IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF FIBROUS MATERIALS TO RENDER THEM OTTIMA DY DAN a RENDER THEM SUITABLE FOR USE AS LINT FOR SURGICAL PURPOSES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Theophilus Westhorp, of the West India Dock
Road, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF FIBROUS MATERIALS TO RENDER THEM
OTTIMA DY DAN
a
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Theophilus Westhorp
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 10th September 1870.
I, THEOPHILUS WESTHORP, of the West India Dock Road, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF FIBROUS MATERIALS.
TO RENDER THEM SUITABLE FOR USE AS LINT FOR SURGICAL PURPOSES," to be
as follows:-
'
The object in this Invention is to prepare raw fibrous material as it
comes from a carding or scribbling machine to render it suitable for
use as lint. For this purpose I impregnate the fibrous material, after it

page_text: has been carded or scribbled, with vegetable tar, and thus render it
antiseptic and disinfectant. The fibres so prepared with vegetable tar
may be used in the loose state or they may be made into sheets, and such
sheets may be secured by an adhesive medium to a backing of paper or
waterproof material.
In order to impregnate the fibrous material with vegetable tar I
immerse it in the tar in a boiling state and afterwards remove from it
the excess of tar by subjecting it to hydraulic or other pressure, or fleeces
of fibrous material from a carding or lapping machine may be passed
into boiling tar and be withdrawn from the tar between rollers to remove
-the-excess. Sheets-of-fibrous-material thus prepared may be used as lint
either with or without a paper or other backing. I prefer to use a
mixture of wool, cotton, and flax, either mixed together by carding
or scribbling, or bats or fleeces of these fibres may be lapped one over
the other.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Theophilus Westhorp in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th March 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THEOPHILUS
WESTHORP, of the West India Dock Road, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Theophilus Westhorp, Her special licence that
I, the said Theophilus Westhorp, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Theophilus Westhorp, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PREPARATION OF FIBROUS MATERIALS TO RENDER THEM SUITABLE FOR USE AS

page_text: LINT FOR SURGICAL PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Theophilus Westhorp, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their; or one of their hands
and seals, 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..
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Theophilus Westhorp, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is. to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The object of this Invention is. to prepare raw fibrous material as it
comes from a carding or scribbling machine to render it suitable for
use as lint. For this purpose I impregnate the fibrous material, after.
it has been carded or scribbled, with vegetable tar,, and thus render it.
antiseptic and disinfectant. The fibres so prepared with vegetable tar
may be used in the loose state or they may be made into sheets, and
such sheets may be secured to a backing of paper or waterproof
material..
In order to impregnate the fibrous material with vegetable tar I
immerse it in the tar, in a boiling state, and afterwards remove from
it the excess of tar by subjecting it to hydraulic or other pressure,
or fleeces of fibrous material from a carding or lapping machine may
be passed into boiling tar and be withdrawn from the tar between
rollers to remove the excess. Sheets of fibrous material thus prepared may
be used as lint either with or without paper or other backing. I prefer
to use a mixture of wool, cotton, and flax, either mixed together by.
carding or scribbling, or bats or fleeces of fibres may be lapped one over.
the other.
•
In order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect I will proceed to describe the methods by
which I prefer to conduct the manufacture.
I take flax, tow, cotton, and short staple wool, all in a clean and
carded state, and I mix them (by preference by equal weights) by
feeding them simultaneously into a carding or scribbling machine.
From this machine the fibre is delivered as a compound sliver.

page_text: If a lint without backing be required this sliver is placed in a cylin-
drical vessel perforated at the bottom and sides, containing Stockholm.
tar in a boiling state, such perforated vessel being contained in an outer
pot or vessel heated by steam contained in a steam jacket in a coil
immersed in the tar. The steam should be at a pressure such as to
maintain the tar at a temperature of about 240° Fahrenheit. The fibre
is kept in the boiling tar for about ten minutes and then the cylinder
with its contents is drawn out of the tar pot and placed in an hydraulic
press the head of which enters the cylinder like a piston, and in this
press the fibre is submitted to a pressure which should not be less than
two tons on the square inch. The vessel with its contents is then taken
out of the press, the prepared fibre is removed and loosened by hand,
and is then ready for use.
It is not essential that the fibres should be mixed as above described,
either fibre may be taken and used by itself, but not with the same
advantage. In place of employing an hydraulic press, rollers may be
used; they should be clothed with vulcanized india-rubber to give
elasticity to the surface, but the use of rollers is not economical and the
india-rubber before very long will be injuriously acted upon by the tar
and the heat.
When a lint with backing is required, the fabric as it comes from
the machine is spread evenly by hand on the surface of sheets of stiff
paper; strong cartridge paper is suitable. These sheets with the fibre
spread upon them are accumulated one over the other in the cylindrical
perforated vessel already described, and (the vessel being cylindrical and
the sheets rectangular) the spaces left around the sheets are filled in
with the loose sliver or fibre. In other respects the process is conducted
in the manner already described, and after the pressure the sheets are
removed from the vessel and separated by hand the one from the other.
In filling the vessel in which the sheets are tarred the sheets are laid
back to back, so that when they are separated there is a fibre upon one
side of each sheet of paper, but the other side is bare.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim,
the preparation of fibrous materials to render them suitable for use as
lint for surgical purposes by saturating such materials when in a loose
sliver or fleecy state as they come from the carding or scribbling

page_text: machine with vegetable tar and then expressing the excess of tar by
hydraulic or other heavy pressure substantially as described.
I also claim the combination of such prepared fibrous material with a
backing substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Theophilus Westhorp, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.