On a new Method of Bleaching, i^ 



Notice refpeBing the new Method of Bleaching, and its Application to the Wajlnng of Linen 



Garments. By CnizEm ChaptaL.* 



WENTY months ago I communicated to the Inftitutc a procefs, no lefs finnple than 

 economical, by means of which cotton goods could be bleached in a very fliort time. 



This procefs was fpeedily rendered public by the journals, and the Englifli availed them- 

 felves of it to fuch advantage, that, a (hort time afterwards, it was adopted and brought to 

 perfedlion in the capital manufa£tory of linen which exifts in Ireland, t 



The fuccefs of this procefs, in the hands of a rival nation, has awakened the exertions, 

 and excited the intereft, of fonie French manufafturers. Citizen Bawens, proprietor of a 

 manufadtory of cotton-yarn and piece-goods, at La Barriere dcs bons Hommes, applied to 

 me for information refpefling this procefs. I gave him the dimenfions of the apparatus> 

 and the conftrudion was intruded to Citizen Bourlicr, a diftinguiflied chemift, and pro- 

 prietor of the fal ammoniac work at Gros-Caillou. The firfl; experiment, which was made 

 in the works of Bawens, was performed upon 2000 metres of cotton in the piece. The 

 refult was fo advantageous in every refpe£l, that Citizens Bawens and Bourlier affociated 

 together to form fimilar eftabliihments in various parts of the Republic. Citizen Bourlier 

 is at this inftant in Belgia, where he has eftabliflied works of this kind to fuch an extent, as 

 to be able to bleach a large proportion of the goods which are manufa£lured in that 

 country. , 



I muft obferve that the procefs which I have defcribed has been Angularly improved by 

 Citizen Bourlier. He has contrived eafy methods of turning the goods in the apparatus, 

 and prefenting all their parts to the vapour. He has found that linen requires in faft only 

 a weak ley ; but that it is neceflary to alternate the a£lion of the ley with that of the at- 

 mofpherfc air, in order to bleach completely. He has fucceeded in giving a degree of 

 ■whitenefs in two or three days to the coarfeft goods which the ufual procefs of the 

 bleachery could not communicate but in a much longer time, and with more expence. 



I have the honour to prefent to the clafs famples of dimities and cloths bleached 

 by Citizen Bourlier. It will be feen that the colour is equal to any thing which has hitherto 

 appeared in the market. 



I fliall not enlarge more fully on the advantages which commerce mud derive from this 

 method, but (hall confine myfelf to obferve that the firfl: experiments, which are always the 

 moft expenfive, did not carry the price of bleaching to more than half the ordinary price. 



« Annales de Chimie, XXXVIII. 291: 



■f- The details of this method may be feen in a work of Citizen D'Orelly, entitled, " Effai fur le 

 Blanchiment;" fold by Deterville, Rue du Sattoir, Noi 6, at Paris, 



Vol. V. — September 1801. H h I have 



