A NEW PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR BLEACHING FABRICS AND SUBSTANCES THAT CAN BE BLEACHED. SUCH AS THREAD. TEXTILE PLANTS AND PAPER PULP
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jules Alphonse Philippe, Merchant, of 14, Rue du
Ponceau, Paris, in the Empire of France, for the Invention of "A NEW
PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR BLEACHING FABRICS AND SUBSTANCES THAT CAN
BE BLEACHED. SUCH AS THREAD. TEXTILE PLANTS AND PAPER PULP."
Sealed the 17th October 1860, and dated the 23rd April 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jules Alphonse Philippe
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 23rd April 1860.
I, JULES ALPHONSE PHILIPPE, Merchant, of 14, Rue du Ponceau, Paris, in the
Empire of France, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "A
NEW PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR BLEACHING FABRICS AND SUBSTANCES THAT CAN
BE BLEACHED, SUCH AS THREAD, TEXTILE PLANTS AND PAPER PULP," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to a new and expeditious process for performing the
bleaching operations which now require a week or more. By this Invention
the whole bleaching process is gone through in about twenty-four hours, and
by means of five operations.
The first of these operations consists in causing the fabric or other substance
to alternately circulate through or be permeated by a hot bath of seeds and
dry steam. The seeds to be used are composed about as follows; 1,000 parts
weight of water, 5 parts green or liquid soap, 25 parts lime water, and from 5
to 10 parts sub-carbonate of soda.

page_text: The next operation consists in washing the fabric or other substance in
pure water & then immersing it in a bath of water acidulated with chlorhydric
acid.
The third operation consists in washing and beating the fabric or other
substance again in clear water and then putting it into a bath of strongly
diluted chloride of lime.
In the fourth operation the fabric or other substance is taken from the
chloride bath rinsed again & passed through an acidulated solution like that
described in reference to the second operation.
The fifth operation consists in again rinsing the fabric or other substance
& then immersing it in a strong diluted bath of soap bran water which is
heated by a steam jet.
The apparatus I have contrived for alternately subjecting the fabric or
other substance to the action of boiling seeds & dry steam is composed of a
cylindrical vessel made of wood or other suitable material through which
passes central revolving shafts driven by means of pullies, or other mechanical
arrangements. On this shaft inside the said cylindrical vessel, I fix two sets
of arms radiating from two bosses that are set at a distance equal to the width
of the fabric or other substance or suitable to the same, and said arms carry
hooks or equivalent implements on which the fabric or other substances
fastened or attached from the centre to the periphery in spiral or other shaped
suitable layers. The shaft is then set to revolve slowly, and steam being let
in & the lower portion of the cylindrical vessel being filled with the proper
seeds the alternate action herein-before referred to is effectually obtained.
The arms and hooks may be modified according to the nature of the fabric,
material, or substance to be bleached. The fabric or other substance is put
in & taken out through a suitable door provided for that purpose.
3
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jules Alphonse Philippe in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 23rd October 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JULES
ALPHONSE PHILIPPE, Merchant, of 14, Rue du Ponceau, Paris, in the Empire
of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year. of Her reign,

page_text: did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Jules Alphonse Philippe, Her special licence that I, the said Jules Alphonse
Philippe, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Jules Alphonse Philippe, my executors, adininistrators, 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 "A NEW PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR BLEACHING FABRICS AND SUBSTANCES THAT
CAN BE BLEACHED, SUCH AS THREAD, TEXTILE PLANTS, AND PAPER PULP," upon
the condition (amongst others), that I, the said Jules Alphonse Philippe, 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 Jules Alphonse Philippe, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what mauner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, and accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
The usual method of bleaching hemp, flax, and cotton fabric is a slow
operation requiring endless manipulations by having to be boiled in the lye vat,
and frequently to be taken out and spread on grass plots, so as to receive the
discoloring action of light and air, a process which last several months, hence
a great loss of interest on capital.
One of the merits of my Invention is, to do away with those manipulations;
by my process, five only are necessary, and last twenty-four hours, including
drying, and in that short space of time I obtain a perfect bleaching without
the least deterioration to the substance operated upon.
The first and most important of those operations lasts for about six con-
secutive hours, during which, without sensible displacement of the substance,
which is alternately exposed to the action of a boiling lye, hercin-after
described, and the heat of dry steam; every hour the fabric revolves 55
minutes in the lye, and acted upon during five minutes by the dry steam to
return again to the lye, and so on for six consecutive hours.
My lye bath is prepared thus:-In one thousand quarts of soft water,
10 lbs. of soft soap is dissolved and boiled during a quarter of an hour, and
then twenty-five quarts of clarified limewater, and from 12 to 20 lbs. of car-

page_text: bonate of soda are added according to the materials to be bleached. Tho
whole is to be boiled half an hour, and the lye is fit for the operation.
The apparatus for the immersion of the substance or fabric in the lye, and
to the action of the dry steam, is described herein-after.
Second operation.-The substance, fabric, or material being taken out of
the apparatus is rinsed in clear water; it is immersed after in a bath of
chlorydine or hydrochloric acid acidulated water, in which it is to remain two
hours greatly diluted.
Third operation.-The substance or material from the above bath is rinsed
and put in a bath of chloride of lime very weak, in which it is to stay about 1
six hours.
Fourth operation.-The fabric or substance being taken out of the above
bath is rinsed and placed again in the acidulated bath of the second operation,
in which it is to remain about ten minutes only.
Fifth operation.-The material is to be taken out of above bath and put
into one prepared with soft soap and well clarified bran water sufficiently
bented, and left for about five minutes, so as to expel the smell of the chlorine.
The material or substance bleached is rinsed in clear well water and put to
dry;
the process is ended.
It is to be remarked, that the essential merits of my Invention consist in
exposing alternately the cloth material or substance to the action of the boiling
lyc, and that of the discoloring dry steam without displacement or removal.
To obtain that result, the herein-after described apparatus, before referred to,
has been invented by me, observing that the same figures or letters in this
description represent the same object in the plans or elevations.
Fig. A, A, A, a cylindrical vessel in wood, well closed, resting on a rec-
tangular trough B, also in wood, which holds the lye; A, B, are united by
iron hoops a, a, a, so as to loose neither the lye nor the steam, and which serve
to give strength to the apparatus; on the exterior of this cylindrical vessel are
fixed cast-iron plates C, C', through which the axle D passes, to the iron plates
are fixed iron bars e, e, Fig. 8, united two by two from one end of the
cylindrical vessel to the other by iron screws and nuts e, e, e. In the Fig. 5,
the screws and nuts e, e, e, are placed in the interior for more solidity, but to
prevent rust they must be zinked, galvanized, coppered, or tinned. In front
of the cylindrical vessel is a door F with hinges and bolts f, f, to allow the
materials to be put in and taken out; at the top of the cylindrical vessel,
Fig. 4, there is a valve G. In the interior of the same vessel, on the axle D,
are two circular frames H, H, with two or more bars, to which the linen, cloth,
. or materials are attached by hooks i, i, i, made of copper, galvanized iron, or

page_text: other suitable material, and fixed at regular distances, beginning at the nearest
part to the centre, and proceeding towards its circumference. Fig. 4 shows a
front view of how the fabric or substance is to be placed. When the fabric is
thus hooked, it is necessary to stretch it by means of the frame II, which being
united to the socket h, which glides on the axle D (the other frame being.
fixed to the axle) and the screw, whose nut I is united to the plate C by
means of two long bars, and by turning the screw it drags the collar j, and
as the latter is fast to the socket h by two rods, it brings or repulses that socket,
so as to stretch at will the fabric or materials hooked on the frame. It is to
be observed, that the end of the fabric which is hooked on the frame has no
contact with that part which follows, and that the action of the lye and steam
is equally divided between the whole. The tube or pipe Q, which brings the
steam into the apparatus, is following two horizontal bends m, m, entering a
little above the axis; the tap L serves to introduce and shut at will the steam
in and from the apparatus. The same tube bends likewise a little lower in
following two other horizontal bends m, m, which enter the box B, the intro-
duction of the steam being regulated by the tap M. A tube N, with its tap n,
serves for the escapement of the excess of steam, which may be utilized in
beating liquids, into which it may be conveyed.
The method of working the apparatus is, by hooking the material or fabric
on the frame; the lye is put in the cylindrical vessel, which it fills, as well as
the inferior part of the cylindrical vessel; the door F is well closed by means
of vulcanized caoutchouc bands placed in the joints; the tap M is opened, and
the lye bath is soon at the boiling point; the operation beginning by turning
slowly the axle D, either by a strap over the pulley P, or by any other
mechanical contrivances. Thus the linen materials or substances continually
circulate without a sensible displacement of the whole from the hooks, and
after an immersion of fifty-five minutes the tap M is shut, and I is opened ;
the dry steam penetrate by the two tubes 1,, between all the folds, and after
five minutes of duration the tap L is shut, and M opened, so as to continue
as before the time necessary, which is usually six hours.
To bleach thread it is necessary to replace the axle-tree D, as well as the
frame H, H, by two parallel horizontal rollers, one placed at the top of the
cylindrical vessel and the other in the trough, and in slowly turning those
5 rollers it will produce the same effects which the frames do upon woven
fabrics.
Fig. 5 shews a different disposition of the apparatus, it is more simple
in its construction, and less liable to loose the steam; it possesses no trough
for the lye, the inferior part of the cylindrical vessel takes its place. The

page_text: cylindrical vessel must be a little larger, and that the axle which holds the
frame be placed a little above the axle of that cylindrical vessel.
I can with the same lye and dry steam bleach textile vegetable substances,
also pulp, &c. I reserve to myself the right of adding or altering my
apparatus, as necessity or wants may require.
It is understood that the shape or dimensions of this apparatus may be
varied to meet all wants. It can be made of wood or metal, or wood linel
with metal and that my Invention does not consist only in my process of
bleaching, but also in the shape, size, dispositions, and contrivances of this
apparatus, and the lyo and steam used as before mentioned.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jules Alphonse Philippe, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth lay of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
J. A. PHILIPPE. (L.B.)