An Improved Process of Bleaching Fabrics.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Sept., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 14th May, 1898-Accepted, 23rd July, 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Process of Bleaching Fabrics.
I, EMILIO CABIATI, of No. 2, Via Cairoli, Milan, Italy, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of said invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to an improved process for the bleaching in the breadth,
of fabrics woven from vegetable fibre, by the evaporation of the lyes employed.
Specialists have for years past recognised it to be a desideratum that adequate
means should be devised for the bleaching in the breadth of cotton, and other
vegetable fibre materials.
The fulfilment of this desideratum in a manner calculated to meet all legitimate
requirements is, however, attended with very serious difficulty, so much so that
the tentative experiments which have been made-in many cases by men of
undoubted experience and skill-had to be pronounced failures, while the intro-
duction of the methods tried into general use was out of the question as a matter
of course; their want of success being ascribable partly to the small amount of
work they enabled to be turned out in a given time, and partly to the defective
nature of the result attained.
By the novel process, which disposes of the problem the solution of which has
been so long and anxiously anticipated, the goods to be treated are, first of all
moistened or sprinkled with the proper alkaline solutions. These, as will be
readily understood, should be exactly of the strength required, suited to the
quality of the material and generally calculated to assist the accomplishment of
the object in view, according as linens,—for example, have to be dealt with, or
goods which are subsequently to be dyed and printed. The goods so sprinkled
with lye are next sent on to, or carried over, suitable metal surface heated to the
required temperature, with the result that the lye at once partly evaporates.
According to requirements and other circumstances, this alternate sprinkling
and evaporating process is repeated as many times as may be necessary to bring
about saponification.
Dated this Whintinth day of Santember 1897
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: I, EMILIO CABIATI, of No. 2, Via Cairoli, Milan, Italy, Engineer, 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:-
This invention relates to an improved process for the bleaching in the breadth
of fabrics woven from vegetable fibre, by the evaporation of the lyes employed.
Specialists have for years past recognized it to be a desideratum, that adequate
means should be devised for the bleaching in the breadth of cotton and other
vegetable fibre materials.
The fulfilment of this desideratum in a manner calculated to meet all legitimate
requirements is, however, attended with very serious difficulty, so much so that
the tentative experiments which have been made-in many cases by men of
undoubted experience and skill--had to be pronounced failures, while the intro-
duction of the methods tried into general use was out of the question as a matter
of course; their want of success being ascribable partly to the small amount of
work they enabled to be turned out in a given time, and partly to the defective
nature of the result attained.
The object of my invention is a novel process which disposes of the problem
the solution of which has been so long and anxiously anticipated, and according to
which the goods to be treated are first of all moistened or sprinkled with the
proper alkaline solutions. These, as will be readily understood, should be exactly
of the strength required, suited to the quality of the material and generally cal-
culated to assist the accomplishment of the object in view, according as linens, for
example, have to be dealt with, or goods which are subsequently to be dyed and
printed. The goods so sprinkled with lye are next sent on to, or carried over,
suitable metal surface heated to the required temperature, with the result that the
lye at once partly evaporates.
According to requirements and other circumstances, this alternate sprinkling
and evaporating process is repeated as many times as may be necessary to bring
about saponification.
The mode of practising my invention is as follows:-I moisten with fresh lye the
goods to be treated and, after each individual moistening or damping operation, cause
them to sweep over and past a heated metallic surface which brings about the partial
evaporation of the liquor, the double operation being reproduced as many times
over, as the quality or nature of the fabric to be dealt with, and the particular
end to be attained, may necessitate.
By such repeated sprinkling and evaporation, the possibility of utilizing weaker
lyes than hitherto is afforded; for the lye thus diffused or applied in the form of
spray is thereby concentrated upon the material direct. Besides, the frequent
repetition of a process which is always uniform in its effects, materially promotes
and accelerates saponification. This, then, is one of the essential features dis-
tinguishing the bleaching method herein described from any that have heretofore
been employed or suggested.
66
Another distinguishing feature of the present process of merely humidifying
the goods with lye, as compared with the impregnating process heretofore used,
resides in the fact that "humidifying' or sprinkling" enables pure, fresh lye
to be constantly imparted to the goods, so that the products of saponification, which
gradually form, remain at and adhere to the same points of the fabric where they
originated; whence, after the completion of the process, they may be.removed
by suitable washing apparatus; whereas in the case of impregnation—no matter

page_text: whether a jigger or calenders be used-the lye in excess drops back into the bath,
through which the subsequent batches of goods have to pass, and must necessarily
impair the purity of the lye.
In the improved process, the mechanical part of the work performed by the
evaporation in this instance is produced artificially and thus made serviceable for
purposes of bleaching.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
-
The process substantially as herein described for bleaching in the breadth of
fabrics woven from vegetable fibres, which consists in sprinkling or moistening
the fabrics with an alkaline solution or lye followed by carrying them over suitable
metal surfaces heated to the required temperature for the purpose of concentrating
the lye upon the material.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.