AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING FLAX, Прип AND RED FIVE TOATE SUBSTANCE
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Gray, late of Mitcham, in the County of
Surrey, but now of Union Road, Wandsworth, in the same County,
Bleacher, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING FLAX,
Прип AND RED FIVE TOATE SUBSTANCE."
Sealed the 4th September 1886, and dated the 17th April 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Gray at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition, on the 17th
April 1866.
I, THOMAS GRAY, late of Mitcham, in the County of Surrey, but now of
Union Road, Wandsworth, in the same County, Bleacher, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING FLAX,
HEMP, AND OTHER LIKE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to remove the resinous or gummy matter
and the boon or woody fibres of flax and other like plants and fibrous grasses
in an economical and expeditious manner. I first take flax, scutched, retted
or unretted, or hemp or China grass, or other like vegetable fibres, and cut
the same into convenient lengths for operating upon. The material I then
open and steep it in an alkaline solution (say, soda ash dissolved in water) for
from twelve to twenty-four hours. A warm alkaline solution is more speedy
and effective in its operation. Flax and China grass when steeped from six to
twelve hours is to be boiled from two to four hours. The fibre thus treated
submit to the action of a machine known as ordinary fulling stocks (or any
other suitable crushing machine), applying at the same time water to the
material. While, the machine is operating upon the material and turning and
[Price Sd.]

page_text: bruising it fill the trough with hot water or the liquor in which the material
was steeped, discharging the same in jets through a perforated pipe, and by
keeping up the supply the boon or woody particles and also the mucilaginous
matter will float away with the waste water. After this operation! place the
fibrous material in an ordinary washing engine, and submit it to agitation in
water to rid it, as far as may be, of the remaining mucilage and extraneous
matters, boiling the same with the addition of soda ash, so that the material is
effectually treated while in motion and floating. After this I thoroughly wash
the material in the agitating vessel or machine and then immerse it in a weak
acid bath about fifteen minutes to neutralise the alkali left in the fibre of
the material. After being again well washed to remove the acid from the
fibre the material is ready for bleaching. This operation I effect by mixing
with the ordinary bleaching liquor a solution of saponified fat or oil, and
pouring this mixture into the engine or vessel containing the raw material and
working about the material for some thirty minutes. (If intended for carding
and for fine yarn the fibre is washed and reboiled in saponified fat and soda
ash for one or two hours and then washed and rebleached.) The fibre is now
immersed in the bleaching liquor for six or more hours to allow the whole of
the gas of the chlorine to be absorbed and exhausted by operating on the
fibres; it is then removed and washed in cold water with the addition of
acid, and again washed in a hot solution of saponified fat or oil. After being
rinsed in cold water and allowed to drain the fibre is submitted to an hydro-
extractor and afterwards placed in a suitable drying room.
suitable drying room. When dry the
fibre may be softened in a fulling stock machine, and it is then ready for the
hackling or preparing machinery.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, men
by the said Thomas Gray in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th October 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1. THOMAS
GRAY. late of Mitcham, in the County of Surrey, but now of Union Road,
Wandsworth, in the same County, Bleacher, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors. give and grant unto
me, the said Thomas Gray. Her special licence that I, the said Thomas

page_text: 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
"AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER LIKE FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas
Gray, my executors or administrators, by an instrument 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 my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):--
The object of this Invention is to remove the skin. resinous or gummy
matter, and the boon or woody fibres of flax and other like plants and fibrous
grasses in an economical and expeditious manner. I first take flax, scutched,
retted or unretted, or hemp or China grass, or other vegetable fibres, and cut
the same into convenient lengths for operating upon. The material then
open and steep it in an alkaline solution (say, soda ash dissolved in water) for
from twelve to twenty-four hours. A warm alkaline solution is more speedy
and effective in its operation. Flax and China grass when steeped from six to
twelve hours is to be boiled from two to four hours. The fibres thus treated
I submit to the action of a machine known as ordinary fulling stocks, or any
other suitable bruising machine, applying to the fibres while the machine is in
motion water by passing it through a perforated pipe. The jets of water serve
to loosen the skin and the gum while the machine is turning, pressing and
bruising the fibres. I fill the trough with warm or hot water, or with the
liquor in which the material was steeped or boiled. and by keeping up the
supply the skin, boon, or woody particles, and also the mucilaginous matter,
will float away with the overflow or waste water. After this operation I take
out and place the fibrous material in any suitable vessel, or in an ordinary
washing. beating, or pulping engine, and submit it to agitation in water to rid
it, as far as may be, of the remaining mucilage and extraneous maiters, boiling
the same the second time with the addition of soda ash, so that the materia!

page_text: is effectually treated while in motion and floating; or the material may be
placed in a stationary boiling vessel to be treated as judgment requires by the
operator from one to two hours to effectually eradicate all mucilaginous
matter. After this I thoroughly wash the material in the agitating vessel or
machine as above described, and then immerse it in a weak acid bath for about
fifteen minutes to neutralize or precipitate the alkali left in the fibre. After
being again well washed to remove the weak acid, if any, from the fibre, the
material is ready, for drying, softening, heckling, carding, or any known
method of bleaching. The operation of bleaching I effect by mixing with
the ordinary bleaching liquor a solution of saponified fat or oil, and pouring
this mixture into the engine or vessel containing the raw material and working
about the material for some thirty minutes: after this the whole is let down
into a vessel to lie for six or twelve hours to allow the whole of the gas or
chlorine to be absorbed and exhausted by operating on the fibres; it is then
removed and washed in cold water with the addition of weak acid, and again
washed and the water run off. The fibrous material is then placed in a hot
solution of saponified fat or oil and well agitated therein for fifteen to thirty
minutes, according to the quantity under treatment; then, after being rinsed
in cold water and allowed to drain, the fibre is submitted to an hydro-extractor
or other convenient means of drying and subsequently exposed in a suitable
drying room. When dry the fibre may be softened in a fulling stock machine
or any other suitable softening machine; it is then to be opened by a tenter
hook or willy machine, after which it will be ready for the hackling or carding
machinery. When stricks of flax, hemp, or grasses of long length are required
by the spinner it is necessary to treat the fibre in the manner firstly described,
more particularly China grass. The stricks are held in suspension by a string
while the boiling is going on. The stricks are suspended from sticks or iron
rods arranged to receive the same. so that all may be prepared equal and
alike. The ordinary degree of boiling is sufficient; on no account under
pressure of steam. The object is to treat the fibres equally, and they cannot
be equally prepared when in a large mass. This is only necessary for heck-
ling purposes. For convenience small tanks, not deep, may be used to bring
the material under the control of the operator.
Proportions to be used for bleaching.-To one gallon of water add one
pound of bleaching powder (previously dissolved) and a quarter of an ounce
of saponified fat or oil, and mix the same well together. To one hundred-
weight of fibrous material take from eight pounds to fourteen pounds of the
above mixture; and, lastly, seven pounds to the hundredweight of saponified
fat or oil. Sulphuric acid dissolved in water from eight to. sixteen ounces to

page_text: the hundredweight. First. boiling two hundred gallons of water to one
hundredweight of material and twenty-one to twenty-eight pounds of soda ash.
Second, boiling fourteen pounds of soda ash to the hundredweight of fibrous
material under treatment.
From the above explanation it will be understood that the means by which
the preparation of the fibres for the heckling or carding machinery is effected
is,―
:
First, by treating the fibres in a wet state and removing the skin and
mucilage by the aid of bruising apparatus.
Second, by employing acid after such process so as effectually to neutralize
the alkali in the fibres previous to bleaching.
Third, by treating the fibres with a mixture of bleaching liquor and sapo-
nified fat or oil. I would here remark that in the final process of saturating
the fibres with saponified hot fat or oil in no case should yellow soap be used,
as it usually contains rosin or soluble glass. This process has for its object to
eradicate effectually the harshness that is left in the fibrous material as finished
Ordinary soap
by bleachers, and to bring the fibre to a beautiful soft state.
contains resin and soluble glass, when therefore it is employed, as is now
commonly the case, the washed fibres become harsh and stiff, resin and glass
remaining on the fibre, and on drying matting the same together and rendering
their separation difficult on account of the harshness of the fibres when dried.
After the first process, by which the fibrous material is liberated from the
skin and gluten or mucilage, the fibre is adapted and ready for any ordinary
process of bleaching, or it will be ready for the preparing and spinning
machinery, and may be bleached after spinning.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved Mode
of Treating Flax, Hemp, and other like Fibrous Substances," and explained
the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that
under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim, preparing flax, hemp,
and other like fibres for spinning in the manner above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Gray, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Seventeenth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.