Ar IMPROVED PROCESS TO BE USED IN THE BLEACHING OF LINEN OR COTTON YARN OR CLOTH
Year: 1823

page_text: KK & ANGELLS
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, MILES.
TURNER and LAWRENCE ANGELL, of Whitehaven, in the County of Cumber-
land, Soap Boilers, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by,
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the fourth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Miles Turner and Lawrence Angell, His especial licence that we, the said
Miles Turner and Lawrence Angell, our exors, adññiors, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Miles Turner and Lawrence Angell, our exors, admors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and law-
fully might make, usc, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, and the Dominion of
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "Ar
IMPROVED PROCESS TO BE USED IN THE BLEACHING OF LINEN OR COTTON YARN
OR CLOTH;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging us, the said Miles Turner and Lawrence Angell, by an instrument in
writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the. same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar-months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, .as

page_text: in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Miles Turner and Lawrence Angell, do hereby describe the nature of our said
Invention by the following description thereof, and the manner of performing
the same, by the statement thereafter following, that is to say:-
The nature of our said Invention doth consist in an improved ley or
bleaching liquid to be used in the process herein-after described for the
purpose of bleaching linen or cotton yarn or cloth; and the process by which
we procure the said ley or bleaching liquid, and bleach the said substances
therewith, is as follows, that is to say-We procure a quantity of alkaline
sulphuret. This alkaline sulphuret we break into small pieces, and throw,
with a quantity of quicklime in the proportion of about eight Winchester
bushels of lime to about fifteen or sixteen hundredweight of sulphuret, into a
common soap maker's vat, having a second similar vat placed at an elevation
just above it, and both vats having a quantity of straw, cinders, gravel, or any
similar substances at the bottom for the ley to filter through. The lower vat,
containing the broken pieces of sulphuret and lime, is then filled with water;
which, when it has stood a certain time, is drawn off,,and constitutes the ley
or bleaching liquid. The contents of the lower vat which remain not
dissolved are then emptied into the upper vat, which is called the weak
vat, and a fresh charge of water poured upon them, while the lower vat,
which is called the strong vat, is again charged with fresh sulphuret and lime,
When the water in the weak vat has remained long enough it is drawn off
into the lower vat, where, having remained the proper time, it is drawn off,
and constitutes a second portion of the said ley or bleaching liquid. By a
repetition of this process all the valuable matter for the ley is extracted from
the sulphuret and lime; and what remains in the upper or weak vat, and
which has had two doses of water, will be only valuable as soapers' waste.
The ley being so procured as aforesaid, should be diluted with water till it
shows by the hydrometer about the same density as the bleacher uses his leys
of potash for the same purpose, and the yarn or cloth must be bucked or boiled
in it. The bleacher may then proceed, in the usual manner, by exposure to
the atmosphere, oxymuriatic steeps, sours, &c. in boiling or bucking, using
this said ley as a substitute for potash; but the process which constitutes one
of the principles of our Invention, and which we conceive is a preferable plan,
is that of taking the yarn or cloth immediately from the boil in the prepared
ley to any cheap sour (oil of vitriol is perhaps the cheapest and best), and
from this steep washing and steeping it in oxymuriatic acid of the ordinary

page_text: density used by bleachers. It must then be washed and boiled again in the
said ley, and followed up with the same kind of steeps as before, without any
exposure to the atmosphere, till a perfect white is obtained.
Now a ley produced as aforesaid, and applied in such process as aforesaid,
for bleaching linen or cotton yarn or cloth being, to the best of our knowledge
and belief, entirely new, and never before used in these Kingdoms, we do
bereby declare this to be our Specification of the same, and that we do believe
this said Specification doth in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise,
comply with the proviso in our said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained, and do hereby intend to maintain our exclusive right and
privilege to our said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Miles Turner (one of the parties hereto),
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of
September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-three.