Improvements in and in Means for Dyeing, Mordanting, or Bleaching Textile Fibres.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Nov., 1891-Accepted, 2nd Jan., 1892
COMPLETE CECIFICATION.
Improvements in and in Means for Dyeing, Mordanting, or Bleaching
Textile Fibres.
I FRANK HUGHES of the firm of Hughes Eli & Hughes of 76 Chancery
Lane, London W.C., Patent Agent do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion (a communication to me from abroad by Antoine Tiberghien of Gaud in the
Kingdom of Belgium, Manufacturer,) and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described in and by the following statement :—
This invention relates to improvements in and means for dyeing, mordanting or
bleaching textile fibres in open condition such fibres being subjected, in the state of
transition from one manipulation to another in the bath, to a variable pressure.
The machines generally employed in the process of dyeing textile fibres in open
condition are known as jiggers and these are usually composed of a vat resembling
that shown in the drawing, or of other form which can contain the dyeing stuff' and
is provided with guide rollers to lead the fibres through two drawing off rollers
which can be worked alternately so as to effect the rolling up of the fibres upon
each of the rollers successively so passing the fibres every time of rolling up through
a bath of dye or of mordant or of other matters serving to scour, to bleach or
to dye.
It may be remarked here by way of introduction and example that dyeing
consists in most of the cases in the fixation of a dye stuff in the grain of the fibre
by an appropriate mordant, the tissues having been previously impregnated with
the dye stuff by passing same through a bath thereof.
These operations are effected in the usual "jiggers in an imperfect manner
because the tissue not being subjected to expression after the bath carries into the
fixing bath an excess of dyeing stuff which is only superficially retained. These
dye stuffs thus carried away are entirely lost they being washed off in the fixing
bath and renders necessary the use of an excessive quantity of mordant, as the
fixing bath has to be more contracted because it is constantly weakened by the
precipitation in the bath at the prejudice of the dyeing, which is done in an irregular
manner, because the bath does not conserve the same concentration during the
whole during the whole course of the immersion of the tissue. To the loss of the
dye-stuff of the first bath, will be added a loss of fixing products and that loss
will be more considerable because the bath (which suffers great alteration) cannot
be employed for following operations, not even were it to be reinforced with fresh
mordant.
It is possible it is true to prevent these inconveniences by pressing out the tissues
in a separate expressor engine after every operation but that does not avoid the
loss of products of each of the baths employed before the expression takes place.
This last operation serves to better preserve the next following bath, but it
causes a loss of time and of labor.
To avoid these losses, jiggers have been constructed in order to render possible
the pressing out of the textiles. Therefore an expressor roller is applied to one
side of the "jigger" or one to each side thereof. Such expressor engines have
serious inconveniences in most cases and these inconveniences are sometimes greater
than those they are intended to avoid, indeed in the jiggers" with one expressor
engine and in those with one drawing off roller without expressor engine, the work
is irregular in this sense, that during the rolling upon the drawing off roller, the
speed is variable, again it increases in proportion with the increasing diameter of
the roller upon which the fibre has been rolled. The last portions then pass more
rapidly than the first ones through the bath and this has already been weakened by
the action of a great quantity of fixing products upon the matters with which the

page_text: tissue has been impregnated and this without compensatory return (as happened
with the primitive "jiggers" without expressor engine) for the rolling up at that
side must be done upon a little roller as at a, Fig. 1 which turns in the bracket
arm and is driven off the drawing roller c and consequently with an equal rapidity
for the whole rolling up. The inequality augments in proportion to the number of
passes which every operation renders necessary.
It is possible it is true to prevent that difference of rapidity during the two
passes of the forward and backward motion, and it is suppressed in fact in the
"jiggers" with two expressor engines by the rolling up at the two sides upon the
little rollers a and a turning in the arms b and ', by contact with the drawing off
rollers cand e see Fig. 1 but that system produces further serious inconveniences if
the operation is done without pressure, thus without the action of the expressor
roller, the pressure upon the tissues operates by itself, but in an irregular manner
by the increasing weight of the roller with the fibre upon it. If on the contrary
the pressure of the expressor roller operates upon the fibre, the pressure remains
regular for the whole course but the result is still defective in this sense, that every
pressure which may be produced by the expressor engine is more disastrous as in
the last case or by a pressure upon the rolled tissue. Let us suppose another case
that of the dye stuff being fixed by a mordant; such fixation or precipitation will
never be instantaneously complete and will necessitate several passes before being
complete. Now it is evident that every pressure upon the tissue before the
complete fixation will produce a discharge into the fixing bath of a part of the dye-
stuff which is not yet entirely fixed and that discharge will not only be prejudicial
to the dyeing of the fibre which will have lost a quantity of stuff properly designed
for it, but also the conservation of the baths suffers, and therefore the primitive
jigger" was better than that with two expressor engines. The fibres were rolled
up without pressure and the mordant which was carried away produced a slow but
more complete precipitation or fixation during the whole passage through the baths
and the fibre was not constantly moved by reason of the defective rolling upon a
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little roller.
"
All these observations led to the search how to combine in one machine all the
advantages of the different systems and to avoid their inconveniences and accord-
ing to this invention successful treatment can be attained by rather simple means.
The "jiggers" which form the subject of this invention and whereof the advantages
and superiority have been shown by their use, are constructed in such manner, that
they can be employed as simple "jiggers" without expressor roller or as "jiggers
with expressor engines and with the application of pressure at will according to the
demands of the case. The difference consists in this :-By a special movement,
designed and shown in the drawings annexed hereto, the expressor roller can be
raised up sufficiently above the drawing off roller in order to permit of the rolling
of the fibre upon the latter during the whole time which is necessary for the fixation
of the dye stuff employed. Once this fixation is finished that is when the discharge
is no longer possible the pressure is then not prejudicial as in the preceding cases, but
it offers on the contrary the following advantages: economy of the unfixed products,
which will return into the bath and can be again utilised; suppression in the fibre
of that excess of products, which deteriorate the following bath, and so allowing of
the possibility of employing more concentrated baths; in consequence of more
complete expression permitting of the tissue to pass in dryer condition into the next
bath, where, instead of discharging dye-stuff, it absorbs a greater quantity of
mordant which produces the fixation within the grain of the fibre.
Accordingly it is possible to produce without inconvenience in one series of
operations the deepest hues, which would otherwise necessitate several series of the
same operations by more dilute solutions.
What has been explained for purposes of dyeing is also the case for bleaching or
scouring and for all the operations, which necessitate a successive passage through
several products which act upon the other and even in these operations, in which
these different products being at the same time in the same bath (as is the case for

page_text: certain dyeings) necessitate the employment of engines which render necessary a
pressure at will or a free rolling up without pressure. It is evident that this
improvement can be applied not only to the special engine called "jigger" but to
every engine used for dyeing bleaching and the like.
In the drawings annexed hereto,
Fig. 1 is an end elevation of the machine according to this invention.
Fig. 2 a partial plan view.
Fig. 3 is a partial front clevation of the construction.
A is a fly wheel keyed upon an axle A, B are pinions carried and fixed on the
same axle, C pinions fixed on the screw D, D moving screw, E cap of the framing
and support of the axle and of the screw D, F foot step of the screw D, G screw nut
fixed on the cushion of the expressor roller, H represents the frame.
The action is as follows:-
The movement is easily given by hand by means of the fly wheel A, at one side
of the machine which transmits the force to the pinions B, correspondingly fixed at
the two ends of the machine; these pinions gear with and drive the pinions C,
which work upon the screw D, guided by the supports E and F and which screw D
actuates screw nuts G. These screw nuts which are fixed on the cushions of the
upper roller and permits of the cushions sliding in the frame H, and so the expressor
roller I will be raised up. By reverse movement the expressor roller will be let
down and the fibre will at will, receive pressure or the same may be taken off.
The drawing shows the expressor roller nearly at the half of its course, which is
sufficient for the rolling up of the fibre upon the drawing off roller c.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
First. The improvements in and in means for treating fibres in the process of
dyeing, mordanting, bleaching or scouring fibres giving variable pressure to the
fibres under treatment as and for the purpose herein set forth.
Secondly. The arrangement and combination of parts in a dyeing mordanting,
bleaching or scouring machine working with the variable pressure by means of the
screw D, upon the fibres under treatment or for working without pressure as and
for the purpose herein set forth.
Dated this 30th day of November 1891.
HUGHES, ELI & HUGHES,
76, Chancery Lane, W.C., Agents for Applicant.