IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING WOOL OR OTHER TEXTILE MATERIALS OR FABRICS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR SUCH PURPOSE
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Bristow Hunt at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th March
1871.—A communication from abroad by Auguste Féron-Flament,
of Roubaix, France.
I, BRISTOW HUNT, of No. 1, Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WASHING WOOL OR OTHER TEXTILE MATERIALS
OR FABRICS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR SUCH PURPOSE (a com-
munication from abroad by Auguste Féron-Flament, of Roubaix,
France), to be as follows:-
"
Whenever a solution of ordinary soap is mixed with a saline solution
there is formed immediately by double exchange an insoluble soap; and
my washing processes rest essentially upon the idea of the double
decomposition of soap in every saline solution with an earthy or metallic
base, the general results of which will be,―
First. To relieve waters from all saline substances in solution, whether
present naturally or added accidentally for industrial uses, and thus to

page_text: render these waters fit for all the purposes which require water perfectly
pure and absolutely compatible with soap.
Second. To preserve from every insoluble and deleterious deposit in
the operations of washing, bleaching, dyeing, dressing, or otherwise
preparing textile substances, aud particularly woollen fabrics impregnated
with soap.
Third. To withdraw from the baths in the state of carthy or metallic
soaps the fatty substances and the soluble soaps, and to set free the
potash or the soda.
And, fourth. To permit the application to the correction of certain
waters of saline reactives, which although economical and common have
been hitherto avoided in certain industrial employments from the sole
fear of the noxious effects which might result from their presence in
excess in the baths, these processes giving the means of dosing these
afters in an exact manner and without possible excess.
It must be distinctly understood that all the processes are deduced
from the chemical fact above enunciated.
.
Whenever a solution of ordinary soap is mixed with a saline solution
"there is formed immediately by double exchange an insoluble soap,"
and that this paragraph comprises them in all their gencrality.
Also whenever in the operations of washing, bleaching, finishing, and
dyeing the wool or other textile materials or fabrics impregnated with
soap are plunged in water containing salts of an earthy or metallic base
in solution, there is immediately formed on the fibres an insoluble pre-
cipitate forming a kind of plaster, and opposing itself energetically to the
action of the water and, the coloring matter, and hence ariso stains,
streaks, and other disastrious mishaps.
It may be here remarked that the Invention has special reference to
the manipulation of wool, particularly as regards the operations of
spunging or fixing, which immediately precede the dyeing of wool in
flocks, in thread, or in fabric, operations which have been hitherto effected
in waters impure and having no affinity with the soap which all wool
contains after the operation of combing.
Whenever the wool or other textile materials or fabrics have been
passed through a soap bath they should be well rinsed in pure water to
remove the excess of soap, which would be prejudicial to the subsequent
operations, but in ordinary practice this rinsing, always effected in water

page_text: more or less impure, only climinates the soluble soap by converting it
into a coating of insoluble soap which greases the fibres and deprives
them of all aptitude for absorbing water. It is therefore absolutely
necessary to employ none but perfectly pure water for removing the soap,
but all natural waters are more or less impure and contain in variable
proportions carthy or metallic salts in solution. The corrective agents
for these waters are numerous, but the soap alone can by combining
therewith remove from the water all matters not compatible with the
soap, though this reagent is very costly.
The above explanation concerning the rinsing and removal of soap
from substances has for its only object to fix the ideas by the example
of a particular application.
The present Invention is based on the employment of soap as an agent
for purifying the rinsing water, but under such conditions that it costs
absolutely nothing. It consists in utilizing the soap itself contained in
the materials to be cleansed, which soap has hitherto been completely
lost when rinsing in corrected waters, and was very prejudicial when
using natural or uncorrected water. To obtain this result a bath of
crude or natural water is corrected by any suitable reagent which com-
mences its purification, and this purification is completed by means of
a solution of ordinary soap. The water being thus deprived of all salt
capable of destroying or precipitating the soap the materials are placed
therein. The soap, with which they are impregnated, enters into
solution, runs into the bath, and the water becomes soapy. The bath
containing then an excess of soap, on adding thereto a certain quantity
of crude or natural water a reciprocal reaction takes place, and if tho
quantity of crude water added has been rightly proportioned the bath
will be neither soapy nor calcareous, but will be pure, and can be used
again for rinsing purposes. It will be understood that when once this
system is put in operation the same bath may serve indefinitely without
any new expense for reagents, each quantity of material furnishing all
the soap necessary for purification.
In order to render this process absolutely practical it is important to
provide a means whereby an ordinary workman can determine exactly
the quantity of crude water to be added to the soapy bath so that the
double exchange shall be effected, and there shall be no excess cither on
the one part or the other. For this purpose the Inventor has designed
a testing apparatus which he calls a "dosimeter," and which is based

page_text: on the property which soapy water possesses of only yielding on
agitation a persistent or lasting froth when it contains at least a ten-
thousandth part of free soap (that is, one decigramme of soap to the
litre).
The vat or vessel in which the operation is effected is provided with a
scale which divides the contents into equal numbered volumes. A
graduated bottle or flask is also divided into equal volumes.
Lastly. A graduated can is also divided and numbered in volumes
equal to those of the flask.
"
By means of the scale the number. of units of the volume of soapy
water in the vessel is ascertained, and the flask is then filled to the
corresponding division, then from the can of crude water filled to "zero
pour into the flask drop by drop until the moment when the frotli ceases
to be persistent; at this point it is known that thero is no salt which
will precipitate the soap and not a ten-thousandth part of soap in excess.
The quantity of crude water added may be read off both on the flask and
the can, which serves as a check in case some drops might be lost. If
the two numbers correspond it is certain that the test is correct, and it
only remains to pour into the vaț or vessel crude water until the level
attains the same division as in the flask.
For example, the bath is at 45, which significs that it contains 45 equal
volumes of soapy water. The flask is then filled to the division 45 with
this water. The can being filled to " zero "with crude water the latter
is poured therefrom into the flask until the froth ceases to be persistent ;
at this moment the flask marks 52, and the can 7, which indicates that
in order to correct the 15 volumes of soapy water 7 volumes of crude
water must be added. This crude water is then to be poured or
allowed to flow into the vessel until the level reaches tho 52nd division.
Tho flask is thus merely a reduction of the vessel. In case the vessel
should be too full, if for example, the scale only reaches 60, and that
having taken the test on a bath of 54 the flask indicates 03, a portion
of the bath must be removed in order to lower its level. The test is then
taken again and the bath being reduced to a level of (say) 50 volumes
the test would naturally indicate 58}.