IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING MIXED FIBROUS SUBSTANCES IN ORDER TO OBTAIN IMPROVED PRODUCTS THEREPROM. PARTS OF WHICH MEANS AND APPARATUS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES."
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Sherwood, of Hatcham, in the County of
Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND
APPARATUS FOR TREATING MIXED FIBROUS SUBSTANCES IN ORDER TO OBTAIN
IMPROVED PRODUCTS THEREPROM. PARTS OF WHICH MEANS AND APPARATUS ARE
ALSO APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Sherwood at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th
January 1866.
I, HENRY SHERWOOD, of Hatcham, in the County of Surrey, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF
AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING MIXED FIBROUS SUBSTANCES IN ORDER TO OBTAIN
IMPROVED PRODUCTS THEREFROM, PALTS OF WHICH MEANS AND APPARATUS ARE
ALSO APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
My Invention has for its object the separation of fibres of animal origin
from fibres of vegetable origin where mixed together in the same substances
(which consist chiefly of rags and cuttings of woven fabrics of waste yarns and
of burry wools) by such a method that the vegetable fibres are not destroyed
but are made available for paper pulp, and the animal fibres are obtained
Price 8d 1

page_text: unimpaired by the process either in strength, or color, or felting properties, or
where injured by previous use are improved in these qualities. Also the
preparation of the separated substances into a suitable state for use, as paper
pulp, and as fibres for carding, combing, spinning, or felting. Also the
preparation of all other fibrous substances not enumerated above, but for
similar uses and requiring partly the same treatment. Lastly, the application
of one part of the apparatus to other processes requiring the same products,
namely, smokeless heat and inflammable deoxidizing gases, such as to
generating steam, working of metals, lighting and heating purposes.
Heretofore rags composed of silk or wool with cotton or linen sewing have
had the vegetable fibres removed from them by cutting off the sewing, which
method causes a large loss of adhering silk or wool, and still leaving some
vegetable fibres in the rags, which fibres damage the goods manufactured from
such rags; and further, rags and cuttings composed of silk or wool woven
along with cotton or linen, as warp or weft, have had the vegetable fibres
removed by disintegrating them by means of an aqueous solution of acids or
other salts; also acids in a vaporized state, and in particular hydrochloric
acid have been attempted and claimed to be used for the same purpose, but
with the presence of aqueous vapour, or from the substances being intention-
ally moistened; both which means of disintegrating vegetable fibres cause
their destruction, and the partial destruction of animal fibres present, which
is evinced by their brittleness, loss of strength of felting properties and of
color. Lastly, raw wool mixed with vegetable matter, known as burry wool
or mestizo wool, has had the vegetable matter removed by the means last
mentioned with similar effects, or imperfectly removed by mechanical sepa-
ration with accompanying loss of wool. Now I have discovered that when
a chemical agent enters into union with some of the component elements
of vegetable fibres so as to destroy the cohesion of the fibres, it is only
in presence of aqueous particles, or in consequence of the agent, being
itself a hydrate, that their destruction and the partial destruction of
animal fibres takes place. I also find in practice that salts of the same
radicles as the oxy-acids now employed for that use, but holding in their
composition one equivalent less of oxygen than is combined in a salt which
has acquired acid properties by its union with aqueous particles, and that
hydracids, when completely anhydrous, produce no such injurious effects upon
fibres and coloring matters, and also possess in an increased degree the
property of destroying the cohesion of vegetable fibres, which effect, when
produced by such agents, is temporary and can be removed. Therefore
to totally obviate the disadvantages resulting from the present described

page_text: modes of treating such substances, and to accomplish the object of my
Invention I avoid cutting and mechanical separation, and in my process I make
use of,-
1st, the salts of acid radicles known as anhydrides, such as sulphuric
anhydride and an anhydrous hydracid, namely, chlorohydric, all in a
gaseous state, for the purpose of destroying the cohesion of vegetable fibres;
these gases I dilute with carbonic anhydride and nitrogen, also with
carbonic and nitric oxides and hydrogen, which are deoxidizing gases.
2nd, the apparatus which I use to prepare these chemical agents is chiefly
a furnace constructed on the downdraught principle of Cuyler, which I
modify thus I supply the air required by the furnace through a tube, by
which the air attains a determinate current and becomes a powerful draught
through the fuel. The usual products of the furnace are carbonic oxide and
nitrogen. Around and parallel with the sides of the furnace are flues
conveying air, which heats in its course, and (when admitted for that purpose)
mingles with the carbonic oxide and consumes it into carbonic anhydride.
If I wish to add hydrogen I drop water on the surface of the fuel. If
anhydrous chlorohydric gas I drop aqueous chlorohydric acid. I can also set
a retort beyond or within the furnace for the production of anhydrous chloro-
hydric gas by the same process or from the chlorides. When I need an
anhydride, as sulphuric, I can obtain it by distillation (in a small reverberatory
furnace placed beyond the furnace) of calcined sulphate of iron or of fused
acid sulphate of soda. This furnace, from the character of its products and
effects, and having the property of producing no smoke, and of consuming with
facility any carbonaceous substances of little value, such as wet peat, culm,
or spent tan, I also naturally apply with great power and economy for gene-
rating steam, for producing inflammable gases, and for smelting and refining
metals.
3rd, I employ the gases to disintegrate any vegetable fibres or matters by
submitting the substances to the action of the gases at a temperature of not
exceeding 80° centigrade, in a machine consisting of a square or other formed
receptacle of varnished wood or metal, through which the substances con-
tinually pass on sheets or spiked rollers, or down an inclined plane, or in
which they are dashed about and then removed. The substances are caused
to enter through a pair of air-tight rollers and to issue through a similar
pair, the object being to expose the substances to the action of the gases for a
fixed time, and to allow them to enter and issue without escape of the
gases. The gases are caused to enter the machine and leave it at opposite
parts,
↓

page_text: 4th, in order to separate the disintegrated vegetable from annual fibres,
when either is in the form of warp or weft, I submit the substances to the
action of a machine consisting of a series of pairs of rollers having fluted
surfaces which are immersed in water, and of which alternate pairs may have
a rising and falling motion given them. There is a space between each pair
through which space a current of water or of air is forced. The substances
are fed into the machine by ordinary feed rollers; the threads of animal fibre
being caused to enter in such a direction that the fluted rollers separate the
threads from each other, when the current of water or of air removes the
loosened vegetable fibres, which action is repeated through the entire series.
The water is constantly renewing by entry and exit cocks. The water
running from the machine is filtered to retain the vegetable fibres suspended
in it. This machine I also apply to the analogous use of removing
extraneous matter from vegetable fibres when preparing from their natural
state for spinning. In preparing the substances for their respective uses after
the separation of the animal and vegetable fibres.
5th, I regenerate the disintegrated vegetable fibres by means of their
alternate immersion in a solution of hypochlorite of alumina or soda
and of a sulphite of soda or of another base. For this purpose I make
fibres át a heat below
use of closed cisterns in which I treat the
100° centigrade, but under pressure of air or liquid of from 1 to 10
atmospheres, after which I wash and dry the pulp in the usual manner.
These means I also apply to preparing vegetable fibres from their natural
state for use as paper pulp, and for spinning. To prepare the animal fibres
into a suitable state for carding or combing I make use of two machines, the
first of which opens the animal substances into thready waste, and the second
takes all kinds of threads and loosens them. The first of these two machines
I also use to separate the disintegrated vegetable fibre from the animal fibres
when it is wished to do so in a dry state.
6th, this first machine I construct thus:-On a frame I place a roller or
swift which may vary three inches to any diameter, to this swift I attach
straight teeth which I prefer to place with their points leaning backwards
from the direction of the revolution of the swift. Immediately above the
feeding apparatus I work an apparatus consisting of a roller or rollers covered
with india-rubber or other moderately soft substance (or which I prefer, an
endless sheet running on rollers, which sheet may have a plain surface or
clothed with cards), and which is intended to be run at the same speed as
the points of the teeth of the swift, in the same direction and in contact with
them above this apparatus. I work a roller which may either brush the

page_text: opened substances from the machine or collect it on its surface to be removed
by any ordinary apparatus. The substances are received into the machine by
the feed rollers, caught between the points of the teeth of the swift and the
surface of the endless sheet or rollers, and by the contact of the surfaces
which are travelling forward are gradually drawn off in threads whilst held
by the feed rollers, and then removed from the machine by the brush described
above.
7th, the second machine, which is for the purpose of loosening the thready
waste, is composed of ordinary feed rollers receiving and presenting it to the
action of a swift of convenient diameter, whose surface consists merely of rods
stretched from side to side, six inches or more apart, and which swift works
within a similar one revolving in the same direction but at a slower speed.
These two swifts are analagous to and acting the parts of the swift and
workers of a woolley or a carding engine.
rods of the inner or lower swift whilst hanging in the rods of the outer or
upper swift; when it arrives at the opposite end of the machine it is caught
and withdrawn from the machine by a pair of toothed rollers, from which it is
doffed. I naturally apply these two machines to preparing for carding any
other fibres which have not originally been mixed.
The thready waste is dashed by the
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Sherwood in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th July 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
SHERWOOD, of Hatcham, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Sherwood, Her special licence that I, the said Henry Sherwood,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henry Sherwood, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING MIXED FIBROUS
SUBSTANCES IN ORDER TO OBTAIN IMPROVED PRODUCTS THEREFROM, PARTS OF WHICH

page_text: MEANS AND APPARATUS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES,"
upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Sherwood, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly 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 YE, that I, the said Henry Sherwood, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):---
My Invention has for its object the separation of fibrous substances com-
posed partly of animal fibres and partly of vegetable fibres or matter by
disaggregating the vegetable part without otherwise destroying it, and then re-
moving it from the admixture without injuring or in any way altering the animal
part. And further, the preparation of the vegetable fibres when so removed
into a suitable state for paper pulp, and the preparation of the animal fibres
into a suitable state for carding and for other uses, all which methods of pre-
paration are also applicable to other animal and vegetable fibres. These objects
I effect in the following manner :-
1st, I disaggregate the vegetable fibres by the action of an anhydride, or by
the action of an anhydrous hydracid both in a gaseous state. For this purpose
I find suphuric anhydride to be the most convenient of the anhydrides, and
anhydrous chlorohydric gas to be the most convenient of the anhydrous
hydracids. I prepare sulphuric anhydride by the known means of distillation
of the sulphates, or by the oxidation of sulphurous acid in contact with nitric
peroxide, as is practised in the manufacture of sulphuric acid. When pre-
pared in the latter way, the sulphuric anhydride is considerably diluted with
nitric oxide and with nitrogen, which are not detrimental to its action for this
use. I make use of the anhydride in a gaseous state at a heat of from 50 to 80
degrees centigrade. I prepare anhydrous chlorohydric gas (which I use at n
similar heat) by known modes from the chlorides; or, (which I find more
convenient and which enables the supply of the gas to be more easily
regulated) by passing vapor of aqueous hydrochloric acid through incandescent
carbonaceous fuel, when the oxygen of the water is taken into chemical com-
bination with the carbon of the fuel, and forms carbonic oxide (mingled with
carbonic anhydride), which, with the liberated hydrogen of the water, passes

page_text: over with the now anhydrous chlorohydric gas, which gases are not detrimental
to its action for this use. I employ these gases by passing the substances
containing vegetable fibres or matter through an atmosphere of one or more
of them, and retain the substances in it during one minute or upwards,
according to the substances. This operation I effect in the following manner :-
I cause the substances in a dry state to enter by a pair of air-tight rollers
(which I prefer to be of india-rubber) into a machine or box filled with the
gases, through which the substances pass continually on an endless sheet, or
on spiked or other rollers, or down an inclined plane to a similar pair of
rollers, at an opposite part of the machine, which pair retires them from it.
Or (which in many kinds of goods is preferable), the machine may be so
constructed as to dush the substances about in the atmosphere of the gases for
a given time, after which the substances are retired. This machine (of the
latter form of construction, of which I give an example by the Drawing,
Fig. 1) I can construct thus: To an ordinary willow I add near its top a
pair of air-tight rollers a, as wide as the swift e: between these rollers' I
introduce the substances into the machine, of which the swift is in continual
motion. I also add a similar pair of rollers b at the bottom of the machine,
between which the substances are made to pass out after a given time, by
turning these rollers by hand or otherwise.
the grate is cut away or formed into a door hinged at f to fall back when
required to permit the substances to fall on the rollers. The machine, which
is made air-tight and varnished internally or glazed, I fill with the gases by
a pipe inserted in any convenient part c, and I provide an outlet pipe at some
other part d. The action of the machine is thus:-The substances are
introduced by the rollers a, when they are seized and dashed about by the
swift e in the atmosphere of the heated gases, when their vegetable part
becomes disaggregated and capable of being removed in the state of powder,
They are then retired by the rollers b from the machine. The only object of
this machine (or of any of the many forms in which it may be constructed) is to
expose the substances to the action of the gases during a definite time, and to
prevent the escape of the gases into the atmosphere around, which gases are
continually changed by the ingress and egress pipes; but by the addition to
it of known mechanism it may also simultaneously dash out the disaggregated
vegetable fibres.
Immediately above the rollers
2nd, I can separate the disaggregated vegetable fibres from the animal
fibres by the usual mode of shaking the substances in a willow; but if they
be rags or cuttings, of which the warp or weft is of vegetable fibre, and also
some other kinds of substances, I prefer to submit them to the action of

page_text: improved machines by which to separate them, either in a dry state, as
described in part 4, by machine, Fig. 3, or by means of washing in water
by the machine represented by Fig. 2. This machine consists of a series.
of pairs of rollers a, a', which may be of any convenient material, and which
may have fluted or plain surfaces, and which are immersed in water
contained in a vat or cistern g. There is a space between each pair of
rollers and the succeeding pair, through which space a current of air or
of water entering at d is forced by means of a pump or fan. I prefer to give
to alternate pairs of these rollers, in addition to their continuous rotary motion,
a regular oscillating motion horizontally, in the direction of the length of the
roller; or the motion may be vertical. The length of the oscillation may be
from half an inch upwards. The mechanism required to produce the rotary
and the oscillating motion of the rollers is too well known to need description.
The action of the machine is thus:-The substances are fed on the endless
sheet h, which conducts them over the roller C, and by the action of the
sheet and the sheet (running on the rollers C¹) are conducted down to
and enter the first pair of rollers a, which do not oscillate; they then traverse
the space b to the second pair a¹, which do oscillate; and by the rubbing
motion produced by the oscillation the disaggregated vegetable fibre becomes
loosened, and is carried away by the current of air or of water passing through
the space. This action is continued through the entire series of pairs, which
need not generally extend to more than five. The substances are then by
conducted out of the machine.
the action of the sheets and the rollers c
I also produce the same result without any oscillating rollers by operating
with pairs of rollers (having narrow flutes encircling them, each meeting
itself or winding spirally around the roller) through which the substances
pass continuously, as before described. During the operation the water is
continually renewing in the cistern by entry cocks e, and as continually
flowing out by exit cocks f. This exit water is filtered to retain the vegetable
fibres suspended in it. The action of water is necessary to dissolve away any
adhering gases, but when it is undesireable to wet the animal substances I
place them in a willow in action for a few moments, of which the cavity is
filled with steam and ammonia vapor, which either absorb or neutralize any
adhering gases.
3rd, I prepare the disaggregated vegetable fibres into pulp for paper
making by immersing them alternately in a heated solution of a hypo-
sulphite or of a sulphite of soda or of potash, and a hypochlorite of lime
or of alumina or of soda. I repeat and prolong the immersions as much as
is necessary to regenerate their strength and to bleach them. For this

page_text: purpose I make use of closed cisterns, in which I treat the fibres at a heat
under 100 degrees centigrade, for heat is hurtful to them, but under pressure
of air or of liquid to a convenient degree, for pressure is beneficial to the
action of the agents on the fibres.
4th, I prepare the animal substances for carding and for other uses, primo,
by reducing them into separated threads; secundo, by loosening the separated
threads, in manner as follows:--
Primo, I convert the animal substances into a state of separated threads
(whether the disaggregated vegetable fibres have been previously removed
or now require removing in a dry state) by the use of a machine, Fig. 3,
which I construct thus:-On a frame a I place a roller or swift b, which
may be of any diameter and form of surface, but which I prefer to clothe
with teeth c, the points of which I prefer to lean more or less backward
from the direction of the revolution of the swift. In front of this swift I
place a feeding apparatus d, above which I work an apparatus consisting
of a roller or rollers, or an endless sheet e stretched on rollers f, f, and
having a surface plain or clothed with cards, which surface is intended to be
run at the same speed as the surface of the swift, and in contact with it;
this apparatus I call a "running nip." Above this I work a roller g, which
may either brush the opened substances off the swift and the running nip and
throw them out of the machine, or may collect them on its surface or on the
The action
surface of the swift, to be removed by any ordinary apparatus.
of the machine is thus:-The substances are presented slowly by the feeding
apparatus d to the swift b, are caught between the swift and the running
nip e, /, and by them are gradually drawn off in threads, which are removed
by the roller g.
Secundo, I loosen all separated threads into a suitable state for carding
and other uses by means of a machine, Fig. 4, which I construct thus:-The
surface of the principal swift of the machine b is composed simply of rods C
stretched from side to side, six inches or more apart. This swift revolves
rapidly within another similar swift d (of which the surface is also composed
simply of rods C'), which revolves slowly in the same direction, and of which
the rods take a circle of revolution d', closely without the circle b¹, taken by.
the rods of the inner swift. The inner swift is analogous to and performs
The outer swift
the part of the swift of a teazer or of a carding engine.
is analogous to and performs the part of the workers of these machines.
In front of and close to the outer swift I place a pair of ordinary feed rollers a.
At the lower part of the back of these swifts I place one or more toothed
rollers, which perform the part of doffer in the machines above mentioned.

page_text: Under these rollers I place a brush roller to remove the substances and
throw them out of the machine. For this roller I can substitute any other
doffing apparatus. The action of the machine is thus:-The substances
are presented by the feed rollers a to the rods of the outer swift Con
which they hang down, and are come in contact with by the rods of the
rapidly revolving inner swift C; these whip them quickly off and dash them
against the succeeding rods of the outer swift (centrifugal force causing them
to have an outward tendency), until the threads, which have now become
loosened, come in contact with the toothed doffing rollers e, which draw them
off and clear the swifts; they are then removed by the brush f.
Having described the means which I consider best adapted for effecting
the objects of my Invention I will now ascertain and define what is new
and of my Invention in the means and apparatus employed by me herein-
before described.
1stly, I claim to disaggregate vegetable fibres or substances by means of
their exposure to gaseous sulphuric anhydride and to anhydrous chlorohydric
gas, each used alone or together, or in mixture with other gases, especially
with nitric oxide, nitrogen, hydrogen, or carbonic oxide; but I do not claim
the use of vapors produced by evaporating the sulphuric or muriatic acids of
commerce, except the oxygen of the aqueous particles contained in those
vapors be first eliminated or caused to enter into chemical combination with
some other element to form an oxide.
2ndly, I claim in an apparatus necessary for making use of gaseous
agents, the combination of air-tight rollers (Fig. 1, a and b,) to receive
substances into an atmosphere of gases, and to deliver them from it with
any known mechanical arrangement applicable to receiving the substances
from the entering rollers, and delivering them to the issuing rollers (one of
such arrangements being given as an example e) acting substantially and
being capable of modification, as described.
3rdly, I claim to edulcorate fibrous substances by means of the com-
bination of pairs of rollers (Fig. 2, a, a',) fluted in any manner or plain, and
with or without a vertical or horizontal oscillating motion, between which
the substances pass to a succeeding pair with a current of air or of liquid (d)
or of both, passing through the substances whilst occupying the space (b)
between a pair of rollers and the pair next to it, acting substantially as
described.
4thly, I claim to separate fibrous substances from masses or bundles of
filaments into fibres or threads, by means of the combination of a swift
having any form of surface (Fig. 3, b,) with a "running nip" (e, f) which

page_text: consists of one or more rollers, or of an endless sheet running on rollers,
the surface of which endless sheet or rollers travels at about the same speed
as the surface of the swift, and in contact with it, acting substantially as
described.
5thly, I claim to loosen fibrous substances by means of skeleton swifts
(Fig. 4, b and d,) whose surfaces consist solely of rods (c, c¹) which are
stretched from side to side, which swifts I substitute for and which act the
part of the swift and workers in teazers and carders, the said skeleton swifts
being constructed and acting substantially as described.
6thly, I claim to prepare vegetable fibres and matter for their uses by
submitting them to the action of known agents in closed cisterns containing
liquids at a low heat (under 100 degrees centigrade), but under pressure of
air or of liquids.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Sherwood, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
RICH. SPRING RICE SIMPSON.
HENRY SHERWOOD. (L.S.)