AN IMPROVED MODE AND MEANS FOR SEPARATING & PREPARING FOR SPINNING THE FIBRES OF FILAMENTOUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by August Deininger at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
August 1878.
I, AUGUST DEININGER, Chemist and Manufacturer, of Berlin,
Germany, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED MODE AND MEANS FOR SEPARATING & PREPARING FOR SPINNING
THE FIBRES OF FILAMENTOUS SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
"
The basis of my Invention is the separation of the fibre by means of
an apparatus which I will designate under the term of "bursting
apparatus," by employing which all the inconvenient features of the
ordinary retting process are avoided, an increased quantity and
increased strength of filamentous matter obtained, and the whole
process simplifted.
The fibres of all vegetable matter containing filamentous matter are
separated by explosion by means of a hydrostatic pressure, of four
atmospheres, and boiling heat of 100° Celsius (centigrades), can be
maintained (or any other desired temperature below that which is
peculiar to the aforesaid pressure), so that temperature and
pressure act

page_text: simultaneously, and a proper boiling, i.e., formation of steam cannot
take place.
The operation of this water supply put under pressure at boiling heat
can be kept up for any length of time, according to requirement, for our
purpose six hours are sufficient.
The "bursting apparatus" above referred to is a vessel, by preference
made of copper, steam-tight, and preferably constructed in the shape of
a cylinder set vertically, as illustrated in the accompanying Drawing A,
4 feet 1 inches high, and 5 feet 8 inches in diameter. The whole of
its internal surface is tinned or coppered or otherwise protected against 1
• the chemical action of the iron plates, which would otherwise blacken
"and spoil the raw material treated, and its outer surface is preferably
covered with wooden lagging or with any other slow conductor of heat
such as felt.
-
The bursting apparatus is provided with a perforated false bottom a, 1
similarly protected against corrosion. There is an opening on the top
for filling and emptying the bursting apparatus with the material
treated; this opening is provided with a safe man-hole cover m..
·
Outside the bursting apparatus there is a stop-cock B, the object of
which is either to shut off the steam obtained from any steam generator,
or to conduct the same by means of a pipe 6 made of copper sheatings,
and 3 inches in diameter, outside along the bursting apparatus. This
pipe enters the bursting apparatus underneath the false bottom a, and is
connected with the spiral tube e, which is 28% inches long, by the
self-acting cut-off valve d outside the bursting apparatus.
The lye prepared in an upper tank D, which is of the same capacity
as the bursting apparatus itself, is supplied from the same through a
pipe regulated by tap i, whilst by tap h it is afterwards let off into
tank O:
On the top of the bursting apparatus are a steam gauge f and a
thermometer g to admit of the simultaneous observation of temperature
and pressure. Both temperature and pressure can be regulated by
tapp which is therefore placed on the highest point of the bursting
apparatus in order to remove the air when the lye is let in, to let off the
steam which might generate during the operation, and to produce the
water column. ·

page_text: The forcible separation of the fibres of the raw material is now
effected in the bursting apparatus above described. The flax, hemp,
nettle, or rheea (Bussonetia nivea), etc., is tied together, without any
previous sorting, at full length, in bunches at both ends and in" the
centre, and is placed into the bursting apparatus until the latter is filled.
At the same time the upper tank D is filled with water to which is
added caustic soda sufficient to cause the solution to show one degree
on the well-known aerometer known under the name of Beaumé, and
then heated by steam or otherwise to 80 degrees centigrades. On
allowing this heated lye to flow from the tank into the bursting apparatus
the raw material is thereupon generally found to contract, whereupon the
superfluous lye is let off and the empty space thus formed is filled up
with more bunches of the raw material and a further quantity of heated
lye is run into the bursting apparatus. These alternate operations are
continued until the whole bursting apparatus is entirely filled. The
man-hole cover m having now been closed steam-tight, and it having
been determined by an alternate opening of tap p and an eventual afte
supply of lye by means of tap i that the bursting apparatus is entirely
filled and no air whatever in it, the stop-cock B is opened and a current
of steam of four atmospheres pressure from any ordinary steam boiler is
admitted into the bursting apparatus. The immediate consequence of
this pressure is that the temperature of the contents of the bursting
apparatus will soon rise from 80 to 100 degrees centigrades, i.e., to
boiling heat. The materials are thereupon left under the simultaneous
and combined influence of this temperature and pressure for four to six
hours, more or less, as may be found necessary, according to the
material treated. Oare must be taken that during that time no steam
is formed in the bursting apparatus, and there is neither a fall nor rise
in the temperature and pressure, all which can be easily attained by a
careful observation of the thermometer and steam gauge, and by the
regulation of tap p.
While the raw material, with the low temperature of 100 degrees
centigrades, is thus neither coloured nor burnt nor otherwise obnoxiously
decomposed, the vegetable glue, gum, pigment, etc., which it contains
are gradually dissolved under the pressure applied by the lye which,
owing to the more intense capillarity caused by the pressure, accordingly
enters into the small pores situated between the fibres of the raw
material. By this means the latter swells sponge like, the single fibres
are loosened and forced asunder.

page_text: The above process of separating the fibres by means of forcing them
asunder completed the lye is run off by the bottom tap h into tank C,
from which it can be taken and used a second time for the same purpose,
after which it is useless.
In order to entirely separate the fibrous rind (cast fibre) from the
wood, the raw material in the bursting apparatus is now washed out
with water, at first sour and warm, afterwards with warm water only,
and finally with cold water until all colouring matter and other
dissolved substances are removed and the water flows off in a clear
state.
The cleaned filamentous matter; with its fibres forced asunder thus
obtained, is now transferred to the drying rooms and further subjected
to the usual operation of spinning.