Improvements in Apparatus for Degreasing Wool, Cotton Waste, and other Fibrous Materials.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Aug., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 15th May, 1897-Accepted, 19th June, 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Degreasing Wool, Cotton Waste, and
other Fibrous Materials.
I, FREDERIOK NICHOLSON TURNEY. of Whitemoor Leather Works, in the
Town and County of the Town of Nottingham, Leather Manufacturer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to improvements in apparatus for degreasing wool, cotton
waste, and other fibrous materials, and it has reference more particularly to
improved means for feeding said materials to, and for withdrawing them from,
such apparatus, without admitting air, and without permitting loss of the vapour
of the solvent employed, the said means forming an effective entrance, or exit,
air lock.
For this purpose, I provide between the receiving chamber and the degreasing
chamber, a flat tube, channel, or chamber, of any desired length, but of a width
corresponding approximately to that of the degreasing chamber, and by preference
tapering towards the said degreasing chamber, at which end it is closed by a flap
or valve. At its other end, the said tube or channel is provided with a series of
stuffing-boxes, through work plungers carried in slides, and reciprocated by
connecting rods from crank discs, or otherwise, operated from a driving shaft.
At, or above, the plunger end of the tube or channel, is a receiving chamber,
which is provided with a vapour tight door or valve through which the material
falls, said material being brought to it by an endless travelling belt, or other
suitable device. As quickly as the material falls to the bottom of the receiving
chamber, it is pushed forward by the plungers and compressed within the flat
tube. The feeding is continuous, as is also the reciprocation of the plungers, and
when the material is compressed in sufficient quantity in the tubo or channel, the
pressure thereof on the flap or valve, at the end of said tube or channel, becomes
BO great that it opens, and the material passes into the degreasing chamber in a
continuous or practically continuous layer of approximately the thickness to which
it has been compressed by its passage through the tube or channel. The com-
pressed material thus, as it were, forms a plug to the tube or channel, and
prevents the entry of air into, and likewise the escape of vapour from, the
degreasing chamber. I, therefore, do not depend upon valves for this purpose.
The exit flap or valve at the end of the tube or channel, and the entrance valve
in the receiving chamber, are both controlled from the outside, and are easy of
access to allow for clearing then, at any time, of material which may have adhered
thereto.
To enable the tube or channel to be completely emptied, when necessary, and
since the plungers only extend a portion of the length thereof, I make two of them
hollow, and fit them with rods of suitable length passing through packing or
stuffing-boxes at their outer ends. When it is desired to empty said tubo or
channel, a cross bar is introduced therein, and is temporarily secured to the inner
ends of the rods. The entrance valve is then closed, and the bar is pushed along
the tube or channel, so clearing it of all material. On this being effected, the
exit valve is closed, and the cross bar is withdrawn and removed.

page_text: If very expensive solvents are used, I may employ an exhaust fan in connection
with the receiving chamber.
Means similar to that above described for feeding the material are employed for
withdrawing it from the drying chamber, but in this case it is not necessary that
any of the plungers be provided with rods, a rake being used for the complete
clearing out of the tube.
118
ERNEST DE PASS,
Chartered Patent Agent,
78 Fleet Street, London, and 5 Market Street, Nottingham,
Agent for the Applicant.
Improvements in Apparatus for Degreasing Wool, Cotton Waste, and
other Fibrous Materials.
I, FREDERICK NICHOLSON TURNEY, of Whitemoor Leather Works, in the
Town and County of the Town of Nottingham, Leather Manufacturer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to the letters
and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My invention relates to improvements in apparatus for degreasing wool, cotton
waste, and other fibrous materials, by volatile solvents, and it has reference more
particularly to improved menus for continuously feeding said materials to, and
withdrawing them fron, such apparatus, without admitting air, and without
permitting loss of vapour of the solvent employed, the said means forming an
effective entrance, or exit, air look.
The means about to be described are specially applicable to wool degreasing
apparatus of the type described in the Specification of my British Letters Patent
dated 20 January 1896, and numbered 1370.
To render my invention readily understood, I will describe the same fully with
reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Fig. 1 is a plan of the improved means or feeding device.
Fig. 2, a longitudinal sectional elevation of the same, and
Fig. 3, a cross section on the line x, x, of Fig. 1.
In carrying out my invention, I arrange between the receiving chamber a, ani
the degreasing chamber b, a flat tube, channel, or passage c of the requisite length,
and of a width corresponding approximately to that of the degreasing chamber.
In the arrangement shewn in the drawings, the flat tube forms a continuation of
the receiving chamber, and, by preference, it tapers towards the degreasing
chamber, as clearly seen in Fig. 2. At its outlet end, it is fitted with a valve
or Hap d, held on its sent by a counterbalance weight e. The receiving
chamber a, is further provided, at its other side, and in iine with the flat tube,
with a guide bux f, in which a reciprocating plunger y is adapted to work. This
plunger is connected to rods passing through stuffing boxes i at the outer end
of the guide box . The plunger rods h, in their turn, are connected to a cross
head ;, and are provided with means for adjusting the position of the plunger gin
the guide-box. These means may advantageously consist of tubes & fitted with
nuts into which the ends of 'the plunger rods are screwed, while the other enda
of said tubes are secured in the crosshead j, by lock nuts and spur wheels m, in
such a manner that while they are capable of rotating 'therein, they are prevented

page_text: from longitudinal movement. The cross-head slides in guide brackets n and is
coupled to connecting rods o, driven from wheels or crank disos p, or, in any other
suitable manner.
The receiving chamber a is provided with a vapour tight lid a', which is left
open during the feeding operation, and the material is fed to said chamber either
by hand, by an endless travelling belt (not shewn) or by other appropriate means.
On the material being introduced, it falls to the bottom of the chamber and is
pushed forward, by the reciprorating plunger g, into the flat tube wherein it is
compressed. When a sufficient quantity of material has accumulated, and has been
compressed in said tube c, its pressure on the flap or valve d becomes so great that
it forces this latter open, and then passes out of the flat tube into the degreasing
chamber b, in a continuons, or practically continuous, layer of approximately the
thickness to which it had been compressed in the flat tube through the action of
the plunger. Material boing continuously fed into the receiving chamber a, to
tako the place of that which passes into the degreasing chamber b, the compressed
material in the tube a forms au effective vapour tight seal which prevents the
entry of air into, or the escape of volatile vapour from, the degreasing chamber,
no valve being necessary therefor.
When the material to be degreased has passed into the degreasing chamber,
with the exception of the plug which remains in the flat tube, this latter is cleared
out in the following manuer, and conveniently by the means shewn in Fig. 5. The
lid a of the receiving chamber having been previously closed, the rods i are
screwed through the nuts by turning the hand-wheel 9 which carries a pinion r
in gear with the wheels m on the tubes k. This causes the plunger g to advance
to the extreme end of the flat tube c and completely empty it, by pushing all the
remaining material into the degreasing chamber. The rods or spindles are then
restored to their original position by means of the hand-wheel g.
From the degreasing chamber the material passes into a drying chamber, as
usual, and thence out into a receiving chamber, similar to a, but having a valve a
(Fig. 4), instead of a lid a'. At the exit end of the drying chamber, the tubes k,
may be dispensed with, and the rods be secured directly in the cross head j.
lu-such case, the flat tube c would be cleared by means of a rake, or in any other
convenient manner.
In some cases, I may use two plungers arranged aide by side, and adapted to
work simultaneously.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of any inven-
tion and in what manner the same may be performed, I declare that I claim:
1. In apparatus for degreasing wool, cotton waste, and other fibrous materials,
arranging between the receiving chamber and the degreasing chamber, means or
device for compressing the material and delivering it uninterruptedly, in its com-
pressed form, into the degreasing chamber, withont admitting air and without loss
of the vapour of solvent, substantially as set forth.
2. In apparatus for degreasing wool, cotton waste, and other fibrous materials,
a receiving chamber having an air tight lid, a flat tube, channel, or passage,
leading therefrom, and provided with a valve at its exit, and a reciprocating
plunger (or plungers) adapted to work in such fat tube and compress the material
ted thereto, prior to its eutry into the degrensing chamber, substantially as
described.
3. In apparatus for degreasing wool, cotton waste, and other fibrous materials,
the combination therewith of the meaus above claimed arranged at the entrance
end of the apparatus, together with similar means arranged at the exit end of said
apparatus, whereby an entranco air-lock and an exit air-lock are provided,
substantially as described.
4. In apparatus for degreasing wool, cotton waste, and other fibrous materials,
having the characteristic features herein before claimed, the means for clearing out
the flat tube, or its equivalent, whereby the plunger is caused to advance to the

page_text: extreme end of such flat tube and push the remaining plug of compressed material
into the degreasing chamber, substantially as described with reference to the
'annexed drawings.
5. My improvements in apparatus for degreasing wool, cotton waste, and other
fibrous materials, whereby such material is fed uninterruptedly, and in a compressed
atate, into the degreasing chainber, and at the same time forms a seal to prevent
escape of the vapour of the volatile solvent employed, substantially as hereinbefore
described and shewn in the annexed drawings.
Dated the 19th day of May
ERNEST DE PASS,
Chartered Patent Agent,
78, Fleet Street, London, and 5, Market Street, Nottingham,
Agent for the Applicant.