US273078A - Alfred higgins and frederick wilkinson - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

. A. HIGGINS & I. WILKINSON.

BLBAGHING AND DYEING PIBROUS MATERIALS.

No. 273,078. Patented I'eb.27, 1883..

UNITED STATES PATENT OFF CE.

ALFRED HIGGINS AND FREDERIGK WILKINSON, OF MANCHESTER, COUNTY OF LANCASTER, ENGLAND.

BLEACHING AND DYEIN G FIBROUS MATERIALS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 273,078, dated February 27, 1883.

Application filed June 12, 1%82. (No model.)

- To all whom itmay concern Be it known that we, ALFRED HIGGINS and FREDERICK WILKINSON, subjects of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Manchesteuin the county of Lancaster, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bleaching and Dyeing Fibrous Materials; and we do hereby declare that the followingis a full, 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.

In Patent No. 241,464, granted to Frederick Wilkinson, May 10, 1881, are described a process and devices for bleaching and dyeing cotton and other fibrous material while in the condition .known as sliver or lap.

The object of this invention is more particularly to further improve the process described in said patent. This invention, however, is applicable to any process for treating skeins or a lap or long, narrow bat of fiber.

trate thedevices for carryingout our invention,

Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of the machine through which the lap is passed to saturate, bleach, oil, or dye it, with a swift or reel for collecting the lap. Fig. 2 is an end and Fig. 3 a side elevation of the swift placed near steam-pipes for drying the lap upon it.

To a suitable stand or frame, A, is secured a cistern,B,filled with water kept to any desired temperature, preferably by means of steampipes. In this cistern B is secured another cistern or pan, 0, which contains the liquid with which it is desired to treat the fiber, whether for oiling, bleaching, or dyeing. A

roller, D, is journaled in boxes secured to the frame A near the middle of the cistern 0, and is caused to rotate by belt or gearing in anywell-known way. Other rollers, ddd d 0 d 01, are inounted on each side of the roller D in boxes adapted to slide in ways secured to the frame A, and are kept pressed against each other and the roller D by means of the'weighted levers F F, pivoted to the frame, and having one arm bearing on the boxes of the outer rollers. By raising the weighted arms of the levers the rolls can be separated to any required distance. It is evident that when the rollers are held in contact with each other by the weights on the levers F F, and the roller D caused to revolve, the other rollers will revolve with it, and that a sliver of cotton or the like, when passed between the outer rollers and alternately over and under the others, will 6 be drawn along b v the friction of the rollers. These rollers dip into or may be entirely immersed in the liquid in the cistern 0, so that the lap becomes thoroughly saturated as it is drawn through by the rollers. Heretofore the sheet, on leaving the rollers or drying-cylinders, has been made into a solid roll, in the usual manner in which aroll or lap is made on an opener or scutching-machine, oris collected in some receptacle.

By our present invention we dispense with the mode of drying and collecting shown in the patent above mentioned, and instead we attach to any or all of the machines shown in that patent, or to a machine such as is shown in the accompanying drawings, a swift, H, similar to what is ordinarily used in reeling spun yarn. This swift H is mounted in bearings supported by brackets attached to the frame A, and has a'pulley, it, fast to its axis,

to use endless webs or aprons JJ, passing over loose rollers supported in any convenient way and following the course of the fiber, which, being placed between these endless webs, is

In some cases-as, for go supported by them on its passage through'the cistern 0 and between the final squeezing-rolls I I, from which it goes to the swift H, which is now made to revolve by contact with the lower web, J.

We find it also advantageous at times, in order to thoroughly saturate the fiber, to subject it to blows from one or more rapidly-vibrating mallets, K K, which receive their motions from a cross-shaft, k, driven by a suitable connection, and to which they are connected by the rod and crank k When a convenient length of the treated fiber has been wound onto the swift H it is in the form of a skein, and the process of collecting the lap or long, narrow bat is completed. The next process is to remove the swift H with the fiber wound on it, or the skein may be removed from the swift in the usual manner well known in doffing spun yarn. This skein itself may be, but preferably the skein and the swifton which it is wound are, taken to the drying rooin, in which the atmosphere is maintained at the proper temperature, preferably by steam-pipes. The swift H, with the skein on it, is placed in suitable bearings and made to rotate, usually by means of belting from an.overhead shaft, passing around the pulley fixed to the axis of the swift. At times, however, we find it convenient to take several skejns to the dryingroom and slip them onto a longer swift of about the same diameter, caused to rotate as above stated. Steam-pipes L are placed immediately beneath the swifts and rapidly evaporate the moisture, which flies to the outside of the skein 'by the centrifugal action of the revolving swifts. It is evident that yarn, when dried in the skein in the usual way, may also'be dried byour improved process, by treating the skein of yarn as we treat the skein of lap when taken from the first swift. When the skein of fiber is wound on to some considerable thickness,

and when the motion of the swift is rapid, we find it advantageous to surround the fiber with a cloth to prevent it being thrown off by centrifugal action. This cloth does not impede the passage and rapid evaporation of the moisture.

By the above process the hot air is allowed to circulate all through the skein of fiber, and we are enabled to complete the drying more conveniently and in less time than by any other method with which we. are acquainted. The fiber is also left in a better state for manufacture. No part of it is partially baked, as is often the case when the fiber has been dried by contact with a hot cylinder. The color is evenly laid, since the dyeing-liquid cannot fall by gravity to the bottom part' of a mass of fiber, as it does when the fiber is collected as heretofore, and give this part a different shade of color. When dry, the swift, with the skein still on it, may be taken to another machinesuch as a drawing-frame, slubbing-frame, or carding-engine and the long, narrow lap or bat be drawn directly from the swift.

We prefer in many cases to obtain our long bat orlap direct from a section of cardingenginessay of six, twelve, or eighteen machines such as are ordinarily used in American mills--removing the lap-head, but in some cases retaining the drawing-head. In the drawings we have shown one machine only, which may be considered as the last in the several operations of saturating, bleaching, dyeing, or oiling cotton or other fiber.

The fiber may be passed continuously from a section of carding-en gines through the other machines, or may be collected on a reel from each machine, or may be collected in a skip or other receptacle in all but the last machine, from which it may be reeled in the form of a skein, for the purposes hereinbefore set forth, or be collected and carried to the drying-room and there reeled.

Among the advantages to be gained by our improvement are the following: Economy of plant, particularly in drying, speed, and uniformity in the processes of dyeing and dry; ing, dispensing with the second operation of opening and scutching, economy of dyes, and economy in storing the fiber after it has been dried.

We claim as our invention-- 1. The process of drying fibrous material collected in skeins, herein described, consisting in subjecting the skeins to the combined influence of centrifugal force and hot air, substantially as set forth.

2. In a machine for saturating a long, narrow lap or hat of cotton or like fiber, the combination of a hot-water cistern in which the vessel containing the dye or other liquid is immersed, a series of rolls over and under which the fiber passes,one or more rolls of the series being supported in boxes fixed to the frame, the other rolls being supported in boxes sliding in ways on the frame and held against each other and the fixed roll by weighted levers, rapidly-vibrating mallets, endless webs or aprons, squeezing-rolls, and a swift or reel adapted'to rotation in a heated atmosphere.

3. For bleaching, dyeing, oiling, or saturating a long lap or bat of cotton or like fiber by a continuous process, the combination of a section of carding-engines, as described, with a hot-water cistern having a vessel containing the dye or other liquid immersed therein, the fixed and sliding rolls, the weighted levers for holding these rolls against each other, the webs or aprons, the vibrating mallets, the squeezing-rolls, and a swift or reel for collecting the bat in the form of a skein,all arranged together substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore set forth.

ALFRED HIGGINS. FREDERICK WILKINSON. Witnesses:

JOSEPH LYTLE, JOSEPH HOWARTH, Clerks with Messrs. Ormerod (E: Allen, Solicitors,

Manchester.

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