US239398A - Process of preparing absorbent cotton - Google Patents

Description

\ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JENNIE E. PIERCE, OF LEWISTON, MAINE.

PROCESS OF PREPARING ABSORBENT COTTON.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 239,398, dated March 29, 1881. Application filed January 18, 1881. (No specimen.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I JENNIE E. PIERCE, of Lewiston, in the county of Androscoggin and State of Maine, a citizen of the United States,

7 have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Process of Preparing Absorbent Cotton; and I hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to'which it appertains to make and use the same.

Heretofore absorbent cotton has been prepared by rotting the raw cotton by the use of chloride of lime for the purpose of extracting the oil from the cotton. My invention differs from this by extracting the oil from the cotton, before it is bleached by the use of soda-ash and quicklime, as hereinafter described, there by saving great waste of cotton and thereby making a great saving of chloride of lime and sal-soda, rendering the manufacture of the article much more economical, saving great expense, and simplifying the process.

To carry myinvention into effect I take ten pounds of raw cotton, break and card it; then thoroughly wet it in warm water; take two pounds. soda-ash, seven ounces quicklime. Boil the soda-ash first until all is dissolved; then slack the lime in hot water and add it to the above; boil one-half an hour; let it stand six hours; then draw it from the settlings; add water enough to cover the cotton; boil two and one-half hours; take the cotton out of the liquid and-rinse it until the water is clear; then take two and one-half pounds of chloride of lime; dissolve it in ten ters Patent, is

quarts of warm water; let it stand twelve hours, or until clear; then draw olf and add forty quarts of hot water; then put the cotton in the solution, and let it stand one-half hour; stir and rinse until clear; then cover the cotton with a solution of Warm water mixed with one-third of pound sal-soda; let it stand ten minutes; then rinse it again until the water is clear; dry and card it, and itis ready for use.

I am aware of Letters Patent No. 227,481), issued May 11, 1880, to Lucinda A. Biicknam, and I claim no title to any part of her invention, my invention being an improvement on her process, inasmuch as my invention saves more than one-half of the expense of preparation, besides being a great saving in cotton,

as absorbent cotton prepared by my process,

is not rotted or wasted, while in her process the cotton is rotted and wasted.

What I claim and desire to secure by Let- Ihe method of preparing cotton as. an absorbent for surgical purposes, consisting in subjecting the raw cotton first to abath of quicklime and soda-ash dissolved in water, and boiling in this, then rinsing in clean water andimmersing in a solution of chlorideoflinie, again rinsing, immersing in a solution of salsoda, rinsing, drying, and carding, substantially as set forth.

JENNIE E. PIERCE.

Witnesses:

E. P. GURNEY, 1 D. HALE.