IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING FIBRES FROM TEXTILE PLANTS
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALBERT
DÜMMLER, of Mark Lane, in the City of London, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of
January (One thousand eight hundred and fifty), in the thirteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Albert Dümmler, my exors, adññors, and assigns, Her especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Albert Dümmler,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Albert Dümmler,
my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein ex-
pressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING FIBRES FROM TEXTILE PLANTS," communicated to
me from abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I,
the said Albert Dümmler, should cause a particular description of the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is be performed, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Albert Dümmler, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention
communicated to me, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
are fully described and ascertained in and by the following. description,
reference being had to the Drawings and the letters marked thereon, that is
to say:-
The Invention consists of means of extracting the fibres from textile plants
by submitting them to a rotary friction between toothed surfaces parallel to the
direction of the fibres contained in these plants. And I would remark, that in
the Drawings similar letters are used for similar parts in the different Figures.
By the employment of mechanical means, to be afterwards described, I separate,
without any chemical aid, the woody and the pulpy parts of the filaments
which cover and which are also within the plants; and the character of the
Invention is the giving motion to horizontal and circular toothed surfaces,
which movement may be either continuous, rotary, or to and fro; one of these
surfaces is to be moved at a varying speed and the other surface fixed, or, if
moved, to be moved in a contrary direction. The plant to be treated is to be
placed in the machine in such manner that the teeth act at the same time
upon all parts as a press, and the woody parts which are interposed amongst
the fibres are broken, and each fibre is shaved transversly off the pulp which it
contains. The machinery heretofore employed for triturating plants has
consisted of graters, stampers, or rollers, or with teeth, but always acting
perpendicularly to the direction of the filaments. The size and distance at
which the horizontal teeth are apart will vary according to the tenuity of the
plant to be treated, of the fibres contained, and of the quantity of pulpy or the
woody parts which it contains.
As an illustration, I will first describe an arrangement of machine which
may be worked by hand. And I would remark, that I prefer to operate upon
the banana, although my Invention is applicable to other textile plants.
Drawing Fig. 1 shows the mechanical arrangement for extracting the fibres
from the plants. A and C are two plates having their surfaces serrated, form-
ing a slight angle. Attached to to the upper plate are two handles by which
a to and fro movement is to be given by the hands of the workman, the under
plate being fixed for the sake of illustration. We will suppose that we
are operating upon the banana plant, which is to be cut into strips after the
head and root of the tree is removed, and these strips are to be placed parallel
to the teeth between the plates, and the movement given by the workman to
the upper plate is sufficient to separate the fibres from the pulpy parts. By
this process a workman may obtain five or six pounds of fibres in a state to be

page_text: spun per day, and it may be left in this state, or it may be separated whilst in
a damp state into different qualities. The same system will be used with other
description of plants.
Figure 2 shows another arrangement in which the movement is to and fro,
by which a greater amount of products may be obtained. A is the moveable
plate, and B the fixed one. The teeth of these plates are the same as those in
Figure 1. H is a groove in which slides a roller C, which holds on each side
the two plates, the one over the other, so that the teeth may pass without
reacting. D is a weight which acts upon the plate A and accelerates its
movement, when by means of the handle E the workman passes it through the
space from a' to 6'. The strips of plants are placed upon the lower plate, as
in the other machine, and in a few moments are rolled, pressed, and broken,
the plants being pressed longitudinally between the teeth, at each movement
one tooth of the rolling surface rises upon the corresponding tooth of the under
plate, and thus will the fibrous matter between them be broken by the weight
of the upper roller. The upper part of the teeth tear the teguments which
bind the fibres amongst themselves, and the tops of the teeth trim the fibres
by a rotary movement.
Figure 3 shows another arrangement of machinery which is intended to be
noved by manual labour. This machine is so arranged that the plant to be
treated may be supplied and acted upon by continuous pressure, and may be kept
supplied without stopping the machine; and it is composed of a cylinder A,
the surface of which is serrated; and there is another surface B, which
extends over three quarters of the circumference of the cylinder. The plant
to be operated upon is introduced between these two surfaces at the place
where the arrow is shewn; and there is also another arrow to indicate at what
part of the machine it is removed. B is the fixed toothed surface, not acted
on in the rotary movement of the cylinder, but sufficiently flexible to yield
when the matters are passing between the teeth. The construction of this
part B is composed of a serrated plate, having spaces left between the teeth
for the passage of the juice that may come from the plants, and it is bolted to
the part c, which is sufficiently flexible to allow of the passage of the strips of
the plants when it is submitted to the action of the teeth, in a similar manner
to that before described of other machinery. H and H' are rods attached to
the part c; at each end of the rod H is a hook which receives a cord or chain
which passes over a pulley K, which pulley turns upon the rod H. L is a
weight suspended to the end of the cord, and which draws down the upper
part B, and closes at the same time the lower part. L', L', are weights
attached to cords or chains, which are hooked under the piece B at x, passing

page_text: over the pullies K¹, and closing the lower part of the piece B against the
cylinder A, and so relieving and distributing the pressure. I is a small board
which is always kept in a perpendicular position by means of the springs S.
When the matters are too thick to pass between the teeth this board is moved,
which causes it to take in the strips of the plants. G are two fly wheels.
V, V, are two uprights resting upon the blocks M, upon which the machine is
placed when required to be put into operation. O is the handle, by turning
which motion is given to the cylinder, as will be readily understood by
examining the Drawings.
.
The machines which have been described are those which are capable of
being worked by hand; but I will now describe those which are intended to
be worked by steam or other power, by which a greater quantity of produce
may be obtained. And here, before giving a description of the machine, it
will be as well to explain that there is a difference which exists in the nature
or character of the different textile plants, for it will be evident that the
arrangement of the machines cannot be the same when treating the banana,
the gravity of which is forty or sixty pounds, and which is found in abundance
in the Colonies, and palm found in Africa; but the machinery now to be
described is more particularly intended to operate upon the banana plant, and
the plant is always introduced to the serrated surfaces with the fibres parallel
to the teeth. The branches may be treated whole or divided into parts, if
there should be much gummy matter in it, in order that it may be the more
readily extracted.
Figure 4 shows a cross section, and Figure 5 an elevation of a machine
constructed according to this Invention. A is a cylinder having toothed or
serrated surfaces, and which is near the height of the tree to be cut, and the
head removed. The part B is also toothed or serrated, divided into parts
which are fixed and parts which a moveable, but which do not revolve with
the cylinder A, as described in the preceding machines. The moveable part C
is about one third of the surface of the piece B; the largest teeth are at the
entry and are reduced up to the point of departure. The point of entry and
departure of the material is indicated by the arrows. The piece B, which is
apart from the cylinder A at the entry, approaches progressively up to the
point where the part C commences, then the teeth would be in contact if they
would not slide over a turned part N of the cylinder, which allows the teeth to
move without taking into each other. This moveable part of the piece B is
composed of toothed plates or surfaces, similar to those described in the hand
machine attached to the iron piece C³, one end of which rolls upon the axis P
and the other end upon the rod H, where it will be seen there is a cord or

page_text: chain which passes over a pulley K, and to the end of the cord is suspended
the weight I, which brings back the moveable piece C over the cylinder.
The banana is to be placed upon the piece M, which is an inclined plane, and
from thence is past between the teeth of the cylinder and the piece B. E is a
wedge piece which extends the whole length of the cylinder, and to which are
attached spiral springs E' and guides e. This piece is drawn down upon the
banana (already introduced between the teeth) by a flexible cam F attached
to the cylinder, which causes it to enter between the teeth, and then by the
action of the spring it is raised again at each revolution of the cylinder; the
cam acts upon the wedge piece E to aid in forcing between the teeth a fresh
portion of the banana. This machine is mounted upon two pieces of wood,
which are firmly fixed to the masonry so as to give a solidity, and it is
preferable to place the machine across a canal. I are two metal cross picces
to which the piece is bolted, as shown. To facilitate the labour of separating
the filaments and the pulp water is of great assistance with the greater part of
textile plants. A pump may be so arranged and worked by the power of the
engine, and caused to throw water constantly upon the cylinder, and this water
will carry away into the canal under the machine the pulpy matter, which may
accumulate in the lower reservoir o, and these matters may be afterwards
withdrawn and dried in the open air, and will be found to be useful as a fuel.
In witness whereof, I, the said Albert Dümmler, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty.