IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF INDIA AND CHINA GRASS, PINE-APPLE, HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER SIMILAR FIBROUS MATERIALS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1857

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Joseph Cregeen at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
December 1857.
I, JAMES JOSEPH CREGEEN, of Plough Road, Rotherhithe, in the County of.
Surrey, Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF INDIA AND CHINA GRASS,
PINE-APPLE, HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER SIMILAR FIBROUS MATERIALS, AND IN THE
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar system or mode of treating vegetable
fibres, such as India and China grass, pine-apple, plantain, wild rhea, Nilgerry
nettle, jute, hemp, and flax, and other fibrous plants, whether in their green
state, as taken from the field, or after having been retted, whereby a superior
silkey and woolley material is obtained suitable for spinning.
I propose to treat all resin-bound fibres, but especially pine-apple and plan-
tain, India and China grass, which cannot in this country be treated green
from the soil, by steeping them in warm water and afterwards washing and
wringing them by pressing them between a barrel or drum having an undu-
lating surface, and other smaller drums placed round the first or between two
undulating rollers. The main drum is heated either by the waste steam of
the engine or by means of gas burners placed therein, so as to wring the
goods, whether in the form of fibres, yarns, or fabrics, nearly dry. The fibres
are then submitted to the action of a bruiser or crushing machine, which
consists of a large perforated drum having a slightly undulated surface, and
fitted with a number of double or molar teeth, which, in conjunction with tho

page_text: molar and canine teeth on the surfaces of a number of other smaller and
different sized drums surrounding the large one, serve to draw in and crush
the fibres. When these are prepared in a dry state a fan inside the main
drum serves to blow off the dust and resin. By making the surface of the
main drum undulating a beating action on the part of the smaller drums is
obtained. This machinery can be driven by hand, wind, water, or horse
power separately or in combination; but I prefer to connect this main drum
with one of Hall's patent oscillating cylinder engines, and to arrange the
smaller drums surrounding it in sliding brasses for the purpose of readily dis-
connecting them from the teeth of the large drum, in which case the latter
will act as a fly wheel to the engine when not otherwise required for crushing
purposes. And for the purpose of preventing friction I cause each of the
brasses to slide on rollers.
The fibres, after having been cleaned and opened, are carried to the steeping
vats for the finishing process previous to being spun, if not required to be
dyed. In these vats the fibres are steeped in oil of any kind, whether animal
or vegetable, mixed with water and ammonia, or its carbonate, sufficient to
render the mixture soponaceous. This mixture may be used either hot or
cold according to the nature of the fibres and quality to be produced. The
fibres are suspended in the vat by galvanized iron holders, and the hot water
is poured over it into the vat through a perforated lid or cover.
Steam pipes
are used for keeping up the mixture to the proper temperature of about 80
or 90 degrees Fahrenheit. If strength and greater leugth be preferred to
finer quality of fibre, we prefer immersing the same for about 12 hours in the
soponaceous mixture, after being mixed with water in a boiling state, and then
left to cool down under a closed cover.
The fibres are now removed to a washing machine, which consists of a
number of small fluted rollers revolving round a central fluted and perforated
drum, the lower rollers being partially immersed in a water tank, a jet of
water either hot or cold is brought inside the perforated drum through its
axle, and a continuous stream is thus allowed to play upon the fibres, yarns,
or linons, as the case may be. The upper rollers squeeze out the dirty or
resinous matter, and the attendant after well washing the material in this
manner lifts it from the water tank and passes it through the upper set of
rollers only, whence it is removed, partially wrung, to the dry wringing
machine, similar to that herein-before referred to, which completes the
process. The same modo of treatment is equally applicable to green henp
and flax, straw, and similar wood and resin-bound fibres; but in this case I
first clean out all the woody and resinous matter before washing and wringing.

page_text: and discharge by means of hot water all the dirt and resin, and after being
steeped in the soponaccous mixture we complete the process by scraping and
brushing as before. By this treatment the fibre is not only preserved in its
full length and strength, yielding not one-fourth the tow that retted flax yields,
but one-third more of long fibre more like silk than like flax of the retted sort,
and for common purpose of course yarns 30 to 60 lea for flax-spinning. I
find the machinery and water bleach the most economical and equally pro-
ductive as to weight, from a given quantity, and a saving of the expence of oil
and ammonia. I find that for fine purposes, say, 70° to 200 lea, the oil,
ammonia, and water will make all sorts of vegetable fibre fine at pleasure.