IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF COTTON AND OTHER FABRICS AND FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
MERCER, of Oakenshaw, within Clayton-le-Moors, in the County of Lancaster,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of
October (One thousand eight hundred and fifty), in the fourteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Mercer, my exors, adññors, and assigns, Her especial license,
full power, sole privilege, and authority, that I, the said John Mercer,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Mercer,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE PREPARATION OF COTTON AND OTHER FABRICS AND FIBROUS MATERIALS;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said John
Mercer, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Mercer, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in subjecting vegetable fabrics and fibrous materials,
cotton, flax, &c., either in the raw or manufactured state, to the action of
caustic soda or caustic potash, dilute sulphuric acid, or chloride of zinc, of a
strength and temperature sufficient the produce the new effects, and to give
the new properties to them which I have hereafter described.
The mode I adopt of carrying into operation my Invention to cloth made
wholly or partially from any vegetable fibres and bleached is as follows: I
pass the cloth through a padding machine charged with caustic soda or caustic
potash at sixty or seventy degrees Twaddles' hydrometer, at the common
temperature,at, say, sixty degrees Fahrenheit, or under, and without drying the
cloth wash it in water, then pass through dilute sulphuric acid, and-wash
again, or I run the cloth over and under a scries of rollers in a cistern with
caustic soda or caustic potash at from forty to fifty degrees of Twaddels'
hydrometer, at the common temperature of the atmosphere, the last two rollers
being set so as to squeeze the excess of sodaor potash back into the cistern;
the cloth then passes over and under rollers placed in a series of cisterns
charged at the commencement of the operation with water only, so that at the
last cistern the alkali has nearly been all washed out of the cloth; when the
cloth has either gone through the padding machine or through the cisterns
above described, I wash the cloth in water, pass it through dilute sulphuric
acid, and wash again in water.
When I adapt the Invention to grey or unbleached cloth made from the
fibrous material before mentioned, I first boil or steep the cloth in water, so as
to have it thoroughly wet, and remove most of the water by the squeezers or
hydro-extractor, and then pass the cloth through the soda or potash solution,&c.,
and proceed as before described.
I apply my Invention in the same way to warps, either bleached or
unbleached, but after passing through the cistern containing the alkali the
warp is either passed through squeezers, or through a holeina metallic plate,
to remove the alkali, and then passed on through the water cisterns, soured
and washed as above described.
When thread or hank yarn is operated on, I immerse the thread or yarns in
the alkali and then wring them out, as is usually done in sizing or dyeing them,
and afterwards wash, sour, and wash in water as above described.
When I apply my Invention to any fibre in the raw state, or before it is

page_text: manufactured, I first boil it in water and then free it from most of its water
by the hydro-extractor or a press. I then immerse it in the alkaline solution
and then remove the alkali by the hydro-extractor, or I press the alkali out
with a press and then wash in water, sour in dilute sulphuric acid, wash again,
then remove the water by a press or hydro-extractor as above described.
When cloth made from vegetable fibre, cotton, flax, &c. has been subjected
to the action of caustic soda or potash as above described, by padding, immer-
sion, on any other way, and then freed from the alkali by souring and washing
according to my said Invention, the cloth will be found to have undergone.
certain changes and alterations, and have acquired certain new and valuable
properties; the most remarkable There describe. It will have shrunk in its
length and breadth, or have become less in its external dimensions, but
thicker and closer, so that by the chemical action of caustic soda or potash I
produce on cotton and other vegetable fabrics and fibres effects somewhat
analogous to that which is produced on woollen by the process of fulling or
milling. It will have acquired greater strength and firmness, each, fibre
requiring greater force to break it. It will also have become heavier than it,
was before it was acted on by the alkali, if in both cases it be weighed at
the temperature of sixty degrees Fahrenheit, or under. It will have acquired
greatly augmented and improved powers of receiving colors in printing and
dyeing.
The effects of the application of my Invention to the vegetable fibre in any
of its various stages before it is manufactured into cloth will be readily under-
stood by reference to its effects upon cloth composed of such fibres.
Secondly, I employ sulphuric acid diluted to one hundred and five degrees
Twaddels' hydrometer, and at sixty degrees Fahrenheit, or under; I use this
acid mixture instead of caustic potash or soda, and operate in all respects the
same as when I use soda. or potash, except the last souring, which is here
unnecessary.
Thirdly, when I employ solution of chloride of zinc instead of soda or
potash, I use the solution at one hundred and forty-five degrees Twaddles'
hydrometer, and one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty degrees
Fahrenheit, and operate in all respects the same as when I use soda or
potash.
When I operate on mixed fabrics, partly of vegetable and partly of silk,
woollen, or other animal fibres, such as delaines or leans, &c., I prefer the
strength of the alkali not to be above forty degrees Twaddels' hydrometer, and
the heat not above fifty degrees Fahrenheit, lest the animal fibres should be
injured.

page_text: I may in conclusion remark, that the description of the apparatus or
machinery, and the strength and temperature of the soda or potash, sul-
phuric acid, or chloride of zinc solution, may be varied to a considerable
extent, and will produce proportionate effects without at all deviating
from my Invention. For instance, caustic potash or soda may be used
even as low as twenty degrees Twaddels' hydrometer, and still give im-
proved properties to cotton, &c. in receiving colors in printing and dyeing,
particularly if the heat be low, for the lower the temperature the more
effectively the soda or potash acts on the fibrous material above described. I
therefore do not confine myself to any particular strength or temperature of
the substances I employ, but the particular strength, heat, and process here
described is what I have found the best, and which I prefer.
And I claim as of my Invention the subjection of cotton, linen, and other
vegetable fibrous material cither in the fibre or any stage of its manufacture,
either alone or mixed with silk, woollen, or other animal fibrous material, to
the action of caustic soda or caustic potash, dilute sulphuric acid, or solution
of chloride of zinc of a temperature and strength sufficient to produce the new
effects, and give to them the new properties above described, either by padding,
printing, or steeping, immersion, or any other mode of application.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Mercer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of April,
in the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid John Mercer came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and everything therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord. One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.