IMPROVEMENTS IN BLEACHING FLAX AND HEMP
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRI
and ALEXANDRE SIX, of Wazemmes les Lille, temporary of South Street,
Finsbury, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, 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 Twenty-fourth day of
March (One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one), in the fourteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Henri and Alexander Six, our exors, adññors, and assigns, Her
especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Henri
and Alexander Six, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as we, the
said Henri and Alexander Six, our exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in
all in Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, our Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BLEACHING FLAX AND HEMP;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that we, the said Henri and Alexander Six, shall cause

page_text: a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, to be inrolled in Her said
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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Henri and Alexander Six, do hereby declare the nature of our said invention,
and the manner of performing the same, are particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following description thereof, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists in improved means of bleaching, firstly, the fibrous
parts of flax and hemp (but principally flax) in the straw, that is to say, in all
the original length of the plants before being peeled.
Secondly, flax which has been only partially peeled, so as to leave a certain
portion of straw, which is peeled off after the bleaching.
Thirdly, flax after being completely peeled, and reduced to the state of fibre,
as it is generally found in commerce before being spun or combed into flax
before being spun.
And in order to make our Invention more easily understood. we have
divided the description unto three separate heads answering to the a e order,
and which we will proceed to describe successively.
Firstly, we employ a continuous system, which consists in subjecting flax
and hemp in the straw, when once placed in the vats, to all the chemical
operations which are usually employed for obtaining the different degrees of
whiteness, without changing their position until the bleaching is entirely
completed. The flax is placed in the vat upon a false bottom, disposed in a
suitable manner for being raised by means of a crane, pulley, or other analogous
means. The flax may be agitated in the vats, or withdrawn therefrom, according
as it may be deemed expedient.
Secondly, we apply the bleaching processes to flax, which is partially divested
of its straw, and in that case we allow the straw to remain on to the height of
eight inches, more or less, at the foot of the plant, and we complete the
peeling operation after the matters have been bleached. This mode of operating
has the advantage of preserving the flax in a more natural and more advan-
tageous condition;
in that state the matters form much less tow in combing
than those that have been bleached after being peeled completely.
Thirdly, we make use of hurdles for the bleaching of flax, either partially or

page_text: or after being combed, as herein before-described in the
imension of the hurdles vary according to the vats in which
; they may be made of wood, metal, or any other material,
of an assemblage of laths made in the form of combs, and
e of one half-inch to two inches apart. The Drawing in the
margin shews one of the combs composing the said hurdles.
The teeth are about one inch to two inches in height, are
pointed, and are at their base about 1/2th inch in diameter,
and they serve to produce apertures through the layers
of flax, thereby preventing the matters being clogged
together, and also facilitating the filtration of the liquors
employed, and with which the flax should be well 'im-
pregnated in order to secure as much as possible an uni-
form bleaching. These frames serve to spread out the flax
in layers varying in thickness, and are placed one upon the
other in the bleaching vats until the latter are full. The
pressure arising from the superposition is entirely obviated
as the teeth or points of the hurdles at the bottoni support
those above, and thus successively until the last; by that
means the flax is left free between the various hurdles in
such wise that the pressure of those at 'the top do not
prevent the bleaching agents from penetrating with as
much facility through the matters at the bottom of the vat as
those placed above. The same result may be obtained
e hurdles without teeth, made of wicker work, wood, or in
manner, and placing them in the same position as above
aken to place a small cross piece between them to prevent
upper hurdles on the flax placed on those below. If we
ind of hurdle, we take care to introduce through the
ods about 1/4th of an inch in diameter, which facilitate
liquids through the matters to be bleached.
advantages resulting from the different modes of bleaching,
bed, consists in obtaining the flax after bleaching in such a
condition as to permit it to be spun as easily as if it had
to a sleeping operation. The flax bleached by our process
and more beautiful thread than that which is bleached
the raw state.

page_text: The vats are provided with a false bottom, pierced with holes, and set at
a distance of four to eight inches from the real bottom, and between the
latter and the false bottom a steam pipe is set, in order to raise the temperature
of the solution contained in the vats, if required. If we operate upon flax in
sheaves, that is to say, in the straw, the bundles are placed upright upon the
false bottom; if the flax is partly or completely peeled or combed, it is spread
and worked upon hurdles, as before described. Then the.lic chlorine acids or
water are alternately introduced into the bleaching vat in sufficient quantities
to immerse completely the matters to be bleached. All the above liquids
employed are drawn off after they have produced their effect by a tap at the
bottom of the vat. We consider superfluous to describe the chemical processes
employed for bleaching, because all the known means may be applied to obtain
the object of our Invention with equal advantage.
And having now described our Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that we do not confine
ourselves to the precise details herein laid down with regard to dimensions and
forms, nor do we claim the different parts of the apparatus herein referred to
taken separately. But that what we do claim as our Invention, and intended
to be protected by the said Letters Patent, is,-
Firstly, the application of a continuous series of operations for bleaching the
fibrous, parts of flax and hemp direct and simultaneously in the same vat, and
without changing their primitive position, either in the straw, that is to say,
before peeling, after they have been partially or entirely divested of the straw,
or after being combed, as herein-before described.
Secondly, the application of the bleaching processes to flax, which has been
peeled at the upper part of the plant, the straw being left to a certain extent
at the lower part, as herein-before described.
Thirdly, the application of hurdles when operating upon flax that has under-
gone the operations of peeling and combing for spreading the matters, as
herein-before described and shewn in the marginal Drawing.
Fourthly, the application of rods to facilitate the filtration of the bleaching
agents through the matters to be bleached, as herein-before described..
In witness whereof, we, the said Henri and Alexander Six, have hereunto
set our hands and seals, this Twenty-fourth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
HENRI (L.B.) SIX.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of September,
än the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid Henri Six came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
:said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
5 written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.