IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING MATERIALS FOR PAPER-MAKING, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Collins, of the Milton Paper Mills, Bowling, in the
County of Dumbarton, North Britain, Paper Maker, for an Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING MATERIALS FOR PAPER-MAKING, AND IN
APPARATUS THEREFOR."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Collins at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 20th January 1880.
JOHN COLLINS, of the Milton Paper Mills, Bowling, in the County of Dumbarton,
North Britain, Paper Maker. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING MATERIALS FOR
PAPER MAKING AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
This Invention has for its object to dispense with the whole or a large part of
the labor and expence hitherto generally incurred by paper, makers in "picking"
esparto, wood, straw, and other paper making materials for the purpose of separating
roots and other objectionable substances.
In carrying out the Invention the materials are, with little or no preliminary
picking, subjected to the usual processes of boiling with caustic alkali and
bleaching. The materials are subsequently subjected to the operation of the usual
beating or pulping engines, but when passing through the first of these, or the
breaking engine, as it is termed, or subsequently, they are strained by means of
suitable apparatus, whereby the roots or other objectionable substances are
separated more effectually and with greater economy than by the ordinary picking
process.
The straining or separating process may be applied at different stages in the
preparation of the materials, and by various arrangements of apparatus; but in
what is believed to be a preferable modification, the straining or separating
apparatus is fitted to the breaking engine, and comprises a set of paddles fixed on
the shaft of the engine between the midfeather and the back of the tank. The
paddles dip into the materials or pulp, and throw more or less of them upon a
sloping shelf provided for the purpose, and from which they pass into a mixing box.
The quantities thus transferred to the mixing box are regulated by suitably
[Price 6d1

page_text: Water is supplied to the
mixing box in a manner to be thoroughly intermixed with the materials, and the
diluted materials overflow upon a strainer or sieve through which the water and
finer parts pass, whilst the roots, hard weeds, wood chips, or any insufficiently
broken matters are kept back. A jigging or vibratory motion is imparted to the
strainer or sieve to assist its action. The finer materials which pass through the
strainer or sieve are returned to the engine, or passed on to the next machine for
further trituration.
adjusting the sloping shelf towards or from the paddles.
Instead of employing separate paddles for transferring materials to the strainer
an opening may be formed at a suitable height in the cover which encloses the
beating or breaking wheel or roller, and more or less of the materials will issue
through such opening, and may be led thence to the mixing box and strainer.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Collins in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th July.
1880.
JOHN COLLINS, of the Milton Paper Mills, Bowling, in the County of Dumbarton,
North Britain, Paper Maker. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING MATERIALS FOR
PAPER MAKING AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
"
My said Invention has for its object to dispense with the whole or a large part
of the labor and expence hitherto generally incurred by paper makers in "picking
esparto, wood, straw, and other paper making materials for the purpose of
separating roots and other objectionable substances.
In carrying out my Invention the materials are, with little or no preliminary
picking, subjected to the usual processes of boiling with caustic alkali and bleaching.
The materials are subsequently subjected to the operation of the usual beating or
pulping engines, but when passing through the first of these, or the breaking
engine, as it is termed, or subsequently, they are strained by means of suitable
apparatus, whereby the roots or other objectionable substances are separated more
effectually and with greater economy than by the ordinary picking process.
The straining or separating process may be applied at different stages in the
preparation of the materials, and by various arrangements of apparatus. In one
modification the materials are transferred from the breaking engine to a mixing
box or tank, in which a large quantity of water is added to them, and thence the
materials in a sufficiently diluted state are transferred to a strainer or sieve through
openings in which the water and finer parts pass, whilst roots, hard weeds, knots,
wood chips, or any insufficiently broken materials are kept back. A jigging or
vibratory motion is imparted to the strainer or sieve to assist its action. The finer
materials which pass through the strainer or sieve after having the excess of water
separated from them are returned to the breaking engine, or are passed on to the
next machine or "beating engine" for further trituration.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, I hereunto append two Sheets of explanatory Drawings
to be hereinafter referred to, and representing apparatus which may be employed
in practising my improvements according to one modification. In these Drawings
the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever
they are repeated.
Figure 1 on Sheet 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a plan of the apparatus,
and Figure 2 on Sheet 2 is a corresponding sectional elevation.
From the first or breaking engine 3, one end of which is shown at the right-
hand side of the Figures, the materials are led by a pipe 4 fitted with a stop-cock 5
into a mixing box or tank 6, wherein a large quantity of water is added to render
the mixture extremely fluid. From the tank 6 the materials pass by a pipe 7 to
a centrifugal pump 8 (or it might be any other suitable kind of pump) by means
of which they are forced up the pipe 9, the craned upper end of which is over a
strainer 10. This strainer 10 is a shallow open box made with a wooden frame
and with a bottom of zinc or other suitable material, the bottom being perforated
with holes or slits of a size (from 3th to 16th inch, for example) such as to allow
the fine materials to pass through with the water whilst retaining the roots or other
objectionable or insufficiently broken parts, which latter are removed periodically.
Beneath the strainer bottom there is an inclined bottom or shoot 11, down which
the water and fine materials pass. The strainer 10 is mounted on rollers or small
wheels 12, which rest and can run on horizontal supports 13; and at the back the
strainer has vertical pieces 14 projecting downwards so as to be acted on by cams
or wipers 15 on a rotating shaft below. As the cams or wipers 15 rotate, they,
by acting on the pieces 14, impart repeated backward movements to the strainer 10,

page_text: which is moved forward again between each action of the cams or wipers by
springs 16 connecting the back of the strainer to studs fixed in the supports 13. In
this way a jigging or horizontal vibratory movement is given to the strainer, the
extent of which is determined by adjusting screws 17 limiting the return move-
ments by striking the supports 13.
From the strainer 10 the fine materials and water are delivered upon a sieve 18
of fine wire gauze, which allows a large part of the water to pass through whilst
retaining the pulp materials. The sieve 18 is made semi-cylindrical for the con-
venience of applying a rotating brush 19 to remove the pulp materials, which are
delivered into a tank or chest 20, whence they can be drawn off as required by a
pipe 21 leading them to the beating engine 22. Or the materials may be trans-
ferred from the tank 20 to the beating engine 22 in any other convenient way.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise
details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe to be novel and
original and claim as the Invention secured to me by and in terms of the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The combination with the breaking and beating or pulping engines ordinarily
employed in paper making, of apparatus for straining the materials after being
operated on by the first or breaking engine in order to separate roots, knots, weeds,
or other objectionable matters heretofore generally removed by laborious picking,
substantially as herein before described.
2. The substitution of mechanical straining or separating processes applied to
paper making materials after being operated on by the first or breaking engine
for more or less of the hand-picking hitherto employed for the same purpose,
substantially as hereinbefore described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Collins, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Sixteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JOHN COLLINS. (L.S.)