SEPARATING CERTAIN VEGETABLE FIBRES FROM MIXED FABRICS FOR VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Louis Jullion, of Combe House, Tovil, in the
County of Kent, Analytical Chemist, for the Invention of "SEPARATING
CERTAIN VEGETABLE FIBRES FROM MIXED FABRICS FOR VARIOUS USEFUL
PURPOSES."
Sealed the 12th June 1855, and dated the 13th December 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Louis Jullion at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th December 1854.
I, JOHN LOUIS JULLION, of Combe House, Tovil, in the County of Kent,
Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"SEPARATING CERTAIN VEGETABLE FIBRES FROM MIXED FABRICS FOR VARIOUS USEFUL
PURPOSES" to be as follows, that is to say :-
My Invention, having reference to the treating and utilizing of mixed
fabrics of all descriptions, especially old carpets, and women's dresses com-
posed of mousseline de laine, and Bradford and other stuff's containing wool
and silk in conjunction with vegetable fibre, consists in separating the parts
of the said fabrics composed of certain vegetable fibres, namely, cotton and
linen fibres, or the two combined, by the intervention of certain chemical

page_text: solvents, from the foreign matter with which they are united in the said
mixed fabrics; and the fibres thus separated may be employed for paper
making, or the cotton fibre for cleansing the lubricating boxes and other parts
of engines; and the solvents which I employ for separating the said vegetable
fibres are of the class of acids, alkalis, and alkaline earths, of which the alkalis
and alkaline earths dissolve the foreign matter, whether silken or woollen, and
leave the vegetable fibre untouched; the acids, on the contrary, separate the
vegetable fibre in solution, leaving untouched all animal matter previously
united with it; the above solution is then applicable to the formation of pulp
for paper making and other purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Louis Jullion in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
13th June 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE. PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
LOUIS JULLION, of Combe House, Tovil, in the County of Kent, Analytical
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Louis Jullion, Her special licence that I, the said John
Louis Jullion, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said John Louis Jullion, 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
"SEPARATING CERTAIN VEGETABLE FIBRES FROM MIXED FABRICS FOR VARIOUS
USEFUL PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Louis Jullion, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Louis Jullion, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):
:-
My Invention, which has reference to the treatment of fabrics composed
partly of animal and partly of vegetable fibres, as, for example, any fabrics
containing woolen or silken filaments in connection with flax or cotton, as is
the case with mousseline de laine, and other kinds of wearing apparel, and all
descriptions of carpeting and such like fabrics, has for its object to utilize the
refuse of such fabrics, by separating the vegetable fibre therefrom in such
manner that either the said vegetable fibre or the animal fibre may be obtained
in an integral or solid state, or a state of solution; or the nitrogen of the
animal fibre may be evolved for any manufacturing purposes for which the
said fibres or nitrogen respectively have hitherto been or may be found
serviceable. And in order to effect this object, I avail myself of the properties
of caustic alkalis and alkaline earths, on the one hand, by which I am enabled
to dissolve or decompose the animal matter in the said fabrics without affect-
ing the vegetable fibre; and of the property of acids, on the other hand, with
which, by the assistance of heat, a disorganisation of the vegetable without
affecting the animal fibre.
But in order that this my said Invention may be more fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I proceed to describe the several processes by which
it is to be performed, that is to say:-
Firstly, when I desire to separate the vegetable fibre in an integral con-
dition from the mixed fabrics by dissolving the animal matter, I effect this
object simply by causing the said fabric to be boiled for a sufficient time in a
solution of caustic alkali or alkaline earth; I prefer employing soda or lime
for this purpose, but any other alkali or alkaline earth may be substituted
with efficacy.
My Invention, having for its object, secondly, to separate the nitrogen of the
animal fibre in the said fabrics in a form available for manufacturing pur-
poses, is performed as follows:-I cause the material which is to be operated
upon to be placed in a close vessel of the kind ordinarily used in the manu-
facture of ammonia, together with such a quantity of alkali or alkaline earth
as may be found sufficient to effect the decomposition of the animal matter; I
then cause heat to be applied to the mixture in any suitable or convenient
manner, but preferably by passing steam at a high pressure through the whole
mass of fabrics; and I cause the ammoniacal vapor which is evolved by this

page_text: process to be condensed by any of the methods hitherto in use, as by passing
it into an acid, and thus forming a sort of ammonia; or by passing it into
water, and thus forming an ammoniacal liquor, from which the nitrogen may
be readily separated.
My Invention, having for its object, thirdly, to separate the animal matter
from the said fabrics in the form of a solid, is performed as follows:-The
materials to be operated upon are placed, together with the alkali or alkaline
earth, in an open vessel, and heated to about 180 degrees of Fahrenheit.
The resulting liquor is drawn off, and treated with a stream of carbonic acid,
or with a sufficient quantity of any other acid, to neutralize the alkali or
alkaline earth. By the above process, the animal matter contained in the
fabrics will be precipitated in the form of a fine powder, which may be col-
lected in a filter and dried for use. The quantities of alkalis or alkaline earths
necessary to effect the decomposition or solution of wool will vary with the
sample of rags to be operated on, because some rags contain more animal
matter than others; but when the ordinary stuff goods are employed, it may
be said, in a general way, that from three to four hundredweights of soda, or
from six to seven hundredweights of lime, will be required for the treatment
of every ton of goods. When alkalis, in preference to alkaline earths, are
employed for the treatment of the mixed fabrics, the said alkalis may be
recovered, for the purpose of obviating waste, by the process of evaporating
the refuse liquor to dryness, and heating the sediment to a red heat, and thus
recovering the alkalis for use; or by boiling the liquors with fat, so as to form
the well-known compound soap. When the animal matters in the fabrics are
required to be preserved intact, the separation is effected by wetting the
material with a solution of an acid, being either a vegetable acid, which I
prefer using myself, as tartaric or oxalic acid; or a mineral acid, as sulphuric,
muriatic, or nitric acid; or others may be employed for the purpose; and
heating the wetted mixture in a suitable chamber, by means of a jet of steam,
or in any other suitable method, to the temperature of 300 degrees of Fahren-
heit, by which process the vegetable fibre will in a very short time become
disorganised and rotten, so that the animal fibre may readily be separated by
any suitable mechanical contrivance; as, for instance, when the said animal
fibre is woolen, the wool may be combed out by means of a carding machine,
which will refuse the vegetable matter as dust.
Having now fully described the nature of this my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I would have it clearly under-
stood that I do not by any means intend to confine myself to the precise

page_text: details herein-before described, as the same might be varied without departing
from the general character of this my said Invention; but that which I do
claim as new, and of my said Invention, is, the separation of the vegetable
fibres herein-before mentioned from mixed fabrics, by the processes and for
the purposes herein-before set forth and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Louis Jullion, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
0
Witness,
JOHN LOUIS JULLION. (L.S.)
FRED R. D. CAMPBELL,
Clerk to Messrs. Weatherdon & Co.,
77, Chancery Lane.