IMPROVEMENTS IN DYEING WOOL AND WOOLLEN FABRICS
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MARTYN
JOHN ROBERTS, of Brynycaeran, in the County of Carmarthen, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-sixth day of January, in the sixth year of the reign of Her
said Majesty, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Martyn John Roberts, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, that I, the said Martyn John Roberts, my exors, adññors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Martyn John Roberts, my exors, admors, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter, during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
DYEING WOOL AND WOOLLEN FABRICS;" in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a proviso that I, the said Martyn John Roberts, should cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
now reciting Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Martyn John Roberts, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner of performing the same, are particularly ascertained and
described as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to dye woollen fabrics, and particularly
woollen cloth, in the piece (that is) after it is woven or manufactured, as
thoroughly as if the wool of which it is made had been dyed before its manu-
facture into cloth. Cloth, as at present dyed in the piece, is not of so deep a
color in the heart or centre as on the surface; the consequence is, that when it
becomes worn the light colored heart shews itself, as is seen when coats wear
white at the seams, &c. To obviate this inconvenience and disadvantage cloth
is often manufactured of wool dyed of the required color, but this renders the
cloth more costly, and dyed wool does not spin or weave so well as wool in its
white or natural color. It is therefore a great desideratum that woollen
fabrics and cloth should be dyed in the piece, and yet be of as good a color in
the centre as upon the surface, and this object is attained by my Invention in
the following manner :-When cloth or other woollen fabrics are to be dyed by
the coloring matter of woods and boiled, I pass them while in the dyeing
liquor through pressing rollers or through rollers on the top of the vat or
vessel containing the cloth and dyeing liquor (and this I consider the preferable
mode), or I sometimes subject the cloth to the process of "stocking" or
beating while in the dyeing liquor, or I allow it to soak in the dyeing liquor
until by either of these processes it is perfectly saturated by the colouring
matter; but in all or each of these cases I take care that the liquor in which
the cloth is immersed is not of a higher temperature than eighty degrees of
Fahrenheit; otherwise the colors are fixed immediately upon the cloth, and if
this is the case, the coloring matter would attach itself to the surface of the
cloth, and thereby form a kind of filter, preventing the entrance of a proper
quantity of coloring matter to the heart or centre of the cloth, which will con-
sequently be less deeply dyed than its surface; for example, if cloth, properly
prepared or mordanted, were immersed in boiling or very hot logwood liquor,
the surface would be dyed to a much deeper tint than the centre; but if it be
pressed, beaten, or soaked in cold or slightly-warmed logwood liquor (that is to
say), of a temperature below eighty degrees of Fahrenheit, the centre will be
as saturated with colouring matter as the surface. After the cloth or woollen
fabrics have undergone either of these processes of saturation, I proceed to fix
the colouring matter in and upon them, and this I do by boiling them either
in clear water or in water slightly tinged with colouring matter, the heat of this
boiling process tending to fix the coloring matter with which the cloth or

page_text: fabric is already saturated. After these processes, the cloth will be found as
fully dyed in the centre as on the surface, and the coloring matter as firmly
fixed upon it. To mordant or prepare cloth for taking up the colouring matter
I cause it to undergo the process above described, substituting the mordant or
preparation for the colouring matter spoken of.
When I wish to dye cloth in the piece with indigo, I cannot either boil the
cloth or apply the colouring matter in a perfectly cold state. I therefore employ
an apparatus something similar to a sizing machine, which consists of a frame-
work sustaining a series of rollers over which the cloth passes [see the annexed
Drawing]; the whole being immersed in the indigo liquor, the cloth is passed
over the rollers, as if it were a strap to drive them; but I do not drive the
rollers by means of the cloth, as this would strain it. I therefore fix cog-
wheels upon the ends of the rollers, which work in gear with an endless screw
which drives the whole; or I employ any ordinary and well-known means for
driving the whole of the rollers which will relieve the cloth from a great strain.
If it be necessary I press the cloth, while immersed in the liquor, by passing it
through one or several pairs of pressing rollers; and I also, by means of an
ordinary tackle or crane, elevate the frame of rollers and cloth out of the indigo
liquor, for the purpose of fixing the indigo upon the cloth by the action of the
atmospheric air. By thus pressing and rolling and moving of the cloth under
the indigo liquor it becomes dyed to the centre, whilst, by its motion over the
rollers, and its being stretched flat over these rollers, it takes the dye evenly on
the surface, and does not become "cloudy," or unequally dyed.
The Plan or Drawing hereunto annexed represents the indigo dyeing
machine referred to, which may be described as follows:-The Figures X, X, X,
are a series of rollers set in a wooden frame; over these the cloth, as shewn by
the red lines D, D, is passed, returning over them and passing through the
pressing rollers P, P. The series of rollers may have cog-wheels A, A, upon
the extremity of their axles, which wheels work into endless screws B, B;
which, being turned by hand, as shewn by handle C, or other convenient means,
give motion to all the rollers, and thus move the cloth without straining it.
When it is wished to expose the cloth to the air, an ordinary tackle or crane
may be fixed to the frame, and thus the cloth can be hoisted out of the liquor.
I therefore claim as my said Invention, first, the dyeing of woollen fabrics
by saturating them with mordant or colouring matter, whilst the mordant or
colouring matter is of such a temperature as not readily to fix itself upon the
cloth, that is to say, of the temperature not exceeding eighty degrees of
Fahrenheit, and afterwards by fixing the mordant or coloring matter upon the
cloth by means of heat.

page_text: Secondly, in dyeing cloth in the piece in indigo, I do not claim the pressing
rollers, or the endless screw, or the tackle or crane, separately, as my Invention,
but I claim the entire apparatus whereby I beat and press cloth, or saturate it
with colouring matter while in an indigo vat; and I also, at the same time,
keep the cloth spread while the whole or part can be raised into the air so as
to expose the cloth to its influence:
And such my said Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new and never before used within that part of Her Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of
Wales, and. Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my
Specification of the same; and that I do verily believe this my said Specification
doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with the
proviso in the herein-before recited Letters Patent' contained. Wherefore I
claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I; the said Martyn John Roberts, havé hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of July, One thousand
eight hundred and forty-three.