BLEACHING 378 



adjoining kier; q is a blowing-off valve or tap; r, the pipe through which the 

 bbwking liquor enters into the kier ; s, manhole (closed by two cross-bars, secured by 

 bolts and nuts) through which the goods are introduced and removed ; 1 1 are gauges 



116 



by which it is ascertained when the liquor has passed from one kier and has entered 

 the other. 

 The process adopted for bleaching is as follows : 



1. The box or water-trough of the washing-machine is then half filled with milk 

 of lime of considerable consistence, and the goods are run through it, being carried 

 forward by the winches and deposited in the kiers. The whole of the cloth in a 

 kier is in one length, and a boy enters the vessel to lay it in regular folds until the 

 kier is filled. All the cloth before entering the kier must pass through the lime. 



2. When the kiers are filled, a grid of movable bars is laid on the top of the cloth, 

 and the manhole of the kiers is closed. High-pressure steam is then admitted at the 

 top ; this presses down the goods and removes the lime-water, which is drawn off at 

 the bottom. At the same time the air is also removed from the goods and replaced 

 by steam. When this is driven off, and nothing but steam issues from the tap at the 

 bottom, 40 Ibs. of lime, which have been previously mixed with 600 gallons of water, 

 are introduced into the first kier in a boiling state. High-pressure steam is again ad- 

 mitted, which forces the lime-liquor through the goods to the bottom of the vessel, then 

 up the tube I, and on to the goods in the second kier. The tap is then closed which 

 admits steam into the first kier, and the steam is now sent into the second. The same 

 process occurs, only in this case the liquid is sent again on to the top of the goods in 

 the first kier. This process is continued about eight hours. 



High-pressure and Distributing Kiers. Mr Barlow has effected an important im- 

 provement in his original high-pressure kiers by the addition of distributors. 



Fig. 1 1 7 (p. 374) is an elevation showing a pair of kiers, fitted with distributors, &c. 

 A and B are the kiers (which it is preferable to make of strong boiler-plate iron), the 

 kior A being shown in section, and exhibiting the distributors, &c. 



At tho bottom of the kier is a plate of an umbrella shape, c. This plate spreads 



