IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF FLAX, HEMP, JUTE, CHINA GRASS, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREIN
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Cocker at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th
March 1868. A communication from abroad by Robert Hanham
Collyer, of Rue Richlieu, Paris, in the Empire of France.
I, RICHARD COCKER, of 21, Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, in the
City of Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF
FLAX, HEMP, JUTE, CHINA GRASS, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS, AND IN
APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
These improvements consist in first submitting the fibre to the action
of a breaking or softening machine, so as to open out and expose the
internal fibres which compose the fascicula or bundles of fibres. After
the operation has been effectually performed the fibres are placed in
a frame provided with fluted rollers and clamps and screws so arranged
that when the fibre is placed between such rollers it may be moved
Price 8d1

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by the gearing of the rollers which are connected by toothed wheels,
the frame also admitting of the material being turned over so as to
expose both sides equally to the chemical treatment of the fibre. This
frame contains the fibres in thin layers, is subjected to a backward
and forward horizontal reciprocal movement, though sometimes
circular movement may be imparted to it. The fibre is now to be
brought under the operation of several, say seven or more, successive
liquids or solutions, the first being a strong caustic hot or boiling
alkaline solution, the second is simply hot water, the third a weak
acid solution, the fourth a solution of an alkaline carbonate, the fifth
an acid solution, and the sixth a solution of soft soap, the seventh
an acid solution, and then washing in cold water is to be resorted to.
Supposing the fibre to be flax, I commence in the first solution with
about one pound or more of caustic soda to the gallon of water heated
to the boiling point or thereabouts. The fibre on the frame may remain
in motion for ten minutes or more; it is then transferred to the warm
water, where it is thoroughly washed to remove the alkali of the first
bath; after this the fibre is removed to the acid solution, say, of one
to two per cent. of hydrochloric acid to the water used. The fibre
should not remain in this solution more than 2 to 3 minutes; it is
then removed to the alkaline carbonate, say soda ash, of about 12 pounds
to the gallon of water used, or of about 4 degrees of Beaume's hydro-
meter. The fibre is always subjected to the reciprocating motion for 20
(twenty) minutes or thereabouts in order to absorb the carbonate. It
is then removed to the fifth or acid solution of about one and
a half
to two per cent. acid to the water hydrochloric or other acid; it is
next transferred to the three-quarters soft soap and one-quarter glycerine
solution, or thereabouts, in accordance with the fibre treated. The last
bath I prefer to be a solution of acetic or pyroligneous acid 3 per cent.
to the water used. It is next washed for one or two hours in cold
water continually flowing through the trough or reservoir in which
the fibre is in motion, as hereafter described. After the fibre has been
thoroughly washed it is dried and then acted on again by the opening
or breaking machine, and if necessary again submitted to the alkaline
and acid treatment, as previously described, or until the gummy and
resinous matters which are associated when the fibre is removed, and
the fibre is thereby softened and opened out into minute filaments.

page_text: On the sides of the tanks or reservoir aforesaid it will be necessary
that ledges or flanges be placed, so that the said frame which holds
the fibres may be adapted for a reciprocal or backward and forward
motion