IN- PROVEMENTS IN THE FINISH OF THREADS AND YARNS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Blain, of the City of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Commercial Traveller, for the Invention of "IN-
PROVEMENTS IN THE FINISH OF THREADS AND YARNS."
Sealed the 25th September 1863, and dated the 4th April 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Blain at the Offico
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th April
1863.
I, JAMES BLAIN, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Commercial Traveller, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FINISH OF THREADS AND YARNS," to be as follows:-
I make a compound of any of the "fixed fat oils," boiled with caustic
potash, and mixed with spermacetti, olive, or other limpid oil, muriate of mag-
nesia, spirit of wine and wax, and pass the thread and yarn through the said
The proportions I
mixture by hand or machinery in any convenient manner.
use for one mixture is about oil and caustic potash, 75 parts; spermacetti,
twelve parts; whito wax, olive oil, or muriate of magnesia, thirteen parts. Or
a mixture consisting of oil and caustic potash, ninety parts; olive oil or white
wax, ten parts, will answer a similar purpose. Either of these compounds
gives the thread and yarn a high finish, and prevents the knotting and snarling
so generally complained of.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Blain in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 2nd
October 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
BLAIN, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Commercial
Traveller, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Blain, Her special licence, that I, the said James Blain, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Blain, 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, should and 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 THE
FINISH OF THREADS AND YARNS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said James Blain, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particu-
larly 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 James Blain, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say) :-
I make a compound or mixture similar to soft soap from any of the fixed
fatty oils, such as olive, palm, or similar substances, the same to be saponified
by being boiled with a metallic oxide, such as caustic potash, and also salt.
To this mixture or compound may be added spermacetti, lard, white wax,
paraffin, or similar articles, to give additional softness to the yarn or thread.
For fine yarns the proportions I use are oil, and caustic potash and salt,
about ninety parts, lard and white wax, ten parts.
For coarse yarns,
I use eighty parts of soft soap and salt, and of white wax,
olive oil, lard, &c., twenty parts, in each case to be diluted with hot water

page_text: say, about three-fourths to one gallon to each pound weight of the mixture as
experience may find best.
The rove when being spun must be passed through the said mixture whilst
in a warm or dissolved state, which can be accomplished by steam or other
suitable means, but a steam bath is preferred, and reeled at once (without
being dried by a stove), and then placed on a stretching machine, and after
about fifteen or twenty minutes gentle pinning, the yarn will be ready for use
in the loom without boiling or dressing..
Yarn for linen thread must be twisted through the mixture same as yarns
for weaving, and finished in the usual way, but threads for sewing machines
should be passed through the mixture (after being twisted and dyed) in a cold
state at least twice, and then remain in the polishing machine about ten
minutes or so.
I wish it to be understood that I do not claim the exclusive use of sper-
macetti, white wax, or paraffin, &c., but only when used in combination with
the fatty oils, and caustic potash and salt, as already described, making a soft
soap to be used in spinning flax and tow yarn for weaving purposes, or in the
twisting of linen threads.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Blain, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within-named James Blain, in the
presence of
E. J. HUGHES,
JAMES BLAIN. (L.S.)
Patent Agent,
Manchester.