CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
ARMAND le Comte DE FONTAINEMOREAU, of 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of
January, in the fifteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Peter Armand le Comte de.
Fontainemoreau, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her especial license, full
power, sole privilege, and authority, that I, the said Peter Armand le Comte
de Fontainemoreau, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Peter Armand le, Comte de Fontainemoreau, my exors, admors, or
assigns, should at any time. agree with, and no others, froni time to time and.
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town.
of Berwick upon Tweed, in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING FIBROUS SUBSTANCES,"
communicated to me by a certain foreigner residing abroad; in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Peter Armand le Comte
de Fontainemoreau, shall cause a particular description of the nature of the

page_text: said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso I, the said
Peter Armand le Comte de Fontainemoreau, do hereby declare that the nature
of the said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
are fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
The Invention communicated to me consists in ascertaining by an absolute
desiccation, the exact and mathematical weight of raw, or to some extent pre-
pared, and even dyed, fibrous substances, whatever may be their hydrometric
state and the quantity of heterogeneous matters which may have been fraudu-
lently introduced into them to increase their weight. The hygrometric
properties of silk and wool are well known, and their extreme avidity for
water has convinced me, after repeated trials, that there is no chance of ascer-
taining the quantity of water they contain, but by the operations of, desic-
cating as herein-after described. I found by experience that it was sometimes
more advantageous to insure the full success of the desicating operation to
equalize the hydrometric state of a bale of silk, or other fibrous substance,
when some parts of the same bale contain a larger quantity of dampness than
others; by that operation I am quite certain that the whole contents of a bale
is in the same state of dryness, whatever may be its volume and its previous
quantity of humidity.
I conduct that preparatory drying as follows:-I maintain in a room, by
means of furnaces or stoves, a constant heat at about 68° to 77° Fahrenheit
when the barometer indicates twenty-eight or twenty-seven inches, and at
about 80° to 90° when it indicates only twenty-seven inches, that excess of heat
being capable of absorbing the increased quantity of atmospheric dampness as
exhibited by the barometer. The article to be operated upon having been
accurately weighed, I suspend it, according to its shape and the way it was
folded, by means of iron rods, or I spread it on metallic cloth or gratings set in
wooden or iron frames; and when it is thus arranged I shut it within large
grated and sealed cases, and I let it remain in the room heated as above stated
during about twenty-four to forty-eight hours. I weigh the article after the
abové operation, which leaves still in the silk from about 10 to 12% of

page_text: humidity, and the removal of which is accomplished by the mode of treating
fibrous substances hercin-after described, and which is particularly for silk what
essaying is to gold and silver, viz, a perfect control, with this difference, that my
desicating operation does not require to be applied on the whole of the goods,
but merely takes place on a proportionate part of a bale of silk or wool, whilst
the bale is emptied for the purpose of ascertaining the tare and the real weight
of the article, if I have not submitted it to the herein-before described drying
operation. Experience also has shown to me that thirty specimens or samples,
for example, taken at random from thirty different parts of the bale, and
weighing together about three pounds, are quite sufficient for a perfect and
rapid operation; and it is on that basis that I have constructed the apparatus
herein-after described, though any other quantity may also be treated with an
apparatus constructed with due proportion to the weight operated upon. I
divide these thirty samples into three lots of ten samples each, which are
weighed immediately and separately with scales of the utmost precision. The
mode of taking these thirty samples from thirty different parts of a bale, and
of dividing them into three separate lots, has for result, that each lot by itself
represents really the hydrometrical state of the entire bale. I desiccate in the
most complete manner, as herein-after described, two of these three lots, each
composed of ten samples in separate apparatus, and the precise concordance in
the results which the two separate operations present, is a means of ascertain-
ing the perfect action of the scales and apparatus, and also of the labor of the
men employed, labor which requires only attention. I add afterwards, the
entering weights to the absolute weight of these two lots to obtain a mean,
which serves to ascertain the absolute weight of the whole bale; it is, there-
fore, the mean of these two lots of twenty samples, each of these said lots
being of about a pound, which serves as a basis to the following calculation:-
The weight of the two lots before their being placed in the apparatus is to
their perfectly desiccated weight as the net weight of the bale is to its perfectly
desiccated weight, a proportion the last -term of which is shewn by the
result of the calculation.
I keep in the same state and in reserve the third lot of ten samples, and I
operate upon it in the way herein-before stated, except only when I have not
found a perfect concordance between the two other lots operated upon, that is
to say, if there is more than half a per cent. difference between their respective
amounts of weight at the end of the operation, or of their absolute desiccation.
It is, however, very seldom that it is necessary to use the last lot of ten samples,
it happens only for exceptional bales containing very great hydrometric dif-
ferences between their different parts.

page_text: DESICCATING APPARATUS FOR FIBROUS SUBSTANCES.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of the whole apparatus. Figure 2 is a plan of
the drawer containing the weights and their minutest fractions. Figure 3
is a horizontal plan of the lower extremities of the cylindrical chamber.
Figure 4 is a sectional elevation of the internal chamber R, S. Figure 5
is a plan of the top or cover of the casing O, P. Figure 6 represents the
samples prepared for the desiccation. Figure 7 represents the shaft sup-
porting the balance and the casing. C, D, D, C. Figure 8 represents a horizontal
section of a drawer through K, L, of Figure 1. Figure 9 is a vertical section
of a desiccating apparatus.
A, B, Figure 1, is a brass or zinc set of drawers provided with six wooden
drawers from 1 to 6, and marked with the number of the apparatus to which
it belongs.; the first drawer contain, the complete set of weights which are
employed, and also the subdivision of their minutest fractions. The other
drawers are intended to receive the lots of samples to be operated upon in the
adjoining apparatus.
-
173
As there are three lots of ten samples per bale, each lot, as herein-before
stated, weighing about one pound, one set of drawers A, B, is sufficient to
contain the samples of two bales of silk or wool. The letters M, N, represent
a cast iron plate supporting the whole apparatus; it is placed at one foot from
the ground by means of a frame or cast iron grating, provided with feet. O, P,
is a large brass cylindrical chamber or bell with double,surface, serving to con-
centrate the heat, and to cover or envelope a second internal and inverted
chamber or bell. Figure 4, R, S, which represents its sectional elevation:
through its own axis, the dimensions of that internal chamber being always in
due proportion with its casing or envelope O, P, has its lower extremity open
as shewn in Figure 3, which represents the plan of that lower extremity. The
casing. O, P, is provided with two brass handles diametrically opposed, and
which are represented in front by M', M, Figure 1; they serve to- take-off'
that casing when required; the upper extremity of O, P, is slightly convex,
having about twenty to forty inches in diameter, according to the quantity and
nature of the substances on which I am to operate; it is provided with an.
opening, shutting at will by means of the cover or lid.T,, U,. Figure, 5, which
represents its plan; this lid T, U, is provided from the edges of its periphery
up to its centre with a groove E, F, which can be closed, by the small brass
plate. C, D; provided underneath with a-jutting-out part fitting and sliding
into the groove E, F, and by means of the last, the cover T, U, can be
removed and replaced again to set the silk or wool into the apparatus, without

page_text: touching the brass wire G, H, which serves to suspend them in the apparatus.
The sliding plate C, D, Figure 5, has its extremity fitting the centre of
the lid cut circularly, in order to provide a passage for the thread G, H,
and also for allowing the air to circulate in the space left empty between
the casing O, P, and the internal bell R, S; that space is represented by
e, e, e, e, in the horizontal section, Figure 3. It is only with. steam that the
internal chamber R, S, Figure 4, is heated; it, has its opening at the top.and
its lower extremity has a hemispheric shape; it is composed of two surfaces
made to fit one into the other, and forming but one apparatus, but leaving
between them an empty space of about one inch in thickness; as shown by the
letters v, v, v, v, Figures 3 and 4; these two surfaces are united at their
upper extremities by being either soldered or bolted together by means of an
iron washer and screws, as seen in I and Q, Figure 4. It is in the empty
space v, v, v, v, left between the two internal and external surfaces, forming the
chamber R, S, that the steam circulates by which the apparatus is heated, and
which is conducted into it from the main boiler by the brass conduct pipe
The steam
a, b, c, d, e, entering at the upper extremity by the side opening e.
having circulated around the two surfaces of the chamber R, S, égresses from
it through an opening p at the bottom of it by the discharge pipe h, g, f, which
conducts it to the reservoir alimenting the boiler; the water of condensation
egresses by the same educt pipe h, g, f, and is also conducted to the same
reservoir. Two cocks ¹ and t', Figures 1 and 4, placed respectively: to the
pipes f, g, and a¹, b₁, and f¹, g', and 6', a', serve to intercept the circulation of
the steam, and therefore the heating of the apparatus: The internal surface
of R, S, forming-with the external surface the empty space v, v, v, v, being air-
tight does not allow any humidity from the steam circulating, as herein-before
described, in that space to penetrate into the interior of the apparatus, which
is kept in a vertical position by means of three iron standards, one of which is
represented in Figure 4 by "p; q. When the steam has heated the internal
partition of R, S; by circulating within the empty space' v,v,v,-v, and-when
that chamber is enveloped by the external chamber or casing O, P, the internal
temperature of R, S, rises easily from 225° to 240° Fahrenheit, that is to say,
to a more elevated degree than boiling water, and which degrees are quite
The 'ten samples
necessary to obtain a perfect "and complete desiccation.
forming, as herein-before stated, one lot of the article to be operated upon are
suspended to a small iron or brass hoop, Figure 6; each part of the fibrous
substance is opened and fixed by means of a small hook, and towards their
lower parts these ten samples are slightly tied with the thread f, f', to prevent

page_text: their touching the internal sides of the chamber R, S, in which they are place
as follows: The thread or rod G, H, Figure I, is composed of two parts
the first G, a, is provided at its lower extremities with a small ring, and
the second part a, H, is only the beginning of a', a, Figure .6, which
supports, as herein-before described, the ten samples to be operated upon, and
which is suspended to G, a, Figure I, by a small hook at a; by that means
the ten samples which are in the interior of the chamber R, S, are, during the
desiccating operation, suspended to the extremity G of one of the beams of the
scale. In that Figure I, E' represents the scale board to receive the weights
Fis a horizontal dial with three engraved lines on which the hand of the
scale indicates that the weight is equilibrated when the said hand remains
stationary opposite the middle line; in some of the scales employed in the
desiccating apparatus, the hand of the balance being vertical, the dial and the
three engraved lines herein-before described, and which are also vertical, are
placed at G, at the lower extremity of the column of the scale under the
vertical axis of the said column. It will be readily understood that by
the working of that balance it will be easy to weigh the lot of goods at any
moment during the operation without being compelled to unfix it or, to take it
away from the apparatus. It would be besides quite impossible to weigh the
silk or wool in the open air at the end of the operation, and then to depend on
a precise and an exact result, on account of the facility with which these
substances will attract the humidity of the atmosphere. Figure 7 represents the
upright iron shaft supporting the balance; it is placed on a cross piece above
the apparatus, and such as it would appear if the apparatus were seen sideways
and the profile only of the balance. M, N, in that Figure represents the
cast-iron plate supporting the apparatus on its width. A bent pipe z,, s,
Figure 4, provided with a key y (by which it can be left open or shut,) serves
to establish a communication between the external air of the room where the
apparatus is placed, and that contained between the empty space e, e, e, e, of
the chambers O, P, and R, S, when these last are prepared to carry on the
desiccating operation.
The air enters by the orifice of the pipe, s, r, and egresses by the lid of the
chamber O, P; and it is therefore by means of that current of air that the hu
midity which is disengaged from the fibrous substances operated upon is forced
out from the chamber. X, Y, Figures I and 4, is a double annular space full of
fine sand, and on which the casing O, P, is set, preventing at the same time.
the cooling of the two bells or chambers O, P, and R, S. Figure 8 represents.
a horizontal section through K, L, of Figure I, of the drawer 3; and set of

page_text: drawers A, B, in Figure 3; C', D', are the standards supporting the balance.
The elevation of the chambers O, P, and R, S, forming the apparatus varies
from 2 feet six inches to about four feet, though I wish it to be understood
that I do not confine myself to these precise dimensions and diameters, as the
same may be varied. When the balance being moved remains stationary
during about half an hour, I conclude that the substance I have submitted
to the operation herein-before described does not contain any particle of
humidity, and is thoroughly desiccated; I then stop the balance very carefully,
and the weight which it exhibits is what I call absolute, because it is the real
weight of the fibrous substance entirely desiccated. The operation has no
fixed time for its duration, and is carried on as long as the fibrous substance
disengages some humidity. I have found by experience that silk and wool,
having been completely desiccated by the operation as herein-before described,
and left some hours after in the apparatus always heated to the degrees already
specified, does not increase or diminish in weight. Raw silk, the thinnest
and the least in strength, prepared by the desiccating operation, is untwisted
much better, and its fibres open and dilate sensibly; a very great heat,
far from weakening silk, increases vastly its strength. It is sometimes very
necessary and important to obtain a quick result in the operation of desiccating
fibrous substances, and to obtain that result I make use of the apparatus
herein-after described before operating with the apparatus O, P, and R, S.
In Figure 9, A, B, represents a cast-iron plate supporting the apparatus, and
placed at about one foot above the ground; C, D, is a large wooden sheet iron
or brass box with double surface, serving as a casing to the apparatus herein-
after described; this casing is open at its lower extremities, and serves merely
as an envelope to concentrate the heat, and can be removed by means of brass
handles with which it is provided; it has also three moveable covers to suspend,
by means of hooks adapted to them, the head or specimen of silk or wool,
which are immersed from them into the chamber which this casing covers..
E, F, is a sheet iron or brass chamber having about from four to five feet in
length, two feet in width, and about three feet in elevation. It is heated by.
steam, and is composed of two surfaces fitting one within the other, in such a
manner as to leave between them an empty space of about one to two inches
thick; these two surfaces are soldered or united together on their upper extre-
mities by means of iron plates with riveted screws a, a. It is within that
empty space formed by the internal and external surfaces, and forming the
thickness of the chamber E, F, that circulates the steam employed for heating.
the apparatus, and which is conducted into it from, a boiler by means of the

page_text: .
brass conduct pipe B', B', divided into four branches which serve to introduce
it by the four openings c, c, c, c, prepared at the upper extremities of the said
chamber. The steam, conjointly with the water of condensation, is educted
from the empty space herein-before described, through an opening D prepared
at the lower extremity of the chamber E, F, and is conducted by a brass
pipe e, e, to the reservoir serving to feed the boiler. The brass pipe B', B',
is provided with a cock serving to intercept the circulation of steam, and to
stop the heating of the apparatus. The empty space between the two surfaces
of the chamber E, F, is closed air-tight (excepting at the four orifices
c, c, c, c, and D) to prevent any moisture arising from the steam circulating
in it entering the interior of the chamber and preventing the disiccating
operation of the fibrous substance suspended into the said chamber, the
temperature of which I carry from about. 160° to 220° Fahrenheit. By the
treatment herein-before described, "I disengage from the substances upon
which' I operate, and the weight of which I have previously and accurately
ascertained, the three-fourths or nine-tenths of the humidity they might contain
before being placed into the apparatus. I submit afterwards these substances
so desiccated to the action of the herein-before described apparatus O, P, and
R, S, in which the absolute and complete desiccation is obtained. The
entering weights of the lots of silk, wool, or other fibrous substances to be
operated upon as herein-before described by the apparatus E, F, is previously
ascertained by a scale of the utmost precision, and the weight when the sub-
stances egress from the operation of desiccation obtained by the apparatus
O, P, and R, S, is carefully. ascertained by the scale of this last apparatus.
To ascertain and discover the presence of heterogeneous bodies introduced
fraudulently in the silk to increase its weight, I operate as follows:-I submit
to the action of a heat of about 212° to 230° Fahrenheit in the apparatus,
and in the manner therein-before described, silk in the natural state, both raw
and thrown, to determine the weight in a manner mathematically 'exact.
If during the operation the silk gives out-a strong odour frequently analogous
to that of oil or soap decomposed by the action of a strongly heated body, I
recognize the presence of a foreign substance fraudulently introduced into the
valuable article to augment the weight, to the detriment of the buyer who
cannot discover it. After having proved the absolute dry weight of the sample
of silk on which I have operated, I proceed to the "decrensage" or boiling off
of the same sample by means of white soap according to the ordinary method,
and in washing in distilled water. This operation is more' or less lengthened,
according to the quality of the silk:
411

page_text: After the above operation, and still by means of the desiccating apparatus
herein-before described, I prepare the "boiled off" silk to shew its absolute
dry weight; this weight being determined, the difference which I found between
the absolute weight of the raw and thrown 'silk, and that (equally absolute) of
the "boiled silk" establishes positively the loss resulting from this operation
and the loss which would take place in the dyeing. In commencing with
these absolute weights I avoid of course errors, and discover proof of fraud, if
any exists.
This proof is so much more essential to obtain, as silk in the two different
states, raw and "boiled off," are not at all hydrometrically equal. The loss by
"boiling off" of the silks of France and Italy in their most pure state, is
never less than 21 to 24%; when there is an addition of foreign substance,
the loss rises to 35 or 40, and even 47 %; a loss of very great importance to
the manufacturer by reason of the high prices of this precious article, the
value of which rises sometimes in England to thirty-four or forty shillings
per lb.
And having now described the Invention communicated to me, and the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do
not confine myself to the precise details, forms, or proportions herein-before
described, nor do I claim separately any of the organs I have employed, so
long as the general features of the arrangements be retained for the carrying
out of the said improvements; but what I do claim as the Invention
communicated to me, and intended to be protected by the said Letters
Patent, is,
Firstly, the mode of desiccating silk and other fibrous substances to dis-
cover and determine their exact and absolute weight by means of the
apparatus herein-before described, reference being had to the Figures of the
Drawing.
Secondly, the process of discovering the presence of foreign bodies when
the exist in silk, and also of ascertaining the loss of weight by the "boiling
off," as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine-
moreau, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day
of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-two.
C' DE FONTAI (L.S.) NEMOREAU.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1852, the aforesaid Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine-
morcau came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that
wirnose.
Enrolled the Twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.