IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PREPARATION OF MATERIALS FOR SIZING OR DRESSING YARNS AND TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John McKean, of Walmer Bridge, in the County
of Lancaster, Manufacturer, and John Stenhouse, of Rodney
Street, Pentonville, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PREPARATION OF
MATERIALS FOR SIZING OR DRESSING YARNS AND TEXTILE FABRICS."
Sealed the 9th October 1868, and dated the 29th April 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John McKean and
John Stenhouse at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 29th April 1868.
We, JOHN MCKEAN, of Walmer Bridge, in the County of Lancaster,
Manufacturer, and JOHN STENHOUSE, of Rodney Street, Pentonville,
in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of
our said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PREPARATION
OF MATERIALS FOR SIZING OR DRESSING YARNS AND TEXTILE FABRICS," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the preparation of various novel
compounds to be employed in sizing or dressing and preparing yarns
and textile fabrics.

page_text: In carrying out this Invention we take "China clay" or pipe clay,
or other similar clays, and add thereto the requisite quantity of starch
or amylaceous or farinaceous matters obtained from wheat, rice, potatoes,
horse chesnuts, sago, tapioca, salep, or any other convenient source.
We usually convert the whole or a portion of the starch or amylaceous
matter into British gum or dextrine, as is well understood, previously to
mixing it with the clay. We sometimes employ gum arabic, gum
senegal, or similar gums, or the vegetable mucilage obtained from
linseed, hempseed, or other known sources. If the above mixture be
at all acid a sufficient quantity of slaked lime in powder or carbonate
of soda may be added to neutralise the acid. To this mixture we then
add sulphites of lime, baryta, magnesia, potassa, soda, or ammonia, or
mixtures of any of them, and also a small quantity of tallow or other neutral
fat or oil. The "China clay" in the above-described compound may be
replaced either by powdered gypsum or other suitable form of sulphate
of lime, or with carbonate of lime in a pulverulent state, such as whiting
or powdered chalk. Mixtures of "China clay," gypsum, and whiting,
together with sulphites of lime, baryta, magnesia, potassa, soda, or
ammonia, and the requisite quantity of starch, amylaceous matter,
dextrin, or gum, and tallow or fats, may also be employed.
One of the great advantages in the above-described sizes consists in
their containing quantities of sulphite of lime or other sulphites, which
from their antiseptic properties render the cloth and yarn to which
they have been applied much less liable to be attacked by mildew or
to become tender or rotten than is the case when they are sized in the
usual manner; and such sulphites may also with advantage be added
to any of the mixtures or compounds now known as size and employed
for the purposes above mentioned.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John M*Kean and John Stenhouse in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 28th October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
MCKEAN, of Walmer Bridge, in the County of Lancaster, Manufacturer,
and JOHN STENHOUSE, of Rodney Street, Pentonville, in the County of
Middlesex, Chemist, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight, hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said John M°Kean and John Stenhouse,
Her special license that we, the said John McKean and John Sten-
house, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said John McKean and John Stenhouse, our 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, excrcise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PREPARATION OF MATERIALS FOR SIZING O
DRESSING YARNS AND TEXTILE FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said John McKean and John Stenhouse, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our hand
and seal, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 McKean and John
Stonehouse, 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, that is to
say:-
Our said Invention has for its object the preparation of various novel
compounds to be employed in sizing or dressing and preparing yarns or
textile fabrics.
"
In carrying out this Invention we take china clay or pipe clay
or other similar clays, and add thereto the requisite quantity of starch
or amylaceous or farinaceous matters, obtained from wheat, rice, potatoes,
horse chestnuts, sago, tapioca, salep, or any other convenient source:
Previously to mixing them with the clay we usually convert the whole
or a portion of the starch or amylaceous matter they contain: .into
dextrine or "British gum." This we effect by any of the known

page_text: methods, such as heating them with dilute sulphuric, hydrochloric,
nitric, acetic, or other suitable acids or mixtures of any of them, or by
heating them alone to a temperature of about 300° Fahrenheit. We
sometimes employ gum arabic, gum senegal, or similar gums, or
the vegetable mucilage obtained from linseed, hemp seed, or other
known sources.
If the above mixture be at all acid a sufficient quantity
of slaked lime in powder or carbonate of soda may be added to neutralise
the acid. To this mixture we then add sulphite of lime, which we
prefer, or sulphites of baryta, magnesia, potassa, or soda, or mixtures
of any of them, and subsequently a small quantity of tallow or other
neutral fat or oil. The "china clay" in the above described compound
may be replaced either by powdered gypsum or other suitable form of
sulphate of lime, or with carbonate of lime in a pulverulent state, such
as whiting or powdered chalk. Mixtures of "China clay," gypsum, and
whiting, together with sulphites of lime, baryta, magnesia, potassa, or
soda, and the requisite quantity of starch, amylaceous matter, dextrine,
or gum, and tallow or fats, may also be employed.
The materials above described may be employed in various proportions,
but a very useful combination may be formed by taking,—
"China clay," kaolin, or other similar silecious
or aluminous earths
Sulphite of lime
Starch or amylaceous matter previously con-
verted into "British gum
" or dextrin
Another useful combination consists of,-
-
9 parts by weight.
-
1 part
-
5 parts
"China clay," kaolin, or other similar silecious
or aluminous earths
Sulphite of lime
-
8 parts by weight.
2 parts
Gum or dextrin
7 parts
To both of the above compounds from five to ten per cent. of fat
should afterwards be added.
We do not, however, confine ourselves to the above proportions, but
vary them according to the nature of the materials to be operated upon.
The composition or mixture resulting from the process above described
is a perfectly dry and fine flour or powder, which requires simply to
be mixed with water and boiled in order to convert it into a paste of
suitable consistency for use.

page_text: One of the great advantages in the above-described sizes consists in
their containing quantities of sulphite of lime or the other sulphites above
mentioned, which from their antiseptic properties render the cloth and
yarn to which they have been applied much less liable to be attacked by
mildew or to become tender or rotten than is the case when they are
sized in the usual manner.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, we would observe in conclusion that what we
consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
application and use of the above-mentioned sulphites, substantially in
the manner and for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Stenhouse, on behalf of
myself and the said John McKean, have to this Specification set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of October, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-eight.