AN IMPROVEMENT IN BLEACHING VEGETABLE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN BLEACHING VEGETABLE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES." -A
communication from abroad by Charles Louis Joseph Coinsin-
Bordat, of Paris, France.
Scaled the 4th February 1876, and dated the 18th August 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Melville
Clark at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 18th August 1875.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN BLEACHING VEGETABLE FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:
This Invention relates to a process of bleaching all kinds of vegetable
textile materials, such as cotton, hemp, flax, jute, straw, wood, various
kinds of pulp for paper, and seaweed, by the employment of a com-
position specially prepared, as hercin-after described.

page_text: To prevent the bath depositing, care is taken to pass the liquid through
the substances from time to time, a pump or syphon being employed
for the purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alexander Melville Clark in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 18th February 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Alexander Melville Clark,
Her special license that I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Alexander Melville Clark, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
BLEACHING VEGETABLE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," a communication to me from
abroad by Charles Louis Joseph Coinsin-Bordat, of Paris, France, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Melville
Clark, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should parti-
cularly 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 VE that I the soid Alavandon Malmill

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to a process of bleaching all kinds of vegetable
textile materials, such as cotton, hemp, flax, jute, straw, wood, various
kinds of pulp for paper, and seaweed, by the employment of a com-
position or paste specially prepared, as herein-after described.
The advantages resulting from this Invention are a great saving of
time, material, and labor, and more especially that the materials sub-
jected to the action of this paste are not injured as when chlorine is
employed directly. On the contrary the product besides being rendered
surpassingly white is stronger and of greater purity than before.
The action of the paste is more especially to destroy the resinous and
soluble portion of the materials, so that after all the foreign matters are
dissolved there remains only the bleached fibre, which may be readily
spun and woven, and presents the appearance of wool or silk, according
to the kind of raw material treated.
In bleaching with chlorine by the ordinary process the vegetable
fibres are deteriorated, whereas the paste of this Invention simply
completes the treatment commenced by the alkalies, and the small
proportion of chlorine acting at the proper moment destroys the color
without having time to deteriorate the substance, protected as it is by
the other materials added to the composition.
The paste is prepared as follows,—
1st. I dissolve in a sufficient quantity of water one part of soap
having a base of soda, potash, or in some cases of ammonia.
2nd. I grind together one part of soda crystals with one part of chloride
of lime. These substances are moistened and carefully worked up, to
form a paste, and allowed to remain for about 24 hours, during which
time fermentation takes place, the mass first becoming very stiff, after
which it softens.
3rd. I then carefully mix this paste with the soap solution, and after
well working or stirring the same together it forms a paste, which
is made into cakes, or sold in casks for use in the manner herein-after
described.
4th. In certain cases the proportions of the above ingredients may be
modified according to the nature of the substance to be treated by
slightly increasing the quantity of soda.

page_text: I find that, in the same way that soap added to the hypo-chlorites
assists the bleaching of and prevents injury to the vegetable fibres,
solutions of fatty acids or their congeners, such as pyroligneous acid
on the one hand, and glycerine and its congeners, such as alcohol on the
other hand, also protect and assist the bleaching of vegetable fibres.
The selection of the reagent to be mixed with the hypochlorites and
the proportion used will depend on the substances to be bleached; I
therefore reserve the right of adding the above organic reagents to the
hypochlorites for the purpose of rapidly bleaching the fibrous substances
without injuring them.
The following is the mode of employing the paste :-I dissolve, with
or without the aid of heat, 1 part of the paste in 8 or 10 parts of river
water; the mixture is stirred, and the textile substances to be bleached
are steeped therein from 24 to 48 or 60 hours, according to the material
under treatment, and the degree of bleaching desired.
To prevent the bath depositing, care is taken to pass the liquid through
the substances from time to time, a pump or syphon being employed
for the purpose.
Having described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be
protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
use, for bleaching vegetable textile materials, of chloride and of soda
or potash together with a soap of any kind, also the employment as
reagents of fatty acids or their congeners, and glycerine and its con-
geners, the Invention consisting essentially in the addition of the soap
or the other reagents specified to the other substances mentioned, in
order to prevent the deterioration of the textile materials under
treatment, as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of February,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-