CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING AND PREPARING WOOLLEN YARN, AND IN CLEANSING, DRESSING, AND FINISHING WOOLLEN CLOTHS, AND OTHER FABRICS, AND IN THE APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING THE SAME
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
DANIEL HARRIS, of Field Place, Stroud, in the County of Gloucester, Clothier,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifteenth day of January, in the eighth year of His reign, did
give and grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence and authority that I, the said George Daniel Harris, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or any other person or persons that I might
authorize, and no others, during the term of years therein expressed, might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within those parts of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ircland called England and Wales and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING
AND PREPARING WOOLLEN YARN, AND IN CLEANSING, DRESSING, AND FINISHING
WOOLLEN CLOTHS, AND OTHER FABRICS, AND IN THE APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING
THE SAME;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if
I, the said George Daniel Harris, shall not within six calendar months next
and immediately from the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention by an
instrument in writing, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery, that then and in that case the said Letters Patent,
and all privileges and advantages thereby granted, shall utterly cease, deter-

page_text: mine, and become void, as in and by the same, reference being thereto had,
will be more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Daniel Harris, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be constructed and used, the particulars
of which are set forth in the following description, reference being had to the
Drawing hereto annexed (that is to say) :-
-
My Improvements in Dressing and Preparing Woollen Yarns, and Cleansing,
Dressing, and Finishing Woollen Cloths, and other Fabrics, and in the
Apparatus for performing the same, consists of the following particulars:-
1st, in dressing and preparing woollen yarns, I adopt a process by which in
a great measure the grease in the wool is destroyed, and the curl of the yarn
subdued and straightened.
2nd, after the cloth has been woven and soaked in an alkaline solution,
and then washed in clean water in the ordinary way, I further cleanse it from
the alkali, for the purpose of preventing the soap in the fulling process
adhering so firmly to the cloth as it does in the common mode of proceeding.
3d, I cleanse, dress, and finish the cloth by the employment of certain
materials never before applied to that purpose in connection with a gig mill
or other rotatory machinery. In dressing and preparing the woollen yarns I
generally take the yarn in cops as it comes from the spinner, and having
placed the cops in a close vessel rendered perfectly air-tight, I then put in
action an air pump, which had been previously connected to the vessel by a
pipe with a stopcock, and having opened the stopcock, I work the pump and
draw out or exhaust the air from the interior of the vessel, and also the air
which was confined between the coils of the woollen yarn, and between the
fibres of the wool. The vessel and the yarn being now in a state of vacuum
or exhaustion, I let into it a quantity of alkaline liquor through a pipe with
stopcocks, which liquor immediately insinuates itself into the pores of the
woollen yarn, and destroys the grease contained.
For the sake of illustrating my mode of performing the above-described
process I have represented in the accompanying Drawing, at Fig. 1, a section of
an apparatus which I find to be convenient for the purpose, but I do not mean
to confine myself precisely to the form or construction represented, as a close
vessel of any other convenient shape would answer the purpose nearly as well.
a, a, is a square vessel made of copper, tinned and united at the joints by screw
bolts passed through flanges. The vessel may, however, be of any other suitable
inaterial, and made in such a manner as workmen may deem best. This vessel
should be placed upon standards b, b, in order to raise it some distance from the

page_text: ground. c, c, is a false bottom mounted upon a perpendicular rod d, d, which
is passed through the bottom of the vessel a, and slides through a stuffing box
for the purpose of keeping it air-tight. e is the manhole of the vessel, which
being opened allows the cops of woollen yarn to be placed within the vessel,
5 as shewn) cach cop having a temporary spindle previously passed through it).
g is a pipe leading from the interior of the vessel a, at the upper part, to an
air pump, placed at any convenient distance. h and i are pipes leading from
the bottom of the vessel a to tubs respectively containing solutions of alkali and
of acid. The yarns having been placed within the vessel a, the manhole c
must be closed and secured so as to render it perfectly air-tight; the stopcock
of the pipe g being now opened, the air pump is to be set to work, by means
of which the air will be drawn from the vessel a, and from the fibres of the
wool, as above said. When the vacuum within the vessel a is sufficiently
perfect, the stopcock of y must be closed and those of h opened, by which the
alkaline liquor in the tub will be allowed to flow through the pipo into the
vessel a, which by that means will be filled up to the top. This alkaline liquor
I make by dissolving a suitable quantity of potash in hot water, say about
two & ounces of potash in a gallon of water; but I do not confine myself
to those proportions, nor to the use of that particular material, as soda will
answer nearly the same purpose. This liquor should be heated to about 140
degrees, more or less, according to the quality and condition of the wool. The
vessel a being thus occupied with the hot alkaline liquor, and the yarns per-
fectly immersed therein, I now close the cocks of the pipe h, and open the
cock 1, for the purpose of letting the atmospheric air into the upper part of the
vessel, the pressure of which assists the operation, causing the liquor to pene-
trate more perfectly into the pores of the wool; and this might, if necessary, be
further promoted by the employment of an ejecting pump, so as to condense a
voluume of air upon the surface, or by hydraulic pressure. When this hot
liquor has acted upon the yarns for twenty minutes or longer, according to the
quality and condition of the wool, I then open the discharge cock m, and let
the scum and oily matter with the upper portion of the liquor run off. I now
open the cock of the pipe h again, by which means the liquor is enabled to run
out of the vessel a into the tub k, but in order to express the alkaline liquor
from the yarns I apply the power of a lever n to the end of the perpendicular
rod d, which, by raising the false bottom c, presses the yarn against the top of
the vessel a, and the liquor hereby expressed runs down through the pipe h
into the tub below. If the grease is not sufficiently removed from the wool
and the curl subdued and straightened by this operation, it may be repeated.
and after the alkali has been removed the yarns may be washed with hot

page_text: After
water. Instead of employing the pressing apparatus above described, the yarns
may be removed from the vessel, and squeezed by any other means.
closing the necessary cocks, I again put the air pump in operation, and having
exhausted the vessel containing the yarns as before, I now introduce an acid
diluted with water, for the purpose of neutralizing the alkali, which is done by
opening the stopcocks in the pipe i, when the diluted acid passes up from the
tub o, through the pipe i, into the exhausted vessel, and enters the pores of the
wool. For this purpose I prefer to use sulphuric acid, of about the strength
of two ounces of concentrated acid in a gallon of water. This liquor may be
then drawn off, and the yarns squeezed and washed in the way above described.
The manhole may now be opened and the yarns removed to be prepared and
worked into cloth in the usual way. The yarns having been woven into
cloth and cleansed in the ordinary manner previous to milling, I submit the
cloth to the action of a weak acid, for the purpose of neutralizing what alkali
may have been left in it, which operation prevents in a great measure the soap
in the fulling process entering into the fibres of the wool and adhering so firmly
to the cloth as it does in the usual modes of proceeding. This operation may
be performed by immersing the cloth in diluted acid in an ordinary open vessel,
but I prefer placing the cloth in a close vessel, and exhausting the air from it,
as above described, previously to introducing the diluted acid. In cleansing,
dressing, and finishing woollen cloths and other similar fabrics, I attach to the
ordinary gig mill, or other rotatory machinery employed for cleansing, raising, and
dressing, a number of ribs of sponge, for the purpose of uniformly spreading
the water on the face of the cloth, and creating a more equal friction against its
surface as the gig barrel revolves, which cleanses and lays the fibres of the
wool, and at the same time gives lustre to the dress or finish. I also attach to
the gig barrel fillets of a material made from caoutchouc (indian rubber).
This caoutchouc, having been dissolved by Hancock's patent process, is in its
fluid state impregnated with fine grits, such as emery powder, steel filings,
pounded glass, or other hard granulated substances; which material, being
dried, is then cut into fillets, and attached to the gig barrel. The points of the
grit protruding through the surface of the indian rubber form an elastic file,
which, rubbing against the cloth under operation as the gig barrel goes round,
straightens the pile or nap, and gives a small face to the cloth. These
materials act in a similar way when attached to the gig barrel, either in
conjunction with teasles, wires, or brushes, or alone, and give a much more
beautiful surface and appearance to the cloth than has heretofore been pro-
duced by any other mode of dressing. The spunge may also be employed in a
dry state, in conjunction with a brushing machine, or any other apparatus, for

page_text: setting up the pile, or dressing and finishing cloth; and the fillets of caout-
chouc, containing the gritty material, may also be adapted to hand dressing;
and, without the grit, the caoutchouc may be employed as an elastic bed for
the teasles to bear upon. The manner in which I attach these materials to a
gig barrel, or other rotatory apparatus, is shewu in the accompanying Drawing,.
at Figs. 2 and 3; but I do not mean to confine myself to that particular mode
of adapting the materials, as many other modes of mounting or fixing pieces of
sponge and fillets of indian rubber to a revolving apparatus may' be devised to
answer the purpose nearly as well.
Fig. 2 is a representation of a portion of the periphery of a gig barrel.
Fig. 3 is an end view of the same, with the above described materials
attached thereto. The gig barrel as usual is made by circular rings of iron u, a,
attached by means of arms to an axle, upon the periphery of which rings are
fixed the gig boards or plates b, b, containing the teasles c, c, as in the common
way. By the side, or in any convenient way contiguous to the gig boards, I
attach the boxes or frames d, d, in which I propose to place the ribs of sponge.
These boxes or frames I make of plate iron, and mount them upon springs e, e,
in order to afford elasticity. I usually stretch the pieces of sponge over small
sticks, to which they may be secured by strings, sewn through. These sticks,
with the sponge, I place in the frames, as shewn at f,f; the backs of the
frames being cut into teeth, and the opposite sides of the frames pressed up by
screws, in order to make the sponge fast. In this or any other convenient
way, the sponge being attached to the gig barrels, and raised a little above the
teasle guard as the gig barrel revolves, the sponge will work against the
surface of the cloth, and produce the effect above described. The fillets of
indian rubber, made in the manner above described, I propose to attach to the
gig barrel by fixing them on to boards, as at g, g, the sides of the material
being held fast upon the boards by indentations or teeth cut in the side plates,
which are turned over; and I fasten these boards g to the gig plates or boards
by spring catches, or by any other convenient contrivance.
From the above description it will appear that the principal object of my
Invention, which I claim under my aforesaid Patent, is the above-described
process of introducing alkali and acid by the agency of a vacuum, and the new
applications of sponge and indian rubber, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Daniel Harris, have hereunto set
my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.
GEORGE DANIEL (L.s.) HARRIS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of July, in the
ninth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth, the said
George Daniel Harris came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand