AN IMPROVED PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR AGING PADDED, DYED, OR PRINTED TEXTILE OR FIBROUS MATERIALS, AND OBTAINING THERE FROM ACETIC ACID AND OTHER VOLATILE PRODUCTS."
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
"
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th November 1881. A communi-
cation from abroad by Paul St. Ange Basquin, of Paris, France, Chemist.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. AN IMPROVED PROCESS AND APPARATUS
FOR AGING PADDED, DYED, OR PRINTED TEXTILE OR FIBROUS MATERIALS, AND
OBTAINING THERE FROM ACETIC ACID AND OTHER VOLATILE PRODUCTS." [A
communication from abroad by Paul St. Ange Basquin, of Paris, France, Chemist.]
According to this Invention I cause fibrous materials, such for instance as yarns
or textile fabrics of vegetable or animal origin, which have been impregnated,
padded, prepared, or printed with mordants or colours or preparations containing
gases, vapours, or volatile compounds to travel through a chamber where they are
submitted to the action of air and aqueous vapour mixed or not mixed with other
gases or vapours at various degrees of temperature below the atmospheric pressure,
and I thus effect the disengagement of the acetic acid or other gases, vapours, or
volatile compounds, and collect the said acetic acid, gases, vapours, or volatile
compounds by means of condensers connected by suitable means with the
chainber.
By using this method and apparatus I obtain a rapid. disengagement of thoso
gases, vapours, or volatile compounds from which it is desirable to free the yarns,
textile fabrics, or the like, and the mordant or the colour, or mordant and colour,
become thoroughly fixed or united to the fibre, thus producing faster and more
brilliant colours than would otherwise be produced, and I am enabled to recover
those large quantities of acetic acid and other gases, vapours, and volatile compounds,
which by the usual process or processes escape in the atmosphere and are entirely
lost, thus effecting a most important economy for dyers or printers, since the
recovered acetic acid, gases, vapours, or volatile compounds become available, and
can be used over and over again for mordanting or for preparing the colours.
In carrying the said Invention into practice, I cause the cloth or other material
to be treated to travel through a chamber divided or not divided by partitions,
D

page_text: and which contains aqueous vapour and air at the required temperature under the
atmospheric pressure mixed or not mixed with other gases or. vapours. I connect
this chamber with a pipe or any apparatus from which a supply of aqueous
vapour can be delivered into the chamber, the pressure in the chamber or com-
partments being equal to the atmospheric pressure. The chamber or the
compartments, or one of the compartments of the chamber, may or may not be
connected with a heating apparatus and a,blowing fan, or with a beating apparatus
alone, or with a blowing fan alone, or with a compressing pump or a reservoir
filled with compressed air or gases or vapours or a mixture of the same, and I thus
am enabled to admit at pleasure a current of air or air, gases, and vapours at the
required degree of temperature. I may cause air and ammonia to enter the
chamber or the compartments, or one of the compartments, or I may admit any
other gas or vapour, either by injection or by causing the gases or vapours or
volatile compounds to be disengaged from liquors placed in the chamber of the
apparatus.
The gases and aqueous vapor or other vapours contained in the chamber, and
which become mixed with the acetic acid disengaged from the materials which
are being treated are driven out of the chamber by means of exhaust fans or
exhausting pumps, the chamber being connected with one or more exhaust fans or
pumps; or when the chamber is divided into compartments by partitions, each
compartment may be connected with the same exhaust fan or pump, or each
The
compartment may be connected with a distinct exhaust fan or pump.
exhausting fans or pumps send the acetic acid and other gases or vapours or
mixtures of the same through a receiver filled with cloths or baskets containing
slaked or other lime, or through compartments where the acetic acid or other gases
or vapours come in contact with liquors, such as milk of lime, solution of caustic
potash or soda, solution of soda ash, or the like, or any of those liquors, by which
the acetic acid can be absorbed and fixed.
The receiver may be disposed to act as a condensing apparatus, or any apparatus
or arrangement may be used by which the acetic acid and other gases or vapors
can be recovered and prevented from escaping in the air.
The receiver may be divided by partitions forming chambers where the gases
have to travel. I provide a steam plate to warm the cloth or other material when
entering the machine. The material passes to the opposite end of the chamber,
then travels vertically up and down over a number of rollers at top and bottom of
the chamber and comes out at the bottom of the machine where it entered.
provide a blowing fan to blow air through a heating apparatus, and a space where
steam is admitted to warm the chamber to the required temperature.
I
I may make the chamber of ordinary iron or enamelled, galvanized, or tinned
iron, or of copper or of any other suitable material, such as wood or masonry. The
liberated acetic acid gases, vapours, or mixtures are sent to a receiver or condenser,
where they become fixed, and thus may be utilized instead of being entirely wasted;
the said chamber or compartments of the chamber may or may not be connected
with a heating apparatus or blowing fan, or both. To treat yarns with this
machine, a chain with suitable hooks to which the yarns are suspended is caused
to travel, thus bringing the yarns in contact with air and aqueous vapour at the
required temperature.
By means of my Invention I also recover the heat which has accumulated in
the gases or vapours escaping from the chamber, thus effecting an economy in fuel,
as this heat may be utilized in various ways.