IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT, CLEANSING, OR FINISHING OF TEXTILE FABRICS."
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Aikman, of Paisley, in the County of Renfrew,
North Britain, Scourer and Shawl Finisher, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT, CLEANSING, OR FINISHING OF TEXTILE
FABRICS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Aikman at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th June 1856.
I, JAMES AIKMAN, of Paisley, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain,
Scourer and Shawl Finisher, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT, CLEANSING, OR FINISHING OF TEXTILE
FABRICS," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates in its essential points to the treatment of woven goods
by what is technically known as the "sulphuring" process for preparing,
bleaching, or finishing textile fabrics.
In carrying out this Invention in practice, the operation of sulphuring or
treating the goods with the fumes or vapour of sulphur is conducted in the
interior of a long rectangular chamber or building, containing at or near each
end a vertical row or series of horizontal rollers or revolving bars, all arranged
to revolve in concert. The movement for actuating the rollers is derived from
an external longitudinal shaft, carried in bearings immediately outside the wall

page_text: of the building, and having upon it a set of bevil wheels in gear with cor-
responding wheels upon the ends of the rollers, which project through the wall
for the purpose. The chamber or building also contains one or more sets of
loosely rotating rollers, placed between the two end sets, and corresponding in
pitch and size with such sets.
The fabric to be sulphured or treated according to this Invention is passed
into the building at one end, through a horizontal slit or passage near the top.
This passage is situated at a level corresponding with that of the highest roller
of the series of driven rollers at that end. As the piece passes in it is directed
over the top of this first roller, and thence along the entire length of the
building, in a horizontal direction, passing in its route over the intermediate
supporting rollers, and turning round the corresponding driven roller at the
opposite end of the building. The piece then returns round beneath the roller
last named, and proceeds to the end where it first entered, passing over the
second driven roller in the series at the entry end. This route is carried out
throughout the entire arrangement of rollers, the fabric being passed back
and forward horizontally from end to end of the building, until it finally
emerges by a passage at the bottom of the building, at the end opposite to
that at which it was first passed in. The fabric is here drawn out by rollers,
or otherwise, and is conveyed away in a sulphured condition.
The sulphur may be supplied to the building in various ways. A preferable
plan is to place pans of burning sulphur upon the floor of the building, so
that the vapour may fully envelope all the horizontal folds of the goods.
This Invention is applicable for sulphuring both yarns and woven goods, and
it answers also for damping or steaming goods as required in the different
processes of textile manufacture.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Aikman in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th December 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
AIKMAN, of Paisley, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain, Scourer and
Shawl Finisher, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,

page_text: did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Aikman, Her special license that I, the said James Aikman, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Aikman, my executors, administrators, or 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 TREATMENT,
CLEANSING, OR FINISHING OF TEXTILE FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said James Aikman, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, 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 I, the said James Aikman, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
in writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates in its essential points to the treatment of woven
goods by what is technically known as the "sulphuring" process for preparing,
bleaching, or finishing textile fabrics.
In carrying out this Invention in practice, the operation of sulphuring or
treating the goods with the fumes or vapour of sulphur is conducted in the
interior of a long rectangular chamber or building, containing at or near each
end a vertical row or series of horizontal rollers or revolving bars, all arranged
to revolve in concert. The movement for actuating the rollers is derived from
an external longitudinal shaft, carried in bearings immediately outside the wall
of the building, and having upon it a set of bevil wheels in gear with cor-
responding wheels upon the ends of the rollers, which project through the wall
for the purpose.
The chamber or building also contains one or more sets of
loosely rotating rollers, placed between the two end sets, and corresponding in
pitch and size with such sets.
The fabric to be sulphured or treated according to this Invention is passed
into the building at one end, through a horizontal slit or passage near the top.
This passage is situated at a level corresponding with that of the highest roller
of the series of driven rollers at that end. As the piece passes in it is directed
over the top of this first roller, and thence along the entire length of the
building, in a horizontal direction, passing in its route over the intermediate

page_text: supporting rollers, and turning round the corresponding driven roller at the
opposite end of the building. The piece then returns round beneath the roller
last named, and proceeds to the end where it first entered, passing over the
second driven roller in the series at the entry end. This route is carried out
throughout the entire arrangement of rollers, the fabric being passed back
and forward horizontally from end to end of the building, until it finally
emerges by a passage at the bottom of the building, at the end opposite to
that at which it was first passed in. The fabric is here drawn out by rollers,
or otherwise, and is conveyed away in a sulphured condition.
The sulphur may be supplied to the building in various ways. A preferable
plan is to place pans of burning sulphur upon the floor of the building, so that
the vapour may fully envelope all the horizontal folds of the goods.
This Invention is applicable for sulphuring both yarn and woven goods, and
it answers also for damping or steaming goods as required in the different
processes of textile manufacture.
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood, I have
hereunto appended, and shall now proceed to describe, a Sheet of explanatory
Drawings; Figure 1 on which Sheet is a vertical longitudinal section, and
Figure 2 a sectional plan, of a sulphuring chamber, as arranged according to
my improved system. The sulphuring operation is carried on in an oblong
chamber, of which the side walls are represented at A, B, and the end walls
at C, D. At each end of the chamber there is a vertical row of transversely
disposed horizontal rollers E, F, the inner end spindles of which rollers revolve
in bearings in the uprights G, whilst their outer opposite ends project through
apertures in the side wall A. The outer end spindles H revolve in bearings
in vertical plates I, attached to the outside of the chamber, and they are pro-
longed to received bevil wheels J, by means of which they are driven, these
bevil wheels J being in gear with bevil wheels K on vertical shafts, driven by
means of bevil wheels from a horizontal shaft L running along beneath them.
The yarn or woven fabric M, to be subjected to the action of sulphurous
vapours in the chamber, is introduced through a horizontal slit N in the upper
part of the end wall C, being drawn off a roller at O. The material passes
over the uppermost of the rollers E, and thence through the entire length of
the chamber to the uppermost of the rollers F at the other end. Passing round
beneath this last roller, the material returns to the other end of the chamber,
where it passes round and beneath the second roller E, and in this manner it
traverses the chamber forwards and backwards, passing round each lower roller
in succession, as shown by the line M, until it reaches the lowermost ones.
Vertical rows of loose guide rollers P are placed at intervals across the chamber

page_text: to support the material between the driving rollers E and F at each end. The
material passes out from the chamber through a horizontal slit Q at the lower
part of the wall D, at the end of the chamber opposite to that at which it
entered, and it is passed round a take-up roller R, and is wound up on a
roller S, driven by frictional contact by the roller R. The material is passed
through the entire apparatus by means of a handle T, fixed on the spindle of
the roller R, this spindle having fixed on its opposite end a bevil wheel U in
gear with a bevil wheel V on a vertical shaft, carrying another bevil wheel W
in gear with a bevil wheel X on the shaft L, already pointed out as serving to
drive the two sets of rollers E, F. Motion is thus uniformly imparted to the
take-up roller R, and to the rollers E, F, and the yarn or woven fabric is
passed through the apparatus without any injurious drag, being acted upon by
the rollers at numerous points in its length.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I may observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict myself
to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to describe
or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without deviating from
the principles or main features of my Invention; but what I consider to be
novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is, the system or mode of sub-
jecting woven fabrics or yarns to the action of sulphurous or other vapours,
or steam, in a chamber wherein the goods are passed backwards and forwards
in horizontal lines round or over rollers at each end, driven in any convenient
manner, so as to exert a drawing action upon the goods at numerous points,
the goods entering and leaving the chamber through slits in the end walls
thereof, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Aikman, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of November, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-six.
JAMES AIKMAN. (L.S.)