AN IMPROVEMENT IN PRE- PARING SILK
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Pye, of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk,
Flax Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PRE-
PARING SILK."
Sealed the 26th September 1856, and dated the 19th June 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Pye at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th June 1856.
I, GEORGE PYE, of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk, Flax Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PRE-
PARING SILK," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in preparing silk, and'
consists of employing fullers' earth in order to aid in removing gum from the
silk. For this purpose the fullers' earth may be used combined with water
when reeling silk from the cocoons, and also together with water, steam, and.
pressure after reeling.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Pye in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
18th December 1856..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
PYE, of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk, Flax Manufacturer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Pye, Her special licence that I, the said George Pye, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George Pye, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN PREPARING SILK,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Pye, my execu-
tors 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 George Pye, 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 has for its object an improvement in preparing silk, and
consists of employing fullers' earth in order to. aid in removing gum from the
silk. For this purpose the fullers' earth may be used combined with water
when reeling silk from the cocoons, and also together with water, steam, and
pressure after reeling.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
The quantity of fullers' earth combined with the water used may be varied,
but I prefer to employ about 1 lb. of fullers' earth to every five gallons of
water; the fullers' earth is well mixed with the water in a suitable vessel and
then allowed to subside, and the liquor is then run off from the sediment.
The fullers' earth water, when used for separating the gum from silk on the
cocoons, is placed in a suitable vessel and heated by steam or other means to a
temperature of eighty degrees to 100° of Fahrenheit. The cocoons are to be
kept immersed therein for several hours (say about twelve) till the silk comes
off freely and does not adhere to the cocoons, by reason of the gummy matters
becoming soft, and I find that such gummy matters remain soft, and are

page_text: readily removed by the next process, which consists of subjecting the skeins
thus obtained, or skeins of thrown silk produced therefrom, into a further
quantity of fullers' earth water, and the silk is allowed to remain in such liquid
for about twelve hours, the fullers' earth water being kept heated during that
time by steam or other convenient means to a temperature of 80° to 100° of
Fahrenheit, after which time the liquid is raised gradually to a boiling heat,
during which boiling the silk is alternately pressed and allowed to expand till
the gum or adhesive matter is removed; and this, I believe, will be most con-
veniently accomplished by means of apparatus described in the Specification
of a former Patent granted to me and John Watson Burton, dated the Twentieth
day of March, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six. And after the re-
moval of the gummy matters has been accomplished and the fluid run off,
clean water is to be applied, as therein described, to cleanse the silk, by which
processes the silk may advantageously be freed from the gummy and adhesive
matters, and be then dried and be ready for the subsequent ordinary processes.
In like manner may imported silk, already wound off from the cocoons, be
treated; and such is also the case with regard to silk waste, the process, however
of removing the gummy matters by fullers' earth and water taking somewhat
longer time when applied to silk which has not been wound off the cocoons
by the aid of fullers' earth water.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is, the
subjecting silk to the action of fullers' earth in water in order to remove the
gum or adhesive matters therefrom.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Pye, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eighteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
GEORGE PYE. (L.S.)