IMPROVEMENTS IN PROTECTING FROM FIRE TEXTILE MATERIALS IN THE RAW OR IN THE MANUFACTURED STATE
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Augustus Abel, of Woolwich Royal
Arsenal, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROTECTING
FROM FIRE TEXTILE MATERIALS IN THE RAW OR IN THE MANUFACTURED
STATE,"
Sealed the 22nd June 1860, and dated the 23rd December 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Augustus Abel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition, on
the 23rd December 1859.
I, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS ABEL, of Woolwich Royal Arsenal, Chemist, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRO
TECTING FROM FIRE TEXTILE MATERIALS IN THE RAW OR IN THE MANUFACTURED
STATE," to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in affording protection against fire to, textile
materials in the raw or in the manufactured state, by impregnating such
materials with insoluble metallic silicates. The formation of these silicates
is effected within the fibre of the material, by the gradual action upon each
other of an alkaline silicate, and of one or more other salts introduced
successively into the fibre by means of well-known methods..
::

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick Augustus Abel in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 22nd June 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
AUGUSTUS ABEL, of Woolwich Royal Arsenal, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Frederick Augustus Abel, Herspecial licence that I, the said Frederick
Augustus Abel, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Frederick Augustus Abel, my 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 Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN PROTEOTING FROM FIRE TEXTILE FABRICS IN THE RAW OR IN THE
MANUFACTURED STATE," upon the condition (amongst others) that 1, the
said Frederick Angustus Abel, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 Frederick Augustus Abel, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement:-
.
The improvements consist, as stated in the Provisional Specification, in
affording protection against fire to textile materials in the raw or in the
manufactured state, by impregnating such materials with insoluble metallic
silicates within the fibre of the material, and the process by which I effect this
is as follows: I take a solution of lead, of zinc, or, practically speaking, of
any other metallic base capable of forming, by its action upon a soluble silicate,
à double silicate, insoluble in water. For this purpose I prefer the use of a
basic acetate of lead prepared, as is well known, by boiling sugar of lead and
litharge with water, and although I have found that solutions of various
strengths will answer the purpose, yet that which I prefer is prepared by
1

page_text: boiling together, or according to the following proportions, -twenty-five
pounds of sugar of lead, fifteen pounds of litharge, and forty gallons of water,
for about half an hour, allowing to stand for about a couple of hours; the
decanted clear solution forms a liquor well adapted to my said purpose. When
I want to use the liquor so prepared, and which, in the present instance, is a
solution of basic acetate of lead, I take such a quantity of it as will be at
least sufficient to cover completely the fabric or material which I intend to
render uninflammable, or else the said fabric or material may in many cases
be simply passed through the said liquid,raised to nearly the boiling point, the
object being simply to saturate or impregnate it thoroughly with the said
liquor. This having been done, the fabric or material so saturated or impreg-
nated with the said liquor is to be removed, and spread out for about twelve
hours to the contact of the air. This hanging or spreading out of the fabric
or material to the air may be dispensed with, but I prefer to do so, the sub-
sequent operation now to be described yielding then a better result.
The material or fabric, after having been subjected to the first operation
just described, should now be immersed for a period of from one to two hours,
or thereabouts,into ahot and moderately strong solution of an alkaline silicate,
by preference in silicate of soda. The material or fabric should then be with-
drawn from the said bath of alkaline silicate, allowed to drain, washed
thoroughly in soft water, and dried, when it will be found to have acquired the
properties claimed for it.
And I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the use of
any particular silicate, or of any metallic salt, nor to the precise modus
operandi herein described; but that which I claim as my Invention is, pro-
tecting from fire textile materials in the raw or in the manufactured state by
the production of an insoluble silicate within the fibre or texture of the said
textile materials.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Augustus Abel, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
F. A. ABEL. (L.S.)