The machinery used may be the same as that used in the cloth bleach, and each operation may be conducted in the same manner. In some warp bleachworks, while the kiers are made in the same way, the other machines are made differently. The chemicing and souring is done in strong cisterns provided with a false bottom; in these the warps are allowed to remain for about two hours. A more complicated form of chemicing cistern is also in use. This is made of stone, and is provided with a false bottom. Above is a tank or sieve, as it is called, having a perforated bottom through which the liquor flows on the warp in the cistern below.
Under the chemicing cistern is a tank into which the liquor flows, and from which it is pumped up into the sieve above. A circulation of liquor is thus kept up during the whole of the operation. Owing to the action of the chemic or acid on the metal work of the pump there is great wear and tear of the latter, necessitating frequent repairs. This is a defect in this form of chemicing machine. For drying the warps a hydro-extractor is first used to get the surplus
liquor from the goods. This machine is now well known, and is in use in every bleachworks, where it is familiarly known as the "whiz," and the operation is generally called whizzing. Hydro-extractors are described under the head of "Dyeing Machinery".
The actual drying of the warps is done over the "tins" as they are called. These are a number of large cylinders measuring about 20 inches in diameter and about—for warp drying—5 feet long. Usually they are arranged vertically in two tiers, each tier consisting of about five cylinders, not arranged directly one above another but in a zig-zag manner, the centres of the first, third and fifth being in one line, and the centres of the others in another line. The cylinders are made to revolve by suitable driving mechanism, and into them is sent steam at about 5 lb. to 10 lb. pressure, which heats up the cylinders, whereby the warp passing over them is dried. This drying may be partial or complete, being regulated by the speed at which the warps pass over the cylinders and by the quantity of steam passed into the same. The quicker the speed and the smaller the amount of steam, the less the warps are dried; while, on the other hand, the slower the speed and the larger the amount and greater the pressure of the steam, the quicker and more thoroughly are the warps dried. As there is a great deal of water formed in the cylinders by the condensation of the steam, means are always provided for carrying off this water, as its retention in the cylinders often leads to serious results and damage to the machine.
Hank Bleaching.—So far as the chemical part of hank bleaching is concerned it does not differ from that of warp bleaching; the same operations and proportions of chemicals may be used and in the same order, but there is some difference in the machinery which is used. The hanks may be manipulated in two ways: they may be either kept in separate hanks, which is the method mostly in vogue in modern bleach-
houses, or they may be linked together in the form of a chain. In the latter case the operations and the machinery may be the same as used in the madder bleach, with a few unimportant minor differences. In the final washing the dumping machine is used, which consists of two wooden bowls set over a wooden trough containing the wash waters. The top bowl is covered with a thick layer of rope and merely rests on the bottom bowl by its own weight, and is driven by friction from the latter. The chain of hanks passing through between the two bowls has the surplus liquor squeezed out of it, and as there is considerable increase in the thickness at the points of linkage between the hanks, when these pass through the bowls they lift up the top bowl, which, when the thick places have passed through, falls down with a sudden bump upon the thin places, and this bumping drives out all the surplus liquor and drives the liquor itself into the very centre of the hanks, which is sometimes an advantage.
In modern bleach-houses the chain form is gradually giving place to the method of bleaching separate hanks, partly because so many improvements have been made in the hank-bleaching machinery of late years, which enables bleachers to handle the yarn in the form of separate hanks better than they could do formerly; and as bleaching in separate hanks means that the cotton is kept in a more open form, and is thus more easily penetrated by the various liquors which are used, it follows that the bleach will be better and more thorough, which is what the bleacher aims at. At the same time weaker liquors or, what is the same thing, less material can be used, which means a saving in the cost of the process. For bleaching yarn in the hank the following process may be followed with good results:—
(1) Lye boil, using 1,000 lb. yarn, 40 lb. caustic soda of 70 per cent., and 50 lb. of soda ash of 58 per cent., giving five to six hours' boil at low pressure.
(2) Wash through washing machine.