IMPROVEMENTS IN CHEMICALLY UNWEAVING TEXTILE FABRICS MADE OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR THE PURPOSE OF UTILISING BY COMBING SILK OR WOOL FILAMENTS THEREFROM
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Emile Gaudchaux-Picard, of Paris, Manufacturer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHEMICALLY UNWEAVING TEXTILE FABRICS
MADE OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR THE PURPOSE OF
UTILISING BY COMBING SILK OR WOOL FILAMENTS THEREFROM."
Sealed the 13th March 1877, and dated the 8th November 1876.
IN
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Emile Gaudchaux-Picard at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th November 1876.
EMILE GAUDCHAUX-PICARD, of Paris, Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS
CHEMICALLY UNWEAVING TEXTILE FABRICS MADE OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE
FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR THE PURPOSE OF UTILISING BY COMBING SILK OR WOOL
FILAMENTS THEREFROM."
In the processes heretofore employed for separating the animal fibre from the
vegetable fibre in waste textile fabrics containing a mixture of both kinds of fibre,
for the purpose of utilizing the wool or silk filaments thereof it has been necessary
to tear or cut the fabric into very small pieces in order to obtain the above-named
filaments in the necessary separated condition, and by this means the filaments
were reduced to such a small state that they were of little or no value for being used
again in the manufacture of fabrics.
My present Invention has for its object to obtain these wool or silk filaments
separated from the fabric of their full length, so as to render them applicable to the
processes of carding, combing, and the like, whereby they may be rendered available
for being again manufactured into threads, yarns, fabrics, or felts. For this purpose
I firstly sort the waste fabrics so as to separate therefrom those pieces in which
either the warp or the weft is wholly of animal fibre, while the weft or the warp is
wholly of vegetable fibre, and I make use only of these pieces, rejecting all those in
which the two descriptions of fibre are contained both in the warp and the weft.
Such sorted pieces I then subject to what may be termed a chemical process of
unweaving, that is to say, I destroy the warp or weft of vegetable fibre by treating
the fabric with sulphuric, nitric, or hydrochloric acid, or with any other known
substance that will destroy vegetable fibre, but will not act upon animal fibre ; but
by preference I employ for this purpose hydrochloric acid gas in a dry state. After
[Price 4d.]

page_text: washing or even without being washed the fabric so treated is reduced to such a
state of disintegration that by simply rubbing or slightly beating it the vegetable
matter will fall from it in a state of powder, leaving the wool or silk warp or weft
in its entire condition, in which it can then readily be subjected to the combing or
carding processes, or to other well known operations for converting the fibre into
threads, yarns, fabrics, or felts.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Emile Gaudchaux-Picard in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th April 1877.
"
IN
IMPROVEMENTS
EMILE GAUDCHAUX-PICARD, of Paris, Manufacturer.
CHEMICALLY UNWEAVING TEXTILE FABRICS MADE OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE
FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR THE PURPOSE OF UTILISING BY COMBING SILK OR WOOL
FILAMENTS THEREFROM."
In the processes heretofore employed for separating the animal fibre from the
vegetable fibre in waste textile fabrics containing a mixture of both kinds of fibre
for the purpose of utilising the wool or silk filaments thereof, it has been necessary
to tear or cut the fabric into very small pieces in order to obtain the above-named
filaments in the necessary separated condition, and by this means the filaments
were reduced to such a small state that they were of little or no value for being
used again in the manufacture of fabrics.
My present Invention has for its object to obtain these wool or silk filaments
separated from the fabric of their full length so as to render them applicable to the
processes of carding, combing, and the like, whereby they may be rendered available
for being again manufactured into threads, yarns, fabrics, or felts. For this purpose
I firstly sort the waste fabrics so as to separate therefrom those pieces in which
either the warp or the weft is wholly of animal fibre, while the weft or the warp is
wholly of vegetable fibre, and I make use only of those pieces, rejecting all those in
which the two descriptions of fibre are contained both in the warp and the weft.
Such sorted pieces I then subject to what may be termed a chemical process of
unweaving, that is to say, I destroy the warp or weft of vegetable fibre by treating
the fabric with sulphuric, nitric, or hydrochloric acid, or with any other known
substance that will destroy vegetable fibre, but will not act upon animal fibre; but
by preference I employ for this purpose hydrochloric acid gas in a dry state. After
washing or even without being washed the fabric so treated is reduced to such a
state of disintegration that by simply rubbing or slightly beating it the vegetable
matter will fall from it in a state of powder, leaving the wool or silk warp or weft
in its entire condition, in which it can then readily be subjected to the combing or
carding processes or to other well known operations for converting the fibre into
threads, yarns, fabrics, or felts.
My above described process of sorting the pieces of fabric and then chemically
acting upon only those pieces that contain animal fibre in the warp or weft only
has therefore the effect of obtaining the animal fibres therefrom in a perfect and
separated condition, and consequently of much greater commercial value than is the
case where the animal fibre obtained is still in an interlaced condition owing to its
existing both in the warp and the weft of the unsorted pieces of fabric, inasmuch as in
the latter case in order to obtain the fibres in a separated condition it is necessary to
tear or break them to a very small size of little or no value for the purpose of
weaving, whereas in the former case the fibre is produced in such a state that it can
at once be utilised for spinning and weaving.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I claim, the before described method of chemically
unweaving fabrics composed of animal and vegetable fibre by first sorting out the

page_text: pieces in which the animal fibre exists in the warp or the weft only, and then
chemically operating upon these pieces so as to destroy the vegetable fibre, and thus
obtain the animal fibre in an entire and separated condition suitable for being
subjected to the combing, carding, drawing, and other operations.
In witness whereof, I, the said Emile Gaudchaux-Picard, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.
EMILE GAUDCHAUX-PICARD. (L.S.)
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD, JR.,
Civil Engineer,
Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23,
à Paris.