In- PROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF ANIKAL AND VEGETABLE FIBRES, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, WITH A VIEW TO THE CLEANSING OF THE BAME AND OBTAINING OILY, RESINOUS, AND GUMMY PRODUCTS THEREFROM.
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "In-
PROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF ANIKAL AND VEGETABLE FIBRES, AND IN
THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, WITH A VIEW TO THE CLEANSING OF THE
BAME AND OBTAINING OILY, RESINOUS, AND GUMMY PRODUCTS THEREFROM.
A communication from abroad by William Adamson, of Phila-
delphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
"
-
Sealed the 7th October 1871, and dated the 17th August 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th August 1871.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
5 of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE
FIBRES, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, WITH A VIEW TO THE
CLEANSING OF THE SAME AND OBTAINING OILY, RESINOUS, AND GUMMY PRODUCTS
THEREFROX," a communication from abroad by William Adamson,

page_text: of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America, to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in firstly subjecting animal and vegetable fibro
or fibrous ligneous substances to the action at an elevated temperature
and pressure of such volatile hydrocarbons, or the vapours of the same,
or combinations thereof, as are solvents of the fatty oils and resinous
matters which are contained in animal, vegetable, and ligneous fibres.
Various methods of and appliances for subjecting the fibres or fibre
bearing substances to volatile liquid hydrocarbons or the vapour of the
same under pressure, and causing the same to circulate through the
material, will readily suggest themselves to those familiar with the process
to which this Invention is most nearly allied, and it will be unnecessary
to cite more than one example of apparatus which may be employed.
The material for instance may be placed in a closed vessel, and the
hydrocarbon be previously added or be admitted thereto, and the contents]
be then heated by a steam coil or otherwise, the vessel being furnished
with a safety valve for determining the pressure, or if desired the liquid
volatile hydrocarbons in a heated state may be forced by means of a
circulating pump through the vessel and through the contents until the
desired result is obtained.
A
ด
It is preferred however to apply hydrocarbon vapours under pressure
to the above materials, and to use for that purpose apparatus sub-
stantially similar to that herein-after described, and which constitutes
the second part of my Invention, such apparatus consisting of a vessel
of such material as will resist the chemical action of the contents, and
withstand the pressure to which it may be desired to subject it. This
vessel is furnished with a detachable cover, and with two perforated
or wire gauze diaphragms or gratings, both extending across the vessel,
the one near the top of the same, and the other near the bottom.
steam coil communicating with any adjacent generator is placed within
the vessel below the lower diaphragm, and at the bottom of the vessel
is a discharge pipe and cock. A pipe extends from the top of a vessel to
a condenser, within which the pipe assumes the form of a coil or worm,
communicating with another pipe which has its outlet in the vessel
beneath the lower diaphragm. The continuity of the pipe at the top 8
of the vessel is interrupted by a valve chest containing a valve opening
upwards, and depressed by a lever with a force dependent upon the

page_text: adjustment of its weight. The material to be operated upon is placed in
the vessel between the two diaphragms, and there is then introduced
into the space below the lower diaphragm a supply of volatile hydro-
carbon, which is heated or vaporized by the steam coil or other suitable
heating appliances. The vapour of the volatile hydrocarbons ascends
and permeates the material, and passes off through the top pipe to the
worm, whence it returns in the form of a liquid hydrocarbon to the space
in the vessel below the lower diaphragm, to again assume the form of
vapour which passes through the material in the vessel as before, tho
process being continued until the desired end is attained. Should it be
desired to employ the hydrocarbon both in a state of vapour and liquid
under pressure the return pipe instead of communicating with the vessel
at a point below the lower diaphragm may terminate in the said vessel
above the upper diaphragm, in which case the condensed vapours will
pass from the condenser directly on to the said diaphragm, and percolato
through the material until the liquor reaches a point where it is again
vaporized. In this case descending currents of liquid hydrocarbon will
act on the material simultaneously with the ascending hydrocarbon
vapours. The amount of pressure to be employed will depend somewhat
on the character of the material to be operated upon. It has been found
that under a pressure of about five pounds per square inch animal,
vegetable, and ligneous fibro can be rapidly cleaned. With a pressure
of from ten to fifteen pounds per square inch pine shavings may be
deprived of their gummy and resinous matter, thereby rendering them
available for the production of paper stock. In the treatment of certain
animal or vegetable fibres or fibre bearing vegetable substances, it may
sometimes be advisable to impart a much greater pressure than that
before mentioned, but in carrying out this Invention the apparatus to
be employed should be so constructed as to allow of increased pressure
and temperature.
The vessel before mentioned may be furnished with a supplementary
weighted valve, loaded a little in excess of the valve in the top pipe so
as to ensure safety, and a check valve opening inwards towards the
interior of the vessel is placed at the junction of the return pipe with
the said vessel.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
:
filed by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 16th February 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE FRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-one, in the 35th
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that
I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors,
administrators, or 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREAT-
MENT OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE FIBRES, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN, WITH A VIEW TO THE CLEANSING OF THE SAME AND OBTAINING OILY, S
Resinous, and GUMMY PRODUCTS THEREFROM," a communication to me from
abroad by William Adamson, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United
States of America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Henry Johnson, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and a
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner tho
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby a
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, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to
say:―
The said Invention consists first in subjecting animal and vegetable
fibre or fibrous ligneous substances to the action at an elevated tem-
3

page_text: perature and pressure of such volatile hydrocarbons, or the vapour of
the same, or combinations thereof, as are solvents of the fatty, oily, and
resinous matters which are contained in animal, vegetable, and ligneous
fibres. The object of the said Invention is to thoroughly and rapidly
3 cleanse wool, hair, dirty cotton waste, and other fibres, and to extract
therefrom the oily and fatty matters, and to set free the fibres of
vegetable and fibre bearing ligneous substances, such as stalks, leaves,
husks, bark, also wood shavings, to be used as paper stock or for textile
manufactures.
Various methods of and appliances for subjecting the fibres or fibro
bearing substances to volatile liquid hydrocarbons or the vapour of the
. same under pressure, and causing the same to circulate through tho
material, will readily suggest themselves to those familiar with processes
to which this Invention is most nearly allied, and it will be unnecessary
to cite more than one example of apparatus which may be employed.
The material for instance may be placed in a closed vessel and the
hydrocarbon be previously added or be admitted thereto, and the
contents be then heated by a steam coil or otherwise, the vessel being
furnished with a safety valve for determining the pressure, or if desired
the liquid volatile hydrocarbons in a heated state may be forced, by
means of a circulating pump, continuously through the vessel and
through the contents until the desired result is obtained.
It is preferred however to apply hydrocarbon vapours under pressure
to the above materials, and to use for that purpose apparatus sub-
stantially similar to that herein-after described and illustrated by the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and which constitutes the second part of
this Invention. This apparatus consists of a vessel A of such material
as will resist the chemical action of the contents, and withstand the
pressure to which it may be desired to subject it. This vessel is
furnished with a detachable cover, and with two perforated or wire
gauze diaphragms or gratings 6 and d, both extending across the vessel,
the one near the top of the same, and the other near the bottom. A
steam coil B communicating with any adjacent generator is placed
within the vessel below the lower diaphragm, and at the bottom of the
vessel is a discharge pipe and cock e. A pipe D extends from the top of
the vessel to a condenser E, within which the pipe D assumes the form
of a coil or worm F, communicating with another pipe D' which has its
outlet in the vessel beneath the lower diaphragm. The continuity of

page_text: "
the pipe D at the top of the vessel is interrupted by a valve chest
. containing a pressure valve opening upwards, and depressed by a lever f
with a force dependent upon the adjustment of its weight according to
the pressure required inside the vessel A. The material to be operated
upon is placed in the vessel between the two diaphragms b and d, and t
there is then introduced into the space below the lower diaphragm da
supply of volatile hydrocarbon, which is heated or vaporized by the
steam coil or other suitable heating appliances. The vapour of the
volatile hydrocarbons ascends and permeates the material and passes.off
through the top pipe D to the worm F, whence it returns in the form of 1
a liquid hydrocarbon by the pipe D' and through the check valve at m,
which opens inwards to the space in the vessel below the lower dia-
phragm d, to again assume the form of vapour which passes through tho
material in the vessel as before, the process being continued until the
desired end is attained. Should it be desired to employ the hydrocarbon 1
both in a state of vapour and liquid under pressure, the return pipe
instead of communicating with the vessel at a point below the lower
diaphragm, may terminate in the said vessel above the upper diaphragm b,
as shown by the dotted lines at D", in which case the condensed vapours
will pass from the worm F directly on to the said diaphragm b, and will 2
percolate downwards through the material until the liquid reaches a
point where it is again vaporised. In this case descending currents of
liquid hydrocarbon will act on the material simultaneously with the
ascending hydrocarbon vapours. The amount of pressure to be en-
ployed will depend somewhat on the character of the material to be 3
operated upon. It has been found that under a pressure of about five
pounds per square inch animal, vegetable, and ligneous fibre can be
rapidly cleaned. With a pressure of from ten to fifteen pounds per
square inch pine shavings may be deprived of their gummy and resinous
matter, thereby rendering them available for the production of paper 3
stock. In the treatment of certain animal or vegetable fibres or fibre
bearing vegetable substances it may sometimes be advisable to impart a
much greater pressure than that before mentioned, but in carrying out
this Invention the apparatus to be employed should be so constructed
as to allow of increased pressure and temperature.
The vessel before mentioned may be furnished with a supplementary
weighted safety valve q loaded a little in excess of the pressure valve at
x in the top pipe so as to insure safety, the check valve m opening
.
3

page_text: inwards towards the interior of the vessel, being placed at the junction
of the return pipe with the said vessel, whether such junction be situato
above the upper diaphragm b or below the lower diaphragm d; h and y
represent a pipe and stop-cock for supplying liquid hydrocarbon to the
lower part of the vessel A; a is a manhole and cover for introducing the
animal or vegetable fibres or fibre bearing substances into the vessel A.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to
be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
.
First. The treating of animal and vegetable substances with hydro-
carbon, or. hydrocarbon vapour, or both combined, under heat and
pressure, substantially as and for the purposes herein-before described.
.
Second. The combination of a back pressure valve in the pipe or
passage through which the vapour passes into the condenser with the
vaporizing vessel A, and condenser E, substantially as and for the purpose
hercin-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this
my Specification set my hand and seal, the Fifteenth day of
February One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.