IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Spence, of 50, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF FELT."-A communication from Edouard Pierre Jean
Marie Albert, Rue de l'Empereur, 5, à Montmartro (Seine), in the
Empire of France.
Sealed the 22nd May 1857, and dated the 23rd December 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Spence at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd December 1856.
I, WILLIAM SPENCE, of 50, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT," (being a communication from
Edouard Pierre Jean Marie Albert, Rue de l'Empereur, 5, à Montmartre
(Seine), in the Empire of France, to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in applying to the manufacture of felt some of the
downy and other portions of aquatic plants, consisting of grasses, such as
feather grass and cotton grass, reeds, and bog or marsh plants of varions.
kinds. The portions of these plants are intended in some cases to be used
alone, and in other cases to be mixed with animal matters, as may be
required.
The process of manufacture of the felt is not different from that which is

page_text: ordinarily employed, except such as is rendered necessary for the preparation
of the vegetable fibres for the purpose.
This consists in detaching the feathery portions from the little stalks or
stems to which they adhere; also in separating the seeds from the portions of
bark or other similar covering or matter; also in carding the material, so as to
reduce it to the required state of fibre.
The feathery portions of the plants may be separated by means of a comb,
and the seeds and bark by grinding between the outer surface of a kind of
circular rasp and the inner surface of a concave race or passage for the
material, and the carding process may be performed by means of an ordinary
carding apparatus, except that there is a guide adapted for conducting these
shorter lengths of fibre to the carding cylinder; also in some parts of the
process of preparing the vegetable fibres some of the blowing and cleaning
apparatus well known in hat making may be used. But the Invention is not
confined to the machinery above referred to.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Spence in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
10th June 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SPENCE, of 50, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Пer Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Spence, Her special license that I, the said William Spence, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Spence, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF FELT," being a communication from Edouard Pierre Jean Marie Albert, of
Rue de l'Empereur, 5, à Montmartre (Seine), upon the condition (amongst.
otliers) that I, the said.William Spence, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said:
Invention, and in what manner the sanie was to be performed, and cause the

page_text: 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 William Spence, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention of "Improvements in the Manufacture of Felt" consists in
applying to the manufacture of felt some of the downy and other portions of
aquatic plants, consisting of grasses, such as feather grass and cotton grass,
reeds, and bog or marsh plants of various kinds. The portions of these plants
are intended in somio cases to be used alone, and in other cases to be mixed
with animal matters, as may be required.
The process of manufacture of the felt is not different from that which is
ordinarily employed, except such as is rendered necessary for the preparation
of the vegetable fibres for the purpose. This consists in detaching the feathery
portions from the little stalks or stems to which they adhere, also in separating
the seeds from the portions of bark or other similar covering or matter; also
in carding the material, so as to reduce it to the required state of fibre.
The feathery portions of the plants may be separated by means of a comb,
and the seeds and bark by grinding between the outer surface of a kind of
circular rasp and the inner surface of a concave race or passage for the
material, and the carding process may be performed by means of an ordinary
carding apparatus, except that there is a guide adapted for conducting these.
shorter lengths of fibre to the carding cylinder; also in some parts of the
process of preparing the vegetable fibres some of the blowing and cleaning
apparatus well known in hat making may be used.. But the Invention is not
confined to the machinery above referred to.
The object of the Invention is to make use of certain vegetable fibres not
hitherto used for this manufacture, which are contained in the silky, feathery,
downy tufts or flowering portions of the panicles, blossoms, and cars of a great
number of aquatic plants, among which may be more particularly mentioned
several species of reed grasses (calam agrostis) feather, grass (stipa), and marsh
reed (arundo).
All these plants possess more or less (but always in a sufficient degree)
properties admitting of their yielding felt, in some cases alone or without
mixture, and in other cases by admixture with animal matters. The gathering
of the flowery tufts should take place after they are quite ripe, before the cold
weather, to prevent their being dispersed by the winds. Their preparation

page_text: and cleaning may be effected by various mechanical means, or by chemical
processes, or by the combination of the two.
In order, however, that the Invention may be fully understood, I will
proceed to describe it more particularly by the aid of the accompanying
Drawings, in which are represented two modes of preparing the vegetable
fibres.
Figures 1 and 2 are a vertical section and plan, or horizontal view, of an
apparatus adapted for separating the seeds from the bark or barky matter;
Fig. 3 is a section of the new part of the carding apparatus adapted to this
new kind of work. In the two former Figures, A is the circular rasp or
grindstone, the periphery of which is striated, so as to form a kind of rasp,
which strips off the barky matter during the passage of the material through
the guide or retainer B. This guide or retainer is adjustable by means of a
screw c, so as to be brought nearer to or further from the grindstone or rasp A,
in order to regulate the width of the race or passage C, as may be required,
according to the nature of the material under operation. The material is fed
by the attendant on to the endless cloth D, to which is imparted a continuous
slow movement. It is drawn forward by the roller or cylinder E, furnished
with cards or teeth, by which it is carried between this roller or cylinder and
the grindstone or rasp A; the latter. draws it along or through the race or
passage C, and this effects the separation of the barky matter from the downy
or feathery portions.
This machine may be worked according to its size, either by hand or by
mechanical power; in the latter caso a strap is made to drive the pulley F,
mounted on the axle of the grindstone or rasp A, and this axle gives motion
to the roller or cylinder E by means of the pulleys e and f.
The carding apparatus, represented at Fig. 3, is furnished like the former,
with a table or bed D¹, for spreading the material upon, and with a teazing or
carding roller or cylinder E', which takes up the material opened, prepared,
and stripped of its bark by the former machine, and passes it through the
teeth or cards (of any suitable degree of fineness) of the carding cylinder G.
Between the teazing roller or cylinder E' and the periphery of the carding
cylinder G is placed a guide H, somewhat in the form of a shoe, the point of
which being very narrow presents a kind of blade, against which the teeth of
the cards come in contact in order to strike the material before it is submitted
to the action of the combing cylinders I and I, placed at the lower part of
the machine. When the preparation of the material is very difficult, there
may be added to the foregoing mechanism channelled or grooved rollers or
cylinders, which may crush the woody portions thereof between the projections

page_text: of such grooved or channelled surfaces, or this effect may be produced by any
other suitable means. As the foregoing apparatus or mechanism may be
varied without materially changing the above described modo of preparing
materials for the manufacture of felt, it is to be understood that the Invention
is not confined thereto. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section, and Fig. 5 a trans-
verse section, of another form of apparatus or mechanism as above referred to;
Fig. 6 is a detached view on a smaller scale, shewing the arrangement of tho
blower and conduit or passage for the material. This blower is fed like the
foregoing machine by means of an endless cloth D'; grooved or channelled
rollers or cylinders m conduct.the material to a similar grooved or channelled
roller or cylinder n, underneath which is placed a kind of shoe or guide p,
arranged in relation to this roller or cylinder nearly as in the machine above
described. The fan or blower R, turns within the race s, furnished with
plates or blades of metal placed as shewn in Figures 5 and 6. The arms of
the blower P are arranged sometimes with saw teeth on them when it is
required in the first instance to tear the cars, blossoms, or panicles sometimes
straight, and as cutters when it is required to produce the final clearing of the
material to free the downy matter from the last barky matter, the finest and
the most tenacious being principally in the marsh reed (arundo phragmites),
and which I term the capsule.
This apparatus may be modified whether as to the length of the conduit or
passage M (Fig. 6) and the arrangement of the internal partitions, especially
by combining therewith at suitable intervals reservoirs, as at o and o', capable
of receiving the different matters according to their degree of density, and
substituting paper for the flannel ordinarily employed as a covering, or as to
the relative speed and power or pressure of the air injected into the apparatus.
For the apparatus used in hat making, and modified as I have mentioned, and
otherwise, the following apparatus may bo substituted.
In the first place, the machine for pulling out the thistles or spike heads,
and scratching or tearing in use for separating the small portions of this kind,
which adhere too closely to the wool to admit of their being removed by
ordinary machines; also the machines for clearing the downy matter from its
little knobs, and any other machines for opening the fibres, furnished with a
feeding mechanism for plucking out thistles; these different apparatus may
serve for the preparation of the different materials or matters employed; it is
only requisite to adapt the relative speeds and pressures or acting powers of
the mechanism to the particular material intended to be operated upon.
When it is desired to employ a chemical preparation combined with a
mechanical preparation such as that just described, the material is first steeped

page_text: or soaked in warm water, steam, or vapour; this process is carried on either
in water at the ordinary temperature, or in warm water, or in water holding
soda or potash in solution. It has been found useful to apply to the steeping
or soaking of the particular fibrous vegetable matters which enter into the
composition of the felt as above described the system of M' Alexu, which is
based on the combined action of hot water and steam or vapour acting
through the medium of a vacuum produced by the condensation of the steani
or vapour. A strong process of drying without injuring the silky portions
and elementary fibres of the vegetable materials admits of the barky portions
being subsequently broken with greater facility. The desiccation alone of the
first coarse matter, and without tho uso of any other chemical process, greatly
facilitates also the embarking and clearing by mechanical means simply. It is
also to be understood that this is a new application of old means, whether as
to the process of steeping adopted from the system of Mess" Alexu and
Limet, or the previous desiccation by hot air of the coarse or raw material as
it is gathered. These two processes as applied to the purposes of separating
the fibrous portions of aquatic plants from the barky portions and knobs or
pods, as described above, form part of the Invention.
The washing in waters impregnated more or less with salts, as well as the
steeping, above described, are for the purpose of removing from the filaments or
silky portions of aquatic plants the gummy matters with which they are more
or less covered, and this purpose may be accomplished by one or other of the
modes of steeping referred to without the addition of alkaline matters. By
this means are obviated the inconveniences arising from an improper use
of alkalies; and I would here remark that although a preference has been
expressed for the steeping above referred to, yet this is without prejudice to the
use of the washing process by salt water when convenient.
The washing, steeping, and drying, employed either in combination or
separating, are only preparatory operations in the system of clearing the silky
filaments of certain aquatic plants above referred to; and in order to get them
speedily and economically into such a state of cleanness as is required to adapt
them for use in the production of a vegetable felt, it is found desirable that
theso preparations or processes of damping should be followed by a drying or
mechanical process, as described; hence, the general adoption of this succession
or system of processes forms part of the Invention. As before stated, the silky,
feathery, and downy portions, with the flowery tufts of the plants may be
employed, either alone or mixed with other matters; but the Invention relates
principally to the preparation of the fibres from these portions of the plants by
clearing them from foreign or extraneous matter, as described.

page_text: :
In all cases it is important to place paper between the felting cloth and the
piece or layer of prepared vegetable matters. Experience has shewn that these
materials, whether alone or mixed with animal hair, adhere to the cloth, which
greatly interferes with the most delicate operation of felting, and this in-
convenience is obviated by the use of the paper.
I would here remark that the material extracted or produced from the
marsh reed (arundo phragmites) is the most adapted of all vegetable matters
for the operation of felting.
Vegetable felt mixed with animal hair, treated or prepared for dyeing by the
means ordinarily used in hat making and other manufactures of felt, present a
cloudy and unequal appearance, and does not take a good and uniform tint, the
vegetable and animal matters taking the colours differently; for this reason it
is important to submit the felt to a preparatory treatment, in which the
different natures of the respective filaments may be rendered susceptible of
being affected equally by the action of the colouring matters. This end may
accomplished by means of either of the following plans:-
First, by saturating both kinds of fibres in an astringent bath (a solution of
acid used in tanning), into the composition of which decoctions of the following
substances may enter, viz, sumach, cashoe nut, bark of young oak, "babelka,"
"diridi," "mirobolant," oak galls, and different kinds of gall nuts; these
materials may be dried, washed, and prepared as required by means of a salt of
iron (pyrolignite, acetate, chloride, and sulphate).
Second, by first saturating both kinds of fibros in a salt of oxide of iron by
the aid of a salt of iron, which, by oxydising gradually, leaves the oxide of iron
in the state in which it may combine simultaneously with the two kinds
of fibres. The salt of iron may be a sulphate, chloride, or nitrate, with the
addition of an oxydising agent; such as chloride of potassium, hypochloride, or
nitric acid.
The washing and dyeing is to be effected in a bath composed of an
astringent decoction, with more or less of logwood according to the shade
or tint required.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I would remark that other plants besides those
specified above may be used as the raw material from which to extract the
required fibres; also that other mechanism may be employed besides that
represented and described; also that the chemical processes described may be
varied; also that the above-described mechanical and chemical processes may
be used in all cases in which the preparation of the fibrous materials referred
to may be required; but what I claim under the present Patent is,―

page_text: First, the extraction and production of fibres or. fibrous materials from the
portions of aquatic plants described, whether alone or mixed with other
matters capable of yielding such materials suitable for the manufacture of felt,
and whether in an unbleached or in a bleached or dyed state, as described.
And, secondly, the mode or modes described of preparing the portions of
plants and other raw materials, so as to extract therefrom and produce the
required fibres or fibrous materials.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Spence, havo hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Tenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
G. B. COULCHER,
50, Chancery Lane, London,
Law Stationer.
WILLIAM SPENCE. (L.s.)