BLEACHING 395 



ing and working it, that, to show it fully, I shall givo here tho process of preparing 

 flannels, out of which the parts relating to cleansing may be taken. 



1. The wool is weighed out into parcels of 120 Ibs. Add, on an average, 20 to 21 Ibs. 

 or 10 quarts of oil rape-oil or olive, or mixed, or, as is very common now, oleic 

 acid, which may be so used as not to be hurtful to tho machinery in this condition. 

 This was introduced by Mr. M'Dougall. 



2. It is then devilled or willowed, carded, slubbed, and spun. 

 The warp portion is made at this stage if wanted. 



3. Scoured in the warp with urine and hot water, occasionally using a little ammonia. 



4. Sized with a mineral sizing, and put into the looms. 



5. If spun for weft, it is soaked, when on tho bobbin, with cold water in a cistern, an 

 air-pump being used to extract the air from tho threads and to compel the water to 

 enter. 



6. The water is then removed by a revolving water-extractor. This process 

 leaves the weft full and soft. 



Skin-wool, so called, is taken from the skin by means of lime, which makes tho 

 oil stiff, forming a compound. 



7. The piece being now woven is grey. It is sent to tho finishing or fulling mill, 

 sprinkled over with urine and pigs' dung, and put under the fulling hammers until 

 equally wet. 



8. It is then washed out or scoured with cold water, raised with teasels, dried out 

 of doors or in a stove. 



Treated a little differently, accordingly as Welsh or Lancashire is wanted. 



9. It is then sprinkled again with soap-and-watcr, and milled one to two hours in 

 the fulling-stock. 



Three-quarters to 1 Ib. of soap is given for each piece. 



10. Cleared with cold water. 



11. Hung up wet in a sulphur-stove ; several pots of sulphur lighted. Tho door is 

 shut till morning. Washed four to six hours in cold water, treated with finely- 

 ground indigo, dried, and a little further raised, pressed, and rolled up for sale. 



If the flannel is Welsh, it is dried and sprinkled with fullers' earth (instead of tho 

 soap-and-water used for the Lancashire), well milled for some time, and then cleared 

 in cold water. It is then put into a cistern filled with water, having some soap 

 thrown in as well as a few cakes of Prussian blue. This dipping is repeated three 

 or four times, and between each tho flannel is milled in tho fulling-stock. This 

 levels the colour. When blue enough, the pieces are dried and made up for sale. 



It appears that Welsh flannel is not sulphured ; tho cleaning is done entirely by 

 ammonia. 



Sulphuring, In the usual mode of sulphuring the cloth is hung on pegs or rails in 

 rooms which are called the sulphur chambers or stoves. An iron pot containing 

 sulphur is placed in each corner of the room, and the sulphur inflamed. The door is 

 then shut and clayed. By the morning the process is finished, and the door is opened. 

 This mode is objected to, because the sulphur, not being properly burnt, lodges in the 

 cloth, and acts injuriously on it in tho processes of dyeing or printing. Sparks also 

 are apt to rise up and injure the pieces, the sulphur not being pure, and burning 

 irregularly. Drops also of water impregnated strongly with sulphurous acid are apt 

 to fall from the roof, doing injury to the cloth. 



To avoid these inconveniences Mr. Thorn has. invented a method by which the 

 cloth is rapidly carried through the sulphuring chamber, and subjected to the in- 

 fluence of the vapour on the principle of the washing-machine. A great deal of time 

 and space is of course saved ; it is on the same principle as the washing apparatus, 

 vapour being used instead of water. This has not yet been applied to thick woollen. 

 See CALico-PHnmNG. 



BLEACHING OF MATERIALS FOR PAPER. 



The bleaching of paper is conducted on tho same principle as the bleaching of 

 cotton. Paper is made principally of two materials, cotton and flax, generally mixed. 

 The cotton-waste of the mills, which is that inferior portion which has become too 

 impure for spinning, or otherwise deteriorated, and cotton rags, are tho principal, if 

 not the only, sources of the cotton used by piper-makers. The waste is sorted by 

 hand, tho hard and soft being separated, and all accidental mixtures which occur 

 in it are removed. This is done at first roughly on a large lattice, which is a 

 frame of wire cloth, having squares of about three-quarters of an inch, through 

 which impurities may fall. It is then put into a duster, which is a long rectangular 

 box, it may bo ten feet long, lying horizontally, tho inside diameter about two feet, 

 and covered with wire gratings running horizontally, leaving openings of half an 



