A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVE- MENTS TO FACILITATE AND EXPEDITE THE BLEACHING OF LINEN AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
RIDGWAY BRIDSON, of Great Bolton, in the County of Lancaster, Bleacher,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventh day of April, in the sixth year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Ridgway Bridson, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial license, that I,
the said Thomas Ridgway Bridson, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Thomas Ridgway Bridson, mý exors, adñors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and.
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVE-
MENTS TO FACILITATE AND EXPEDITE THE BLEACHING OF LINEN AND OTHER
VEGETABLE FIBRES;" in which said.Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Thomas Ridgway Bridson, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to
cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited.

page_text: Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Ridgway Bridson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same may be performed, is described
and ascertained as follows, reference being had to the annexed Drawings :—
The scale to which the Drawings are made is marked upon them, and
similar letters of reference denote similar parts throughout the whole of the
Drawings.
Before I commence the description, I would remark that it is not necessary
for the purpose of this Specification to enter into any explanation of the
chemical properties of any of the ingredients I use in the bleaching process,
nor of their mode of action upon the cloth, nor of the strength of the various
solutions requisite for different descriptions of cloth, nor the number of times
the operations should be repeated, as any one conversant with bleaching, by
following the instructions herein-after contained, and using the ingredients in
the state hereafter specified, will be enabled to perform the bowking and
other chemical operations bereafter described in one and the same vessel or
kier, and thereby to effect a considerable saving of time, labour, and expense
incident to the frequent removal of the goods from one vessel to another,
which in the ordinary process of bleaching is indispensable.
I shall now describe one arrangement of apparatus applicable to the
bleaching of ordinary cotton or linen goods, with the mode of operating upon
that description of cotton cloth manufactured by power looms, called shirtings
of seventy-two reeds nine-eighths of a yard wide, and thirty-six yards long,
and which weigh about seven pounds each when they come from the loom.
Figure 1 represents a transverse section of such arrangement of apparatus,
the kier being represented as containing about one thousand eight hundred-
weight of cloth; Figure 2 is a plau or bird's-eye view of the same arrange-
ment, with no cloth in the kier. In these Figures a, a, a, a, represent a
vossel or kier constructed of stone, provided with a stone or wooden false
bottom 6, 6, similar to ordinary bowking vessels, a lead or copper pipe C, for
the admission of steam when required, and a tap D communicating with a
space E beneath the false bottom b, b, to draw off any liquid out of the vessel
when required. In the centre of the vessel a, a, a, a, and communicating
with the space E, there is placed a pump F, constructed of copper or wood,
which is worked either by manual or mechanical power.
This pump is
represented in Figure 1 as worked by a crank; G, II, I, K, L, are five brass
taps severally connected with suitable reservoirs of ley or alkaline solution, hot

page_text: water, cold water, solution of chloride of lime, and "sours," or dilute acid;
M represents the cloth, which having been previously singed, if required, and
steeped in water till considerable fermentation has taken place, is put into the
wash wheel, and well wheeled or washed to carry off any loose extraneous
matter, and thence removed to the kier a, a, a, a, when it is in a fit state for
the application of my improvements, which I will now describe. The cloth M
having been placed in the usual position around the pump F, the bowking
operation is commenced by distributing through the tap G any alkaline
substance dissolved in water, and which is not liable to be precipitated during
the operation. This solution drains through the cloth, and is then gradually
heated by steam from the pipe C, and thereby kept at or near the boiling point,
and by the action of the pump F, raised from the space E, and distributed
again over the cloth, through which it again drains into the space E, so that a
constant circulation is kept up for nine or ten hours, or until the operator
considers the goods sufficiently bowked, when the pumping is discontinued,
and the ley drawn off through the tap D. If soda ash containing nearly
fifty per cent. of free alkali be used for this operation, five hundred ounces of
soda ash dissolved in as many gallons of water will make a solution sufficient
for this bowk. The goods are next supplied through the tap II with hot
water, to clear them from the alkaline ley. The steam pipe C is now closed,
and cold water from the tap I is distributed till the goods are of a temperature
at which the chemical or chloride solution may be safely applied. The water
having been discharged, the operator opens the tap K, which distributes the
chloride solution in a cold state over the surface of the cloth. Fifteen pounds
of the chloride of lime or bleaching powder (containing twenty-three per cent.
of chlorine) dissolved in six hundred gallons of water will suffice for this
operation. This solution having saturated the cloth, the pump F is again put
in action as before, and continued for about five hours, or such time as the
operator thinks needful, when the solution is drawn off, and the goods are
again washed with cold water from the tap I, as before, to free them from the
chloride solution: As soon as: this is effectually done, "sours" or dilute acid'
is admitted by the tap L, and worked by the pump F, as the chloride solution
was. Forty pounds of sulphuric acid (one hundred and seventy degrees in
strength by Tweddell's hydrometer) diluted with six hundred gallons of water
is sufficient for the purpose. The acid having performed its operation; is
drawn off, and the cold water washing operation is repeated as before. The
bleacher, will be enabled to judge of the necessity for one or more repetitions
of all or any of the above operations, as one repetition is always desirable, but

page_text: the first and any subsequent repetitions may be conducted with weaker solutions
of all the chemical agents than those above-mentioned. When the cloth has
been sufficiently submitted to these operations, and is perfectly bleached, it is
removed from the kier to the wash wheel, and well wheeled for the second and
last time.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and one manner in
which the same may be performed, I must add that I am fully aware that the
above arrangement may be greatly modified, as for instance, by using a
revolving cylinder or wheel as a kier in which the cloth is inclosed, the
circulation of the various solutions and washings through the cloth, and their
consequent action upon it, being produced by the revolution of the cylinder on
its horizontal hollow axis, and the steam (when necessary) being introduced
through the axis.
I must also add that the proportions and strengths of the
various solutions may be varied with advantage to suit various descriptions of
cloth, and that a strict adherence to the exact proportions above mentioned is
never absolutely necessary. Variations may also be found very desirable in
the bleaching of paper pulp and other vegetable fibres, to which my said
Invention is equally applicable. Linen may be bleached as above by per-
forming the various operations more frequently with weaker solutions, and by
placing it more loosely and lightly in the kier than cotton. I consider a high-
pressure steam engine might be profitably employed as a moving power for the
pump F, whilst the waste steam from the engine might be used for heating
water, or conducted through the pipe C to assist the bowking operation; but
these and similar arrangements must always depend on the nature of the goods
to be bleached, the locality of the apparatus, and the judgment of the bleacher,
and although I have above described many well-known parts and apparatus,
as well as ingredients in ordinary use, I do not claim or confine myself to
them, or any of them, or to the materials of which the apparatus is made, or
the strength of the several solutions, observing only that the apparatus should
be made of materials as little liable as possible to the action of the solutions;
but I do claim as my Invention the improvement or improvements effected by
performing every chemical operation above mentioned between the first and
last wheeling of the cloth in one and the same vessel or kier, by means of
the arrangement of apparatus as aforesaid, and the use and application of
ingredients of the description and in the states aforesaid, whereby the necessity
of a removal of the goods from the kier between any of those operations is
superseded; by means of which improvement or improvements I effect a
great saving of labour, steam or other power, and time incident to the ordinary

page_text: mode of bleaching, and dispense with the lime stew or boil now generally
used, and thus facilitate the bleaching of linen and other vegetable fibres.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Ridgway Bridson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Third day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of October, in the
year of our Lord 1886, the aforesaid Thomas Ridgway Bridson came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
5 above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.