior, of Newport, in the
State of Rhode Island and United States of America, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF BOWKING OR BUCKING CLOTH."
Sealed the 21st January 1853, and dated the 8th November 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Andrew Robeson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 8th November 1852.
I, ANDREW ROBESON (junior), of Newport, in the State of Rhode
Island and United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF BOWKING OR BUCKING CLOTH"
to be as follows:-
It consists in the employment of a closed kier or vessel, and ex-
tracting the bowking liquor from the lower part of it, and forcing it
into the upper part of it (the vessel), in combination with injecting
steam into the upper part of the said vessel, whereby the steam is
made to press upon and pass into or through the goods or cloth (in
the kier), and not only facilitate the action of the bowking liquor, but
assist the filtration or passage of it through the cloth.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Andrew Robeson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 5th May 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ANDREW ROBESON, junior, of Newport, in the State of Rhode Island
and United States of America, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto nc, the said Andrew Robeson, junior, Her especial licence
that I, the said Andrew Robeson, junior, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Andrew Robeson, junior,
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 of "AN
IMPROVED MODE OF BUCKING OR BOWKING CLOTH," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Andrew Robeson, junior, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Andrew Robeson, do hereby
declare that the following, taken in connection with the accompanying
Drawings, is a Complete Specification of my said Invention, setting
forth the nature thereof, and the manner in which the same is to be
performer:
Of the said Drawings Figure 1, exhibits a side elevation; Figure 2,
an end elevation; Figure 3, a vertical central and tranverse section;
Figure 4, a top view; and Figure 5, a central and longitudinal section
of the apparatus used in bowking cloth by my said Invention.
In the said Drawings A, denotes a closed vessel or kier, made of

page_text: pump
copper or other suitable material, and divided into two chambers B, C,
by means of a grating or perforated partition D; E, is a forcing pump
whose induction pipe is seen at F, as connected with an opening out of
the lower part of the chamber C. The eduction pipe of the said forcing
is seen at G, and as passing out of the top of the forcing pump,
or the upper valve chamber H, thereof, through the side of the chamber
C, and up through the middle of the chamber B, and near the top of
the same, where it is surmounted by a meniscus shaped deflector K; L
and M, are the valves of the forcing pump; N, its piston; and O, its
piston rod, which is worked up and down by means of an eccentric P,
fixed upon the shaft Q. Into the upper part of the vessel A, a steam
pipe R, is led, the said steam pipe being made to communicate with
a steam generator or boiler. The said steam pipe is provided with a
safety valve S, and a stop cock T; a small pipe U, is also carried
down through the middle of the vessel A, from or near the top of the
pipe G, and terminates at its bottom, just below the grating D, and
has a small safety or weighted valve V, fixed upon its lower end.
In the use of the above-described apparatus the goods to be bowked
or bucked are laid within the chamber B, of the kier A, and around
the pipes G, and U, the said chamber B, being packed with the goods
nearly up to the level of the top of the pipe U. The scouring or
bowking liquor is placed in the chamber C, and such chamber is to be
heated or not, as occasion may require, by heat applied to its external
surface. The force pump being set in operation, the hot liquor
from the chamber C, will be drawn out of the lower part thereof,
and forced up through the pipe G, against the deflector K, by which
it will be distributed upon the top surface of the cloth. Now if
steam is let into the chamber B, through the pipe R, it will press
closely upon the cloth and bowking liquor thrown upon it, and will
aid in causing a rapid filtration of the bowking liquor through the
goods or cloth and into the chamber C. The bowking liquor thus
not only descends by the power of gravity, as does in the common
process of using a kier, but it is forced downwards and through the
cloth by the superincumbent pressure of the steam. If the pressure
of the steam at any time exceeds the maximum pressure required for
the operation of the kier, the safety valve V, weighted to such maxi-

page_text: mum pressure, will be forced open or raised, and allow the steam to
escape into the chamber C, where it will be condensed in the bowking
liquor.
A pipe for the discharge of the contents of the vessel C, may be led
out of the bottom of the said vessel, and be provided with a stop cock,
and the vessel A, may have an opening a, through its top, and a cover b,
to said opening, as seen in the Drawings, the said cover being provided
with suitable contrivances, by which it may be readily fixed on or
removed from the opening as occasion may require; the said opening
a, is intended for both the supplying of the goods and bowking liquor
to the kier, or the removal of the goods therefrom.
I am aware that a kier has been constructed of two chambers,
and that a lifting pump has been applied to the lower one to raise the
bowking liquor from the lower chamber, and discharge it into the upper
one and on the top of the goods, the upper chamber being an open
chamber open at its top. Now the lower chamber being heated, the
steam arising from the bowking liquor in it is suffered to pass through
a grating (dividing the two chambers) and upwards through the goods
or cloth. In this case the passage of the steam upwards through the
cloth opposes and prevents to a considerable extent the infiltration of
the bowking liquor.
I am also aware that a closed vessel or kier has been used and made
with two apartments, divided by a grating, essentially as represented in
the accompanying Drawings. Also, that a pipe has been led from the
middle of the grating, and out of the lower chamber, and up through
the upper chamber, and provided with a deflector on its top. In this
case, heat being applied to the lowermost vessel, steam was made to
ascend from the bowking liquor therein, and not only pass up through
the grating and goods, but through the pipe and upon top of the goods.
In this last apparatus, there being the same pressure of steam below
the goods as there is above them, the filtration of the liquor through
the goods derives little or no assistance from the pressure of the
steam.
I am also aware that an open kier has been made with two chambers
and a central vomiting pipe covered by a deflector, and that a steam
pipe has been led into the lower chamber to discharge steam into and

page_text: heat the bowking liquor used therein, and that while the central pipe
extended down some distance the pressure of steam in the upper part
of said chamber would force the bowking liquor upwards through the
vomiting pipe and upon the top of the goods, so that such liquor would
descend through the goods, and pass into the lower chamber of the
two chambers, and through the grating which separated the two
chambers. In this last instauce the upward pressure of the steam
against the lower part of the cloth or goods is opposed to the down-
ward fiftration of the bowking liquor.
In my improved method of bowking the pressure of the steam is
not only employed to saturate the goods, but to assist and increase the
filtration of the bowking liquor through them. The experiments I have
performed have led me to discover by the use of my apparatus a very
great saving of time and labor in the bowking of cloth. I am led to
believe that there will be not only a saving of at least fifty per cent, in
time, but there will be a great saving in full over the common processes
of bowking.
What I claim as my Invention or improvement is, the employment
of a closed kier or vessel as above described, and extracting the bowking
liquor from the lower part of it, and forcing it into the upper part of
it, in combination with injecting steam into the upper part of the said
vessel, whereby the steam is made to press upon and pass into or through
the goods or cloth, and not only facilitate the action of the bowking
liquor, but assist the filtration or passage of the liquor through the
cloth, all substantially as above stated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Robeson, junior, have
hereunto set my hand and scal, this Fifteenth day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
0
Witness,
W. H. TAYLOR.
A. ROBESON, J. (L.S.)