US141423A - Improvement - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES M. BROWN, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT lN CLEANlNG WOOL ON PELTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 141,423, dated August 5, 1873 application filed July 25, 1873.

To all whom 2'2 may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES M. BROWN, of Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Process of Washing Sheep-Skins and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

In the ordinary operation of washing sheepskins with the wool on, it is customary to let them soak in a tank containing Water or water and lime, and after they become softened to stir them around in order to loosen and free the dirt or other extraneous matter therefrom, after which, if the skins are dry and hard, to still further soften them they are thrown over a beam and submitted to what is called the breaking process, in which a blade or other instrument is made to pass back and forth over the inner or flesh side. The skin is next hung up in the sweat-room to facilitate its fermentation and decomposition, in order thereby to more readily and completely detach the wool therefrom.

This process is objectionable for the following reasons, viz: The operation of washing does not sufficiently remove the dirt from the pelt, and when carried to the sweat-room, unless extreme vigilance is employed, a gas is generated by the existence of the dirt remaining, which pricks the skin, t". 0., produces small black spots thereon, which very much reduces its commercial value, besides which the wool, when dry, is left in a matted and tanglled condition, and requires to be straightene My invention has for its object to overcome the above-mentioned difficulties; and consists in a process of washing in which one or more streams of water are forced upon the outside of the pelt, t. 0., on its wool side when hung or placed with the head down, or in any other position in which the stream or streams may impinge upon the pelt in a direction from the tail toward the head, whereby the water is enabled to thoroughly penetrate and pass through the wool, and come in contact with the surface of the skin, thus removing the foreign matter calculated to produce gases, and also leaving the wool when dry in a much better condition for the card than by the former process.

Water thus projected upon the pelt is as efficacious in softening the skin as the ordinary process of breaking with the blade or knife, and I am consequently enabled to economize the time and labor heretofore expended in the breaking process, thus effecting a very considerable reduction in the cost of cleansing the skins and wool.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The process of washing sheep-skins by directing a stream or streams of water against the wool of the pelt, substantially as herein described.

Witness my hand this 22d day of July, A.

JAMES M. BROWN.

In presence of- S. EDWIN IRESON, GHAs. W. R. FORD.