GB517266A - Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of game balls - Google Patents

Abstract

517,266. Treating textiles. SPALDING & BROS. (BRITISH), Ltd., A. G. April 22, 1938, No. 12112. Convention date, May 13, 1937. [Class 15 (ii)] [Also in Group XV] In the manufacture of tennis and other game balls having a fabric covering containing animal fibres, the tendency of the covering to become discoloured by contact with soil is decreased by treating the fabric with an-agent reacting therewith under suitable conditions of concentration of the agent and duration of the treatment. Specified reagents are hydrogen peroxide, sodium peroxide, chlorine water, potassium permanganate and alkali or ammonium hydroxides. A wetting agent, such as sodium lauryl sulphate or sodium hexadecyl sulphonate, may be used in conjunction with the reagent. Fabric suitably treated shows the pink, reddish violet or violet colour of the biuret test when treated in the cold with solutions of caustic alkali and copper sulphate. The fabric .which may be, for example, of wool, rabbit fur, alpaca, mohair or.camel hair, may be treated before or after its assembly upon the ball centre. Wool, so treated, has an increased affinity for acid and basic dyes. In an example, a tennis ball comprising a rubber compounded centre and a wool fabric cover, cemented under heat or adhered thereto, is thoroughly wetted in a 30 per cent. solution of hydrogen peroxide, the solution is drained off and the ball, preferably after immersion in a 5 per cent. solution of ammonium hydroxide, is dried at a temperature not above about 82‹ C. If, in place of the hydrogen peroxide solution, a saturated solution of chlorine in water, a 1 per cent. solution of potassium permanganate or a 10 per cent. solution of sodium peroxide is used, the resulting discoloration is removed by treatment with a weak solution of hydrogen peroxide.