IMPROVEMENTS IN PRE- PARING WOVEN FABRICS AND YARNS OF COTTON OR OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES FOR BEING DYED OR PRINTED
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Morton, Manager to Messieurs William Stirling
"
and Sons, of Cordale, and Dalquhurm Turkey-red Works, in the County of
Dumbarton, North Britain, for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN PRE-
PARING WOVEN FABRICS AND YARNS OF COTTON OR OTHER VEGETABLE
FIBRES FOR BEING DYED OR PRINTED."
Scaled the 29th December 1876, and 'dated the 5th July 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Morton at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th July 1876.
JAMES MORTON, Manager to Messieurs William Stirling and Sons, of Cordale,
and Dalquhurm Turkey-red Works, in the County of Dumbarton; North Britain.
IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING WOVEN FABRICS AND YARNS OF COTTON OR OTHER
VEGETABLE FIBRES FOR BEING DYED OR PRINTED."
"
This Invention has principally for its object to cheapen and shorten the process
wherein oil is used for preparing woven fabrics and yarns of cotton or other vege-
table fibres for being dyed or printed, and the improvements are of especial advan-
tage and importance in dealing with Turkey-red goods, whilst they admit of goods
prepared as for Turkey-red having advantageously applied to them various colors,
for which such preparation has hitherto been too expensive.
The Invention consists in subjecting the woven fabrics or yarns after being
saturated with and wrung from the usual combination of oil and alkaline lye to the
action of dry steam at a temperature of from 250 to 350 degrees Fahrenheit in a
suitable chamber or vessel. The steain need not be of a pressure corresponding to
its temperature, but is by preference superheated so as to raise it to the desired
temperature and so as to ensure its dryness. The desired action is obtained on
subjecting the goods to the steam for about half an hour or less.
The goods may be treated twice or oftener in the manner herein-before described,
but in many cases a single treatment will be found quite sufficient, and after having
superfluous oily matter removed from them in the usual way they may be at once
mordanted and dyed or printed.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said James Morton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd January 1877.
JAMES MORTON, Manager to Messieurs William Stirling and Sons, of Cordale,
and Dalquhurn Turkey-red Works, in the County of Dumbarton, North Britain.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING WOVEN FABRICS AND YARNS OF COTTON OR OTHER
VEGETABLE FIBRES FOR BEING DYED OR PRINTED."
My said Invention has principally for its object to cheapen and shorten the
process wherein oil is used for preparing woven fabrics and yarns of cotton or
other vegetable fibres for being dyed or printed, and my improvements are of
especial advantage and importance in dealing with Turkey-red goods, whilst they
admit of goods prepared as for Turkey-red having advantageously applied to them
various colors for which such preparation has hitherto been too expensive.
My Invention consists essentially in subjecting the woven fabrics or yarns, after
being saturated with and wrung from the usual combination of oil and alkaline
lye, to the action of superheated steam.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, I will, by way of example, particularly describe the
practical application of it in what I believe to be the most advantageous manner
in the case of Turkey-red goods, as follows, that is to say:The goods, bleached in
the usual way and dried, are saturated with an emulsion or "white liquor" of oil,
such as is usually employed and made with a solution of carbonate of potash.
Both woven fabrics and yarns are passed between squeezing rollers to remove
superfluous liquor, yarns being arranged in the condition of "chains," as for warps,
to admit of their being passed through the apparatus like woven fabrics. The
emulsion or "white liquor" employed may be made up in any way that is suitable
for the preparation of Turkey-red goods in the ordinary way. The goods after
being thus oiled are at once, or as soon as convenient and without further drying,
passed through a chest or chamber containing superheated steam. I prefer to run
the goods continuously through the steam chest in such manner as that each part
may be subjected to the superlicated steam during from ten to thirty minutes.
The temperature of the steam should be between 250 and 400 degrees Fahrenheit,
but the pressure need not correspond to the temperature, nor in fact exceed twenty
pounds per square inch above the atmosphere, whilst a pressure of about five pounds
per square inch may in many cases be quite sufficient, and is more conveniently
managed than a higher pressure. In any case the steam must be quite dry.
A suitable steaming chest may be made by taking a horizontal cylindrical boiler
shell of about seven feet in diameter and twenty-six feet in length, and fitting its
interior with two horizontal rows of transverse rollers. The goods are entered
between a pair of rollors and through a narrow opening in one end of the chest,
and pass alternately round upper and lower rollers inside. At each of three or
more points in the length of the chest a pair of driven nipping rollers is placed to
divide the strain for drawing the goods through, and the goods pass out through
a narrow opening at the further end and between another pair of driven nipping
rollers. The spindles of the internal driven rollers pass out through stuffing boxes
if necessary to external driving gearing, and the parts about the entering and
withdrawing rollers are enclosed as much as possible to prevent excessive leakage
of steam. In order to maintain the heat of the steam fresh quantities must
continually enter the chest from the superheater, and if what is thus required is
more in quantity than what will make up for unavoidable leakage, an outlet valve,
loaded to the desired internal pressure, must be fitted to the chest. It is important
to have the steam chest protected from loss of heat through radiation by applying
to it a suitable non-conducting covering, or by enclosing it in a heated building or
casing.
The goods may be treated twice or oftener in the manner herein-before described,
that is to say, with the emulsion and subsequent steaming, but in many cases a
single treatment will be found quite sufficient, and after having superfluous oily

page_text: matter stripped or removed from them in the usual way the goods may be at once
mordanted and dyed or printed.
More or less air may be mixed or allowed to mix with the steam, provided the
necessary temperaturo is maintained, and a suitable atmosphere may be formed by
passing sufficiently heated air over or through water or in contact with moisture
in the goods themselves.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise details
herein-before described or referred to, but that what I believe to be novel and
original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is, the subjecting of woven fabrics and yarns of cotton or
other vegetable fibres after being saturated with and wrung from the usual com-
bination of oil and alkaline lye to the action of superheated steam, substantially in
the manner and for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Morton, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirtieth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JAS. MORTON. (L.S.)