AY TUPPAKED METHOD AND ATTARATUS FOR PREPARING FEAR STRAW FOR DRESSING. AND CLEANING "
Year: 1852

page_text: 18-1
LETTERS PATENT to George Ellins, of the Borough of Droitwich,
in the County of Worcester, for the Invention of "Ay Tundawen
t-
LETTERS PATENT to George Ellins, of the Borough of Droitwich,
in the County of Worcester, for the Invention of "AY TUPPAKED
METHOD
AND ATTARATUS FOR PREPARING FEAR STRAW FOR DRESSING.
AND CLEANING
"
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METHOD AND
AND CLEANING
"
PARATUS FOR PREPARING FEAR STRAW FOR DRESSING.
Scaled the 30th March 1853, and dated the 1st October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Ellins, at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 1st October 1852.
I, GEORGE ELLINS, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING FLAX
STRAW FOR DRESSING AND CLEANING."
First, in the construction of apparatus to separate the mucilaginous
matter contained in the flax straw from the fibre, and the woody or
other offal, and which apparatus consists of a room or chamber of any
required dimensions, the walls and roof of which may be made of
wood, or other suitable material. A wrought iron pan forms the
bottom, the edges or sides being fitted closely to the bottom of the
walls, on the inside thereof. Underneath the front end of the pan,

page_text: and joined thereto, is a wrought iron vessel or boiler, the top of it
being formed of a portion of the pan bottom, and which wrought iron
vessel or boiler may be of the length of six feet, the width of from two
to three feet, and the depth of one foot, or thereabouts, and having a
manlid at its front end.. There are ascending and descending cast iron
pipes of about two inches in diameter, attached to and screwed on or
rivetted on in the ordinary way to the boiler, at. their lower ends, and
attached in the customary manner at their upper ends to a cistern or
tank, and which cistern or tank will be made of either wrought iron
or wood, and placed on the top of the roof of the room or chamber.
The cistern or tank may be about three feet long, two wide, and three
feet deep. The chamber or rooni has doors on each side of it, and
over the doors are narrow openings, fitted in with wire gauze, or lattice
work. A light stage or frame is placed over the iron pan, and is
formed of wood laths, or battens, crossing each other, and a row or
layer of flax straw is placed thereon; there are then smaller frames
made of crossed laths, fixed between each layer or row of flax straw,
and on which the flax straw is placed, and the room or chamber will
be thus filled up to, and within about one foot of the roof thereof, and
there will be fixed a frame or franics of wire latticing, so as to cover
the whole surface over the flax straw.
The cistern or tank has a flexible tube, with stop cock and rose
attached to it. The iron vessel or boiler, and the pipes connecting it
with the cistern or tank, are kept filled with water, and the cistern or
tank is also kept partly filled.
There will be fire bars placed under the front end of the iron vessel
or boiler, so as to form a grate, and a small moveable wrought iron
chimney will be fixed at the centre of the rearward end of the iron
pan; a small fire will be kept up on the grate, which will heat the
water contained in the iron vessel or boiler in the pipes, and in the
cistern or tank, and thereby cause the water to be continually circu-
lating through the whole of the same. The water may be heated to
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty degrees of heat, and when
thus heated will be discharged in showers, by means of the flexible
tube, stop cock, and rose, upon the wire lattice frame or lattice frames,

page_text: and from thence it will fall upon and pass through the layers or rows
of flax straw, which then become thoroughly saturated, and from the
flax straw the water falls into the iron pan, until it has attained a
depth of from two to three inches, and the discharge is then stopped.
The fire will, after acting upon the bottom of the iron vessel or boiler,
heat the water contained in the pan to from one hundred to one
hundred and fifty degrees of heat; and the vapour arising from the
water will pass through the rows or layers of flax straw, and condense
upon the frame or frames of wire latticing, and then again falls upon
and runs through the layers or rows of flax straw to the water con-
tained in the iron pan. This operation goes regularly and constantly
on; and the mucilaginous matter contained in the flax straw thus
becomes gradually separated from the fibre and the woody matter, and
falls into the water contained in the iron pan, and upon this being
accomplished the mucilage is let off through a tap fixed to the pan
bottom, and the pan left dry; the heat from the fire then radiating
through the pan bottom into the room or chamber sufficiently drys
the flax straw, and prepares it for apparatus for breaking and sepa-
rating it.
Lastly, in the apparatus being portable, and admitting of the process
being carried on where the flax straw is grown.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Ellins, in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 31st March 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
GEORGE ELLINS, of the Borough of Droitwich, in the County of Wor-
cester, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her Most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the First day of October in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said George Ellins, Her special licence that I, the
said George Ellins, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such

page_text: others as I, the said George Ellins, 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, and the Colonies of New Zealand, Van Diemans
Land, New South Wales, Australasia, and Victoria, an Invention for
"AN IMPROVED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING FLAX STRAW FOR
DRESSING AND CLEANING," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said George Ellins, 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 George Ellins, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement (that is to say):
"My Invention consists of a method herein-after particularly explained,
of treating flax straw, whereby it is brought into a fit state for dressing
and cleaning; the said treatment consisting in subjecting the said flax
straw in succession to the action of hot water, vapour of water, and hot
air.; by which treatment the mucilaginous and soluble matters by
which the fibres of the said flax, and the cellular tissue of the interior
of the straw, are held together, arc so far removed or softened as to
fit the flax straw, so treated for the processes of dressing and cleaning.
The various stages of my method of treating flax straw are effected
in the apparatus herein-after particularly described, which said appa-
ratus consists of a chamber, in which the flax straw to be treated is
properly disposed; underneath the said chamber is a boiler, having
pipes connecting it with a reservoir above the said chamber. By
heating the said boiler, the water contained therein is made to circulate
through the said pipes and reservoir, and heat the water in the latter;
the said heated water is allowed to fall upon the flax, and collect in a

page_text: pan at the bottom of the chamber. By maintaining the temperature
of the water in the said pan at. from 100ds Fahrenheit to 150 Fah-
renheit, or thereabouts, the vapour arising from the said hot water rises
through the chamber, and condenses and falls upon the flax straw,
returning, at length, to the pan from which it had evaporated: After
a time the water is drawn off from the said pan, and the said
pan kept
hot, so that a circulation of hot air is maintained in the said chamber,
the action of which completes the treatment of the said flax straw.
I will now describe particularly the several parts of the said appa-
ratus, and the methods of using the same. The chamber in which the
flax straw is treated may be made of any desired. size and figure, but I
prefer making the said chamber of a cubical figure; or, where the said
chamber is small, I prefer making it somewhat higher than it is broad
or long. I do not limit myself to any particular size of the said
chamber, but, as it is intended that the said chamber shall be portable,
I usually construct it upon a frame and wheels; and confine its size
within such dimensions that, it may readily be moved by horses; a
height of about twelve feet, a length of from fifteen to eighteen feet,
and a width of from ten to twelve feet, are convenient proportions.
The said chamber may.be made of wood; but I do not limit myself
to any particular, materials. The bottom, and lower part of the sides
of the said chamber, are made with iron, so as to form an iron pan,
and underneath the said iron pan is a closed boiler, the top of the said
boiler being formed of part of the bottom of the said iron pan. The
said boiler is furnished with an opening at its front, for cleaning, and
other purposes. The said boiler is also furnished with two pipes, one
opening, into its top, and the other. into its bottom; these pipes rise
vertically through or along one of the vertical sides of the chamber,
and open into a cistern or reservoir, fixed in the top of the chamber;
that pipe which opens into the bottom of the boiler opening into the
bottom of the cistern or reservoir, and the pipe opening into the top
of the boiler opening into the top of the cistern or reservoir. The said
cistern or tank may be made either of wood, iron, or other material.
The chamber has one, two, or more doors, giving access to its interior,
and above each of the said doors are small openings, which said open-

page_text: ings may be filled with zinc gauze, or perforated metal, which said
openings form communications between the interior of the chamber
and the external atmosphere, when the doors of the said chambers are
closed. I also make similar openings underneath each of the said doors.
The chamber is filled with the flax straw in the following manner: -
A frame of wood laths, or battens, is fixed at about a foot above the
pan which forms the bottom of the chamber, the said frame consti-
tuting a perforated or open false bottom to the said chamber. A layer
of flax straw is laid horizontally upon the said frame or false bottom;
and upon the said horizontal layer of flax straw, other portions of flax
straw are placed vertically, the said vertically placed portions being
supported by the said horizontal layer of flax straw; and above the
said compound layers of flax straw a second perforated frame is con-
structed, and upon this second frame a layer of flax straw is laid horizon-
tally, and upon the said horizontal layer other portions of flax straw
are placed vertically, and so on until the said chamber is filled with
the said flax straw. The cistern or reservoir at the top of the chamber
is furnished with pipes and stop cocks, arranged in such a manner
that the water contained in the said cistern or reservoir may be dis-
tributed, by means of the said pipes, over the upper layer of flax straw
in the said chamber, the distribution of the said water being aided by
a rose attached to the end of each of the said pipes. The boiler
underneath the chamber, and the pipes connecting the said boiler
with the cistern or reservoir at the top of the chamber, are filled with
water, and the said cistern or reservoir is partly filled with water.
The water in the said boiler is heated by the fire contained in a furnace
underneath the said boiler, which said furnace may either be perma-
nently attached underneath the said boiler, or may be detached there-
from. The said furnace may be constructed in any convenient manner,
and is furnished with the necessary arrangements for controlling the
heat thereof; but as the construction of the said furnace and its
arrangements constitute no part of my Invention, I do not consider it
necessary further to describe them. The fire in the said furnace is
made to heat the water in the boiler, and the said heated water rises
through one of the before-mentioned pipes into the cistern or reservoir

page_text: at the top of the chamber, with which cistern the said boiler is con-
nected by the said pipes, as herein-before described. The cold water of
the said cistern or reservoir. descends through the other of the said
pipes into the boiler, and a circulation in the said boiler and cistern is set
up, and continued until the temperature of the whole of the said water
has risen to the temperature indicated by 1500s of Fahrenheit's ther-
mometer, or thereabouts. When the said water has been thus heated,
it is allowed to fall through the before-mentioned stop cocks, pipes,
and roses, and descend in a continuous and gentle shower upon the
top layer of flax straw, from which it trickles down through the suc-
cessive layers, and at length falls into the iron pan which constitutes
the bottom of the chamber. By this treatment the whole of the said
flax straw becomes thoroughly wetted with the said hot water. When
so much water has fallen that the iron pan at the bottom of the
chamber contains a layer of from two to three inches in depth, the
further descent of the said water is stopped by means of the before
mentioned stop cocks. I prefer to regulate the descent of the water so
that the time during which the said. layer of water of two or three
inches in depth in the said pan accumulates, shall be but a few
minutes. After the descent of the water from the cistern has been
stopped, the heat is continued under the boiler so as to maintain the
temperature of the water in the pan at or about 150s Fahrenheit. (I
have already stated that the top of the said boiler is formed of part of
the bottom of the said pan), or heat may be applied directly to the
bottom of the said pan. The vapour of water arising from the said
heated water contained in the said pan permeates the layers of flax
straw, and, condensing, falls thereon, and returns again into the said
pan. This last operation (that is to say, the treatment with vapour of
water) is continued for from thirty to fifty hours, or until all the
mucilaginous and other soluble matters capable of being removed
from the flax by water, of the temperature of 150rs Fahrenheit, has
been removed. The said water is then drawn off from the said pan
(the said pan being provided with a stop cock for that purpose), but
the heat being continued under the boiler, or the boiler and pan, a
current of hot air is determined through the chamber, whereby the

page_text: said flax straw is sufficiently dried to be made ready for the processes of
dressing and cleaning. I have already stated that the external air
has limited access to the chamber by openings over and under the doors
of the said chamber.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be under-
stood that I do not limit myself to the precise method of carrying my
Invention into effect herein described, as the same may be varied
without departing from the nature of my said Invention; but I claim
as my Invention the method and apparatus herein described, whereby
the mucilaginous and other soluble matters contained in flax straw are
removed, or partially removed, from the said flax straw, and the same
prepared for dressing and cleaning by treating the said flax straw
successively with hot water, vapour of hot water, and hot air.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Ellins, have heretofore set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
GEORGE ELLINS. (L.S.)