A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS OF AND MACHINERY FOR WASHING AND SCOURING. WOOL
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Herbert John Haddan at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th December 1882. A communi-
cation to him from abroad by E. Tremsal, of Loth, in the kingdom of Belgium.
•
HERBERT JOHN HADDAN, of Kensington, Middlesex, ."A NEW OR IMPROVED
PROCESS OF AND MACHINERY FOR WASHING AND SCOURING. WOOL," a communi-
cation to me from abroad by E. Tremsal, of Loth, in the kingdom of Belgium,
.
This invention has for its object to wash wool, (crude or yolk-wool or imperfectly
washed wool) and to extract the grease therefrom. For this purpose I cause
the wool to circulate through various washing and scouring baths without
manual or mechanical agitation, so as to avoid the defects of the processes
hitherto used, namely the felting, twining and interlacing of the filaments
which compose the staples. This process may be carried out by placing the
wool between two endless bands or sheets situated one over the other and
carrying the wool through the bath, or by placing the wool in movable perforated
troughs or boxes dipped into and circulating with. or through any suitable tank
which contains the grease-extracting bath. Several pairs of endless sheets or
series of boxes may be used for repeating or continuing the process.
Various
mechanical means may be employed in the described process, for instance, an
endless band which delivers the wool at one end of the bath to the lower one
of the said travelling bands, a second endless band which receives the wool at the
other end of the bath and transports it to a pair of wringers, from which it is
transported by a third endless band to a second set of travelling sheets for treating
the wool in a second bath, and so on, the endless bands or sheets being set in
motion and guided by rollers actuated by tooth gearing or any other suitable
mechanism. In the second method of treatment above described a number of
boxes or troughs provided with openings on all sides and charged with wool may
be caused to pass from one end of the bath to the other, every box or trough
arriving in its turn before an elevator which lifts it over an endless apron to
receive the wool. The apron delivers the wool to a pair of wringers from which
it passes on a second endless apron conducting the wool to a second bath for
repeating or continuing the operation. The boxes or troughs may be carried or
suspended, supported by a rail or rails, or drawn by an endless chain or chains, or
they may be carried to the elevator by the tank itself which may be made to turn

page_text: on an axis and have any suitable shape. A beating or stamping apparatus moved
automatically or by hand may be used, which acts upon the wool while it is in the
boxes or troughs. The endless sheets or bands which carry the wool through the
baths are provided with fixed guides or cheeks to prevent the escape of the wool;
they may be composed of wooden or metallic slats attached to flexible belts or
chains, or they may be made entirely of textile material or sheet metal. The
upper one of a pair of endless sheets may be armed with blades running across the
sheet and forming an angle with the latter, so as to carry the wool with it.
Instead of discharging the wool from the boxes directly upon a travelling apron, it
may be caused to fall on an inclined plane or shoot which delivers it to the apron.
The boxes or troughs may be carried on rollers and caused to move into and
through the tank along a rectilinear or circular or other path, by imparting motion
to the rails or other supports on which they rest or from which they are suspended,
or by causing one box or trough to push its neighbour. The boxes or troughs,
when charged with wool, may be placed on movable rails which are periodically
moved forward and backward, by means of a levers the boxes being lifted
periodically by a pair of longitudinal bars and a double-armed lever, and caused
to advance one division, the return motion taking place in a similar way on a pair
of movable rails situated over the bath, an elevating apparatus being furthermore
placed at each end of the bath for lifting the boxes on and off the rails. If the
circulation is caused by moving the tank, the latter is preferably made ring-shaped
and receives an intermittent rotary motion, while the boxes can be lifted in or out
of the tank, and filled and emptied, by mechanism acting periodically in accordance
with the mechanism for turning the tank. Instead of carrying the boxes forward
and backward on different levels, they may be moved on the same level along the
walls of a rectangular or otherwise shaped tank, and mounted on rollers running
on rails, being periodically, lifted out of the bath for discharging and charging, and
placed on the track again by suitable elevating apparatus.