IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER, MILLBOARD, AND FELT PROM MATERIALS NOT HITHERTO SO USED
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Crosley, of Camberwell Grove, in the County
of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
PAPER, MILLBOARD, AND FELT PROM MATERIALS NOT HITHERTO SO USED."
Sealed the 21st November 1854, and dated the 18th September 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Crosley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th September 1854.
I, HENRY CROSLEY, of Camberwell Grove, in the County of Surrey, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF PAPER, MILLBOARD, AND FELT FROM MATERIALS NOT HITHERTO SO USED,"
to bo as follows:-
My Invention is for improvements on a Patent granted to me on the
Fifteenth day of April, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, for the
use of spent tan and spent hops in the manufacture of paper.
Patent the tan and hops were used by themselves without any admixture.
In that
My present Invention consists in mixing with the spent tan and spent hops
fibrous materials, either animal or vegetable, according to the articles to be
produced. If white paper is required to be made, the spent tan or spent hops
should be bleached, and white linen fibres or other white fibre mixed therewith
and reduced to pulp in the ordinary way. If brown or common paper is made,

page_text: spent tan or spent hops may be used without being bleached, combined with
fibres of old rope or any other common suitable fibre. These materials, when
reduced into a pulp, may be made into paper in the ordinary way. In making
felt I mix animal fibre and tar with the spent hops or spent tan, and make
sheets of felt by passing the compounds between rollers in the ordinary way.
SPECIFICATION in-pursuance of. the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Crosley in the. Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th March 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
CROSLEY, of Camberwell Grove, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Crosley,. Her special licence that I, the said Henry Crosley, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Crosley, 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 MANUFAC-
TURE OF PAPER, MILLBOARD, AND FELT PROM MATERIALS NOT HITHERTO SO USED,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Crosley, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Henry Crosley, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):-
My Invention is for improvements on a Patent granted to me on the
Fifteenth day of April, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, for the
use of spent tan and spent hops in the manufacture of paper. In that Patent

page_text: the tan and hops were used by themselves without any admixture. My present
Invention consists in preparing the spent tan and spent hops, priorly to mixing
them, either with animal or vegetable fibre, which is best effected by a com-
bination of operations and means, varying according to the materials used and
the products intended to be made therewith, which may be described as
follows:-
First, in all cases when paper or millboard is to be made, it is needful to
separate the stones, dust, or other impurities from the spent tan, which can be
partially effected by sifting and washing, both or ceither, as circumstances may
require, after which it must be subjected to the influence and action of steam
at and from twenty to fifty lbs. pressure per square inch, and preferably so in a
closed vessel, during a period of and from fifteen to twenty hours, or thereabouts,
according to the quality of the bark used for tanning, which is of dissimilar
qualities and condition, arising from humidity when taken out of the tan pit,
or from exposure to the atmosphere, or from being heaped in bulk. To effect
the operation of steaming, I prefer (although other modes might be adopted)
a circular closed vessel like unto a steam boiler, with man-hole at one end,
and cover firmly affixed thereto, and a cock at the bottom for discharging the
liquid matter after the operation is performed. The man-hole serves for
charging the vessel with tan; and on each side of the centre or semi-diameter
two trunnions are fixed, one of which is hollow and the other solid; to the
hollow one is fixed, steam-tight in the usual manner, a double-way cock for the
admission of steam or cold water; both trunnions or spindles rest on bearings
fixed upon standard carriages, the solid trunnion being of sufficient length
to fix thereon a spur or toothed pinion, which, when worked by other driving
pinions or wheels connected to the motive power, rotates the steaming vessel
with its contents very slowly (say, one rotation in five to ten minutes), the
steam being admitted therein by pipe and cock from the steam boiler or
generator. The spent tan (first prepared by sifting and washing, both or
either.) is acted upon by the steam and by the alkaline mixture in solution, the
quantity (added to the spent tan when put into the said vessel) varying in
quantity and strength, according to the quantity and quality of the spent tan
so to be acted upon in the said vessel. The solution is made from potash or
soda and quick or unslaked lime; and as such article or solution is well
known, and used by paper and millboard makers, it is unnecessary to describe
how it is prepared; the steaming vessel is also used by some paper makers;
therefore I claim these appliances as part of my Invention of improvements, so
far only as they are serviceable for the purposes thereof.
When the steam from the steam boiler which supplies the steam in the

page_text: revolving steaming vessel is to be turned off by shutting the cock, the vessel
and its contents may repose until the steam therein is condensed; but if
desirable to condense it quickly, cold water may be forced therein by a pump,
the cock at the bottom being opened for the discharge of the liquid matter;
after which the cock may be shut, and cold water admitted, and rotation given
to the vessel for a few minutes, in order to cleanse more thoroughly the spent
tan from colouring matter and other impurities, and thus the spent tan is thus
further prepared, and may then be discharged from the steaming vessel, and
heaped, and kept until it is convenient to perform the next operation.
Second, the spent tan thus operated upon contains hard and knotty sub-
stances, which can be further separated by subjecting it to the action of a
mill, consisting of four cast-iron rollers, the two uppermost jagged or studded
with spikes or projections on the peripheries, or cast-iron corrugated rollers
may be used. In either case these rollers are placed above two other rollers,
the latter having a smooth or plane surface on their peripheries. The uppermost
rollers are worked by pinions fixed upon their gudgeons, the pinions being of
equal diameter to produce an uniform speed, whilst the rollers beneath are to
be worked at differential velocities, which is effected either by one roller being
of greater diameter than the other, (the diameter of the pinions fixed on their
gudgeons being equal,) or if the rollers are of equal diameter, then pinions of
dissimilar diameter are fixed on the gudgeons of these lower rollers. The effect
in either way produces a prolonged or rubbing pressure upon the spent tan,
tending to divide the fibre, and also to crush the hard substances remaining
therein, although to a certain extent the upper or jagged rollers effect these
objects.
As the spent tan falls from the lower rollers it is to be received into a
rotating cylindrical wire sieve of a proper mesh, fixed and placed in a slightly
inclined position or inclined plane, and worked by a strap and riggers attached
to the gudgeon of one of the rollers, or the motive power that drives the
rollers. The sifted tan is discharged at the lower end of the sieve, and the
dust below it, and, if it is necessary, these operations may be repeated, it being
desirable as far as possible to free or separate the hard substances from the
spent tan. The sieve may also be employed in the first instance to sift the tan
before it is washed and subjected to the steaming process. The mill described
has not hitherto been used for preparing materials for making paper or mill-
boards, nor for spent tan, but somewhat similar mills, varying in construction,
have been used for other purposes; therefore I claim these appliances as part
of my Invention of improvements in the manufacture of paper and millboards,
the same not having been so used.

page_text: The spent tan, having been prepared in manner aforesaid, is then in a
condition for mixing with other fibrous substances; and if brown paper or
millboard is to be made, old junk or rope, oakum, cotton waste, old bagging,
hemp and flax refuse, and such other like substances, may be used and mixed
after being properly prepared to admix with the spent tan, as may also be a
certain description of peat found in Ireland and elsewhere, which resembles
spent tan; also bog and mountain heath, couch grass, or the roots only, and
many other such like vegetable fibrous substances, may be used after being
properly prepared, as would be necessary with some of them, by steeping,
washing, steaming with an alkaline solution, sifting, rolling, &c.; after which
they may be mixed with the prepared spent tan, but the process of steaming
and mixing the alkaline solution, in manner described, will be necessary when
the vegetable substances, other than old rope, junk, oakum, bagging, and cotton
waste are used, although in some cases the lastly-named process may be
desirable and beneficial for the said last-mentioned articles; the period of
steaming and the quantity of alkaline solution more or less depending on the
nature of these vegetable productions and their tenacity or strength of fibre.
And after such preparation, and their reduction by the beating engine to what
is denominated "half stuff," they may be mixed, one or the other of them, or
a quantity of each, with the prepared tan to make the article desired; such
admixture and operations depending upon the judgment of the operator
acquainted with the manufacture of paper and millboard. The prepared tan,
and also all or any of the previously named fibrous substances, or others that
may be found serviceable, after being properly prepared, may be mixed with
old junk, rope, &c., previously named, and then the mixture must be beaten
in the ordinary beating engine used by paper makers until the mass is reduced
to a pulp fit to make paper or millboard; and during such beating, as is
customary, may be added, size, glue, or other adhesive substance or substances,
and also alum and puddled clay; and during the beating to make "half stuff"
or pulp, if a jet of steam be occasionally emitted through perforations in a
pipe fixed along a portion of the side edge at bottom of the beating engine,
the operation will be better effected than with cold water. Spent hops, after
being properly prepared, may form part of the mixture with all or any of
the substances enumerated, or which may be found available for the purposes
intended.
Third, when spent hops are to be used for making paper, they should be
subjected to the action of steam, in a somewhat similar manner as for spent
tan; and if the alkaline solution is used, which is not in all cases essentially
necessary, or if so, then in a comparatively trifling degree, to soften and

page_text: separate the seeds remaining in the hops, the seed being of an oily nature,
which, if not separated or neutrallized, the paper made therefrom would be
speckly, & such specks transparent, & therefore injurious to the sale of the
paper. The mixture of spent hops must only be made when the other sub-
stances are beaten to the degree of "half stuff." If a superior description of
paper is to be made, it will be necessary to bleach the materials in the usual
manner employed by paper makers; the bleaching ingredients are well known
in the trade, and are an article of commerce, therefore, need not be more
particularly described. Other mode or modes of bleaching may be found
necessary when spent tan is to be bleached, as it should be separately ere it is
mixed with other materials in the beating engine, as it contains a powerful
dye, which cannot be extracted by the ordinary means, which extract may be
rendered available for dyeing and also for manure.
Fourth, when millboards are moulded and piled one upon another to make
what is termed a "post," a woollen felt cloth of the size of the board is placed
between each, and after being pressed in the mould by a hand screw, and sub-
sequently in pile by an hydraulic or other press, they are dried in the open air.
My Invention of improvements in respect thereof consists in placing upon each
felt cloth a sheet of thin iron or other metallic plate, coated or not with any
other metal or metals, and then thereon the felt cloth to receive the board, and
so on to complete the pile. These plates prevent the absorption of the water or
humidity in the board, by other of the boards forming the pile. The water
runs freely therefrom, and the millboards so treated and pressed are found to
contain only about half the quantity of water or humidity of millboards treated
in the common and usual manner, and proportionately to the number of iron
plates so used is the quantity of water remaining in the millboards, inore or
less; consequently, by adopting this my improvement in preparing millboards,
they require less drying, and the surfaces are more even, and the millboards are
more solid. Further, as an improvement in the mode of drying millboards, as
paper should be made by the well-known paper machine, the paper is dried as
woven or formed. In lieu of effecting the drying millboards in the ordinary
manner by the natural influence of the atmospheric air or in heated chambers,
I use a brick stove, properly constructed with racks for receiving the millboards
to be dried, which can be effected more rapidly than by the ordinary method
by forcing a current of air by means of a revolving blowing fan (such as is
used for melting iron) through a series of cast-iron pipes placed above a fire.
The air as it passes through the pipes can be heated to the proper degree
or temperature to effect the drying of the boards without unduly warping or
buckling them, as would be the case if the air were too hot. The series of

page_text: pipes may be placed in any required position or form, horizontally or vertically,
so as to be exposed to the greatest possible effect of the fire upon their external
surfaces, but preferably in the form of the frustrum of a cone, vertically
fixed and surrounded with suitable brick-work, so as to obtain a reverbatory
action of heat from the fire beneath. The air so forced and heated in its
passage through the pipes ascends through the stove and the body of the
millboards placed therein, the heated air absorbing and carrying with it the
humidity contained in the millboards, which escapes through an orifice at
the top of the stove, to which is affixed a pipe or funnel of a proper height to
accelerate the emission of the air and vapour; and in order to regulate the
current of air and the degree of heat of the stove, a hinge valve or flap is
fixed and hung at the mouth of the orifice inside the stove, and by cords and
pulleys the flap can be opened or shut at pleasure. When the millboards are
dried, and after any remaining hard substances are picked out, then the boards
are rolled between two surfaced rollers, and again by other two of greater
polish, which finishes the manufacture of millboards.
Fifth, when felt such as is used for covering roofs and other purposes is to
be made, the spent tan or spent hops, both or either, or any other vegetable sub-
stances alone or mixed therewith; the same may also be mixed with animal
fibre, of proper and suitable description, such as old and cleansed woollen rags,
previously torn to what is termed flock, by the well-known machine called "the
devil's head," or any other short sort of animal fibre may be used or admixed;
and any such mixture being also mixed with a proper glutinous and adhesive
substance or substances, either in warm or cold state, as may be needful, may
then be treated in and by any of the methods used for making felt for covering
buildings or other purposes to which the same is or may be applied.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Crosley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
GEO. PITT,
4, Old Square.
HENRY CROSLEY. (L.S.)