US1111027A - Method of securing vegetable fiber. - Google Patents

Description

J. LAUROIX.

METHOD OF SECURING VEGETABLE FIBER.

APPLICATION FILED 00125, 1913.

1 ,1 1 1 ,02'7, Patented Sept. 22, 1914,.

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JOSEPH LACBOIX, 0F FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD OF SECURING VEGETABLE FIBER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 22, 1914;.

Application filed October 25, 1913. Serial No. 797,321.

To all whom it may concern Be it known thatnI, JosnPH LAoRoIX, a citizen of the United States, residing at Fall River, county of Bristol, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Securing Vegetable Fiber, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the production of vegetable fibers such as thoseof fiaX or hemp, and particularly to the direct production of such fiber from the plant. Various methods of securing fibers of this nature have been tried with greater or less success. One of the great difficulties in the treatment of these fibers has been the effect upon the fiber, and especially upon thestrength of the fiber. Another difiiculty present in most processes has been the unavoidable breaking of the fiber, the loss of a great part of it and the production of a resultant article of short staple. The usual processes have been slow, taking long periods of time for preliminary rotting or softening treatment and have produced an inferior product and a small yield. My present invention provides a method by which fiber is immediately produced without long preliminary treatment. The fiber is long and unspoiled and unweakened and the yield secured thereby is as high as 1,500 pounds to the ton as againsta yield of 200 pounds or less to the ton which has been heretofore considered satisfactory.

The gist of my invention lies in the discovery that straw of the flax or hemp is held by oils or gums which are either volatilizable by heat or so materially dried as to render possible the complete separation of the fiber and the expulsion of the chaff or straw like elements of the stalk casing.

The manner of operating under my method will be more fully set forth in the specification which follows, and in order to make the same clear, I have shown in the drawings in diagrammatic form, an apparatus for the practice of my invention.

I have indicated at 1 an oven which may be of any suitable size or shape through which runs a conveyer 2 driven at very slow speed so that in action any body of straw S will remain within the oven for approximately thirty minutes. The oven 1 is preferably heated to about 135 F., although it is possible to operate as low as 75 but with very much reduced advantage. Ihave also found it possible to operate as high as 175 but the higher temperatures are liable to char the fiber. From the conveyor 2 the heated straw is passed to a series of sixteen pairs of heated rolls indicated at 3. These rolls are fluted or corrugated as indicated at 4, and inpractice I prefer rolls about six inches in diameter and preferably about five feet wide, to accommodate the ordinary feed of material. The rolls may be driven by any suitable driving mechanism (not shown). The first set of rolls of those nearest the oven has its fiutings about one-fourth of an inch broad and the last set of rolls has its flutings about one thirty-second of an inch. The intermediate flutings are of widths gradually decreasing in width.

The straw may be fed to the oven just as it comes from the thrashing machine on the field. During the preliminary heating or baking which occupied usually about thirty minutes the oils or gums of the straw are either volatilized and driven off or such as are not of a volatile nature are dried or hardened so that not only the bark and shive but also the gum itself is dried and easily broken and rubbed off and separated. When the hot straw reaches the first pair of rolls 3 the exterior skin has been released from its hold on the long fibers and as it is broken between the rolls the outer coating of the straw is broken up and drops away in the form of a dusty chaff. As the straw progresses through the hot rolls with the small flutings, it is still further freed from its oils and has the coatings broken up until at the end of the sixteenth roll it emerges as a substantially free mass of fibers ready to be fed to the picker. Each pair of rolls is kept hot by any suitable means as by a steam pipe 5. This keeps the material hot throughout its traveling and volatilizes the oils as fast as they are exposed in the broken mass.

The action of the rolls is one of disruption or disintegration. Their effect is a crushing and rubbing of the straw to fracture the matter incasing the fiber and to free it from the fiber. This result may be accomplished by any of the various means well known in the art which accomplish this crushing or rubbing either simultaneously or separately.

The number of rolls, the size of the same,

as well as thesizeof the flutings, may be varied. I find it of great importance however to heat each roll- Various modifications may be made in the times, temperatures, and method of handling all without departing from the spirit of my invention if within the limits of the appended claims.

YVhat I therefore claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: I

1. The method of isolating the fibers of flax,ramie, hemp and the like consisting in heating the straw and subsequently mechanically disintegrating the matter associated with the fiber while maintaining the straw in hot condition.

2.The method of isolating the fiber of flax,ra'mie, hemp and the like consisting in heating the straw and in subsequently subjecting the straw to rubbing while maintaining it hot. l 3. The method of isolating the fiber of flax, ramie, hemp and the like consisting in heating the straw and subsequently in successively working it between hot rolls of increasing fineness to free the fiber.

4. The method of isolating the fiber of flax, ramie, hemp and the like consisting in heating the straw and subsequently in subjecting the straw to progressive crushings while maintaining it hot.

5. The method of isolating the fiber of flax, ramie, hemp and the like consisting in heating the straw and subsequently freeing the fiber by mechanism having heated, straw contacting elements.

6. The method of isolating the fiber of flax, ramie, hemp and the like consisting in mechanically manipulating the straw at a temperature sufiiciently high to maintain the gums and the like in a free or non-tacky condition. H I

7. The method of isolating the fiber of flax, ramie, hemp and the like consisting in first heating the straw and then working the heated straw between hot rolls.

8. The methodof isolating the fiber of flax, ramie, hemp and the like consisting in heating the straw'and in subsequently subjectingthe straw to crushings of increasing fineness while maintaining it hot.

9. The method of isolating the fiber of flax, ramie, hemp and the like consisting in heating the straw and subsequently in successively crushing it between hot rolls of increasing fineness to free the fiber.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

. JOSEPH LAOROIX.

Witnesses:

CHARLES J. BURDIOK, MARION O. HoBBs.

Copies of this patent may be'obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, 11.0.

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