IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING RHEA, FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE VEGETABLE FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Hill Dickson and Sydney
Herbert Hollands at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
28th October 1878.
JAMES HILL DICKSON, of the Rhea Fibre Works, Godalming, in the County of
Surrey, and 8, Union Street, Borough, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, and
SYDNEY HERBERT HOLLANDS, of 796, Old Kent Road, in the County of Surrey.
IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING RHEA, FLAX, HEMP, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE VEGETABLE
FIBROUS MATERIALS."
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating rhea fibre, flax, hemp,
plaintain, and other such like vegetable fibres. For these purposes we employ a
bruising or crushing machine which consists mainly of a long corrugated or
grated table or series of tables rigidly connected in the same horizontal plane; each
table being about one yard in length, and separated from the adjoining ones by a
space without corrugations of about nine inches, and having rollers with
corrugations or teeth corresponding to and gearing in with the grated table, which
rollers are provided with suitable bearings in a frame standing above the table, but
not attached to it. A reciprocating motion is given to this long table by means of
a continuous rack (running its whole length) and pinion, to be turned by hand or
other power. In action, the fibrous stalks are fed on to the table at one end, and
carried with it under the whole series of fluted rollers, when the fibres are turned
over end for end (still laid longitudinally) on the tables for the return traverse, at
the end of which all the superfluous woody matter is crushed out without injuring
the fibre, and falls through the open grate-like table, the fibre being left free. The
space between each table and the next is to facilitate the lifting or removal of the
fibre from the table between the rollers, of which there is one for each table. Tho

page_text: fibrous stalks to be operated on are cut when necessary to a maximum length of
one yard, which is the natural length of rhea, hemp and jute stalks being about
two-yards, and flax about one-yard.The.next.operation is that of softening..
The softening process consists in suspending the fibre in a specially prepared hot
-liquid-contained in-a cauldron or other suitable vessel, which is fitted into an outer
-vessel-containing water heated by steam passing through it, causing it to boil,
thereby maintaining the liquid in the inner vessel at an equable and easily
regulated temperature. A suitable outlet or tap is provided for drawing off the
prepared liquid. Besides softening this process effects the dissolution and removal
from the fibre of the gummy film or cuticle which is found between the fibrous
bark and the wood of the rods_or_stalks..
The "softening liquid " is made by dissolving a specially made soap in water by
boiling and stirring, which soap is prepared as follows:-
To eight gallons of boiling water, twelve lbs. of common soda, six lbs. of unslaked
lime are added and well stirred in, and when quite dissolved allowed to settle for
24 hours. At the end of this time the liquid is drawn off clear of the sediment
and again boiled; at the boiling point fourteen lbs. of animal fat is added, and
when quite dissolved the previous sediment of soda and lime is again stirred into
it. The whole is kept boiling for about two hours and continually stirred; at this
stage fourteen lbs. of clean sliced potatoes are added and boiled, and stirred until
quite dissolved, thus forming a starch. Then eight gallons of crude petroleum, and
one gallon of liquid ammonia, a refuse from gas works, are stirred in. This
compound is now run into a greased tub or other mould, and when cold forms
about 100 lbs. of a fine soap, having the required special properties, viz., of
softening and of imparting the color and glossy appearance of the finest flax to the
fibre treated, which treatment is as follows:-
Fourteen lbs. of this soap is dissolved in about sixteen gallons of boiling water;
when quite dissolved, about one cwt. of the fibre is suspended in it. The liquid is
allowed to gradually cool down for one hour to about 80° Fahrenheit, when the
fibre is withdrawn for the washing operation.
The washing process is next effected as follows:-
The washing machine consists principally in an annular grate-like table with
corresponding corrugated or toothed rollers engaging with it, similarly to the first
or crushing machine, except that the rollers are coned and the axes radiate from the
centre of the annular table. Each roller is supplied by means of a suitable pipe
and tap with water or other fluid, which completely washes away all extraneous
matter as the fibre passes under the rollers. The table is caused to revolve under
the rollers by means of a circular rack and pinion, or by other suitable means; or
the rollers may be arranged to roll round the table, which would in that case be
stationary. With a revolving table friction rollers would be used to sustain it, and
also with the breaking or crushing machine with the longitudinal table first
mentioned. The water or other liquid for washing is supplied to the several
rollers from a central tank or cistern.
In this machine the table and rollers are made of brass or gun metal to avoid
rust. In the breaking machine, they may be of cast iron.
The bleaching. This is effected by immersing the fibre for a short given time in
another specially prepared and non-injurious liquid, used more particularly for
producing a snow white in the rhea fibre when to be spun or woven in combination
with silk.
The bleaching liquid is thus prepared
--
To about sixteen gallons of boiling water is added six lbs. of the best ordinary
soap, and when dissolved fourteen lbs. of chloride of lime. This is well stirred and
allowed to cool down to about 80° Fahrenheit, when an operator immerses the
fibre in it one handful at a time, and carefully watches it, withdrawing it directly
it reaches a snow white, which occupies about 2 minutes. He then plunges it into
clean cold water which stops at once further and injurious action. When dry the
fibre is ready for spinning.

page_text: The bleaching operator may use india-rubber gloves to protect the hands from
the fluid.
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By these several processes the usual operations of hackling and combing and the
injurious and wasteful process of "retting or steeping are dispensed with, and
moreover the fibre (rhea) can be prepared for spinning and weaving on four distinct
kinds of machinery, viz., silk, flax, alpaca, and cotton.