IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WASHING WOOL
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th May
1866. A communication from abroad by Julien Désiré Houget and
Charles Teston, both of Verviers, in the Kingdom of Belgium.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR WASHING WOOL," a com-
munication to me from abroad by Julien Désiré Houget and Charles Teston,
both of Verviers, in the Kingdom of Belgium, to be as follows:-
This Invention has reference to a peculiar arrangement or combination of
machinery or apparatus for washing, and cleansing wool, and consists in the
employment for that purpose of a number of troughs or vats arranged and
used in the manner berein-after described, in which vats the wool is suc-
cessively stéeped, scoured, and rinsed, such operations being conducted con-
tinuously by self-acting mechanism. The first vat employed for steeping merely
is divided into compartments by a longitudinal division, and the wool. is
plunged by hand into hot water contained in both the compartiments of this vat.
During the time the wool is steeping in the one compartment the attendant
removes it from the other and places it upon an endless cloth, which conveys

page_text: it between a pair of squeezing rollers. From these rollers it is carried by
another endless cloth to the second vat of the series. This vat serves to
scour the wool and remove the grease therefrom. It contains a hot alkaline
liquor and two mechanical rakes which cause the wool to pass slowly through
the vat, on arriving at the end of this vat the wool is seized by a revolving
apparatus herein-after described, and which we term the "transferrer" as its
function is to transfer or lift the wool from one vat to another. The "trans-
ferrer" having taken up the wool in the vat last referred to, places it upon an
endless cloth which conveys it to a second pair of squeezing rollers, which
deliver it to a third vat precisely similar to the preceding one, and provided
with the same rakes for moving: the wool along, from which vat it is again
removed by a "transferrer" and conveyed to a third pair of squeezing rollers
which deliver it to a receptacle whence it is removed by hand to be thrown
into the rinsing machine.
.
This machine consists of a vat provided with mechanical rakes like the
preceding vats, but which rakes are made shorter than the former ones, and
are driven at a greater speed, their object being to turn over and agitate the
wool in the water of the vat. Having been sufficiently rinsed the wool is
removed from the vat by a "transferrer," similar to those previously referred
to, and placed in a vessel or receptacle.
In order that the apparatus may be capable of washing a larger quantity of
wool it is necessary that the different vats be sufficiently wide, (say about 6
feet), but since the amount of wool moved onwards by the rakes towards the
squeezing rollers would be insufficient to properly supply the endless feeding
cloths of such rollers if they were made of the full width of the vats it is
proposed to contract the vats at their delivery ends to about one half the width
of the remaining portion of the vats, and to make the length of the squeezing
rollers equal to the width of such contracted portion. The inner sides of the
vats moreover are so inclined as to cause the wool to collect or gather together
in the contracted portion referred to, whereby it may be taken up in sufficient
quantity by the "transferrers" to keep the squeezers well supplied. The
"transferrers" which have been herein-before alluded to are all of the same
construction, and each consist of two rakes oscillating on the ends of two
rams or levers which are fixed at their longitudinal centres upon a horizontal
shaft, which receives a slow rotatory motion (say 5 or 6 revolutions per minute)
by means of toothed gearing or an endless chain. Each rake has a curved
arm or cam formed thereon, which at the moment the rake after having
entered the vat is about to leave it again presses against an antifriction pulley
carried by the supports of the revolving shaft, and thereby cause the rake to

page_text: pivot or oscillate on its centre and pass above the endless feeding cloth, upon
which it deposits the wool.
In order to facilitate the detaching of the wool the upper surface of the
rake is composed of a box which scoops up the liquid of the vat and discharges
it again just as the wool is to be delivered, the flow of such liquid from the
box ensuring the detachment of the wool from the rake.