IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND BLEACHING JUTE AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Capper, of Manor House, Earl's Court,
Old Brompton, in the County of Middlesex, Merchant, and
Thomas John Watson, of No. 3, Devonshire Terrace, Fulham
Road, in the same County, Operative Chymist, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND BLEACHING JUTE AND OTHER
VEGETABLE FIBRES."
Sealed the 8th July 1853, and dated the 12th January 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Capper and
Thomas John Watson at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 12th January 1853.
We, JOHN CAPPER, of Manor House, Earls Court, Old Brompton,
in the County of Middlesex, Merchant, and THOMAS JOHN WATSON,
of No. 3, Devonshire Terrace, Fulham Road, in the same County,
Operative Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING AND BLEACHING JUTE AND OTHER
VEGETABLE FIBRES" to be as follows:-
To render the fibre of jute and other vegetable fibres (which fibres
are of themselves coarse and dark, and capable of being used only in
the manufacture of such articles as canvass, rope, sacking, and other
coarse articles,) soft, white, and, flexible, so that they may be employed
in the manufacture of fine yarns and cloths, and for other uses, and be

page_text: also capable of receiving a better and more permanent dye than in their
natural state; and the means by which we accomplish this object is by
first steeping the fibre of the article in a cold alkaline or ammoniacal
solution, and afterwards boiling it in the same liquor, whence it is again
steeped in a cold bleaching solution, prepared from either the chlorides
of lime, soda, or magnesia, until perfectly white, or a bleaching gas is
passed through it instead of using the bleaching solution, after which it
is well washed and dried. Occasionally, with some inferior descriptions
of jute, in addition to the foregoing chemicals, hydro-chloric acid is used
after the application of bleaching solution or the bleaching gas.
The peculiarity of the Invention is the application of a boiling heat
to the fibre whilst in the alkaline or ammoniacal solution, by which
means the process of bleaching is effected more expeditiously, economi-
ally and effectually than by any other made in use
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Capper and Thomas John Watson in the
Great Seal Patent Office, on the 11th July 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
JOHN CAPPER, of Manor House, Earls Court, Old Brompton, in the
County of Middlesex, Merchant, and THOMAS JOHN WATSON, of No. 3,
Devonshire Terrace, Fulham Road, in the same County, Operative
Chymist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing late the Twelfth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand cight hundred and fifty-three, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said John Capper and Thomas John Watson,
Her special licence that we, the said John Capper and Thomas John
Watson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said John Capper and Thomas John Watson, our executors,
administrators, and 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

page_text: Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PREPARING AND BLEACHING OF JUTE AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John Capper and
Thomas John Watson, by an instrument in writing under our hands
and seals, 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 we, the said John Capper and Thomas
John Watson, do hereby declare the nature of our 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):
In the process of purifying, attenuating, and bleaching jute and
other vegetable fibres we first boil or scald them in a chemical solu-
tion composed of any of the following substances (viz.): soda, car-
bonate of soda, chloride of soda, muriate of soda, oxide and hydrate
of soda, carbonate of potassa, chloride of potassa, bitartrate of potassa.
nitrate of potassa, oxide of potassa, hydrate and hydrated oxide of
potassa, carbonate of ammonia, nitrate of ammonia, sulphate of mag-
nesia. These chemicals we use in the following proportions:-One
hundred and forty pounds of any of them are dissolved in from half a
tun to two tuns of water for every ton of jute or other vegetable fibre
to be acted upon. In this solution, which we call our steeping bath, we
place the jute or other vegetable fibre, and allow it to boil or scald for
two hours. At the expiration of that time we remove and suspend it
upon laths or rope to drain off the water. We then transfer it into a
bleaching bath, prepared by the admixture of five hundred and sixty
pounds of chloride of lime, soda, or magnesia in two tuns of cold
water for every ton of jute or other vegetable fibre intended to be
bleached. In this solution the material is allowed to remain for
twenty-four hours; it is then withdrawn and washed in water and
dried, and is then ready for the market. With some portions, how-
ever, when greater purity is required, we, after removing it from the
bleaching bath, steep it for two hours in an acid bath compose d

page_text: either sulphuric or muriatic acid in the proportion of two pounds of
acid to one tun of cold water.
An acid bath may be employed as a steeping bath, instead of the
various chemicals previously alluded to, composed of either muriatic,
fluoric, or sulphuric acids, in the proportion of sixty-five pounds of
either acid mixed with two tuns of water for every ton of jute or other
vegetable fibre to be acted upon; in this bath the fibrous material is
steeped for twenty-four hours, then drained, and placed in the bleaching
bath, and treated as before described.
The jute or other vegetable fibro, after removal from the steeping
bath, may be suspended upon laths or rods (in a room prepared for the
purpose), exposed to the action of chlorine gas for six hours, previous
to its being placed in the bleaching bath. The jute or other vegetable
fibre when exposed to the action of the gas should be thoroughly damp.
The steeping bath may be employed without heat, but in that case
the jute or other vegetable fibre will require to be steeped for twenty-
four hours, when it is withdrawn, drained, and placed in the bleach-
ing bath for another twenty-four hours, and subsequently washed
with either the cold water or acid solution, and dried, as before
described.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that
we claim as our Invention the treating of jute and other vegetable
fibres as above described.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Capper and Thomas John
Watson, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Eleventh
day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand cight hun-
dred and fifty-three
Witness,
THOMAS MARLEK,
JOHN CAPPER.
(L.S.)
THOMAS JOHN WATSON. (L.S.)
31, St. Swithin's Lane.