IMPROVE- MENTS IN TREATING VEGETABLE TEXTILE MATTERS, IN SEPARATING FILA- MENTOUS MATTERS THEREFROM, AND THE APPLICATION OF SUCH MATTERS TO SPINNING, WEAVING, AND DYEING
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN TREATING VEGETABLE TEXTILE MATTERS, IN SEPARATING FILA-
MENTOUS MATTERS THEREFROM, AND THE APPLICATION OF SUCH MATTERS TO
SPINNING, WEAVING, AND DYEING."-A communication from abroad by
Etienne Mallard, Florentin Bonneau, Adolphe Dumont, and Napoleon
Jean Claude Canoby, all of Paris. France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 16th March 1864.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING VEGETABLE TEXTILE MATTERS, IN SEPARATING
FILAMENTOUS MATTERS THEREFROM, AND THE APPLICATION OF SUCH MATTERS TO
SPINNING; WEAVING, AND DYEING," to be as follows:-
This Invention is for subjecting to a particular treatment textile vegetable
substances, such as China grass, flax, jute, hemp, phormium tenax, abaca,
agava, and all other textile plants in general, to separate, prepare, cottonize,
and comb the fibres and filaments contained in them, in order to fit them for
spinning, weaving, and dyeing.
The Invention consists chiefly in the simultaneous and combined action of

page_text: two chemical agents not heretofore united in one and the same action, and
these agents are, by preference, salts of soda and linseed oil, but they may be
any other salts and chemical agents possessing, whether by their combination,
or by amalgamation with linseed oil, and oils or fatty bodies, properties
identical or analogous for the cleansing and freeing of fibres and filaments
from vegetable textile substances to those resulting from the simultaneous
employment of salts of soda with oils or other fatty bodies.
SEPARATION AND BLEACHING.
Separation. I place in a vessel sufficient water to cover the substances to
be treated, and boil it either by direct fire, or by means of a coil on the
bottom of the vessel. When the water boils I add the following com-
position-About 1 lb. of salt of soda at from 80 to 85° Beaumé, and about
lb. of linseed oil for every two pounds of the substance. The quantity and
proportions of the chemical agents may be varied in proportion as the sub-
stances offer more or less resistance to their action. It is important that the
salts of soda be pulverized, in' that state they are thoroughly mixed with the
oil, and then poured into the vessel. The substances to be treated are placed
in small bundles in the bath, prepared as before described, and the liquid is
kept at boiling point for about four hours, more or less, depending upon the
substance under treatment. The boiling over, the substance is withdrawn
from the bath and spread in regular layers upon a table slightly inclined, and
pierced with holes, for the purpose of expelling the gum-resinous matters
dissolved by the bath. This operation is performed as follows:-A tube
pierced with numerous holes is made to shower warm water upon them, this
is followed by a powerful roller, which in passing over the substances drives
out all the gum-resinous and other foreign matters from the fibres. When
necessary the fibres are plunged in a bath of clean water kept boiling for an
hour. On being removed from this bath the fibres are rinsed in tepid or in
cold water, and bleaching may then be performed, as hereafter described, but
this first part of the Invention may be modified thus:-The chemical treatment
may be followed by the fibres being passed between plain or fluted rollers
upon which showers of warm water are made continuously to flow to wash the:
filamentous matter, and disengage the gum-resinous and foreign matters from
it. The fibres are then boiled if necessary for one hour only, and then rinsed
in tepid or cold water.
Bleaching. The fibres are placed upon gratings of wood or galvanized iron
wire, and these superposed in a trough or vat with a space between every two,
to allow of the liquid circulating. The fibres are entirely submerged, and the

page_text: bleaching bath is composed of liquid chlorine, or of some hypochlorite used
cold, or slightly heated, the bath is continued for about half an hour. The
fibres being sufficiently white are rinsed and dried in heated air, or in the
open air.
The filaments having been cut to the length required, are or may be sub-
mitted to combs arranged to transform them into slivers and to bring them
into parallelism. They should be passed through the combs several times,
and, lastly, should be submitted to the large comb to extract and remove all
short fibres, knots, and foreign matters which they may contain. The slivers
may be drawn and reeled ready for sale. The combing process may be varied
with the use to which the filamentous matter is to be appropriated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters. Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 16th September 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns,"
or such others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,

page_text: 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 Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING VEGETABLE
TEXTILE MATTERS, IN SEPARATING FILAMENTOUS MATTERS THEREFROM, AND THE
APPLICATION OF SUCH MATTERS TO SPINNING, WEAVING, AND DYEING," (com-
municated to me from abroad by Etienne Mallard, Florentin Bonneau,
Adolphe Dumont, and Napoleon Jean Claude Canoby, all of Paris, France,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Archibald
Brooman, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their 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 I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention is for subjecting to a particular treatment textile vegetable
substances, such as China grass, flax, jute, hemp, phormium tenax, abaca,
agava, and all other textile plants in general, to separate; prepare, cottonize,
and comb the fibres and filaments contained in them, in order to fit them for
spinning, weaving, and dyeing.
The Invention consists chiefly in the simultaneous and combined action of
two chemical agents not heretofore united in one and the same action, and
these agents are, by preference, salts of soda and linseed oil, but they may be
any other salts and chemical agents, possessing, whether by their combination
or by amalgamation with linseed oil, and oils or fatty bodies, properties
identical or analogous for the cleansing and freeing of fibres and filaments from
vegetable textile substances to those resulting from the simultaneous employ-
ment of salts of soda with oils or other fatty bodies.
SEPARATION AND BLEACHING.
Separation. I place in a vessel sufficient water to cover the substances to
be treated, and boil it either by direct fire, or by means of a coil on the
bottom of the vessel. When the water boils I add the following com-
position: About 1 lb. of salt of soda at from 80° to 85° Beaumé, and
about Alb. of linseed oil for every two pounds of the substance. The quantity.

page_text: and proportions of the chemical agents may be varied in proportion as the
substances offer more or less resistance to their action. It is important that
the salts of soda be pulverized, in that state they are thoroughly mixed with
the oil, and then poured into the vessel. The substances to be treated are
placed in small bundles in the bath prepared as before described, and the
liquid is kept at boiling point for about four hours, more or less, depending
upon the substance under treatment. The boiling over, the substance is with-
drawn from the bath, and spread in regular layers upon a table slightly
inclined, and pierced with holes, for the purpose of expelling the gun-resinous
matters dissolved by the bath. This operation is performed as follows:-A
tube pierced with numerous holes is made to shower warm water upon them,
this is followed by a powerful roller, which in passing over the substances
drives out all the gum-resinous and other foreign matters from the fibres.
When necessary the fibres are plunged in a bath of clean water, kept boiling
for an hour, on being removed from this bath the fibres are rinsed in tepid or
in cold water, and bleaching may then be performed, as hereafter described;
but this first part of the Invention may be modified thus:-The chemical
treatment may be followed by the fibres being passed between plain or fluted
rollers upon which showers of warm water are made continuously to flow to
wash the filamentous matter, and disengage the gum-resinous and foreign
matters from it. The fibres are then boiled if necessary for one hour only,
and then rinsed in tepid or cold water.
Bleaching. The fibres are placed upon gratings of wood or galvanized iron
wire, and these are superposed in a trough or vat with a space between every
two, to allow of the liquid circulating. The fibres are entirely submerged,
and the bleaching bath is composed of liquid chlorine, or of some hypochlorite
used cold, or slightly heated; the bath is continued for about half an hour.
The fibres being sufficiently white are rinsed and dried in heated air, or in the

page_text: COMBING.
The filaments having been cut to the lengths required, are or may be sub-
mitted to combs arranged to transform them into slivers, and to bring them
into parallelism. They should be passed through the combs several times,
and, lastly, should be submitted to the large comb, to extract and remove all
short fibres, knots, and foreign matters which they may contain. The slivers
may be drawn and reeled ready for sale: The combing process may be varied
with the use to which the filamentous matter is to be appropriated.
I have herein-before stated that the fibres are cut into lengths after having
been cleansed and freed from foreign matters, but the cutting into lengths
may be performed before the cleansing of the fibres; the latter method is
perhaps preferable, as it possesses advantages in respect to the cottonization
and the preparation before combing.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, submitting
vegetable textile matters to the various processes and operations herein-before
described, and the application of the filamentous matters separated therefrom
to spinning, weaving, and dyeing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Second day of September, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
R. A. DROOMAN. (L.B.)