CERTAIN NEW PROCESSES OR IMPROVEMENTS OF PROCESSES AND APPARATUS APPLI- CABLE TO THE BLEACHING OR WHITENING, AND TO THE PURIFYING, WASHING, AND CLEANSING OF COTTON, FLAX, HEMP, SILK, AND WOOL AND ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE BLEACHING OR WHITENING,, AND TO THE PURIFYING, WASHING, AND CLEANSING OF GOODS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION MADE OR MANUFACTURED OF COTTON, FLAX, HEMP, SILK, AND WOOL, OR OF MIXTURES OF ALL OR ANY OF THE ABOVE MATERIALS, AND TO OTHER PURPOSES, BY WHICH A CONSIDERABLE SAVING WILL BE EPPECTED IN THE EXPENCE OF FUEL, ALKALI, AND OTHER MATTERS OR THINGS EMPLOYED IN BLEACHING, OR WHITENING, PURIFYING, WASHING, AND CLEANSING GOODS AND APPAREL OF EVERY DESCRIPTION
Year: 1800

page_text: TURNBULE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, JOHŃ
TURNBULL, junior, of Cordale Printfield, in the County of Dumbarton, North
Britain, Calico Printer, do send greeting.
i
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King. George the Third, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifteenth day of November, in the forty-first year of His
reign, did give and grant
give and grant unto me, the said John Turnbull, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge
and authority, that I,, the said John Turnbull, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, during the term of fourteen years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part
of His. said Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain. called England, His
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"CERTAIN NEW PROCESSES OR IMPROVEMENTS OF PROCESSES AND APPARATUS APPLI-
CABLE TO THE BLEACHING OR WHITENING, AND TO THE PURIFYING, WASHING, AND
CLEANSING OF COTTON, FLAX, HEMP, SILK, AND WOOL, AND ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE
BLEACHING OR WHITENING,, AND TO THE PURIFYING, WASHING, AND CLEANSING OF
GOODS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION MADE OR MANUFACTURED OF COTTON, FLAX, HEMP,
SILK, AND WOOL, OR OF MIXTURES OF ALL OR ANY OF THE ABOVE MATERIALS, AND TO
OTHER PURPOSES, BY WHICH A CONSIDERABLE SAVING WILL BE EPPECTED IN THE
EXPENCE OF FUEL, ALKALI, AND OTHER MATTERS OR THINGS EMPLOYED IN BLEACHING,
OR WHITENING, PURIFYING, WASHING, AND CLEANSING GOODS AND APPAREL OF EVERY
DESCRIPTION;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging.me, the said John Turnbull, particularly to describe and ascertain the
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page_text: nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to
be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Turnbull, in compliance with the
said proviso, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed (videlicet) :-
I take cotton, flax, hemp, silk, or wool, or goods of any description made or
manufactured of cotton, flax, hemp, silk, or wool, or of mixtures of all or any
of the above materials that are wished or intended to be bleached or whitened,
and first cleanse, wash, or purify them from the loose dirt and foreign matter
that may be adhering to them or mixed in their fixture, as also from the paste
or other dressing that may have been used in their manufacture (when the
article or articles to be bleached or whitened are in a manufactured state),
which washing, cleansing, or purifying I effect by any of the common processes
usually known and followed, as by steeping them in water, either hot or cold,
or in any convenient aqueous solution, for about twelve hours, more or less,
according to the quantity and quality of the goods, and afterwards mill-
washing them or otherwise cleansing them from such impurities or dirt as can
be removed by this or any similar means. By this washing, cleansing, or
purifying, the goods are brought into a state more fit for the application
of my new method of bleaching or whitening than if subjected to it, which
they may also be without that previous cleansing; when thus cleansed they
are put into a lye of vegetable or of mineral fixed alkali, or of the volatile
alkali, either mild or made caustic by quick lime, or into a lye of quick
lime only, or into a soapy lye, or into a lye composed of all or any of these
substances (with or without the addition of oxygenated muriatic acid), of a
strength fit for the purpose of extracting the colourless, gummy, resinous, or
other impurities which may exist naturally in or which may have been intro-
duced (by accident or design) into the fibre or texture of the materials or
goods under process, and which are too intimately united with them to
admit of being removed by the first above described washing or cleansing.
The alkaline, soapy, or other lye may be prepared by the method or methods
usually followed by bleachers, my Invention not consisting in the kind of
alkaline lyes or other liquors employed, or in the way of preparing them,
but in the mode of applying such alkaline, soapy, or other lyes (and in
the accompanying and subsequent manipulations). For when the goods or
articles to be bleached are immersed in the alkaline, soapy, or other lye or
liquor, as before directed, instead of boiling or bucking them in it, as is the

page_text: practice usually followed, I only steep them or keep them long enough in the
said lye to be thoroughly impregnated with it, which requires a shorter or
longer time, according to the quantity and texture of the articles or goods.
The goods are then drawn out upon a rack over the vessel in which they were
impregnated, and suffered to drain, that the superficially adhering lye or liquor
may run from them back into the said vessel. After this draining the
goods will still hold a sufficient quantity of the lye or liquor employed to
answer the end in view. They are then put into a vessel of suflicient strength
and dimensions, made of wood, stone, brickwork, earthenware, metal, or any
proper material. This vessel, which I call the steaming vat, may be almost of
any form convenient for the premises or place where it is to be fixed, and is
connected by means of a pipe, tube, hose, trunk, or hollow prism made of
wood, metal, or of any fit material, with a boiler, kettle, or cauldron, which
I call the steaming kettle, and which may be of any convenient form and
dimensions. The tube above mentioned may pass from any part of the edge
or of the side of the steaming kettle, or even from its cover, which ought to fit
steam-tight, into any part of the side or bottom of the steaming vat, the
intention and use of it being to convey steam from the aforesaid kettle to the
aforesaid vat. The tube, pipe, hose, trunk, or hollow prism is furnished with
a stop-cock or valve, or any contrivance that will answer the purpose of
shutting and opening at pleasure the communication between the said kettle
and vat. The steaming vat ought for the convenience of lifting out the goods
to be furnished with a false bottom of some kind in the inside, as of wood or of
network, for the goods to lye upon, and to this false bottom should be attached
ropes by means of which and the assistance of a crane and pully or any
other convenient mechanical power the goods may be withdrawn from the
vat after the operation of steaming the goods. The operation of steaming the
goods is performed by opening the communication between the steaming kettle
and steaming vat, the former, which contains some water or aqueous solution,
being kept at a proper heat by means of a fire put under it, and the latter
having previously its cover fitted on steam-tight. The steam is thus, as it
were, pent up in the kettle and vat, and made to act with any pressure that
may be desired, or that the strength of the vessels may be able to sustain..
To secure the safety of the people employed, the apparatus ought always to be
furnished with a safety valve attached to any part of the steaming kettle or of
the steaming vat, or of the tube of communication, that when the elastic force
of the enclosed steam reaches a determined point, the valve may open of itself
and allow a portion of it to escape. By this process the goods can be heated
considerably above the boiling point, a circumstance that adds so much to the

page_text: 1
dissolving power of the alkaline or soapy or other lye, that the quantity left in
the goods after draining, as before described, is found sufficient to dissolve and
discharge by one steaming as much of the resinous, gummy, or other impurities
from the goods under process as could have been discharged by a dong boiling
of the goods in the lye itself as is the usual practice, and by this means a great
saving is inade in the alkalies and other ingredients employed for whitening
the goods. For in the common method the colouring matter as lischarged
from the fibre or texture of the goods is diffused throughout the whole "lye,
which soon renders it so foul that it is obliged to be changed long before it has
become saturated with the substances or matters on which it exercises its
power. But by my process of processes there is no more lye employed for
one steaming than what is sufficient merely to impregnate the goods
thoroughly, and the alkali thus deposited in the texture or fibre of the goods
under process is more or less disengaged from the said texture or fibre by the
action of the steam, and is found at the bottom of the steaming vat of a dark
colour, occassioned by the matters it has dissolved and carried down with it,
The steaming vat may be very commodiously freed from this deposit by a
common stop-cock, or even a plug at or near its bottom, to be opened as often
as may be necessary. I also effect the same end by using only a deep boiler
with a steam-tight cover, and suspending the goods previously impregnated
with the alkaline, or other lyc, as before directed, on frame or network over
boiling water in the said 'boiler, and employing oxygenated muriatic acid;
acidulated waters, mill-washing, or exposure to the sun and air; when these
may be necessary, particular care must be 'taken to keep a 'supply of water or
some aqueous solution in the lower part of the boiler below the frame or net-
work on which the goods lye, or otherwise they may be singed, or actually
burnt, and a loss be consequently incurred! But I préfer putting the goods
in steaming vats to putting them in a boiler in the manner just described, and
that on
several accounts, but especially because, by means of one steaming
kettle, steam can be thrown into as many vats as can conveniently be ranged
round it, which is a mean of making a considerable saving in the article of
fuel. One steaming generally requires from four to eight hours, but the
length of time will vary according to the kind or quality of the goods to be
whitened and the strength of the lye that has been employed for impregnating
them. After the steaming has been continued a sufficient length of time, the
cover of the steaming vat is taken off. The communication with the steaming
kettle is cut off by means of the aforesaid cock or valve provided for that
purpose, and the goods are lifted out by means of a crane and pully, or other
fit mechanical power, as before mentioned. They are then well, washed liy

page_text: milling, or by any of the processes followed by bleachers. After this they are
again impregnated with lye, steamed, and then washed, and these inani-
pulations are repeated, in the manner that has already been described, till the
goods are brought to the required degree of whiteness and purity. The usual
operations of steeping in acidulated waters and exposure to the sun and air, or
to the action of the oxygenated muriatic acid in such stages of the process
as the bleacher-may think proper, may be employed with advantage in my
method as well as in the common and usual method of bleaching. I need
hardly direct here what every bleacher's own experience.must point out to him,
namely, that when acidulated waters, exposure to the sun and air, or the oxy-
genated muriatic acid are to be employed after any steaming, the goods should
first be washed. When "silk, sheep's wool, or goods containing sheep's wool, or
animal hair, or furr of any kind are wishod to be cleaned, scoured, or whitened
by the above-described method, the lye employed ought to be much weaker
than in the case of cotton, flax, or hemp, or of goods manufactured of these or
any of them, for a strong caustic lye would entirely destroy the former, and
convert them into a sapponacious matter.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Turnbull, junior, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this First day of May, One thousand eight hundred
and one.
Signed and sealed, being first duly
stamped, in the presence of
JAMES HALL.
JOHN (L.S.) TURNBULL, Jun'.
ANDREW MITCHELL.

page_text: apparatus applicable to the bleaching or whitening and to the purifying,
washing, and cleansing of cotton, flax, hemp, silk, and wool, and also appli-
cable to the bleaching or whitening and to the purifying, washing, and cleansing
of goods of every description made or manufactured of cotton, flax, hemp, silk,
and wool, or of mixtures of all or of any of the above materials, and to other
purposes, by which a considerable saving will be effected in the expence of
feual, alkali, and other matters or things employed in bleaching or whitening,
purifying, washing, and cleansing goods and apparel of every description; and
this deponent farther saith that the name or character "John Turnbull, jun","
set at the foot of the said deed-poll as the party executing the same, is of the
proper handwriting of the said John Turnbull, junior; and this deponent
farther saith, that the names "Andrew Mitchell," James Hall," set and
subscribed at the back of the said deed-poll or instrument as the witnesses
to the signing and sealing of the said deed-poll, are of the proper respective
handswriting of this deponent and of James Hall, of the City of Glasgow
aforesaid, gentleman.