AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLEANSING, WASHING, DYEING, BLEACHING, SOAPING, AND OTHERWISE TREATING WOVEN FABRICS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Mather, of the Firm of Messieurs Mather and
Platt, of the Salford Iron Works, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer, for an Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS
FOR CLEANSING, WASHING, DYEING, BLEACHING, SOAPING, AND OTHERWISE
TREATING WOVEN FABRICS."
(Void by reason of the Patentee having neglected to file a Specification in
pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Mather at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th April 1881.
WILLIAM MATHER, of the Firm of Messieurs Mather and Platt, of the Salford
Iron Works, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer. "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLEANSING, WASHING, DYEING, BLEACHING,
SOAPING, AND OTHERWISE TREATING WOVEN FABRICS."
This Invention has for its object the treatment of woven fabrics in the
operations of dyeing, bleaching, washing, and soaping, or similar operations where
liquids are used, in such a manner that the fabric shall remain open or at full
breadth throughout the process without undue tension.
One application of the improved apparatus will be in combination with the
open washing machine for which Letters Patent were granted to Francis William
Ashton and William Mather, on the 19th October 1878, No. 4176, and this
combined apparatus would form an arrangement for soaping, dyeing, and bleaching
fabrics at their full breadth.
In performing my Invention I deliver by means of a plaiter or folder the fabric
in regular plaits or folds into a semicircular annular compartment (or J shaped
casing), having the entrance side or mouth carried up to a higher level than the
delivery side or outlet. This semicircular compartment is fixed within a tank or
cistern with free space around it, or the tank is formed by extending the ends of
the compartment so as to enclose the space included in the curve.

page_text: A stream of liquor is made to flow into the compartment at the outlet side,
which liquor descends and escapes through apertures placed in the upper side of
the casing at the lowest part of the semicircle.
I make one or both ends of the compartment adjustable to suit different
breadths of fabrics.
An injector or pump raises the liquor from the tank, in which I place steam
pipes to heat the liquor to the entrance or mouth of the compartment, and causes
it to flow copiously together with the fabric into the chamber.
This operation of the liquor is kept up continuously, and by its action the fabric
is made to pass gradually, in a loose but full breadth condition through the
semicircular chamber rising at the opposite side of the circle to that on which it
entered, and meeting on its exit with a flow of fresh liquor. From this point the
fabric passes to 'the open washing machine which is constantly replenished with
clean liquor, and in passing through which the fabric is effectually cleansed, after
having been soaked for a considerable time at any desired temperature in the
simi-circular chamber. From the open washing machine the fabric passes into a
small tank to be rinsed, and finally into a similar open washing machine to be
cleansed in water and squeezed out ready for drying.
Another application is when the liquor is made to flow continuously down the
longer side of the vessel, and overflow at the top of the shorter side of the vessel.
The cloth is thus carried gradually with the liquor, and the latter is made-to
circulate as long as necessary, as, for instance, with dye liquor until all the coloring
matter has been abstracted by the cloth.
The circulation may be regulated to any degree of speed by the pump or
injector.
In addition to the plaiter I use for folding the cloth regularly two pipes having
longitudinal slots, which will eject liquor with sufficient force to hold the cloth
against each side of the vessel alternately to secure uniform folding even without
the mechanical plaiter, that is, the liquor itself is made to drive the cloth first
to one side and then the other for the purpose of folding and uniformly
saturating it.