IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING VEGETABLE FIBRES FROM MIXED FABRICS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Gray, of Rose Lane, Stepney, Ink Manu-
facturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING VEGETABLE
FIBRES FROM MIXED FABRICS."
ealed the 18th August 1857, and dated the 2nd March 1857
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Gray at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
March 1857.
I, THOMAS GRAY, of Rose Lane, Stepney, Ink Manufacturer; do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING VEGE-
TABLE FIBRES FROM MIXED FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in separating vegetable
fibres from mixed fabrics. For these purposes parts of old garments made of
mixed fabrics, and also cuttings or other waste pieces of mixed fabrics, are by
preference reduced by means of a rotating spiked cylinder or other suitable
machinery, and the fibrous materials obtained from them are then boiled in
an alkaline solution in such manner as to dissolve the wool or animal fibre
and leave the cotton or vegetable fibre, which is then washed in clean water.
This Invention is more peculiarly applicable to the treatment of the seams
of old garments made of mixed fabrics, but it may also be applied in other
cases when it is not desired to recover the animal fibres in an undissolved
state.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Gray in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 1st
September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
GRAY, of Rose Lane, Stepney, Ink Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Gray, Her special licenco that I, the said Thomas Gray, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Gray, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter 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 SEPARATING
VEGETABLE FIBRES FROM MIXED FABRICS," upon. the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Thomas Gray, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Thomas Gray, 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:
This Invention has for its object improvements in separating vegetable
fibres from mixed fabrics. For these purposes parts of old garments made of
mixed fabrics, and also cuttings or other waste pieces of mixed fabrics, are
by preference reduced by means of a rotating spiked cylinder or other suitable
machinery, and the fibrous materials obtained from them are then boiled in
an alkaline solution in such manner as to dissolve the wool or animal fibre
and leave the cotton or vegetable fibre, which is then washed in clean water.
This Invention is more peculiarly applicable to the treatment of the seams
of old garments made of mixed fabrics, but it may also be applied in other
cases when it is not desired to recover the animal fibres in an undissolved
state. For this purpose I put a quantity of waste seams or any mixed fabric

page_text: of cotton and wool, say, 1 ton, into a revolving boiler, let in water to wash it,
draw off the water, and introduce from 2 to 2 cwt. of soda ash in its natural
state or previously rendered caustic; I then admit steam, and boil for 6'or
8 hours; I let out the woollen alkaline fluid, which I save for agricultural
purposes, and then admit water into the boiler for the purpose of washing the
cotton, which is afterwards taken out and dried, and, if required, bleached.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Gray, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
THOMAS GRAY. (L.S.)