AN IMPROVED MODE OF WASHING, SCOURING, AND BLEACHING SHEEP SKINS FOR PRESERVING THE WOOL IN A FLEECY CONDITION
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Pierre Puech, of the Firm of Puech Brothers, Manufacturers,,
of Mazamet on Tarn, in the Republic of France, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED MODE OF WASHING, SCOURING, AND BLEACHING SHEEP SKINS FOR
PRESERVING THE WOOL IN A FLEECY CONDITION."
Sealed the 26th March 1878, and dated the 3rd October 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Pierre Puech at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd October 1877.
PIERRE PUECH, of the Firm of Puech Brothers, Manufacturers, of Mazamet on
Tarn, in the Republic of France. "AN IMPROVED MODE OF WASHING, SCOURING,
AND BLEACHING SHEEP SKINS FOR PRESERVING THE WOOL IN A FLEECY
CONDITION."
The improved process differs entirely from the usual methods both in the operations
necessitated and in the results produced; in less than two hours the most difficult
skins to operate on are treated, and a fleecy or flocky wool is obtained, far superior
to that resulting from the process at present in use, the wool being more beautiful,
never broken, and the skin unchanged.
The following is the method employed:-Prepare an ordinary water bath at 50
to 60 degrees centigrade, add to it some grease removing or scouring substance,
such as soda, soda salt, soap, and so on; in this the dry skins (such as arrive from
America and other foreign countries) are steeped 8 or 10 minutes. For fresh skins,
3 or 5 minutes suffices; after this they are at once passed under a pressing roller
sufficiently powerful to remove all impurities from the wool; immediately after this,
and as quickly as possible, while the skins are still warm, they are submitted to a
cleansing machine, such as Chaudet's of Rouen, for example. This operation has the
effect of cleaning the skins, and frees them from impurities, and at the same time
thoroughly washes them with water made to flow in abundance between the drum of
the machine and the apron supporting the skins. After soaking about 10 minutes in
tepid water, which softens the skins, they are ready for shaving; they are then forcibly
dried by a pressing roller, and by adapting a beater to the press, which energetically

page_text: agitates the skins after leaving the pressing roller and before falling, the wool rises and
is sufficiently flocky. Whilst the skins are still tepid, a depilatory of some kind is
passed on the fleshy side. The skins are then shaven either by hand or mechanically
and then dried. The wool thus produced is flocky.
To make fleecy or eider-downy wool, the above operations are followed up by the
following-The flocky wool thus obtained is placed in a bath in tepid water, and
wherein some forks operate on it, which turn the wool over two or three times; it is
then forcibly dried either by pressing rollers or by a pressing machine; the wool thus
treated is dried and the desired result produced.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Pierre Puech in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th March
1878.
PIERRE PUECH, of the Firm of Puech Brothers, Manufacturers, of Mazamet on
Tarn, in the Republic of France. "AN IMPROVED MODE OF WASHING, SCOURING,
AND BLEACHING SHEEP SKINS FOR PRESERVING THE WOOL IN A FLEECY
CONDITION."
The intention in applying for Letters Patent for the Invention herein set forth is
to guarantee to myself the exclusive property of a process, which consists in
extracting in a fleecy, flocky, and partly combed state, all the wool of a sheep's skin
without altering the length, consistency, and regularity of the staple of the wool,
and at the same time to effect a washing and scouring of the wool thorough and
complete, not excluding bleaching, which is optional, according to the condition to
which the wool is brought or is to be applied.
The successive operations employed up to the present time in treating dry skins
or American sheep skins (the treatment of which this Invention more especially
applies to), and whose object is the extraction, washing, and scouring the wool of
these skins are as follow:—
1st. The skins are steeped after or before beating in cold water for about 48
hours.
2nd. They are then suspended in drying stoves where they are left until they
reach a state of heat and fermentation, which renders them more easy to strip or
separate from the wool. This operation or fermentation generally requires (to render
it complete) from 24 to 48 hours in summer, and from four to five days, and some-
times more, in winter.
3rd. On leaving the drying stove the skin is stripped.
4tb. After this stripping there remains the operation of washing the wool, which
each one performs in his own way, some cold and some hot; this operation requires
the use of washing machines in which the wool is broken, and from which it is
withdrawn in confused and tangled staples one in the other.
Finally. By these several and successive operations quite a week's labour is
required with the result that the wool is broken by the washing machine and the
skin injured by the drying.
The process I have conceived entirely differs from known methods by the
operations in necessitates and the remarkable results it produces. In less than

page_text: two hours the most difficult skins to operate on are treated, and a wool is obtained,
either fleecy or flocky, or partly combed, very different from those produced by the
old process, far more beautiful, never broken, and a skin never injured.
Applied to ordinary skins my process requires a few minutes only.
The following explains in what the process consists, as forming the subject
of the present Invention, and as it results from often repeated experiments, and is
always concordant in the irreproachable results obtained.
1st. Prepare at a temperature of 45 to 50 degrees centigrade an ordinary water
bath, adding thereto a scouring matter of some sort, such as soda salt, crystal salt,
soap, and so forth; steep in this from eight to ten minutes the dry skins as they
arrive from America or other foreign country. For fresher skins, such as those more
recently slaughtered, from three to five minutes suffices.
2nd. Immediately pass the skins to a pressing roller of sufficient power to detach
the grease, dirt, and other impurities from the wool.
3rd. Instantly after and while the skins are still warm, transfer them to a beating
machine, such, for example, as Chaudet's of Rouen, or some equivalent. The object
of this operation is to beat the skin and free it of all foreign matters, and at the
same time to thoroughly wash it in either cold, tepid, or hot water, which is made
to fall abundantly between the drum of the machine and the apron supporting the
skin.
4th. For ten minutes or thereabouts steep the skins (which are now freed from
all foreign matters and are well washed) in a bath containing tepid water, whose
object is to soften the skin and prepare it for stripping.
5th. Forcibly dry the skins by aid of a pressing roller in adapting to the press a
beater, which energetically agitates the skin; after leaving the pressing roller and
before letting it fall, the staple rises and becomes sufficiently flocky.
6th. Whilst the skin is still tepid (with a brush or otherwise) pass a depilatory of
suitable matter on the flesh side.
7. Finally strip the skins either by hand or mechanically, and then allow them to dry.
Wool thus obtained is flocky wool. If after stripping care has been taken not to
let the wool dry, that is to say, to keep it moist, it can be delivered without any
intermediate operations to the carding or combing machines.
The scouring and washing having been effected on the skin itself all the operations
hitherto employed to prepare the wool for combing are done away with. The staples
are perfectly preserved, and are not tangled one with the other; in fine, the combing
is effected immediately after stripping; the waste is, so to speak, nil, and my undried
wool is of a superior quality and eminently fit for combing, since at the moment of
its separation from the skin it is as it were half combed.
To produce fleecy wool or eider-downy the seven preceding operations are followed
by the following:—
8th. Pass the flocky wool obtained, as herein described, in a bath containing
tepid water, accompanied by a movement of forks which turn the wool over two or
three times.
9th. Forcibly dry either by use of pressing rollers or by a pressing machine of
some kind.
10th. Dry the wool thus treated, that is to say, beaten, washed, and thoroughly
scoured, and the result desired is accomplished, the production of a flocky and fleecy
wool.
After submitting the skins to the five first operations, instead of using tho
depilatory substance, as described, paragraph 6, one can, if desired, put these skins
in the drying stove, as is practiced in the known methods. Stripping the skins is
easier as they enter the drying stove quite hot, and in this state the wool leaves
them better and quicker.
When the wool is detached from the skin it can be submitted to the eighth, ninth,
and tenth operations already enumerated, and the wool will be as flocky or fleecy as
with the use of the depilatory composition, with this difference however, that it has
been reddened or yellowed by its passage in the drying stove, and that it is not so

page_text: white; but I have deemed it desirable to mention this mode of procedure, although
less advantageous in its results than the treatment before described, characterized
like the latter by the preceding operations, and on which is based the principle
which forms the essential part of my claims.
In conclusion I will make an observation in relation to the steeping described in
paragraph 4 of this description. The object of this steeping in tepid water is to
soften and render the skin pliant to prepare it for being stripped, and the duration
of 10 minutes assigned to it is only to secure the regularity of the effects of the
depilatory matter, so that should it be deemed advisable to prolong the duration
the action of the solution employed should be reduced, and that after an immersion of
some hours the use of the solution becomes almost useless.
Bleaching the wool is an optional operation in connection with the process
described; by adding to the tepid bath, related in paragraph 4 (and whilst the skins
are steeping), a bleaching substance of some sort, the skins are left a few minutes
longer, and one continues with the operations which follow, and such as are specified
herein.
I claim the exclusive right to the process described in this Specification, and more
particularly destined (without however excluding fresh skins or skins of the
country) to the treatment of the dry skins of America, for example, by submitting
these skins to a washing, thorough scouring, and bleaching of the wool on the skin
of the sheep itself, and obtaining therefrom, as desired, either a flocky or partly
combed wool or fleecy wool that is preserved in a fleecy condition.
The process consists briefly in taking the dry skins such as come from America.
in steeping them in a warm bath to remove the grease, in pressing them sufficiently to
extract the filth and impurities, in beating and washing them simultaneously, by
preference in hot water, steeping them for a longer or shorter period in a tepid bath
to which is or is not added a bleaching matter, to dry and beat them forcibly, and
to strip them with or without a depilatory. The wool obtained is half combed
wool, which dried becomes flocky wool, and this latter in turn becomes fleecy wool
by passing it in a tepid bath and there submitting it to the action of forks, which
turn it about, when it is withdrawn and finally dried. The characteristic points
therefore of my process rest in each of the successive operations comprising it, and
the industrial results it effect especially,-
A perfect washing and scouring of the wool on the skin itself, without altering in
any way the length, consistency, and regularity of its staple.
Much better products than those obtained from the known methods, a flocky and
fleecy wool, and an uninjured skin.
Besides the superiority of the products, the advantages of my process rest in the
saving of time, since I treat in two hours the most difficult skins, whilst the process
at present employed requires a week of labour.
Fresh skins can even be treated in a few minutes. I reserve alike the treatment
of fresh skins as well as dry, and the modification of the treatment, as numerically
stipulated herein, according to the nature of the skins to be operated on, as well as
the modification indicated in case the depilatory substance is not employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pierre Puech, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twenty-third day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-eight.