IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING OR BLEACHING COIR FIBRE AND COIR YARNS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Shand, of Liverpool, Merchant, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING OR BLEACHING COIR FIBRE AND
COIR YARNS." A communication from abroad by Charles Shand, residing
at Colombo. Cevlon.
Sealed the 3rd September 1860, and dated the 20th March 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Shand at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th
March 1860.
I, ALEXANDER SHAND, of Liverpool, Merchant, do hereby declare the
5 nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING OR BLEACHING
COIR FIBRE AND COIR YARNS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing or bleaching
coir fibre and coir yarns and consists in subjecting coir fibre and coir yarns in
a moistened state to the action of sulphurous acid gas.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Shand in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th September 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
SHAND, of Liverpool, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of March in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Alexander Shand; Her special licence that I, the said Alexander
Shand, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Alexander Shand, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN PREPARING OR BLEACHING COIR FIBRE AND COIR YARNS," ȧ
communication to me from abroad by Charles Shand, risiding at Colombo,
Ceylon, upon the condition (amongst others) that 'I, the said Alexander
Shand, 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 Alexander Shand, 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:
.
in
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing or bleaching
coir fibre and coir yarns and consists in subjecting coir fibre and coir yarns
a moistened state to the action of sulphurous acid gas.
Having thus stated the nature of the Invention, I will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.
A. chamber or inclosed space such as is used when bleaching wool, woollen
yarns, worsted, and fabrics made of wool by the aid of sulphurous acid gas is
employed, in which chamber the coir yarns or coir fibres are placed and kept
opened out, so that the gas may pass freely amongst and against all parts

page_text: thereof, which may be done in like manner to that practised when bleaching
wool or woollen yarns or worsted or fabrics made thereof, as is well under-
stood, and I would state that I make no claim to the construction of such
chamber nor to the general use of sulphurous acid gas as a bleaching agent,
but what I claim is the submitting coir fibres and coir yarns in a moist state
to the bleaching action of sulphurous acid gas.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Shand, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
ALEX. SHAND. (L.S.)