Year: 1886

page_text: I, EDWARD WILLIAM SERRELL, junior, civil engineer of New York, United
States, temporarily residing in Chabeuil, Department of the Drôme, France do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
In order that silk cocoons may be reeled it is necessary that the floss and broken
ends found upon the exterior of each cocoon should be removed, and that the end
of the continuous filament of which the cocoon is principally composed should be
found and seized.
This cannot be practically done, by any known method, until the cocoons have
been immersed for a certain time in hot water, so that the gum or natural
cementing material, which binds the filaments together has been softened. In
order to produce a good thread and in general to enable the work of reeling to be
performed to advantage the softening of the gum should be carried to a certain
point and no further. The softening of the gum by the use of hot water is in the
silk industry called "the cooking" of the cocoon. When the cocoons have been
properly cooked, the floss and broken ends still adhere to them in a greater or less
degree, and in the present state of the art, are removed by brushing or by the use
of various devices in which twigs, wires, bristles or similar bodies provided or
furnished with projecting points are employed to catch and drag off from the
cocoon the floss and broken ends. This process is wasteful, because the points
catch and break parts of the continuous filament, which it is desirable to utilize in
reeling, as well as the floss and broken ends which only should be removed.
The cooking of the cocoon may be carried to such a point, that the floss and the
whole exterior of the cocoon will float off into the surrounding water and attempts
have been made from time to time, to so utilize this fact as to avoid a necessity of
employing the beating or brushing devices furnished with points which have been
above referred to. But these attempts have not been successful because with any
apparatus heretofore known, employed in this way, it has been necessary to cook
the cocoons too much, so that waste of silk and imperfect reeling resulted.
My improvement consists in a method of treating cocoons and in mechanical
devices adopted thereto which do away with the necessity of brushing or beating
the cocoons and by the use of which the floss may be removed and the ends found

page_text: without cooking the cocoons too much. The process consists in subjecting partially
cooked cocoons to violent alternating currents of hot water, and in causing the
cocoons to be alternately drawn towards and driven from openings in a grating or
other equivalent device through which the water flows, but in which the openings
are too small to admit of the passage of a cocoon. The result of this process is that
the cocoons are rubbed one against the other and against the grating and that they
part with their floss before the mass of the cocoon is disintegrated by the action
of the hot water. The end of the continuous filament of each cocoon usually
entangles itself among the floss and broken ends and may be found attached to
them.
I prefer to construct the grating in such a manner as, to permit of its easy
removal from the hot water receptacle when the process is finished, and a basket
or similar device may be so attached to the grating as to remove the cocoons from
the water at the same time.
The drawing is a vertical section showing such an apparatus as may be employed
for the carrying out of this process; B is a basin containing water heated by the
steam pipe V in which the flow of steam is regulated by the cock R. A hole is
pierced through the bottom of the basin B so that water in the basin may flow
backwards and forwards through the pipe C and in and out of the pump barrel D;
a cock F serves to empty the apparatus when desired, and a cock Ę allows air
from below the piston A. to escape at the beginning of the operation, but should be
closed afterwards. The whole apparatus may be supported in any convenient
manner; in the drawing, it is supposed to be mounted upon a table, the upper
part of which is indicated at T T. A circular grating G is placed in the basin at
the beginning of each operation and is furnished at its lower extremity with a flat
basket P P nearly equal in size to the diameter of the basin. The operation of
the apparatus is as follows: The water in the basin B having been heated, the
grating G and a charge of cocoons is introduced, these cocoons are partially cooked
or not according to their quality. After the cocoons have been introduced in the
basin, the piston A is caused to move up and down in the pump barrel D either
by hand or by power, and in a manner too evident to require further description;
violent to and fro currents are set up through the openings of the grating G in the
basin B. As has been said the cocoons rub against each other and against the
grating G so that the floss is promptly removed. Under the action of the currents
of water, the detached floss and broken ends become more or less massed together,
so as to be easily found and separated from the cocoons.
At the end of the operation, the grating G is removed from the basin and with
it the basket P and the cocoons. Any suitable automatic device may be employed
to remove the grating or to stop the pump or both, after the lapse of a given time.
Fig. 2 shows the combination of several basins B B¹ with a single agitating
apparatus D A-C is a pipe and K K regulating valves. H is an overflow.
I am aware that previous to my invention cocoons have been prepared for
reeling through the employment of hot water to soften the gum and I am further
aware that cocoons, while undergoing the softening process, have been placed in
boxes provided with gratings and passed through boiling water, while so enclosed
and I am further aware that cocoons have been in some cases subjected to the
action of hot water for a time sufficient to so greatly disintegrate them as to
render brushing unnecessary and I do not claim any of these processes in them-
selves; I also disclaim in itself the process of stirring cocoons while subjected to
the action of hot water.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:
First. The process of preparing cocoons for reeling which consists in subjecting
them to the action of rapidly alternating currents of hot water passing in and out
through a perforated surface or grating, substantially as set forth.

page_text: Second. The combination of the water currents, the perforated surface or grating
and the cocoons in process of preparation, substantially as described.
Third. The combination of the water basin, the removable grating G and the
basket or other means of removing the prepared cocoons, substantially as and for
the purposes set forth.
Fourth. The combination of the water basin B the removable grating G and a
pump or agitating device, for the producing of the water currents, substantially as
and for the purposes set forth.