An Improved Mode of Rendering Fabrics Impervious to Infection.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Apr., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 4th Jan., 1895-Accepted, 16th Feb., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Mode of Rendering Fabrics Impervious to Infection.
I HÉLÈNE RACHEL HIRSCHLER of 3 Place Victor Hugo, Paris in the
Republic of France, married, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
:-
The object of this invention is to render clothes and other fabrics impervious to
infection, and in such a manner that they will stand washing without detriment to
the antiseptic properties with which they have been provided, and the invention
consists in impregnating the fabric, whether of silk, wool, cotton, or other
material, with an antiseptic substance constituting a microbicide, which is absolutely
inoffensive, and without odour, and which will withstand the action of soaping,
without which property the impregnated fabric would lose its antiseptic
properties.
Up to this date, no one has succeeded in fixing an antiseptic substance in fabrics,
especially so with respect to flannel, because it is absolutely necessary to find a
substance which is rendered insoluble and becomes incorporated, so to speak, in the
fibre of the fabric.
In carrying out this invention, the fabric is first impregnated with a solution of
a soluble salt of bismuth, say the nitrate of bismuth, acidified with acetic acid or
otherwise.
After a sufficient mordanting in this metallic solution, the fabric is well rinsed
previous to being passed through a hot bath containing a solution of salicylic acid,
or a soluble salicylate, or, it may be, bromic or iodo-salicilic acid, or one of their
soluble salts, or benzoic or cresotinic acid, or, in a word, any other antiseptic acid
or antiseptic salt capable of forming an insoluble salt of bismuth on the fibre.
Dated this 3rd day of April 1894.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.
An improved Mode of Rendering Fabrics Impervious to Infection.
I HÉLÈNE RACHEL HIRSCHLER of 3 Place Victor Hugo, Paris in the
Republic of France (married), do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The object of this invention is to render garments, fabrics, or tissues, impervious
to infection, and the invention consists in impregnating the garments, fabrics, or
tissues, with a substance which is antiseptic, an absolutely inoffensive microbicide,
and without odour, and which will allow of the garments or other fabrics being
washed continuously without losing their antiseptic properties.
Up to this date, no one has succeeded in fixing an antiseptic substance in a
fabric, and especially so with respect to flannel, because no one has been able to
find an antiseptic which can be rendered insoluble, and becomes, so to speak,
incorporated in the fibres of the fabric.

page_text: In carrying out this invention, the fabric is first treated with a luke-warm
solution of a metallic salt, which acts as a kind of mordant to prepare the fabric
to take up an antiseptic in solution, and also forms a base or support to carry the
antiseptic, and it further renders the antiseptic non-volatile and permanent, in the
sense that it will permit of the fabric being washed without losing its properties,
and, secondly, the fabric is dipped in an antiseptic solution.
The metallic salt used is one the oxide of which does not possess toxical
properties, and, at the same time, is capable of forming an insoluble combination,
intimately fixed in the fibre, when the fabric is submitted to immersion in a solution
of an organic acid of the aromatic series constituting an antiseptic, and such
metallic salt may be a soluble salt of bismuth or tin, or aluminium.
The antiseptic which is used is salicylic acid, or one of its homologues or
combinations, such as bromo or iodo salicylic acid, or their soluble salts, or, it may
be, benzoic or cresotinic acids, or their combinations. In a word, any other
antiseptic acid or salt capable of forming, on the fibre, an insoluble salt of the
metal used, may be employed. The metallic salt bath to form the mordant base or
support is prepared from
The quantities are calculated for the treatment of about 10 kilogrammes of
fabric.
After the fabric has remained in the bath about half an hour, it will be found
that it has absorbed all the metallic oxide contained therein.
The fabric is then removed, and after being rinsed, is passed through another
bath, composed of from 60 to 100 grammes of salicylic acid or its homologues.
In case the mordanting bath is tin, a saline combination, such as salicylate of
soda, will be found to answer better than salicylic acid alone.
The effect which takes place on bringing the salicylic acid into the presence of
the metallic salt, is to produce an insoluble salicylate of bismuth or tin, as the
case may be, with which the fabric becomes impregnated.
If the mordanting bath is composed of a salt of aluminium, the acetate is
preferably employed, and the second bath will be composed of benzoic acid, or an
alkaline benzoate, the substance thus produced being an insoluble benzoate of
aluminiums, with which the fabric is impregnated.
The second bath may be formed from bromo- or iodo-salicylic acid, or, it may
be, cresotinic acid, or, as before stated, any other antiseptic acid or salt capable of
forming, with the metal used for the first bath, an insoluble metallic salt on the
fibre of the fabric.
Although I have mentioned garments and fabrics or tissues only, the invention
is applicable to vegetable or animal fibres generally, such as used, for example,
for mattresses or bedding, or stuffing for articles of furniture, or feathers used for
pillows, or to down for quilts, or for any other materials or substances which are
liable to become infected with microbes or germs of diseases, all of which, for the
purposes of this invention, I include under the word fabrics.
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 :-
1. The mode of rendering fabrics impervious to infection as herein describel,
and consisting in impregnating the fabric with a solution of a metallic salt, and
subsequently immersing the so impregnated fabric in a solution of an organic acil
of the aromatic series, as set forth.
2. In the treatment of fabrics to render them impervious to infection, the u
of a metallic alt, the oxide of which, when in the presence of an organic acid of

page_text: the aromatic series, is capable of producing an insoluble salt of the metal in the
fibre of the fabric, as and for the purpose set forth.
3. In the treatment of fabrics to render them impervious to infection, the use
of an organic acid of the aromatic series, which, in the presence of an oxide of
a metallic salt, is capable of producing an insoluble salt of the metal in the fibre
of the fabric, as and for the purpose set forth.
4. In the treatment of fabrics to render them impervious to infection, the
application to the fabric of an insoluble, inodorous, inoffensive, and uncoloured
antiseptic compound, such as the salicylate, the cresotinate, or the bromo- or iodo-
salicylate of bismuth or tin, or the benzoate of aluminium, as set forth.
5. The treatment of fabrics as herein described, and for the purposes set
forth.
Dated this 4th day of January 1999.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.