IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CERTAIN VEGETABLE FIBRES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Spencer Pearsall at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th January 1872.-A communication from abroad by Howard
Devenish Pearsall, Civil Engineer, at present residing in Bankepore,
Province of Behar, India.
""
I, JOHN SPENCER PEARSALL, the younger, of Clapham Common,
in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of
my said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CERTAIN
VEGETABLE FIBRES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN,"
a communication to me from abroad by Howard Devenish Pearsall,
Civil Engineer, at present residing in Bankepore, Province of Behar,
India, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the preparation of fibre from Urtica
tenacissima, Botimeria nivea, and many other plants of similar nature,
and some of the processes are also applicable to plants of the flax
and hemp tribes, and the aloe and lily tribes, and generally to plants
bearing strong fibre for which the name rheca is generally used in this
Specification.

page_text: In carrying out this Invention the vegetable stems to be operated
upon are fed in a fresh state between two drums provided with projecting
ribs and caused to rotate simultaneously in near proximity to each
other, the drums being so operated that they seize the stems and draw
them through the space between them, but are not able to draw them
through at a velocity equal to that of peripheries of the drums them-
selves. This retardation of the progress of the material is effected by
feeding it through rollers a little in front of the drums, and which
rollers grip it tight by pressure of springs, or it may be effected in any
other convenient manner. The result is to entirely change the action
of the drums from a mere action of breaking the stems to a combined
action of breaking and scraping, and thus not only is the whole of the
boon extracted, but the greater part of the bark is also cleaned off the
stems at one operation.
The rheea after undergoing the above described treatment, or after
simply breaking in a rotary or other breaker, is fastened together in
hanks forming endless chains and suspended round a crank pin
revolving at a high velocity. A table or bracket or tables and brackets
are provided at one or more places in the path of the revolving hanks of
fibre, so that once or oftener in each revolution the hanks of fibre are
thrown violently on to the table or bracket, and their motion thereby
for the moment arrested. The effect of this is to cause a double rotation
of the hanks, first, with the crank pin flying out radially, and secondly,
round the crank pin, so that each part of the hanks is successively
brought in contact with the brackets.
The surface of the table or bracket is by preference cut into grooves
at, right angles to the plane of revolution of the hanks. The result
of this process is that the whole of the outer bark rapidly flics off the
fibrc.
The hanks may be tied up in any convenient way. One of the most
convenient is to tic the fibre in small bundles a few inches from each
end with a wisp of the fibre itself.
When necessary water is fed on to the hanks in course of their
revolution or while momentarily arrested by the brackets. The partially
cleaned fibre or fibres which has been simply broken in a rotatory
or other breaker is suspended in convenient bundles in loose order
in tubes or other convenient receptacles through which water is then

page_text: forced at a high velocity, by which the fibre is still further cleansed.
Sand may be mixed with the water to aid in its scouring power.
Carefully dried stems of rheea may also be first passed through a
pair of rollers which flatten them, then passed through a rotatory breaker,
and thirdly through a machine similar to that firstly herein described,
except that the projecting ribs have almost knife edges. The effect of
this is to break up at indefinitely small distances the hard gluten
which holds together the fibres and so to liberate them.
This object may otherwise be effected by passing the rheea through
two pairs of rollers at a small distance apart, and in the space between
which it is caused to pass over a knife edge or knife edges (which by
preference would then be of a serrated form) with pressure.