IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING AND TREATING FIBRES FROM RAGS, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE SAME
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Wood at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th July
.1867.
I, WILLIAM WOOD, of Monkhill, near Pontefract, in the County of York,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRODUCING AND TREATING FIBRES FROM RAGS, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE SAME,"
to be as follows:-
When fibres are produced from rags by the present process the rags are
sprinkled with oil in order to assist the "grinding" or tearing up into fibres.
The rags being spread out on the floor are sprinkled with oil or oil and water,
another layer of rags is then added and sprinkled with oil, these operations
being repeated until the whole quantity to be ground is piled up; by this
plan the oil or lubricant is very irregularly distributed, some of the rags
receiving a large proportion and others little or none, the effect being that the
fibrous product is very irregular and much of it very short.
Now the object of my improvements in the production of fibres is to cause
them to be longer, more regular, and cleaner, which I effect by evenly dis-
tributing an excess of the oil or lubricant on the rags and causing it to pene-
trate thoroughly into the fabrics, and by preference grinding them when they
contain an excess of oil or lubricant, and removing the excess or part of it
either before or after grinding. For these purposes I completely saturate the
rags with oil or oil and water or other lubricant either by immersion, which
I prefer, or by continued sprinkling, or otherwise; I then remove part of the

page_text: excess above the usual quantity of the lubricant by pressure or any other con-
venient process; the rags are then ground and the remaining excess of
lubricant removed from the fibrous product, or after saturating the rags I
submit them to such a pressure or process as will remove all the excess or
such portion of it as may be desired of the lubricant, after which they are
ground. I prefer to assist the cleansing and complete saturation of the rags
when immersed in the oil or lubricant by the use of stirrers or rakes and
pressing rollers, and when desired re-immersing, stirring, or raking, and pressing
them; or I assist the cleansing and saturation of the rags, and carry them
forward by laying them on an endless sheet or apparatus in combination with
one or more pairs of pressing rollers, or by a series of pairs of plain, fluted,
or grooved rollers working in or in contact with the lubricant. The before-
mentioned purposes may be partly though less satisfactorily accomplished by
sprinkling in the usual way, or only partly and irregularly saturating the rags,
and then equalizing as much as possible the lubricant throughout the mass by
mechanical action, such as pressure, rolling, or beating, after which they are
ground, the excess if any of lubricant being removed either before or after
grinding. In effecting these improvements or carrying out the foregoing
When any
processes I prefer to use the oil or lubricant in a heated state.
excess or portion of the lubricant is extracted after the grinding by any
process which condenses the fibrous product I open or lighten up the fibres
by steaming them and by suitable mechanical means; I also sometimes steam
the fibrous product when it has not been condensed and when it has been
oiled and ground in the usual or in my improved manner.