IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHORMIUM TENAX, FLAX, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBROUS MATTERS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Aristide Michel Servan, of 8, Philpot Lane,
in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TREATING PHORMIUM TENAX, FLAX, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBROUS
MATTERS."
Sealed the 28th December 1853, and dated the 28th October 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Aristide Michel
Servan at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 28th October 1853.
I, ARISTIDE MICHEL SERVAN, of S, Philpot Lane, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHORMIUM TENAX. FLAX, AND OTHER VEGETABLE
FIBROUS MATTERS" to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of improvements in treating the plants from
which vegetable fibres are obtained, by subjecting them to the action of
a solution of alum, or to caustic lime and carbonic acid, or to both such
processes. For this purpose the plants are boiled in a solution of alum,
and subsequently washed in a moderately heated bath of water and
then in a cold bath, or in place thereof the plant is boiled in a creamo
caustic lime, and then subjected to streams of carbonic acid,and washed
in a bath acidulated with hydrochloric acid; or the plant having been

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Aristide Michel Servan in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 25th April 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I.
ARISTIDE MICHEL SERVAN, of 8, Philpot Lane, in the City of London,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her Most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in
the seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Aristide Michel Servan,
Her special license that I, the said Aristide Michel Servan, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Aristide
Michel Servan, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, shouldand lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHORMIUM TENAX, FLAX,
AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBROUS MATTERS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Aristide Michel Servan, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Aristide Michel Servan, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof (that is to say):-
This Invention consists of improvements in treating the plants from

page_text: which vegetable fibres are obtained, by subjecting them to the action of
a solution of alum, or to caustic lime and carbonic acid, or to both such
processes. For this purpose the plants are boiled in a solution of alum,
and subsequently washed in a moderately heated bath of water, and
then in a cold bath; or in place thereof the plant is boiled in a cream of
caustic lime, and then subjected to streams of carbonic acid, and washed
in a bath acidulated with hydrochloric acid; or the plant having been
subjected to the alum process, it is then treated according to the second
or lime process, after which in each case the fibre is to be heckled or
combed.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood
and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the process
employed by me.
Firstly, I prepare in a rectangular wooden vessel a solution of one
hundred pounds of alumin two thousand four hundred pounds of water,
which is then heated to the boiling point by means of a leaden worm
immersed in the liquid, and in which steam circulates. I then immerse
in this boiling solution three hundred pounds of phormium tenax, china
grass, or other fibrous material, which should be tied up in bundles of
about two pounds each, and placed in a basket of wicker work, which
is then bodily immersed in the solution, where it remains forone hour,
the boiling temperature being maintained during the whole time, and
the water which evaporates being constantly replaced by a small stream
of water continually running in; when sufficiently acted on by the alum
the matters are withdrawn from the vessel, and a fresh quantity of
fibrous material, contained in another similar basket, is introduced into
the solution, and to which is added one pound of alum for every one
hundred pounds of fibrous material acted on. The matters when re-
moved from the alam bath are allowed to drain, and are then plunged
into tepid water, where they remain for one or two hours, after which
they are washed in cold water. and are found to be in a similar con-
dition as that produced by the operation of retting; but in the case of
phormium tenax and china grass, and other fibres with which a resinous
and gummy inatter is found, a further process is necessary, which
consists in acting on the fibre by a solution of soap, which completely
dissolves the gummy matter. The matters are then partially dryed by

page_text: pressure, and the drying is completed in a chamber heated by steam;
this being effected, the fibres are in a fit condition to be submitted
to the ordinary mechanical operations. I will here remark, that the
solution of alum must be changed every day, or it will become too
much charged with coloring matter.
The second part of my Invention consists in a process which may be
applied to the raw materials, but which is more effective when the
matters have been previously prepared by the first-mentioned process.
The fibrous material is placed in a wooden vessel containing boiling
milk of lime, where it remains from twenty-five to forty minutes, ac-
cording to the coarseness of the fibre, after which time the action of the
lime is stopped by passing through the liquid a current of carbonicacid
gas, which is obtained by passing air over red hot coke. When this
process is complete the fibrous material is removed from the vessel and
allowed to drain, after which it is plunged into a bath of very dilute
hydrochloric acid, which is kept at a tepid temperature; the fibrous
matters are kept in this bath until all the chalk is decomposed, which
will be the case when carbonic acid ceases to be liberated; the matters
are then well washed with hot and afterwards with cold water, and
then dried by pressure and heat, and the fibre may be treated in the
same manner as cotton.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not
confine myself to the exact details described; but what I claim is, the
peculiar method of treating fibrous materials herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Aristide Michel Servan, have
hereunto my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of April,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
foun