Process for Cleaning by Chemical Means Noils and other Wool and Hair Waste Stained with Pitch, Tar, and other Coloring Material.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Sept., 1895-Accepted, 29th Feb., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by EDUARD BALATSCH, Manufacturer of Spun
Fabrics, of 3 Stefansgasse, CARL HEROLD, Manufacturer of Linen and
Woollen Fabrics, of 20 Basteigasse, and ALEXANDER BAYER, Chemist, of
65 Thalgasse, all of Brünn, in the Austrian Empire.]
Process for Cleaning by Chemical Means Noils and other Wool
and Hair Waste Stained with Pitch, Tar, and other Coloring
Material.
I, WALLACE FAIRWEATHER, C.E., of 62 Saint Vincent Street, in the County
of the City of Glasgow, Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated
to me, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:—
The noils and other wool or hair waste stained with pitch, tar and other coloring
material are placed, according as they are required to be slowly or rapidly softened,
in an aqueous cold or warm solution or emulsion of heavy or light oils of tar
prepared by means of soap, wherein they are allowed to remain until the tarry
lumps are thoroughly softened.
The soap solution is a 5% solution that is to say that 1 lb. of soap-is dissolved in
20 lbs. of water.
The quantity of oil of tar used for this emulsion depends upon that of the nuils
or other wool or hair waste stained with pitch and other coloring matter.
The more impregnated with tarry or coloring matter is the material to be
purified, the more tar oil must obviously be used, 500 gramines of tar oil (and
1 kg. of soap) being a minimum and 1 kg. of tar oil being a maximum.
By emulsion must be understood the mixing of oily and watery liquids in such a
finely divided state as to appear to the eyes in the form of a milky liquid
although the same is not a chemical combination; the component parts of the
solution can only be detected by the microscope.
The emulsion or solution is made with due regard to the capability of combination
of the oil of tar, by diligently stirring the soapy water and pouring the oil of tar
in the latter during such stirring. It is obvious as well as permissible that such
an emulsion may be made in any suitable machine such as a centrifugal machine.
The most suitable oils of tar are the hydrocarbons boiling at a temperature
exceeding 100° C. and contained in coal, peat or brown coal, wood or bitumen.
Hydrocarbons having a high boiling point can likewise be used such as those of
mineral oils generally known under the name of blue or green oils.
The heavy oils of tar have a specific gravity of from 0.91 to 0.95. Light oils
of tar or crude benzol are oils which have a specific gravity of from 0.91 to 0.95
at the most and form a different class of oils boiling below 100°.
With the exception of the benzines produced from petroleum which have a
specific gravity ascending up to 0.87, the benzol and toluol hydrocarbons won from
coal, brown coal, bitumen, etc. which boil under 100° C. can be used in these
operations as well as all similar products capable of being distilled.
The exception of the above products is based upon the fact that they are not
ready solvents and are moreover inflammable. The use of a hot solution or
emulsion considerably accelerates the time taken up by the softening process.
As soon as the tarry clumps or clods of the noils and other wool and hair waste
are well softened they are removed and are allowed to pass through a powerful

page_text: compressor.
In case any particles of tar or other coloring matter still adhere
thereto the above process will have to be repeated after which the noils, wool
and hairy matter thus treated are placed in a clear solution of soap, subsequently
compressed, and finally subjected to washing.
The process may be so far modified that instead of the solution or emulsion
mentioned an ordinary heavy oil of tar may be used. The noils, wool and hair
waste are allowed to stop there, being then removed and finally squeezed in the
compressor.
Subsequent to the last treatment i.e. after the squeezing operation, the oil of tar
is removed by a soapy solution or the noils and wool and hair waste are treated by
other well known extracting means.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The process hereinbefore described for the chemical cleaning of noils and other
wool and hair waste.
2. The use of heavy oils of tar alone to soften the pitchy, tarry or coloured
clumps in cleaning noils and other wool and hair waste.
3. The use of oils of tar in solution or emulsion with soap in cleaning noils and
other wool and hair waste.
Dated this 6th day of September 1895.
WALLACE FAIRWEATHER.