Improvements in the Manufacture of Material for Floor Coverings and for other Purposes.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Oct., 1899-Accepted, 23rd Dec.,
1899
Improvements in the Manufacture of Material for Floor Coverings and
for other Purposes.
A communication by THE BREMER LINOLEUM-WERKE-DELMENHORST, of Delmen
horst, in the Empire of Germany, Linoleum Manufacturers.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., Agent for Foreign Patent
Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both in
the County of Lancaster, 118, New Street, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
and 322, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
In the manufacture of floor-coverings so-called linoleum, the use of ground
wood instead of the cork usually employed therefor is well known. The disin-
tegrated wood usually made by grinding up wood forms a substance resembling
meal and is saturated with linseed oil or other suitable oil, or mixture of oil,
or other suitable adhesive substance. The mass is then spread on a fabric and the
drying and oxidation of the mass is then effected by it being exposed in drying
chambers to the action of heat and air, and also light. There is thus gradually
formed in the mass the so-called linoxyn. When the same has been thoroughly
produced, the floor-covering is ready for use. Ordinary ground wood has the
drawback that it is very little absorbent, and only absorbs the oil to a very small
extent, and thereby the oil is not thoroughly mixed with, and finally distributed
in, the wood saw-dust, but a non-homogeneous mixture of particles of wood and
oil, results, in which the oil must be present in a comparatively large quantity,
in order to produce a sufficient binding of the wood particles together. The
consequence of this is that the drying and oxidation, that is to say the binding
together of the mass, requires a very long time, which increases excessively the
cost of manufacture of the floor-covering.
According to the present invention, a material is employed which easily absorbs
the oil or other binding material, and with which in consequence the oil becomes
rapidly mixed in an extremely fine distribution, whilst superfluous non-absorbed
oil does not remain adherent in the mass and is also not necessary for binding the
wood particles together, consequently the mass dries and oxidizes very much
quicker than before, and the manufacture of the covering is thereby greatly accele-
rated and thus cheapened. In consequence of the even fine distribution of the oil in
the material, the covering is also more elastic than that previously made, which
is a very valuable property for floor coverings. This improved material consists
of a peculiar fibrous wood wool produced from wood raspings, which is obtained
by the ground wood being compressed into blocks, and then again disintegrated
by rasping or devilling machines, producing a fine fibred wood wool, the constitu-
tion of which entirely differs from that of granulated wood. Whilst granulated
wood consists of round, oval, rectangular, and like particles, this wood fibre wool
consists of small felt-like hairs and fibres, which may be combined into a solid

page_text: mass merely by pressure with the hand without oil, which is not the case with
ordinary granulated wood.
The process is carried out as follows:-
Ordinary wood material (ground wood and saw-dust) are dyed by a wet process
to the colour which the floor cloth is to have and then pressed into blocks of
suitable size and form, which may be done by means of any suitable pressing
apparatus. When the blocks have been dried, they are disintegrated into wood
fibre wool. This may be done by disintegrating rasping or tearing machines
(devils) in a similar manner to the way these are employed in cloth making for
devilling the wool; or rollers made of sheet metal may be employed, which are
hacked or roughened in the manner of fine graters or rasps, and which are adapted
to tear the blocks into fibres. The finer the fibre is torn, the better will be the
floor-cloth. If the wood fibre wool thus obtained be saturated with oil or other
suitable adhesive substance, each separate fibre will absorb oil until it is entirely
saturated therewith, whilst any oil not absorbed by the fibres cannot remain
adherent in this fine hairy mass. The mass thus contains only the oil absorbed
in the hairs and thereby finely distributed but no superfluous oil, and therefore
when the mass is exposed to air, light and heat, the oxidation of the oil, and
thereby the binding together of the mass, take place much more rapidly than
hitherto.
By the present process the linoxyn in the mass is entirely produced in three
to four weeks and if then the substance be spread on a fabric and combined with
the same by heat and pressure to form a solid elastic covering, after about eight
more days, this covering will be ready for sale and use. The making of a floor
covering by this improved process thus requires at the most five weeks, whilst
by the existing processes five to eleven months are necessary.
The binding material preferably employed for this improved process is formed
of linseed oil specially prepared by boiling with yellow litharge, wax, soda, and
also indiarubber.
Instead of dyeing the wood material before being pressed into blocks for the
purpose of producing the colour of the floor cloth, the dyeing may take place
after the fibrous wood wool has been obtained by the devilling of the blocks which
subsidiary dyeing has the further advantage that this wool easily absorbs the
dye, and is evenly permeated by the same. In this case however before the
succeeding saturation with the oil a further drying of the wood-wool is necessary,
as the latter in a wet condition would not absorb the oil, and these separate
dryings which increase the cost of manufacture are saved by the dyeing being
effected at first in the woody material, as the latter must be wetted in order to
allow of its being pressed into blocks.
The floor covering made by this improved process may be made in any suitable
colour and any desired pattern, and the colour will never wear off, as the mass
is dyed evenly through and through. The colouring is also obtained in the
easiest and simplest manner, whilst in the former processes which yielded linoleum
capable of being used, the oil had to be coloured which was very difficult and
inconvenient. This is also a further advantage connected with this improved
process.
In addition to floor-coverings, the material made by this improved process may
of course also be employed for other suitable purposes. Instead of ordinary
wood, other woody raw materials may if desired be employed for the process,
such for instance as oat husks.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is:-
The improved manufacture of material for floor coverings and other purposes
characterised by the use of fine fibred wood-wool, obtained by tearing un 1

page_text: means of rasping or devilling machines, wood (granulated wood, wood sawdust)
or raw materials resembling wood, pressed into blocks or the like, with the object
of causing the suitably prepared oil or the like or other adhesive substance in
the usual subsequent saturation to combine with the said wood mass in as finely
distributed a condition as possible, and in a non-superfluous quantity, whereby
a more rapid oxidation of the oil, and binding together of the mass is produced,
and the finished article is made more rapidly, substantially as hereinbefore set
forth.
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