IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING AND OTHERWISE OPERATING UPON FIBROUS MATERIALS AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John, Clayton Mewburn at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th October 1883. Communicated
to him from abroad by Jean Stoltz of Roubaix, France.
JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN of 169 Fleet Street in the City of London Patent
Agent and Consulting Engineer, "IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING AND OTHERWISE
OPERATING UPON FIBROUS MATERIALS AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN
[communicated to him from abroad by Jean Stoltz of Roubaix, France]
"
Fibrous material to be dyed may present itself in several forms viz: (1) as
combed or carded slivers; (2) as skeins and (3) as warps.
In the case of slivers it is important to free it throughout its length and not to
disarrange the parallelism and continuity of the fibres; it is also important to be
able after dyeing to dry it with as little manipulation as possible.
In the case of skeins it is desirable not to entangle the fibres so that after,
dyeing and drying, the skeins may be easily wound or reeled.
In the case of warps it is necessary to be able to dye a great length and a large
number of threads at once and under such conditions that the warp threads are
not liable to get out of order so that they can be placed on the warp beam without
difficulty.
In all cases the shade must be uniform and regular, hand work must be reduced
to the minimum, the space occupied must be as small as possible, and supervision
must be easy.
All these conditions are obtained by the methods and machinery I am about to
describe.
For combed or carded slivers I employ a sort of multiple reel upon which I wind
helically in one or more layers a series of parallel slivers. The reel thus charged is
carried to the different dyeing troughs in succession and in such manner that a
part of the material is always immersed. The reel also receives a rotary motion
whereby all parts of the slivers are successively immersed. The reel is constructed
as follows: On an axle are mounted wheels or discs from which spokes radiate;
to these spokes are attached longitudinal bars which can be readily removed or
replaced. There are several sets of these bars, say three, the second set being
further from the axle than the first set, and the third further from the axle than
the second set. The third and second sets having been temporarily removed the

page_text: slivers are wound on the first set in a suitable number of layers; the second set is
then replaced and the slivers being passed from a bar of the first set to a bar of
the second the winding is continued on the second set; the third is then replaced
and the winding continued thereon. The winding having been completed this
multiple reel is taken by means of a traversing crane or otherwise successively to
the different dyeing, washing or scouring, mordanting or other troughs to which
the slivers have to be submitted.
The material in the state of sliver having been thus dyed or otherwise operated
on can be dried in several ways, viz :—
1. By leaving it on the reel. The reel is placed on proper supports and rapid
rotary motion imparted to it so as to produce an effect similar to that obtained by
a centrifugal drying machine, after which the reel is placed in a hot chamber, or
it is continued to be rotated while a current of hot air is conducted to its centre.
2. By fitting the reel at the back of a washing and stretching machine (called in
French "Lisseuse ") such as is used in wool combing works. In this machine the
slivers unwinding from the reel are washed, greased, dried and gill-boxed or
submitted to one or more of these operations as may be required.
3. By passing the slivers on leaving the reel over one or more drying drums or
into a drying machine.
The process of dyeing above described dispenses in most cases and for most
materials with the operation of gill-boxing. The object of gill-boxing is to correct
the entanglements, felting and other inconveniences caused by the old methods and
which disappear with the new.
For treating warps the work is performed in the manner above described for
slivers except that only a single warp is wound on the reel whereas a number of
slivers may be wound simultaneously.
For skeins I fit bars in holders on the wheel spokes, these bars being at proper
distances apart to hold the skeins. There are several sets of these bars. The
skeins having been placed on the bars are submitted to the operations already
described for the slivers. The drying can be effected either by rotating the
apparatus or by dismounting the bars with their skeins and drying them in the
usual way or otherwise.
In order to ensure regularity of the shades it is well not to stretch the slivers or
skeins when they are immersed. With this view the wheels or discs are made 80
that by means of an eccentric, screws and nuts or otherwise the distance of the bars
from the centre can be reduced. The perimeter of the apparatus being thus
diminished the material will slightly float.
For the purpose of imparting motion to the skeins when in the troughs the
following arrangement will be found convenient. Upon the trough is a rotary
shaft carrying endless screws or worms. The skeins are carried by rollers on a
frame and these rollers have toothed wheels keyed to them. When the frame is
lowered so as to rest on the trough the wheels gear with the endless screws and
are thus rotated, this movement ceasing when the frame is raised. The skeins are
thus soaked or dipped in the dyeing trough in the same manner as by hand but
with greater regularity and without hand work.