AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Elliott Hoskins, M.D., F.R.S., of Guernsey,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER."
Sealod the 28th November 1854, and dated the 23rd September 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Elliott Hoskins
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 23rd September 1854.
I, SAMUEL ELLIOTT HOSKINS, M.D., F.R.S., of Guernsey, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
PAPER" to be as follows:-
My improvement in the manufacture of paper consists in the application of
the plant known by the name of cyperus longus, the English name being
galingale. The stalks and leaves of the plant when dry are operated upon by
ordinary machinery for separating the fibres, and they are bleached and pulped
by any well-known process.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Elliott Hoskins in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 22nd March 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
ELLIOTT HOSKINS, M.D., F.R.S., of Guernsey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third 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 Samuel Elliott Hoskins, Her special licence that I, the said
Samuel Elliott Hoskins, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Samuel Elliott Hoskins, 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
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Samuel Elliott Hoskins, 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 Samuel Elliott Hoskins, 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):-
My improvement in the manufacture of paper consists in the application of
the plant known by the name of cyperus longus, the English name being
galingale. The stalks and leaves of the plant when dry are operated upon by
ordinary machinery for separating the fibres, and they are bleached and pulped
by any well-known process.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed t
describe the manner of performing the same. The cyperus longus (English
galingale) is a plant known to botanists; it grows in marshes, and may b
attention be grown in large quantities at small cost; and I have found b

page_text: experiment that it is very fibrous, and peculiarly applicable to the manufacture
of paper. The plant when for making paper is by preference cut in the month
of July, and it is to be dried (by preference in the open air). When for
printing paper, or other better classes of paper, the seeds should be separated,
by thrashing or otherwise, before reducing the stalks and leaves to pulp; but
for coarser papers the seeds, may remain, and be used with the stalks and
leaves of the plant. In carrying out my Invention, the stalks and leaves of
the cyperus longus, after being dried, may at once be placed in a paper engine
and reduced, then bleached, and made into paper, in the same manner as rags
are now treated; but I prefer first to reduce the stalks and leaves roughly into
the fibres, of which they are composed, then to soak such fibres in water, then
to reduce the fibres in a paper engine, and then to bleach and employ the
products in making paper, in the ordinary manner of paper makers when using
other materials. In order to reduce the stalks and leaves of the cyperus
longus to the state of fibres, I prefer to use a machine such as is employed in
this country, and well-known for separating the fibres of cocoa-nut husks,
which consists of a cylinder clothed with spikes, which cylinder revolves
rapidly in a suitable case, and the fibrous matters are fed through between a
pair of fluted rollers, which hold the mass of fibres whilst the spikes or teeth
of the revolving cylinder separate the same as they come more and more up
towards the revolving cylinder; and I prefer that the fibres as they are thus
separated by the teeth of the cylinder should be thrown on to a wire screen,
having a jogging or shaking motion communicated to it, by which the seeds
and any dust will be separated from the fibres. I, however, make no claim to
such machinery, and the stalks and leaves of the cyperus longus may be
reduced into fibres by any other convenient means. The fibres thus obtained
from the cyperus longus are then to be soaked in water. I have found it
desirable so to soak them for about twenty-four hours. The fibres are then
introduced into and treated by a paper engine to be reduced in the ordinary
manner, and the product is to be bleached or not, and made into paper in the
same manner as when using other fibrous materials. I would state that the
pulp thus made may be used in making paper cither alone or combined with
other fibrous materials.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not claim any of
the processes or machinery herein mentioned or described, when unconnected
with the manufacture of paper from the cyperus longus; nor do I confine

page_text: myself to the details as herein stated; but what I claim is, the improvement
in the manufacture of paper herein described, by applying the fibres obtained
from the cyperus longus.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Elliott Hoskins, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
S. ELLIOTT HOSKINS. (L.s.)