IMPROVE- MENTS IN BLEACHING VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL FIBRES AND TISSUES
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN BLEACHING VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL FIBRES AND TISSUES." -A
communication from abroad by Charles Raphael Maréchal and
Cyprien Marie Tessié du Motay, both of Metz, France.
Sealed the 9th July 1866, and dated the 10th January 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 10th January 1866.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLEACHING VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL FIBRES AND TISSUES,"
to be as follows:-
If fibres and tissues of vegetable or animal origin are steeped in liquors
containing in solution acids or metallic salts superoxygenated or capable of
being superoxygenated, such as perchromic, permanganic, tungstic, chro-
mic, and manganic acids, soluble perchromates, permanganates, tungstates,
chromates, and manganates, and if they are then immersed in oxygenated

page_text: water, or in baths capable of disengaging oxygen free or combined, they
are rapidly bleached without alteration. If fibres and tissues of vegetable
or animal origin are steeped in oxygenated water, or in baths capable of
disengaging oxygen free or combined, and if they are then immersed in
liquors containing in solution metallic acids superoxygenated or capable of
being superoxygenated, they are also bleached without alteration. The
reaction of the oxygenated water on the acids and on the metallic salts
oxygenated or superoxygenated, as well as the reverse reaction, produce a
mutual decomposition of the compounds present. The oxygen produced
by this mutual decomposition is disengaged in the allotropic state, and the
fibres and tissues of vegetable or animal origin immersed in the baths in
which this reaction is produced are decolorized as in contact with active
oxygen produced by an electric spark or by phosphorus. To bleach fibres
and tissues of flax and hemp, for example, I employ in general baths
containing in solution from 3 to 6 per cent. of permanganic acid, and
baths of oxygenated water containing from 3 to 6 per cent. of oxygenated
The baths for bleaching tissues and fibres of cotton may without
inconvenience contain a more feeble quantity of bleaching liquid; the
same may be said of baths employed in bleaching wool or silk in fibres or
tissues.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by Amelia Susannah Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
10th July 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AMELIA
SUSANNAH BROOMAN, of Twickenham, in the County of Middlesex,
Widow and sole Executrix of Richard Archibald Brooman, late of 166,
Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent, deceased, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letter's Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-
ninth year of Her reigh, 'did, for Herself, 'Her heirs and successors, give
and granit unto me, the said Amélia Susannah Brooman, Her special
licence that I, the said Amelia Susannah Brooman, iny executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Amelia Susannah Brooman,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,

page_text: and no others, from time to time and 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BLEACHING VENTABLE AND ANIMAL FIBRES AND TISSUES," (communicated to
the said Richard Archibald Brooman from abroad by Charles Raphael
Maréchal and Cyprien Marie Tessié du Motay, both of Metz, France,) upon
the condition (amongst others) that 1, the said Amelia Susannah Brooman,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument 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 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 Amelia Susannah Brooman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
Fibres and tissues of vegetable or animal origin, such as tow, threa∙ls
and stuffs of cattan, hemp, flax, silk, and others are rapidly bleached with-
out alteration; first, when they are steeped in liquors containing in solu-
tion acids or metallic salts superoxygenated, such as perchromic, perman-
ganic, tungstic, chromic, and manganic acids, and soluble perchromates,
permanganates, tungstates, chromates, and manganates; secondly, when
on leaving any one of these liquors they are immersed in oxygenated acid
water, or in acid baths, capable of forming with the persalts or metallic
oxides which impregnate them and cover them, a soluble salt less oxyge-
nated, such as byposulphate of manganese, for example, when after
having been immersed in a bath of alkaline permanganate, they are steeped
› in a bath of water charged with sulphurous acid, &c. The fibres and tissues
above mentioned are likewise bleached without alteration, when after
having been steeped in oxygenated acid water they are immersed in
liquors containing in solution acids or metallic salts superoxygenated or
capable of being superoxygenated. The reaction of the baths capable of
producing with the acids salts and metallic oxides oxygenated and super-
oxygenated, soluble salts less oxygenated as well as the reaction of the
oxygenated acid water-produce,a mutual decomposition of the compounds
present, and the,fibres,and tissues of vegetable or animal origin immersed

page_text: in the baths in which these reactions take place become decolorized as in
contact with active oxygen, produced by the electric spark or by phos-
phorus.
The foregoing are in general terms the reactions discovered by the
present Inventors, and the practical employment of which for bleaching
fibres and tissues of vegetable or animal origin, forms the subject of this
Invention.
I now proceed to specify the mode of employing and the particular
quantities of the re-agents used for bleaching either fibres and tissues of
vegetable origin or fibres and tissues of animal origin. I may remark that
in preference to all the other acids and metallic persalts above mentioned,
permanganic acid and alkaline or alkalinoterrous permanganates are em-
ployed as being industrially the most economical and chemically the most
efficacious. When it is required to bleach threads or tissues of cotton,
flax, hemp, or other textile substance of vegetable origin they are first
cleansed in hot water and then scoured in an alkaline lye; they are next
immersed in a bath of water containing in solution, for example, from four
to ten parts by weight of permanganic acid or soluble permanganate to one
hundred parts of the material to be bleached. After this immersion, which
should be continued for from fifteen to thirty minutes, the substances to be
bleached are taken out and removed either to a bath of water containing in
solution from three to four per cent. of peroxide of hydrogen, and from two
to three per cent. of hydrochloric acid, or to a bath containing sulphurous
acid to saturation. The substances under treatment are left in one or other
of these baths until the persalt which impregnates them and the insoluble
lacquer of oxide of manganese which covers them are entirely dissolved, that
is to say, for about thirty minutes, after which the substances are washed
in running water, then lixiviated, and finally re-immersed in the order
above indicated, that is to say, first in the solution of permanganic acid or
permanganate, and secondly, in the bath of oxygenated acid water or in
the bath of sulphurous acid, and so on until entirely bleached. A bath con-
taining, according to the quantity of coloring matter to be removed from
the substances to be bleached, from four to ten per cent. of permanganic
acid or permanganate is generally sufficient to completely decolorize one
hundred parts by weight of cotton, hemp, or flax in a spun or woven state.
The process or method employed for bleaching fibres and tissues of silk
and wool is the same as that above described, except that the liquor of
sulphurous acid is always employed instead of the oxygenated water.

page_text: And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim bleaching
vegetable and animal fibres and tissues substantially by the means and in
manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Amelia Susannah Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of July, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-six.
A. S. BROOMAN. (Ls.)