IMPROVEMENTS IN BLEACHING LINEN FABRICS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Hodgkinson, of Springfield Bleach Works,
Belfast, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLEACHING LINEN FABRICS."
Sealed the 26th September 1854, and dated the 28th March 1854.
יז
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Hodgkinson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th March 1854.
I, ALFRED HODGKINSON, of Springfield Bleach Works, Belfast, do hereby
declare the nature of the said. Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLEACHING LINEN
FABRICS" to be as follows:
This Invention, which is specially intended for the bleaching of linen fabrics,
consists in the use and employment of milk of lime for effecting the primary
part of the process; the second and finishing part of the process of bleaching
being accomplished, according to this Invention, by the use and employment of
a chemical mixture, which has already been used in bleaching; but not in
combination with milk of lime, as above stated; said mixture being composed
of soda ash, or caustic soda, resin or resins, and lime, or by combining resin
or resins with soda and alkali and lime; and I employ the aforesaid chemical
ingredients, matters, or substances for the purposes of this Invention in the
following manner, that is to say:-I first sew together into one length as
many pieces of linen as can conveniently be. operated upon at one time, and
having done this, I place or plait the same into a kier or pot, such as is

page_text: commonly used by bleachers, in which I previously put a sufficient quantity of
weak milk of lime. I then boil the linen fabrics in the same, after which,
and for the purpose of completing the process of bleaching, I boil them in one
or other of the mixtures above stated, and thus I am enabled to bleach all
kinds of linen fabrics in about one half the time at present required for
effecting the same, and at a cost of about forty per cent. less for labor and
materials than heretofore; and it is this mode of bleaching linen fabrics that
constitutes this Invention.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters 'Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Hodgkinson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th September 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
HODGKINSON, of Springfield Bleach Works, Belfast, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Hodgkinson, Her special licence that. I, the said Alfred
Hodgkinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Alfred Hodgkinson; my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BLEACHING LINEN FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Alfred Hodgkinson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Hodgkinson, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):-
My Invention, which is specially intended for the bleaching of linen fabrics,
consists in the use and employment of milk of lime in the manner herein-after
described for effecting the primary part of such process; the second part of

page_text: Invention Of James
Higgins, as secured to him by Her Majesty's Royal Letters Patent, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of June, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-two, and intituled "Improvements in Bleaching and Scouring
Woven and Textile Fabrics and Yarns."
And in order to explain my said Invention as completely as possible, I now
proceed to describe the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the same
into practical effect for the purpose of bleaching linen, as follows:-
MODE OF OPERATING.
I take the linen which is to be bleached, and sew or tie together by their
ends, into one or two lengths, as many pieces. of linen as can conveniently
be operated upon at one time, and having done this I pass them through the
milk of lime, that is, slacked quick lime, reduced with water to a milky
appearance, in the following manner, videlicit :-I have a wooden vessel, in
which a small roller is placed about three inches from the bottom of such said
vessel, and the pivots thereof loosely held in any convenient manner, and into
the said vessel I put as much milk of lime as will cover the aforesaid roller,
and having done this, I pass one or two ends of the linen under the said roller,
and draw the cloth through the milk of lime by means of a reel or winch,
which is fixed partly over the said vessel and partly over the boiling pot, the
apparatus being placed adjoining the boiling pot, and in such a convenient
position as to enable the linen to drop from the said reel or winch into the
pot, and therein be plaited or folded down in an equal manner suitable for
boiling; I do not confine myself to this particular mode of passing the pieces
through the lime, as the process could be equally as well done, and more
quickly and conveniently performed, by means of a common washing machine,
such as are generally used by bleachers in Lancashire. Care must be taken
to keep up the supply of milk of lime as fast as it is absorbed by the pieces of
linen as they pass through the same.
In the aforesaid condition the linens are boiled in a close covered pot,
without intermission, for the space of about fourteen hours, after which I
wash them well, and sour them with diluted muriatic acid for the space of
from six to twelve hours, as may be found necessary, the strength of the
acid being reduced by the addition of water, until the acid is of the strength
denoted by two degrees of Twaddle's hydrometer. I then wash the pieces of
linen well, and boil them in a composition, according to the aforesaid James
Higgins Invention; and having subjected the linen to the several processes
above described, I proceed to complete the bleaching process in the manner

page_text: usually practised. by bleachers; and: by. the above mode of bleaching. linen,.I
am enabled to bleach all kinds of linen fabrics in about one half the time at
present required for effecting the same, and at an expense of about forty per
cent. less' for labour and materials than heretofore..
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention of
Improvements.in Bleaching Linen Fabrics, and in what manner the same is to
be and may be performed, 'I would remark, in conclusion, that by the above
mode of bleaching linen fabrics, the material becomes thoroughly and equally
impregnated throughout with the necessary quantity of lime, and that the
linen so impregnated or saturated being immediately exposed to the action of
the atmosphere becomes oxidized to a certain degree, which I have found
very beneficial, preparatory to the subsequent and finishing processes of
bleaching; and I declare my Invention to consist-in, and I claim, the-novel
mode above set forth for bleaching linen fabrics, by first passing them through
milk of lime for the purpose of thoroughly and equally saturating...them
therewith; and afterwards boiling and otherwise operating upon them as above
described...
3.
In witness whereof, 'I, the said Alfred Hodgkinson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
GEORGE CLENDINNING,
48, Earl Street,
Belfast."
ALFRED HODGKINSON. (L.B.)