IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF WOOL AND SILK, AND IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING STLE SO TREATED
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of the firm of
Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the
City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF WOOL AND SILK, AND IN MACHINERY
FOR PREPARING STLE SO TREATED."-A communication.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 26th August 1853.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of the firm of Robertson, Brooman,
and Company, of 166, Flect Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF WOOL AND SILK, AND IN MACHINERY FOR
PREPARING SILK SO TREATED," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, in the first place, to the treatment of animal
wool. As in some cases it is highly desirable to scour the wool with-
out the application of heat, I use for that purpose a sufficiently weak
solution of caustic alkali, through which the wool is passed, and in con-

page_text: tact with which it is agitated as long as necessary, or I add to the
soap water a small quantity of caustic alkali in solution. I prefer in all
cases the use of "butter soap" made by the action of a caustic alkali
on rancid butter; after the use of caustic alkali I generally pass the
wool through a weak acid bath before final washing.
To prepare animal wool for dyeing, either alone or in combination or
mixture with flax, hemp, jute, cotton, phormium tenax, or any other
vegetable fibre, I dip it, either alone or when nixed with the vegetable
fibres, first in a weak solution of caustic alkali, and then into some
acid, unless in the subsequent operation of dyeing the colour or mordant
should possess decidedly acid properties. I find that picric or carbazotic
acid and its salts are excellent mordants for animal wool when mixed
with vegetable fibre.
:
To prevent the milling or felting of wool after scouring, and at the
same time to open and bleach it to a certain extent. I clip it (after
scouring either in the ordinary way or according to my method
described above) in; a solution of some carbonate or other gas-yielding
salt. I then immerse it in acid such as weak sulphuric, so as to liberate
carbonic acid or other clastic gas.
'
The improvements relate also to animal silk: thus, in the treatment
of certain descriptions of silk, such as cocoon silk, wild silk, &c., I
find it useful to boil with a small quantity of caustic alkali, and after-
wards to add butter sonp or other soap, to which I also add a small
quantity of caustic alkali. After boiling, in.order to open the cocoons,
I employ the process of gaseous expansion to the decomposition, for
instance, of a carbonate by means of a weak acid, the liberated gas
separating and bleaching the animal fibres. I sometimes use an acid
salt, such as alum or the sulphate of alumina, to decompose the
carbonates.
.
For opening and preparing the description of silk above mentioned
I use machinery similar to tow-carding machinery, or, in other words, I
employ for those operations on the silk, which are now done principally
by hand, machines which are used for opening, cleaning, or carding flax
and hemp tow, as well as also cylinders covered with ribands of pointed
cards with straight teeth.
The following-is the description of a machine which I have found to

page_text: be particularly well adapted for opening, cleaning, and dressing the
descriptions of silk above referred to. It consists of a large cylinder A,
covered with card cloth, having straight and pointed teeth of the size
ordinarily employed on tow cards. Placed so as to work sufficiently near
to the large cylinder is a smaller one B, covered also with cards of simi-
lar description to those on the large cylinler, and working in the same
direction but at a different speed. The cocoon silk is laid on the end-
less towel C, C, moved by the rollers D, D, and is drawn between the
fluted rollers E, E, from whence it is caught by the cards on the
revolving cylinder A. After passing over the cylinder the silk is con-
veyed to the rollers F, F, and is deposited on the towel G, G.
As a dressing for silk I propose to use a soap formed of wax or
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 25th February 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of the firm of Robertson, Brooman,
and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in
the seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Richard Archibald
Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said Richard Archibald
Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, ad-
ministrators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE TREATMENT OF WOOL AND SILK, AND IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING

page_text: SILK SO TREATED," communicated to me by a foreigner residing abroad,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Archibald
Brooman, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
sanie to be filed in the Great Scal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:
.
Firstly, the Invention relates to the treatment of animal wool. As
in some cases it is highly desirable to scour the wool without the
application of heat, I use for that purpose a sufficiently weak solution
of canstic alkali, through which the wool is passed, and in contact with
which it is agitated as long as necessary; or I add to the soap water
employed for scouring the wool a small quantity of caustic alkali in
"made by the
solution. I prefer in all cases the use of "butter soap
action of a caustic alkali on rancid butter. After the use of caustic
alkali I generally pass the wool through a weak acid bath before final
washing.
To prepare animal wool for dyeing, either alone or in combination
or mixture with flax, hemp, jute, cotton, phormium tenax, or any other
vegetable fibre, I dip it, either alone or when mixed with the vegetable
fibres, first in a weak solution of caustic alkali, and then in some acid,
unless in the subsequent operation of dyeing the color or mordant
should possess decidedly acid properties.
I find that picric or carbazotic acid and its salts are excellent
mordants for animal wool when mixed with vegetable fibre.
.
To prevent the milling or felting of wool after scouring, and at the
same time to open and bleach it to a certain extent, I dip it (after
scouring either in the ordinary way or according to the methods
described above) in a solution of some carbonate or other gas-yielding
salt. I then immerse it in acid, such as weak sulphuric, so as to
liberate carbonic acid or other elastic gas.

page_text: Secondly, the Invention relates to the treatment of animal silk. In
the treatment of certain descriptions of silk, such as cocoon silk, wild
silk, &c., I find it useful to boil it with a small quantity of caustic
alkali, and afterwards to add butter soap or other soap, to which is also.
added a small quantity of caustic alkali. After boiling, in order to.
open the cocoons, I employ the process of gaseous expansion by the
decomposition, for instance, of a carbonate by means of a weak acid,
the liberated gas separating and bleaching the animal fibres. I some-
times use an acid salt, such as alum or the sulphate of alumina, to
decompose the carbonates.
For opening and preparing the descriptions of the silk above
mentioned I use machinery similar to tow carding machinery, or, in
other words, I employ for those operations on the silk, which are now
done principally by hand, machines which are used for opening, clean-
ing, or carding flax and hemp tow, as well as also cylinders covered
with ribands of pointed cards with straight teeth. The annexed,
Drawing represents in sectional elevation and plan a machine which
I have found to be particularly well adapted for opening, cleaning, and.
dressing the descriptions of silk above referred to. It consists of a
large cylinder A, covered with card cloth, having straight and pointed
teeth of the size ordinarily employed on tow cards. Placed so as to.
work sufficiently near to the large cylinder is a smaller one B, covered.
also with cards of a similar description to those on the large cylinder,
and working in the same direction, but at a different speed; the
cocoon silk is laid on the endless apron C, C, moved by the rollers
D, D, and is drawn between the fluted rollers E, E, from whence it is
caught by the cards on the revolving cylinder A. After passing over
the cylinder the silk is conveyed to the rollers F, F, and is deposited
on the apron G, G, in a prepared state.
As a dressing for silk I employ a soap formed of wax or stearine,
which is afterwards to be decomposed in the fibre by means of an
acid of any description capable of acting on it without injuring
the silk.
I have not stated any particular proportions of the ingredients
which have been directed to be employed, as these will vary with

page_text: .. circumstances, and; as a general rule, must be left to the discretion
of the operator.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is,-..
First, the employment of caustic alkaline solutions for scouring
animal wool, and the addition of caustic alkali to soap solutions em-
ployed for the like purpose.
Second, the preparation of animal wool, alone or mixed with
vegetable fibres, for dyeing, by immersing it in a caustic alkaline
solution, and subsequently in acid or an acid solution.
Third, the employment of picric or carbazotic acid and its salts as
mordants for animal wool mixed with vegetable fibres.
Fourth, the preparation of animal wool, after scouring, by immersing
it in a solution of some carbonate or gas-yielding salt, and subsequently
in an acid or acid solution.
Fifth, the treatment of cocoon silk, wild silk, &c., by boiling it in a
caustic alkaline solution, with the subsequent addition thereto of butter
or other soap, alone or mixed with caustic alkali, and the treatment of
such silk, after boiling, by decomposing therein a carbonate or gas-
yielding salt by means of an acid or salt having an acid reaction, such
as alum or sulphate of alumina.
Sixth, the. machinery for opening and preparing silk represented in
the Drawing annexed, and herein-before described; and,
Seventh, the employment for dressing silk of a soap formed of wax
or stearine, which is decomposed in the fibre by means of an acid.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of
February, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.