IMPROVEMENTS IN MEDICATING COTTON AND OTHER FIBRES FOR SANITARY PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Gamgee, of Great Winchester Street
Buildings, in the City of London, and William Henry Maitland,
of Thurloe Square, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEDICATING COTTON AND OTHER FIBRES FOR SANITARY
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Gamgee and
William Henry Maitland at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 24th December 1870.
We, JOHN GAMGEE, of Great Winchester Street Buildings, in the
City of London, and WILLIAM HENRY MAITLAND, of Thurloe Square,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEDICATING COTTON AND OTHER FIBRES FOR
SANITARY AND SURGICAL PURPOSES, AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN," to
be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the careful impregnation of cotton and
other fibres with chloralum or chloride of aluminium, carbolic acid,

page_text: sulpho-carbolates, permanganate of potash and charcoal as disinfectants,
antiseptics, or deodorizers, according to their respective natures, or with
solutions of opium, morphia, hydrate of chloral or other narcotics and
sedatives, in order to obtain wadding, felt, cloths, or wool charged with
these medicinal agents for surgical or sanitary purposes.
The manner in which it is preferred to impregnate the cotton or other
fibre with these medicinal agents is as follows:-When the agent
employed is a liquid, the lap of fibre from a carding engine is made to
pass through a trough in which the liquid is contained. The fibre after
having become saturated in the trough is conducted between a pair of
squeezing rollers by which the excess of liquid is forced out, and it will
be found convenient to have these rollers adjustable, so that the pressure
put upon the lap may be regulated according to the quantity of liquid
it is required to leave in the fibre. The lap then passes on to the drying
cloth, after which it is recarded. If the liquid employed is an acid, or
one which will act upon and break the fibre, the recarded lap is placed
in layers between outer layers of long fibre, impregnated or not. When
the agent employed is in the state of powder, such as charcoal, it will be
found convenient to sprinkle it upon the lap by means of a dredger or
similar device attached to the carding engine, and then to submit the
fibre to pressure in order that the whole body of the fibre may become
impregnated with the powder. The fibre thus impregnated may be
enclosed between layers of unimpregnated fibre.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Gamgee and William Henry Maitland in 2
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th June 1871,
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
GAMGEE, of Great Winchester Street Buildings, in the City of London,
and WILLIAM HENRY MAITLAND, of Thurloe Square, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
3
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in
the thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said John Gamgee and William 3

page_text: Henry Maitland, Her special licence that we, the said John Gamgee
and William Henry Maitland, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said John Gamgee and William Henry
Maitland, our 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 MEDICATING COTTON AND OTHER FIBRES FOR
SANITARY AND SURGICAL PURPOSES, AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John Gamgee
and William Henry Maitland, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our, or one of our 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 we, the said John Gamgee and William Henry
Maitland, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is
to say :-
This Invention consists in the careful impregnation of cotton and
other fibres with chloralum or chloride of aluminium, carbolic acid,
sulphocarbolates, permanganate of potash or charcoal as disinfectants,
antiseptics or deodorizers, according to their respective natures, or with
solutions of opium, morphia, hydrate of chloral, or other narcotics and
sedatives in order to obtain wadding, felt cloths, or wool charged with
these medicinal agents for surgical or sanitary purposes.
The manner in which it is preferred to impregnate the cotton or
other fibre with the medicinal agents is as follows:-When the agent
employed is a liquid the lap of fibre from a carding engine is made to
pass through a trough in which the liquid is contained. The fibre after
having become saturated in the trough is conducted between a pair of
squeezing rollers by which the excess of liquid is forced out, and it will
be found convenient to have these rollers adjustable so that the pressure
put upon the lap may be regulated according to the quantity of liquid

page_text: it is required to leave in the fibre. The lap then passes on to the drying
cloth, after which it is recarded. If the liquid employed is an acid or
one which will act upon and break the fibre the recarded lap is placed
in layers between outer layers of long fibre impregnated or not. When
the agent employed is in the state of powder, such as charcoal, it will be
found convenient to sprinkle it upon the lap by means of a dredger
or similar device attached to the carding engine, and then to submit
the fibre to pressure in order that the whole body of the fibre may
become impregnated with the powder. The fibre thus impregnated may
be enclosed between layers of unimpregnated fibre. The dredger or
analogous device may have a shaking or other necessary motion imparted
to it by a rod worked by a cam on the shaft of the carding cylinder, or
the dredger may be provided internally with an agitator worked from the
shaft of the carding cylinder or otherwise.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim,-
First. Impregnating cotton or other fibres with disinfectants, anti-
septics, deodorizers, narcotics, or sedatives, substantially in the manner
and for the purposes herein-before described.
Second. Arranging machinery substantially as herein-before described,
for the purpose of impregnating cotton or other fibres with medicinal
agents in a liquid state.
Third. Arranging machinery substantially as herein-before described,
for the purpose of impregnating cotton or other fibres with medicinal
agents in the state of powder.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Gamgee, for myself and on
behalf of the said William Henry Maitland, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Twenty-third of June One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-one.