IMPROVEMENTS IN BLEACHING AND PURIFYING WOOL
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Griffith Brewer, of Chancery Lane, London, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLEACHING AND PURIFYING WOOL."
A communication from abroad by Messrs. Daudier, Père et Fils, of Paris,
France.
Sealed the 12th December 1876, and dated the 16th June 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Griffith Brewer at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th June 1876.
EDWARD GRIFFITH BREWER, of Chancery Lane, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BLEACHING AND PURIFYING WOOL." A communication from abroad by Messrs.
Daudier, Père et Fils, of Paris, France.
The object of this Invention is to bleach wool and to purify it from matters of
vegetable origin, whether in a raw or manufactured state, in skeins or hanks, in
fabric, in waste or old pieces, this purification being effected in a bath composed
as hereafter described and without subsequent stoving.
This process differs essentially from the treatment generally adopted, in that the
disintegration of foreign vegetable matters in the wool is produced in the bath
itself without any other operation, while in the ordinary processes this is only a
preliminary operation, the treatment being completed by stoving at a high tem-
perature.
In order to obtain a satisfactory result in treating materials according to this
Invention an essential point is to increase the density of the water by some com-
position which does not exercise a destructive action on the wool, and which will
be sufficient to chemically produce the required result, by adding for this purpose
to a bath of this nature either acid salts for increasing the density or another acid
not producing an insoluble salt.
In describing the Invention it must be understood that it is not to be limited to
the employment of the particular salts named, as other simple or compound salts
may be used.
According to this Invention wool and materials of vegetable origin are submitted
without changing their nature to a prolonged ebulition in a concentrated bath of
chlorure of calcium (chloride of lime), and this same bath, with the addition of
hydrochloric acids or a combination of this acid with metallic base, such as alu-
minium, iron, zinc, copper, tin, and the like, will energetically attack the materials
of a vegetable organic origin while the wool submitted to the same treatment is
[Price 4d.]
.

page_text: not changed in any way. It is then sufficient to dip the materials to be purified
into this antiligneous bath, the composition of which may be more or less charged
with chloridic acid or its metallic combination, according to the nature of the
materials to be treated, and to raise the temperature of it to produce the disinte-
gration which takes place in a few minutes. After this simple immersion it is only
necessary to wash the wool or other materials to obtain the purified product. The
operation is simple as well as economical; no special or costly apparatus are
required. The superintendence of the work does not necessitate any special know-
ledge, and uniform results are obtained.
The antiligneous bath before described may also with advantage be employed as
a steeping bath in those cases where the treatment is carried on in combination
with the acid bath followed by a stoving; in fact, if in a bath thus prepared wool
containing ligneous matters is placed for a very short time, and after previous
drying or airing it is placed in a stove similar to that now usually used for the
purpose, all the vegetable matters fall out in dust and the wool preserves its good
qualities. In this case it can be utilized with advantage in place of acids or salts
hitherto employed, especially when it is used for bleaching wool for and at the
same time removing ligneous materials. Thus, as before stated at the commence-
ment of this description, the bath of chlorure of calcium can be advantageously
employed for bleaching wool; in fact, if the wool is steeped in a bath having for
its base chlorure of calcium, and after drying or by simply draining it is dipped
into a second bath, thus precipitating the oxide of calcium into its pores, a remark-
able whiteness is imparted to the material. This result may also be obtained by
using as a second bath sulphuric acid diluted with water or oxalate of ammonia or
simply oxalic acid.
This antiligneous bath having chloride of calcium as base may be employed either
simply as a steeping bath or completing the operation by drying at a high tem-
perature, or even at a low temperature, and passing through dry steam, or as a
special bath for the disintegration of organic vegetable matters, or for the bleaching
of wool.
Chlorure of calcium is preferred as the base of the antiligneous bath produced
according to this Invention, and this is in an economic point of view. Other
chemical products may, however, be employed to produce the same or similar
results without departing from the Invention. For example, the chlorures of barium,
of strontinem, of magnesium, of aluminium, of potassium, of sodium; the soluble
components of these bases and the like may be employed for the purposes of this
Invention.
A bath may also be obtained by the addition of mineral or vegetable acids in
glycerine, forming with these different acid combinations, which produce sulphur-
glycerine, chlorhydro-glycerine, or oxalo-glycerine, baths which also possess the
property of destroying the vegetable matters mixed with wool without necessitating
or subsequently stoving the products taken from the bath, the simple washing of
same being only required after the operation.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said Edward Griffith Brewer in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th
December 1876.
EDWARD GRIFFITH BREWER, of Chancery Lane, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BLEACHING AND PURIFYING WOOL." A communication from abroad by Mess™.
Daudier, Père et Fils, of Paris, France.
The object of this Invention is to bleach wool and to purify it from matters of
vegetable origin, whether in a raw or manufactured state, in skeins or hanks, in
fabric, in waste or old pieces, this purification being effected in a bath composed as
hereafter described and without subsequent stoving.

page_text: This process differs essentially from the treatment generally adopted, in that the
disintegration of foreign vegetable matters in the wool is produced in the bath
itself without any other operation, while in the ordinary processes this is only a
preliminary operation, the treatment being completed by stoving at a high tem-
perature.
In order to obtain a satisfactory result in treating materials according to this
Invention an essential point is to increase the density of the water by some com-
position which does not exercise a destructive action on the wool, and which will
be sufficient to chemically produce the required result by adding for this purpose
to a bath of this nature either acid salts for increasing the density or another acid
not producing an insoluble salt.
In describing the Invention it must be understood that it is not to be limited
to the employment of the particular salts named, as other simple or compound salts
may be used.
According to this Invention wool and materials of vegetable origin are submitted
without changing their nature to a prolonged ebullition in a concentrated bath of
chlorure of calcium, and this same bath, with the addition of hydrochloric acid or
a combination of this acid with metallic bases, such as aluminium, iron, zinc, copper,
tin, and the like, will energetically attack the materials of a vegetable organic
origin while the wool submitted to the same treatment is not changed in any way.
It is then sufficient to dip the materials to be purified into this antiligneous bath,
the composition of which may be more or less charged with hydrochloric acid or
its metallic combinations, according to the nature of the materials to be treated,
and to raise the temperature of it to produce the disintegration which takes place
in a few minutes. After this simple immersion it is only necessary to wash the
material to obtain the purified product. The operation is simple as well as eco-
nomical; no special or costly apparatus are required. The superintendence of the
work does not necessitate any special knowledge, and uniform results are obtained.
The antiligneous bath before described may also with advantage be employed
as a steeping bath in those cases where the treatment is carried on in combination
with the acid bath followed by a stoving; in fact, if in a bath thus prepared wool
containing ligneous matters is placed for a very short time, and after previous
drying or airing it is placed in a stove similar to that now usually used for the
purpose, all the vegetable matters fall out in dust and the wool preserves its good
qualities. In this case it can be utilized with advantage in place of acids or salts
hitherto employed, especially when it is used for bleaching wool and at the same time
removing ligneous materials. Thus, as before stated at the commencement of this
description, the bath of chloruro of calcium can be advantageously employed for
bleaching wool; in fact, if the wool is steeped in a bath having for its base chlorure
of calcium, and after drying or by simply draining it is dipped into a second bath,
thus precipitating the oxide of calcium into its pores, a remarkable whiteness is
imparted to the material. This result may also be obtained by using as a second
bath sulphuric acid diluted with water or oxalate of ammonia, or simply oxalic
acid.
This antiligneous bath having chlorure of calcium as base may be employed
either simply as a steeping bath or completing the operation by drying at a high
temperature, or even at a low temperature, and passing through dry steam, or as
a special bath for the disintegration of organic vegetable matters, or for the bleaching
of wool.
Chlorure of calcium is preferred as the base of the antiligneous bath produced
according to this Invention, and this is in an economic point of view. Other
chemical products may, however, be employed to produce the same or similar
results without departing from the Invention. For example, the chlorures of
barium, of strontium, of magnesium, of aluminium, of potassium, of sodium; the
soluble components of these bases and the like may be employed for the purposes
of this Invention.
Experience has proved that the bath prepared with chlorure of calcium, for

page_text: example, becomes charged after a certain time with salts and other chemical com-
binations proceeding from the treatment of the material in the bath, the density of
which from this fact is increased, which, however, far from injuring the operation,
on the contrary singularly facilitates it; besides, the proportion of chlorure of
calcium remains sensibly the same in consequence of the dissolution in the bath of
salts of lime introduced by the materials to be purified. Under these conditions
the duration of the chlorure of calcium bath is almost unlimited, and it is sufficient
to add to it from time to time a certain dose of hydrochloric acid in order to main-
tain the destructive property of the woody products which characterise it.
A bath may also be obtained by the addition of mineral or vegetable acid in
glycerine, forming with these different acid combinations, which produce sulphur-
glycerine, chlorhydro-glycerine, or oxalo-glycerine, baths which also possess the
property of destroying the vegetable matters mixed with wool without necessitating
subsequently stoving the products taken from the bath, the simple washing of same
being only required after the operation.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the treating of wool in and by
means of a bath called an antiligneous bath without stoving, substantially as and
for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Griffith Brewer, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
E. G. BREWER. (L.S.)