AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR TREATING VEGETABLE FIBRES
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Swinton Butler, of Percy Street, in the County or
Middlesex, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR TREATING
VEGETABLE FIBRES."
Sealed the 6th February 1877, and dated the 1st December 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Swinton Butler at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st December 1876.
JOHN SWINTON BUTLER, of Percy Street, in the County of Middlesex.
IMPROVED PROCESS FOR TREATING VEGETABLE FIBRES."
"[ AN
My Invention relates to a process for treating vegetable fibres or textiles, such as
cotton, flax, jule, hemp, and China grass, to give them a glossy and lustrous
appearance, so that they may be used as a substitute for silk, and in preparing such
fibres for dyeing.
My improved process is as follows:-
Firstly. The cotton or other fibre is freed from its starchy, fatty, and gummy
matters, and other impurities by any suitable known means, and steeped for about
twenty seconds in monohydrated nitric acid, specific gravity fifteen hundred and
twenty, avoiding the transformation of the cellulose into pyroxyle or nitrified
cellulose; then the fibres are washed and rinsed in water until they are perfectly
neutral to test paper.
Secondly. The cellulose is then immersed for about fifteen minutes in a solution
of sulphite of soda in the proportion of about two and a half per cent. of the weight
of cellulose, and a strong galvanic current is passed into the bath to decompose the
sulphite of soda.
Thirdly. The textile material is then boiled with water containing a small
quantity, videlicit, about one and a half per cent. of carbonate of ammonia, and
washed. When clean and colourless I put it in an ammoniacal or acitic solution
of silk, in the proportion of about one-half part to one hundred parts of celullose,
or vegetable fibres. This is effected under a pressure of four or five atmospheres.
During this immersion of the cellulose in the solution of silk I again pass a galvanic
current through it until the liquid becomes milky or gelatinous. The fibrous

page_text: material after this immersion in the herein-before described solution is placed in a
drying room, and when dry is washed and rinsed and finally dried again. Tho
product will then be nearly white or colourless, and is prepared for dyeing in the
following manner:-The material is boiled in a solution of arsenic acid and soap,
in the proportions of one per cent. of arsenic acid and three per cent. of soap,
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John Swinton Butler in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 1st
June 1877.
JOHN SWINTON BUTLER, of Percy Street, in the County of Middlesox.
IMPROVED PROCESS FOR TREATING VEGETABLE FIBRES."
"AN
My Invention consists in an improved process of treating vegetable textilo
fibres (such as cotton, flax, jute, hemp, and China grass), whereby these fibres
undergo a change in their nature and appearance, and acquire the characteristic
qualities of silk, for which they are adapted to be used as a substitute.
My improved process is as follows:-
The cotton or other fibre to be operated on (hereafter referred to as the fibre)
having been first freed from its starchy, fatty, and gummy matters by any suitable
known means (for example, by immersion in chlorine water for about eight hours)
is thus treated:-
-
First. The fibre in a moist condition as it comes from the preliminary treatment
above referred to is steeped for 20 seconds in monohydrated nitric acid, specific
gravity 1520, and then quickly washed and rinsed in an abundant supply of
running water until it is perfectly neutral to test paper. Care must be taken to
avoid the conversion of the cellulose of the fibre into pyroxyline or gun cotton by
limiting the immersion in nitric acid to the time indicated (which may, however,
vary according to the strength of the acid) and by carrying out the operation.as
rapidly as possible.
Secondly. The fibre is then immersed for about 15 minutes in a solution of
sulphite of soda, in the proportion of about two and a half per cent. of the weight
of the fibre, and a strong galvanic current is passed into the bath to decompose the
sulphite of soda. The galvanic current should be produced by a Rubinkorfl's coil
capable, with six large Bunsen battery cells, of producing a spark two or three
inches long. The vessel in which this part of the operation is conducted may be of
copper or any other suitable material, and the temperature of the bath should be
about 100° Fahrenheit.
Thirdly. The fibre is then boiled for about half an hour in water containing
about 1 per cent. (by weight) of carbonate of ammonia and afterwards washed in
pure water, and when clean and colorless the fibre is treated with an ammoniacal
or acetic solution of natural raw silk, or it might be manufactured silk undyed (in
the proportion of about one-half part to one hundred parts of fibre in sufficient
water to cover the fibre) in a vessel of tinned copper, and under a pressure of four
or five atmospheres and at a corresponding temperature, the galvanic current being
at same time passed through the material by counecting the poles of the coil with
the exterior of the vessel containing the fibre and silk solution. The passage of
the galvanic current is continued until the liquid becomes milky or gelatinous.
The fibre, which at this stage acquires the appearance and character of silk, is then
placed in a drying room, and when dry is washed and rinsed and finally dried
again. The product will then be nearly white or colorless, and may be prepared
for dyeing in the following manner :-The fibre is boiled in a solution of arsenic
acid and soap in the proportions of one per cent. of arsenic acid and three per cent.
of soap.
Having described the nature of my Invention and the manner of performing the

page_text: saine, I declare that what I claim as my Invention to be protected by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is, the improved process, as herein-described,
of treating vegetable fibre (such as cotton, flax, jute, hemp, and China grass)
whereby they acquire the character and appearance of silk.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Swinton Butler, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-seven.
JOHN S. BUTLER. (L.S)