IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF WOOL AND OTHER ANIMAL TEXTILE MATERIALS, WHETHER IN A RAW OR MANU- FACTURED STATE
Year: 1867

page_text: ALTERATION.
Filed 11th July 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria by Her
Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fifth
day of March, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, No. 861,
did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license, that I, the said John
Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Henry Johnson, my 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, exericise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
the Isle of Man, an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF
WOOL AND OTHER ANIMAL TEXTILE MATERIALS, WHETHER IN A RAW OR MANU-
FACTURED STATE," a communication to me from abroad by Jean Baptiste

page_text: Frezon, the elder, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Chemist, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, 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 :-
And whereas I, the said John Henry Johnson, did prepare an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal purporting to declare the
nature of the said Invention and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and caused the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the Twenty-fifth day of September One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-seven:
And whereas I have been recently advised that prior to the date of
somewhat similar to the process
the said Specification it had been proposed to use a process, described in
the said Specification for the treatment of raw wools, and as the said
process has not, I believe, come into commercial use for the treatment
of raw wools and other animal textile materials, I am desirous of limit-
ing the title of the said Letters Patent and the claim of the said a
Specification to the treatment of wool or other animal textile materials
in a manufactured state, as herein-after set out :
And whereas since the date of the said Specification it has also been
discovered that it is unnecessary in carrying out the said Invention to
employ the preparatory processes referred to and described in the para- 2
graph commencing with the words "in the preparation," at line 35 of
page 3 of my said Specification, and ending with the words "vegetable
matters" at line 27 of page 4 of my said Specification, as printed by the
Queen's Printers, and published in the Great Seal Patent Office in One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, and I am therefore desirous of
disclaiming the use of the said preparatory processes as being any part
of the Invention secured to me by the said herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent, and I am also desirous, with the view of making the
Specification more intelligible, and in order that it may read continuously
when altered by disclaimer, as herein-after mentioned, of altering the
said Specification, as herein-after set forth.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, by, and with
the leave of Her Majesty's Attorney-General, and for the reasons afore-
said, do hereby disclaim the words "whether" and "raw or" from the
title of the said Letters Patent; and I do also disclaim and strike out
of the said Specification, as printed by the Queen's Printers and
published at the Great Seal Patent Office in One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-seven, the word "whether," which occurs on line 5 of page 3,
and the words "raw or," which occur on line 6 of the said page 3. I
also insert after the words "textile materials," which occur on line 18 of
the said page 3, the words "when in a manufactured state," and strike out
the words "whether" and "raw or," which occur on line 19 of the said
page 3. I also strike out the words "raw wool," which occur on line 21
of the said page 3, and substitute therefor the words "woollen or other
animal textile materials." I also insert before the word "cloths" at the
commencement of line 22 on the said page 3 the word "or," and strike
out the words from "animal" to "materials " inclusive, which occur
on the same line 22. I also strike out the whole of that part of the said
printed copy of the said Specification commencing with the words "in
the preparation," on line 35 of page 3, and ending with the words
"vegetable matters' on line 27 of page 4. I also strike out the word
"raw," which occurs on line 33, and the words "matters or" and the
words "raw or," which occur on line 34 of the said page 4. I also
strike out the word "wool," which occurs on line 11 of page 5 of the
said printed copy of the said Specification, and insert after the word
"fabrics," which also occurs on line 11 of the said page 5, the words
"of wool." I also strike out the words "the preservative action of the
said animal matter and," which occur on line 26 of the said page 5, and
add the letter "s" to the word "matter," which occurs on line 27, and
word
A
"
substitute for the "were," which occurs on the same line of the said
page 5, the word "was." I also strike out the word "wool" and the
words "or other animal substance," which occur on line 28 of the said
And
page 5 of the said printed copy of the said Specification. in order that
the effect of the said disclaimer may be clearly understood I annex
hereunto a copy of the said Specification as it will appear when so
amended, the testing clause being omitted.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middle.
sex, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the
thirtieth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her special
license that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Henry Johnson,
my 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, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE TREATMENT OF WOOL AND OTHER ANIMAL TEXTILE MATERIALS IN A MANU-
communication from abroad by Jean Baptiste Frezon, tho elder, of Paris, in the Empire of Franco, Chemist, upon
^
FACTURED STATE," a the condition amongst others that I, the said John
Henry Johnson, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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 I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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 :-
The said Invention has for its object the destruction of the vegetable
matter contained in wool and other animal textile materials when in a
manufactured state, and consists of a peculiar mode of treating such
materials in a manufactured state. It has long been a desideratum to
discover a ready and efficient means of destroying the vegetable matters
contained on or in woollen or other animal textile materials, yarns, or
cloths. It has hitherto been deemed impossible to arrive at a practical
chemical process of simple application which should be capable of
destroying the vegetable matters adhering to animal substances, and at
the same time preserve the aptitude of the industrial products obtained
from these animal substances for the preservation and application of the
dyeing preparations and other processes to which they are ordinarily
submitted. Both manufacturers and merchants use all their efforts to
utilize impure wool, noils, and yarns tainted with straw, thistles, and

page_text: other vegetable substances, and especially to discover such methods as
will not merely destroy the vegetable substance, but also preserve intact
all those properties of the animal substance which are indispensable for
its preparation and dyeing, and to bring it into a fit state for the
market.
The chemical destroying agents used are chloride of lime and vegetable
and mineral acids. I recommend sulphuric acid, the degree of which
should vary according to the nature or texture of the animal matter.
Any proportion will operate at the will or judgment of the operator.
The bath should be at a temperature of from eighty-six degrees to one
hundred and four degrees Fahrenheit, and the material to be treated
should be immersed therein for about thirty minutes. On being taken
out of the bath the animal fabrics are dried at a high temperature, and
the spun materials are then subjected to a beating process, which causes
the residuum of the vegetable matters to fall out in the form of an
fabrics do not require to undergo this beating operation. They may be gone over
A
impalpable powder with the napping beams, and for cloth the
operation called facing will be quite sufficient.
The washing, scouring, and purification of the animal matters which
have been submitted to the action of the destroying agent of the
vegetable substances is now to be effected in the manner.
following
A
The first operation consists in washing with boiling water; the object
of this is to eliminate the acid in order to facilitate the subsequent
scouring, which scouring process could not otherwise be effected except
at great expense since the acid remaining, which agents will restore the
wool or other animal materials to their primitive state.
would neutralize the alkaline agents employed
The second operation to restore the animal material to its primitive
state is a washing with water nearly at the boiling point, then a thorough
washing in running water, after which the fabrics of wool or animal
materials are passed through an alkaline bath of one hundred and
thirteen degrees Fahrenheit, composed of fullers' earth previously
diluted, and a suitable quantity of carbonate of soda, whatever be the
proportions, and the operation is completed by washing the materials in
running water.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or

page_text: substance
A
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
is, the peculiar processes herein-before described for effecting the
destruction of the vegetable matters contained in animal substances,
whereby the animal or matter is preserved intact from the action of
the destroying agents of the vegetable matter, the destruction of the
vegetable matter is effected without leaving any injurious residuum on
the animal substance or matter which is left in the same state as it was
in before the destructive action of the vegetable matters was accom-
plished, and finally, whereby the fabric after being submitted to the
above treatment is susceptible of the ordinary processes of treatment to
which animal materials are subjected.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this
my Disclaimer set my hand and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of
June, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
I hereby grant my fiat giving leave to the above-named John Henry
Johnson, to file in the Great Seal Patent Office, with the Specification 20
to which the same relates, the above-written Disclaimer and Memoran-
curtain
dum of Alteration of parts of the said title and Specification.

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF WOOL AND OTHER ANIMAL TEXTILE
MATERIALS WHETHER IN A RAW OR MANUFACTURED STATE."-A communica-
tion from abroad by Jean Baptiste Frezon, the elder, of Paris, in the
Empire of France, Chemist.
Sealed the 17th September 1867, and dated the 25th March 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 25th March 1867.
I, JOHN HENBY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF WOOL AND OTHER ANIMAL TEXTILE
MATERIALS WHETHER IN A RAW OR MANUFACTURED STATE," a communication to
me from abroad by Jean Baptiste Frezon, the elder, of Paris, in the Empire of
France, to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the destruction of the vegetable matter
contained in wool and other animal textile materials, and consists of a peculiar
mode of treating such materials, whether in a raw or manufactured state. In
operating upon wool, for example, it is first preserved from the action of the
chemicals to be subsequently used in destroying the vegetable matters by being

page_text: first steeped in water and then immersed for a period of about 25 minutes in
a bath composed of any one of the following materials :-Alum, sulphate of
alumina, sulphate of zinc, chloride of tin, acetate of lead, acetate of alumina,
or, which is better, a tin mordant known as the "Frezon mordant," at a
temperature of about 140° Fah. The wool is then to be steeped in any
saponaceous solution at a temperature of about 194° Fab. After undergoing
this preservative process the wool may then be subjected to the necessary
treatment for the destruction of the vegetable matters contained therein with-
out risk of injury. The destructive agents employed in this treatment are
chloride of lime and vegetable and mineral acids. The temperature of the
bath employed should not exceed 86° to 104° Fah., and the wool should
remain immersed therein for about 30 minutes; it is then to be dried at an
elevated temperature and afterwards subjected to a beating process, when the
residuum of vegetable matter will fall out in the form of an impalpable powder.
The wool or other animal textile materials having undergone the treatment
before mentioned is thoroughly washed and cleansed and subjected to the
action of boiling water, which removes the acids that have been neutralized by
the alkaline agents employed in the washing process; it is then well rinsed
or washed in a running stream, and is subsequently placed in an alkaline bath
of a temperature of about 113° Fah. composed of Fuller's earth previously
mixed with a suitable quantity of carbonate of soda. The wool or other
animal textile material is finally washed in running water.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 25th September 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that I, the said John Henry
Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should

page_text: at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter daring the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make;
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE TREATMENT OF WOOL AND OTHER ANIMAL TEXTILE MATERIALS WHETHER IN À
RAW OR MANUFACTURED STATE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said John Henry Johnson, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my band and seal, 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 I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:-
The said Invention has for its object the destruction of the vegetable
matter contained in wool and other animal textile materials, and consists of
a peculiar mode of treating such materials, whether in a raw or manufactured
state. It has long been a desideratum to discover a ready and efficient means
of destroying the vegetable matters contained on or in raw wool, yarns,
cloths, animal matters generally, and in all animal textile materials. It has
hitherto been deemed impossible to arrive at a practical chemical process of
simple application, which should be capable of destroying the vegetable
matters adhering to animal substances, and at the same time preserve the
aptitude of the industrial products obtained from these animal substances for
the preservation and application of the dyeing preparations and other pro-
cesses to which they are ordinarily submitted. Both manufacturers and
merchants use all their efforts to utilize impure wool, noils, and yarns tainted
with straw, thistles, and other vegetable substances, and especially to discover
such methods as will not merely destroy the vegetable substance, but also
preserve intact all those properties of the animal substance which are indis-
pensable for its preparation and dyeing and to bring it in to a fit state for the
market.
In the preparation of woven fabrics this process is specially applicable.
The chemical agents proposed to be used for the destruction of the vege-
table matters contained in the animal matters are well known, but what the
Inventor considers his Invention are the means of preventing the destroying
agents of the vegetable matters from injuring the animal substances, the

page_text: means of subsequently effecting the elimination of these active destroying
agents, the means of bringing the animal materials into a primitive condition,
or into such a condition that they may contain and possess the same qualities
and offer the same facility for the application of the processes to which animal
matters and especially textile animal matters are submitted in manufactures
and commerce. Thus, for example, if oleine be the preservative employed
and the animal material be submitted to an acid, there would be left as a
deposit on the fabric a combination of oleine vegetable remains, an acid
which would form on the fabric, and a yellowish or other resisting substance
which would interfere with the operations of singeing, scouring, dyeing, and
preparing. This process, which I shall now proceed to describe, is entirely
free from these defects.
The materials, whether raw wool, yarns, or fabrics, are saturated with water
and then immersed in a bath of 140 Fahrt; this bath is composed of
alum, sulphate of alumina, sulphate of zinc, chloride of tin, acetate of lead,
acetate of alumina, or by preference a mordant known as the "Frezon
mordant," or any other similar material. The proportions of these substances
are readily obtained; they depend on the nature and the degree of impurity
of the material, and in the case of fabrics on the closeness of their texture.
Moreover the ingredients above indicated operate whatever be their propor-
tions). The fabrics should be immersed for the space of twenty-five minutes,
during which time they should be constantly agitated. The fabric should
then be steeped in any saponaceous solution at a temperature of about
194° Fah., regard being still had to the closeness of the texture; any
proportion will be efficacious. As a result of these operations the animal
matters are protected against injury from the use of the chemical agent
required to destroy the vegetable matters. The chemical destroying agents
used are chloride of lime and vegetable and mineral acids. I recommend
sulphuric acid, the degree of which should vary according to the nature or
texture of the animal matter; any proportion will operate at the will or
judgment of the operator. The bath should be at a temperature of from
86° to 104° Fah*., and the material to be treated should be immersed therein
for about thirty minutes. On being taken out of the bath the raw animal
matters or fabrics are dried at a high temperature, and the raw or spun
materials are then subjected to a beating process, which causes the residuum
of the vegetable matters to fall out in the form of an impalpable powder.
Fabrics do not require to undergo this beating operation, they may be gone over
with the napping beams, and for cloth the operation called "facing" will be
quite sufficient.
The washing, scouring, and purification of the animal

page_text: matters which have been submitted to the action of the destroying agent
of the vegetable substances is now to be effected in the following manner :-
The first operation consists in washing with boiling water; the object of
this is to eliminate the acid in order to facilitate the subsequent scouring,
which scouring process could not otherwise be effected except at great
expense, since the acid remaining would neutralize the alkaline agents
employed, which agents will restore the wool or other animal materials to
their primitive state.
The second operation to restore the animal material to its primitive state
is a washing with water nearly at the boiling point, then a thorough
washing in running water, after which the wool fabrics or animal materials
are passed through an alkaline bath of 118° Fah*. composed of Fuller's earth
previously diluted, and a suitable quantity of carbonate of soda (whatever
be the proportions), and the operation is completed by washing the materials
in running water.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel
and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the peculiar processes herein-
before described for effecting the destruction of the vegetable matters contained
in animal substances, whereby the animal substance or matter is preserved
intact from the action of the destroying agents of the vegetable matter; the
destruction of the vegetable matter is effected without leaving any injurious
residuum on the animal substance or matter, which is left in the same state
as it was in before the preservative action of the said animal matter and the
destructive action of the vegetable matter were accomplished; and, finally,
whereby the wool, fabric, or other animal substance after being submitted to
the above treatment is susceptible of the ordinary processes of treatment to
which animal materials are subjected.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of September,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.S.)