IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BLEACHING OR LIXIVIATING FABRICS AND SKEINS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, of the Firm of
Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the
City of London, Patent Agents, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR BLEACHING OR LIXIVIATING FABRICS AND SKEINS."―A
communication from abroad by Auguste Scheurer Rott and
Scheurer Rott, fils, of Thann, France.
Sealed the 27th November 1868, and dated the 29th June 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Clinton Edgcumbe
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 29th June 1868.
I, CLINTON EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson,
Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London,
Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BLEACHING OR LIXIVIATING FABRICS AND
SKEINS," to be as follows:-
For bleaching cotton or other fibres, whether in skeins or in fabrics,
there are several existing modes of lixiviating or lye washing in the
open air or under pressure, it is to the latter that the present Invention

page_text: refers. One system much in use consists in causing the soda lye to
pass successively from one receiver or vessel to another by means of
steam pressure; the principle is good, but it has several defects; first,
because the apparatus is subordinate to the intelligence of the workman,
who must know and take advantage of the moment when the liquid
ought to pass from one vessel to the other; secondly, because in the
working of the cocks of the apparatus, which should be effected at a
certain time, an action takes place which may lead to explosion. The
system of lye washing by means of a Giffard injector is preferable, the
circulation is at least continuous, but it is more costly.
Now the present Invention differs entirely from the preceding, the
apparatus combines all the advantages without any of the defects above
alluded to.
The Invention consists in the employment of a pump placed outside
or inside the washing vessel, it draws the liquid from the lower part
and discharges it at the top of the vessel. In this manner a continuous
circulation at low or high pressure is obtained mechanically without
presenting any danger. Steam is introduced by a small pipe into the
body of the pump for the sole object of reheating the lye, the liquid
pumped up is thus constantly submitted to the direct action of the
steam, is reheated in proportion to its discharge, and acts in a uniform
manner on all the parts of the fabrics or skeins. The same apparatus
serves for lye of lime, soda, and colophany. The apparatus is provided
with a liquid gauge, one or more safety valves, and a manometer. There
is equilibrium in the pump, the pressure below the washing vessel is
nearly the same as that above, so that the pump has only to raise the
liquid and discharge it at the top of the vessel. The pump may be
an ordinary, a centrifugal, a rotary, or other convenient description of
nump.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 28th December 1868.
TO. ALL TO WHOM. THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CLINTON
EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Com-
pany, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent, send
greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, Her special
licence that I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Clinton
Edgcumbe Brooman, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR BLEACHING OR LIXIVIATING
FABRICS AND SKEINS," (communicated to me from abroad by Auguste
Scheurer Rott and Scheurer Rott, fils, of Thann, France), upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman,
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 Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
The object of this Invention is the construction of a bleaching of
lixiviating apparatus. with continuous circulation and pressure. The
essential feature is the employment of a lift, rotary; centrifugal, or other
description of pump placed either outside or inside the bleaching vessel.
For bleaching cotton or other fibres, whether in skeins or in fabrics,
there are several existing modes of lixivating or lye washing in the
open air or under pressure, it is to the latter that the present Invention
refers. One system much in use consists in causing the soda lye to
pass successively from one receiver or vessel to another by means of
steam, but this mode has several defects; first, because the apparatus
is subordinate to the intelligence of the workman, who must know and

page_text: pass
take advantage of the moment when the liquid ought to from one
vessel to the other; secondly, because in the working of the cocks of
the apparatus which should be effected at a certain time, an action
takes place which may lead to explosion. The system of lye washing by
means of a Giffard injector is preferable, the circulation is continuous,
but it is more costly on account of the escape of steam which is
employed to produce the circulation.
Now the present Invention differs entirely from the preceding, the
apparatus combines all the advantages without having any of the
defects above alluded to.
The Invention consists in the employment of a pump placed outside
or inside the washing vessel, it draws the liquid from the lower part
and discharges it at the top of the vessel. In this manner a continuous
circulation at low or high pressure is obtained without danger. Steam
is introduced by a small pipe into the body of the pump above the
piston for the object of reheating the lye, the liquid pumped up is thus
constantly submitted to the direct action of the steam, is reheated in
proportion to its discharge, and acts in a uniform manner on all the
parts of the fabrics or skeins. By this apparatus there can be obtained
in about 8 hours, with a pressure of say 3 atmospheres, a white
chemically pure and equal to that which is only obtained after 36 hours
boiling in the ordinary manner. The same apparatus serves for lye
of lime, soda, and colophany.
The accompanying Drawings represent an apparatus constructed
according to this Invention.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of the apparatus with a lift or plunger
pump fitted outside the bleaching vessel; Figure 2 is a side view of
the pump, and Figure 3 is a plan of the under side of the lower pipe
communicating between the pump and the vessel. A is the bleaching
vessel working under pressure; B, B, are columns on which the vessel
rests; C is the pump; D, a lower valve to retain the lye liquid in the
pump; E, the pump plunger provided with a valve F at the upper
part; G, the piston rod; H, the stuffing box; I, a rod connecting the
pump and the motive power; K, crank driven by pulleys X; L, the
pipe communicating between the pump and the upper part of the
vessel A; M, a gauge to show the liquid level; N, a safety valve, there
may be two of these if the vessel A be large; O, a manometer to show
the pressure in the vessel; P, a pipe communicating with the vessel in

page_text: which the lye is prepared in order that it may be introduced into the
vessel A by the pump (see Figure 3); Q, a cock to allow the lye to flow
off after the operation; R, a steam pipe from any convenient generator
and terminating in the upper part of the pump above the piston to
reheat the lye in its continuous circulation; S, represents the fabrics or
skeins. There is equilibrium in the pump, the pressure below or at the
lower part of the vessel A is almost the same as that above or at the
upper part, so that the pump has only to raise the liquid and discharge
it at the top of the vessel. The speed of the pump will be regulated
according to the capacity of the bleaching vessel.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the
construction of bleaching or lixiviating apparatus arranged and acting
substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of
December, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.