IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OR PREPARING TEXTILE MATERIALS AND FABRICS.
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Peek, of the City of Manchester, Manu-
facturing Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OR
PREPARING TEXTILE MATERIALS AND FABRICS.
Sealed the 15th August 1861, and dated the 13th March 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Peek at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th March 1861.
I, ALFRED PEEK, of the City of Manchester, Manufacturing Chemist, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
OR PREPARING TEXTILE MATERIALS AND FABRICS," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to increase the density or substance and to
improve the appearance and finish of cotton and other vegetable fibrous mate-
rials and fabrics. When operating upon yarns or fabrics, they are first
cleansed, if necessary, by the usual well-known processes from the paste or
grease usually adhering to them, they are then passed through a compound
solution of silicate of soda or potash and soap; the soap may be either a pure
fatty soap or combined with a resinate of soda; after this the yarns or fabrics
are dried, and then more or less exposed to the air, if found requisite; they
aré then passed through a bath composed of a solution of certain salts capable
of decomposing the silicate and soap, and at the same time yielding their base
n combination with the silica in the yarns or fabrics.
[Price 8d.

page_text: The salts employed are limited by their price, but those I prefer are the
chlorides and acetates of calcium and barium; others may, however, be
employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Peek in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th
September 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
PEEK, of the City of Manchester, Manufacturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Peck, Her special licence that I, the said Alfred Peek, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred
Peek, 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 TREATING
OR PREPARING TEXTILE MATERIALS AND FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alfred Peek, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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 Alfred Peek, 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) :-
The object of my Invention is to increase the density or substance and to
improve the appearance and finish of cotton and other vegetable textile mate-
rials and fabrics. When operating upon yarns or fabrics, the first process is
to remove the paste, grease, or other impurities adhering to them, and this is
effected by bowking or washing in the usual manner. The yarns or fabrics,
after the preliminary cleaning, when such has been found necessary, are then

page_text: passed through a solution of silicate of soda or potash, either combined or not
combined with a pure fatty soap or with a resinate of soda mixed with the
soap. After thus preparing the yarns or fabrics they are dried by warm air
or otherwise, and then aged or exposed to the atmosphere, which exposure is
in all cases recommended as far as practicable. In order to fix the silica into
the yarns or fabrics, they are next submitted to the action of a solution of
certain salts by surface padding or otherwise, which salts decompose the silicate
of soda or potash, and the soap when any has been combined with the silicate
and the salts, yielding their base, precipitate the silica, and cause it to adhere
to or become incorporated with the fibrous materials, yarns, or fabrics.
The method of applying the solution of salts by surface padding is recom-
mended because the bath or diluted solution of the salts is not sufficiently rapid
in its action, thereby allowing time for the silicate to be dissolved away from the
material under operation before the decomposition can take place. The salts
which may be employed for decomposing the silicates are, the chlorides of cal-
cium, barium, and magnesium, the hydrochlorate of alumina, the nitrates of
lime, baryta, magnesia, and alumina; the sulphates of alumina or common
alum and of magnesia, but of all these I prefer the chloride of calcium, on
account of its cheapness.
Another class of salts, such as sulphate and nitrate of oxide of ammonium
and the hydrochlorate of ammonia may also be employed for the same
purpose.
The novelty of my Invention consists in fixing or precipitating the silica of
the silicate of soda or potash by salts, instead of by acids or acid gases, which
have heretofore been used for that purpose.
The strength of the solution of silicate of soda or potash may vary from
about ten to fifty degrees of Twaddle's hydrometer, according to the density
which it is desired to give to the yarns or fabrics under operation, and the
strength of the solution of the salts employed for decomposing or precipitating
the silicate will depend upon the peculiar salt used, and also upon the strength
of the solution of silicate with which the fibrous materials have been impreg
nated; but as the precipitation of a silicate by a salt will be well understood
by practical chemists, it is not requisite to give further particulars, care being
taken that in all cases the decomposing salt be used slightly in excess of the
quantity required for effecting the decomposition of the silicate. A slight
washing will be sufficient to cleanse the yarns or fabrics, which may then be
sized or otherwise finished by any of the methods now employed.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that I claim as my Invention the application

page_text: the silicate of soda or potash, and precipitating the silica into the fibrous mate-
rials or fabrics.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Peek, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, the Third day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
ALFRED PEEK. (L.S.)