IMPROVED FINISHING PROCESS FOR TREATING OR PREPARING GAUZE, BOBBINET, AND LIKE MATERIAL BY MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL MEANS, SO THAT THE SAME RENDERED FIT FOR EMPLOYMENT AS FORMS FOR LADIES HATS, BONNETS, ETC
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Otto Wolff at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 7th December 1880. A communication
by Gustav Heinrich Gruner, of the City of Dresden, in the Kingdom of
Saxony, and German Empire.
"
IS
OTTO WOLFF, Patent Agent, of No. 12, Schloss Strasse, in the City of
Dresden, in the Kingdom of Saxony, and German Empire. IMPROVED
FINISHING PROCESS FOR TREATING OR PREPARING GAUZE, BOBBINET, AND LIKE
MATERIAL BY MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL MEANS, SO THAT THE SAME
RENDERED FIT FOR EMPLOYMENT AS FORMS FOR LADIES HATS, BONNETS, ETC."
A communication by Gustav Heinrich Gruner, of the City of Dresden aforesaid.
This Invention relates to an improved process for mechanically and chemically
preparing or treating gauze, bobbinet, and like material, so that the same is rendered
fit for employment as forms for ladies' hats, bonnets, etc.
The object of my
Invention is to treat or prepare bobbinet, gauze, and like material by mechanical
and chemical means, so that the said material possesses all the necessary require-
ments, such as stiffness, hardness, gloss, etc., and so that the operations connected
with the said process can be carried out in a few hours; whereas, by all other known
processes, the said operations, or treatment, or preparing of the aforenamed gauze or
bobbinet consumed several days.
The bobbinet, gauze, or similar material which is destined to be employed for
making forms for ladies' hats, bonnets, and other articles of wearing apparel, is first
chemically bleached in the customary manner, then starched and prepared. The so
prepared material is now placed in a wet or moist condition in an elastic frame
instead of being dried, then again starched, stretched, again dried in the open air,
and so on as is customary by the methods now employed. This said damp or wet
gauze or bobbinet is now treated with pulverized or finely powdered starch, which
is sifted over the said material through a very fine sieve, so that the aforesaid gauze
or bobbinet is covered with the said finely powdered starch in so perfect a manner
as cannot be attained by any known process, and without the least detriment to
the gauze or bobbinet.
The aforementioned elastic frame and the material are now placed in a closed
vessel, box, or case, in which a perforated steam pipe is so arranged that steam can
enter the said vessel, box, or case through the fine laterial perforations of the said

page_text: steam pipe or tube. The vessel is now closed, and steam allowed to enter the same.
The hot steam issuing from the lateral perforations of the steam pipe acts on the so
prepared or with pulverized starch covered gauze or bobbinet as follows:-
(a.) The threads of the material swell and are opened to receive the dissolved
starch.
(b.) The starch is dissolved; and
(c.) A portion of this so dissolved starch powder penetrates into the pores of the
material or the threads of the same, whereas, the remainder is retained on the
surface of the said material in a gelatinous form.
As soon as this part of my said process is completed the steam is cut off, the
frame is removed from the vessel, box, or case, and the said gauze or bobbinet
successively subjected to a shower of finely divided spray of cold water by means
of a suitable apparatus, until the gelatinous starchy covering is fully cooled and
stiffened, and the said starchy covering commences to assume a glassy appearance.
The frame and the material are now again placed in the aforementioned vessel, the
said vessel closed, and the gauze or bobbinet subjected to the influence of the hot
steam until the said starchy covering has become translucent, clear, and glass like.
As soon as this has been attained, the frame is removed from the steam vessel, box,
or case, and allowed to dry in the open air.
By employing the purely mechanical process, such as is now customary in some
countries, of repeated starching, brushing, or beating in the starch, and the repeated
drying of the material, the said gauze or bobbinet attains a certain degree of
stiffness and rough hardness, but can never attain the required and so valuable
translucency, clearness, smoothness, and glass like appearance which is acquired by
employing my said improved process.
According to the old method, 7 or 8 days were required to prepare the said
material, whereas by employing my said process, only the same number of hours
instead of days are necessary, so that my said improved process can be employed to
great advantage, even in small establishments where it would be impossible to
apply the ordinary method.