CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN BLEACHING AND SCOURING WOVEN AND TEXTILE FABRICS AND YARNS
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME OR
BE MADE KNOWN, I, JAMES HIGGIN, of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of June, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-two, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Higgin, my exors, adiñors,
and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said James Higgin, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said James Higgin, my exors, admors, 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 that part of Her Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her
Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN BLEACHING AND SCOURING WOVEN AND TEXTILE
FABRICS AND YARNS," in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,

page_text: that I, the said James Higgin, shall cause a particular description or
instrument in writing under my hand and seal of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed or carried
into practical effect, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery, within six calendar months next immediately after the date
of the said herein in part recited Letters Patent, as, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Higgin, do hereby declare that the nature and particulars of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed
and carried into practical effect, are particularly set forth, described,
and ascertained in and by the following description or Specification,
that is to say:
My Invention relates particularly to improvements in bleaching and
scouring woven or textile fabrics and yarns, and consists in the use of a
certain compound to be applied in the operation technically known as
bowking or kiering, instead of, or in connection with, the ordinary process
of boiling in solution of soda ash, or solution of resin in soda ash. I
singe and wash the cloth or yarn to be bleached or scoured (say about
three thousand five hundred pounds weight) in the ordinary manner,
and put it in a kier, and whilst the said cloth is folding I throw over it
milk of lime formed by slacking two hundred and twenty-four pounds
of quick lime with water, so as to form a convenient solution; or the
cloth or yarn, previous to entering the kier, may be padded or passed
through the said milk of lime in such a manner that the lime shall be
equally absorbed by it. I then add a sufficient quantity of water, and
from one to two gallons of chloride of lime solution, marking eight
degrees on Twaddell's hydrometer. I then turn the steam on, and keep
the liquor boiling about fourteen hours, after which the cloth or yarn is
removed, washed in water, and steeped or passed through dilute sul-
phuric acid, which may mark three degrees on Twaddell's hydrometer,
or muriatic acid marking two degrees. On leaving this solution the
cloth or yarn must be washed in water, and folded into a kier, into which
I previously put the following mixture: In an iron or other vessel I put
thirty gallons of water, one hundred and twenty pounds of soda ash, and

page_text: eighty pounds of American resin, or gum-thus, or any other cheap
and efficient resin. I boil this compound for cight hours by a steam
pipe or other convenient apparatus, and then put into it twenty-five
pounds of lime, which must be previously slacked to a paste with water.
I then boil this mixture six hours more, and transfer it to the kier;
after which the cloth or yarn is folded in, as before described; sufficient
water is then added, and the liquor boiled by steam for about fourteen
hours. In some cases I prefer to boil the mixture of resin and
soda ash in water for fourteen hours, then put it in the kier, and
add the lime slacked and mixed with water; then turn on the
steam, and boil it about twenty minutes; after which the cloth or
yarn is entered and boiled as before stated. When the cloth or yarn
is sufficiently boiled it must be removed and washed with water; then
steeped in or passed through a dilute solution of chloride of lime,
marking quarter degree on Twaddell's hydrometer. It may be wet for
a few hours, or may be immediately steeped or passed through dilute
acid, namely, sulphuric acid, marking three degrees, or muriatic acid
marking two degrees, on Twaddell's hydrometer. It must then be
washed and dried. In some cases it may be convenient to give the
goods a second boil in a kier, with the aforesaid mixture of resin, soda,
and lime, but in smaller quantities, or in a solution of resin in soda ash,
or in a solution of soda ash alone; but for most purposes the aforesaid
process will be found sufficiently effective.
Having now fully described the nature and particulars of my said
Invention, and the manner of carrying the same into practical effect,
I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not confine myself to the
precise details herein described, or to the exact quantities herein men-
tioned, as such may be varied or modified without departing from the
principle of this my Invention. Neither do I claim as new the separate
use of soda ash, resin, or lime, in boiling, or the acids herein named, or
chloride of lime in steeping, or any particular routine of treating the
fabrics or yarn. But I claim as my Invention,-
Firstly, the combining together, in a mixture, soda ash, or caustic
soda, resin or resins, and lime, for the purpose of boiling cloth or yarns,
to be bleached and scoured as herein-before stated.

page_text: Secondly, any mixture of resin or resins with soda or alkali and lime,
to be used in boiling cloth or yarns, as aforesaid.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Higgin, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of December, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.