Ix- PROVEMENTS IN THE DISAGREGATION OF CHINA GRASS, HEMP, FLAX, JUTE, PHORMIUM TENAX, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THREADS, FABRICS, AND PULP FOR PAPER
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Clark, of 58, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Engineer and Patent Agent, for the Invention of "Ix-
PROVEMENTS IN THE DISAGREGATION OF CHINA GRASS, HEMP, FLAX, JUTE,
PHORMIUM TENAX, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF
THREADS, FABRICS, AND PULP FOR PAPER."-A communication from abroad
by François Mathurin Caillard, of 29, Boulevart St. Martin, Paris..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Clark at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
March 1867.
I, WILLIAM CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DISAGREGATION OF CHINA GRASS, HEMP, FLAX,
JUTE, PHORMIUM TENAX, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF
THREADS, FABRICS, AND PULP FOR PAPER," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the treatment of all kinds of vegetable textile
matters, and more especially of China grass, hemp, flax, jute, (phormium
tenax), and the branches of the mulberry tree, with the object of obtaining
therefrom threads and fibres in imitation of wool, cotton, and silk, which
products are also applicable as pulp for paper. For this purpose I first
dispose the matters under treatment in small handfuls, the fibres being all

page_text: laid out straight and parallel with each other. I then cut up the matters in
lengths of from one to one and a quarter inches if intended to form a cotton
fibre, but in the case of flax and hemp and fibres to form products resembling
wool, silk, and others they are allowed to remain of their original length.
The matters so disposed are placed in a boiler or vat with sufficient water to
cover them, to which I add quick or slaked lime in the proportion of from
three to four parts in weight of slaked lime to one part of raw material; the
whole is then boiled together for about four or five hours, according to the
capacity of the boiler. The same results may be obtained by the employment
of chalk, calcareous earths, and sea salt (the latter being used for the treatment
of certain textile substances instead of lime) either by boiling the matters for
a sufficient time or by maceration in a cold state and allowing the matters
to ferment in these chemical agents for several days. After cooling some
hours or being completely macerated I withdraw the matters from the boiler
and spread them on a flat surface of stone or cast iron with a brick foundation,
on which surface are mounted two vertical circular millstones or edge runners
driven by any suitable motive power, water being also supplied to the table
surface at pleasure. The millstones being set in motion and driven at a
high speed in contact with the materials on the table surface they will be
subjected to great pressure so as to crush and subdivide the materials in the
liquid and separate the gummy and extraneous matters therefrom. After
this operation I rinse the matters several times and throw them into a large
trough containing clean water and provided with a false bottom of perforated
sheet iron or zinc. In this trough are disposed one or more dashers serving
to keep the water in a constant state of circulation among the materials, and
so as to complete their subdivision. When the matters treated are of their
natural length it is not necessary to use the agitators and false bottom
to the trough, it being sufficient to steep the matters in clean water and
rinse them as often as necessary in order to remove all extraneous matters.
After treating 'or washing the products as above a sufficient number of
times in the trough I place them in a bath of acidulated water, sulphuric,
nitro-sulphuric, azotic, or hydrochloric (muriatic) acids, marking from two to,
our degrees being used for the purpose, after which they are removed and
placed for some minutes in another bath composed of slightly soapy water
and glycerine marking from one to three degrees, after which the matters are
dried and formed into bales for spinning purposes. The use of glycerine is
not indispensable, it being useful only in the case of 'hard textile materials,
such as jute, for example. Hemp and china grass should be disagregated by
exposing them for several days and nights on the ground in the open air and

page_text: wetting them from time to time especially in the summer, the treatment
being continued by the millstones on the table surface and the subsequent
rinsings and steeping as before described. I treat jute and hemp in a cold
state without lime by repeated washings and acidulated baths, terminating by
soaping only and with or without glycerine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Clark in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th September 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer and
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the. Nineteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,. give and grant unto
me, the said William Clark, Her. special licence that I, the said William
Clark, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Clark, 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 DISAGREGATION OF CHINA GRASS, HEMP, FLAX, JUTE,
PHORMIUM TENAX, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THREADS,
FABRICS, AND PULP FOR PAPER," a communication to me from abroad by
François Mathurin Caillard, of 29, Boulevart St. Martin, Paris, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Clark, ny executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 sanie 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 Clark, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement (that is to say).:-

page_text: This Invention relates to the treatment of all kinds of vegetable textile
matters, and more especially of China grass, hemp, flax, jute, (phormium
tenax), and the branches of the mulberry tree, with the object of obtaining
therefrom threads and fabrics in imitation of wool, cotton, and silk, which
products are also applicable as pulp for paper. For this purpose I first
dispose the matters under treatment in small handfuls, the fibres being all laid
out straight and parallel with each other; I then cut up the matters in
lengths of from one to one and a quarter inches if intended to form a cotton
fibre, but in the case of flax and hemp and fibres to form products resembling
wool, silk, and others they are allowed to remain of their original length.
The matters so disposed are placed in a boiler or vat with sufficient water to
cover them, to which I add quick or slaked lime in the proportion of from
three to four parts in weight of slaked lime to one part of raw material; the
whole is then boiled together for about four or five hours, according to the
capacity of the boiler. The same results may be obtained by the employ-
ment of chalk, calcareous earths, and sea salt (the latter being used for the
treatment of certain textile substances instead of lime) either by boiling the
matters for a sufficient time or by maceration in a cold state and allowing
the matters to ferment in these chemical agents for several days. I also
obtain the same results in a still more economical manner by first wetting the
raw material either cut-up in lengths or not and placing them in a trough
with a perforated bottom so as to carry off the water. The disagregation
is effected by watering the materials contained in the trough with warm water
for several days without the addition of any chemical agent. The materials will
thus begin to ferment, and after some days when the gummy matter is sufficiently
softened or after the materials have been boiled in the lime I spread them on
On this surface
a stone or cast-iron flat surface on a foundation of masonry.
are mounted two vertical millstones or edge runners driven by any suitable
motive power and supplied with water by means of a conduit. The millstones
being set in motion and driven at a high speed in contact with the material
spread on the table surface will be subjected to great pressure so as to crush
and subdivide the materials containing the liquid. For hard textile matters
like hemp and flax, which are peeled without being retted, as also embiro
America, I may use stampers instead of millstones, or pass them between a
series of grooved cylinders of wood or metal. After this operation I remove
the matters from the table surface and throw them into a large trough con-
taining clean water and provided with a false bottom of perforated sheet iron
or zinc. In this trough are disposed one or more dashers serving to keep the
water in a constant state of circulation among the materials, and so as to

page_text: complete their subdivision if it is desired to obtain a cotton-like fibre, but
where the matters treated are of their natural length it is not necessary to use
the agitators and false bottom to the trough, it being sufficient to steep the
materials in clean water and rinse them as often as necessary in order to
remove all extraneous matters. After treating or washing the products as
above a sufficient number of times in the trough I place them in a bath of
acidulated water, sulphuric, nitro-sulphuric, azotic, or hydrochloric (muriatic)
acids, marking from two to four degrees being used for the purpose, after
which they are removed and placed for some minutes or hours as desired in
another bath composed of thin soapsuds, or a small quantity of glycerine may
also be added to the bath of suds if desired; the matters are then dried and
formed into bales for spinning purposes. With regard to hemp, flax, embiro,
and other textile materials it is sufficient to simply steep them in water
renewed from time to time for several days, and then to subject them to the
action of the millstones, cylinders, or stampers, afterwards rinsing and intro-
ducing them into acidulated baths and soapsuds in the manner before
described.
The above simple, easy, and economical method is also applicable for the
treatment of hemp and flax, peeled or stripped, retted or not as desired, jutes,
the bark from the branches of the mulberry, and all other textile, herbaceous,
and ligneous materials, as well as to China grass, for the purpose of obtaining
fibres therefrom suitable for the manufacture of fabrics or for making pulp for
paper.
Having described the nature of this Invention, and the manner of perform-
ing the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be protected by
the berein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the employment of lime,
chalks, and calcareous earths either in a heated or cold state, and sulphuric,
azotic, nitro-sulphuric, and hydrochloric (muriatic) acids, as also treating in
baths of soapsuds, with or without the addition of glycerine, for the disagre-
gation and treatment of all kinds of textile matters in the manner and for the
purposes described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Clark, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
W. CLARK. (L.S.)