Improved Method of Bleaching, Dyeing, Washing, or Treating Fabrics and other Materials with Liquid, and Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Jan., 1898-Accepted, 12th Mar,, 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Method of Bleaching, Dyeing, Washing, or Treating
Fabrics and other Materials with Liquid, and Apparatus
therefor.
We, FRANZ ERBAN, of Höchst o/M., Chemist, and LUDWIG PICK, of Nachod,
Manufacturer, both in the Kingdom of Prussia, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
All the arrangements and apparatus hitherto known for bleaching, impregnating,
boiling, dyeing or treating fabrics and other materials have been subject to the
drawback that the circulating liquid by passing through the material and forming
channels at the points of least resistance acted in an unsatisfactory and uneven
manner. The circulation of the liquid not being uniform consequently the result
is an uneven dyeing, bleaching etc. This becomes especially apparent in bleaching,
in which case certain portions of the goods are not sufficiently or not at all attacked;
deprived of fat or bleached, whereby the material treated is often rendered of small
value.
All suggestions hitherto made for obviating this draw-back proved unsatisfactory.
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for obtaining a uniform action
by the circulating bath. The essential feature of the present invention consists in
changing the direction of the circulating liquid during the operation either
intermittently or continuously so that the direction of flow of the liquid in its
passage through the goods is successively altered whereby different parts of the
goods are at different times brought under the action of the circulating liquid.
The direction of inlet of the bath or circulating liquid is always changed during
the operation either suddenly or intermittently or in a continuous manner and
correspondingly or independently of it the position of the outlet is also changed so
that the direction of the liquid going from the inlet to the outlet is constantly
changing.
For the practical application of this process an apparatus is used into which the
liquid is supplied at different points through a perforated cover divided into compart-
ments or sectors, the space at the bottom (for instance in boiling vats) being divided
by means of concentric, axial or other walls, into chambers, each of which
communicates through a separate pipe or conduit with a distributing valve or cock
which connects them in an intermittent or continuous manner with the apparatus
(pump, injector, vacuum-vessel or the like) which causes the liquid to circulate.
The direction of circulation through the perforated cover can be altered so that
every part of the goods to be treated is repeatedly acted upon by the energetically
circulating liquid constantly changing its direction, so that any passages that may
have been formed when the liquid circulated in one direction, will be altered and
removed when the direction or flow is altered. When working according to this

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. A process for bleaching, washing or treating fabrics or other materials with
liquid in closed or open vessels consisting in introducing the liquid into the vessel at
constantly changing points in a continuous or intermittent manner and discharging
said liquid also at constantly changing points either in a continuous or intermittent
manner substantially as and for the purpose described.
2. Apparatus for use in carrying out the process according to Claim 1 comprising
a vessel for receiving the material to be treated, provided with a perforated base
or platform and a perforated upper plate divided into compartments radially, into
which the liquid is introduced through a rotatable pipe, the space under the
perforated tase being divided into separate chambers from each of which the liquid
can be successively pumped out or removed through corresponding pipe with or
without additional outlets and pipes from the sides of the vessel, through which latter
pipes the liquid can also be pumped out, or removed substantially as described.
3. In combination with apparatus of the character described a device by means of
which the liquid is successively pumped out through the different pipes comprising
a cock-casing with which all the pipes communicate and in which a cock plug
provided with a rotatable angular or inclined perforation or recess in such manner
that its perforation successively communicates with the separate pipes, substantially
as and for the purpose described.
4. The combination and arrangement of parts constituting the complete apparatus
for use in dyeing, bleaching, washing, or treating fabrics or other materials with
liquids, substantially as described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 20th day of January 1898.