A NEW MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Evans, of Abbots Langley, in the County of
Hertford, Paper Manufacturer, for the Invention of "A NEW MANUFACTURE
OF PAPER."
Sealed the 14th July 1854, and dated the 28th April 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Evans at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
April 1854.
I, JOHN EVANS, of Abbot's Langley, in the County of Hertford, Paper
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A
NEW MANUFACTURE OF PAPER" to be as follows:-
It consists in the adoption and use for that purpose of refuse materials.
hitherto wasted, namely, the clippings and rejected parts of vegetable produc-
tions imported and used for making plait and plaited hats, the principal o-
which is at present commercially and technically called Brazilian grass. The
process for converting this substance to pulp for the proposed new manufacture
is nearly the same as is practised for the refuse of hemp and flax. The most
woody part is outcast, either by selection or by the processes well known in the

page_text: manufacture of paper of screening or devilling, and the net usable product is
treated in the same way as the coarser materials now applicable to paper
making, the processes of purifying and bleaching being adjusted to the
purpose in view, namely, the making of white paper or brown paper; and I
propose to use this material in mixture with other materials now in use for
paper making.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Evans in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th
October 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN EVANS,
of Abbot's Langley, in the County of Hertford, Paper Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Evans, Her special license that I, the said John Evans, my exccu-
tors, administrators; and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Evans,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term, therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW MANUFACTURE OF
PAPER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Evans,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and scal, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent..
fter the date of t
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Evans, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
(that is to say):
The object of this Invention is to effect an economy in the manufacture of
paper, by the substitution or partial substitution for the rags, now commonly

page_text: employed in the preparation of paper pulp, of an article having at present little
or no marketable value.
To this end I collect the refuse, waste, or clippings which arise from the
manufacture of Brazilian grass into plait or plaited hats, and subject this
material (which I shall term Brazilian grass waste) to nearly the same treat-
ment as has heretofore been employed in the manufacture of paper from hemp
or flax waste.
Having removed the most ligneous parts, as the stems of the leaf and
extraneous matters, by roughly sorting over the clippings, I boil the remainder
in a suitable vessel with lime and water for about twelve hours, in the manner
usually adopted with the coarser materials at present in use for paper making.
I then place it in a rag engine, and subject it to the ordinary washing and
breaking-in processes, so as to set free the fibres of the leaf, and wash away the
lime and feculent matter, taking care not to shorten the fibre too much during
the washing process; and if it be intended for brown or unbleached paper, I
then at once reduce it to pulp, and convert it into paper by the well-known
and ordinary processes. I prefer, however, using an admixture of rags or
stronger materials with it to employing the Brazilian grass waste alone.
In manufacturing white paper therefrom, according to this Invention, I take
the Brazilian grass waste, after it has undergone the processes of washing and
breaking-in, as above described, and subject it to a second boiling for twelve
hours, but with a solution of soda instead of lime, and after washing and
pressing it in the ordinary manner I pass it through a screening machine or
devil, so as farther to open the fibres and cleanse the stuff, which is then ready
for the bleaching operation. This is effected either by exposing the stuff to
the action of chlorine gas in what is termed a chest, or by steeping it in a
solution of chloride of lime, or by both processes in succession; but a greater
amount of chlorine gas or chloride of lime is required to bleach it than for
ordinary materials. After bleaching it is again washed in a rag engine, to
remove the chlorine and muriatic acid, and it is then converted into pulp and
made into paper by the usual processes; but in this case also I prefer using
with the Brazilian grass waste an admixture of rags or other ordinary materials,
in the proportion of from twenty-five to fifty per cent. of the whole mass.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "A New Manufacture
of Paper," and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish
it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim
the treatment of the waste, refuse, or clippings of the so-called Brazilian grass
(arising from the manufacture of that material into plait or plaited liats,) in the

page_text: manner above described, or by any analogous process for the conversion of the
same into paper.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Evans, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
C. LONGMAN,
Abbot's Langley.
JOHN EVANS. (L.S.)