IMPROVE- MENTS IN RECOVERING USEFUL MATTERS FROM OIL OR FLOOR CLOTH, TARPAULING, ALT LACED CLOTH AND OTHER LIKE SUBSTANCES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bedford Pim, of Newington Butts, Stationer,
and Charles Payne, of Bermondsey Street, Southwark, Licensed
Victualler, both in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN RECOVERING USEFUL MATTERS FROM OIL OR FLOOR CLOTH, TARPAULING,
ALT LACED CLOTH AND OTHER LIKE SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 9th November 1858, and dated the 10th May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bedford Pim and
Charles Payne at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 10th May 1858.
I, JOHN BEDFORD PIM, of Newington Butts, Stationer, and I, CHARLES
PAYNE, of Bermondsey Street, Southwark, Licensed Victualler, both in the
County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RECOVERING USEFUL MATTERS FROM OIL OR FLOOR CLOTH,
TARPAULIN, AMERICAN LEATHER CLOTH, AND OTHER LIKE SUBSTANCES," to be as
follows

page_text: Our Invention of recovering useful matters from oilcloth, floorcloth,
American cloth, and other cloths or fabrics, the coating of which contain or
are composed of oil or paint, consists in recovering the oil or paint from those
materials.
We first prepare a strong solution of caustic alkali by mixing soda and lime
and allowing the lime to precipitate; we then draw off the supernatant fluid.
In this solution we boil the refuse waste, or old pieces of the above mentioned
materials, until the paint or matters with which the woven or other fabric is
coated is quite separated therefrom. If the boiling mass is stirred from time
to time it facilitates this separation. Instead of boiling in the alkaline solution,
these materials may be submitted to its action while cold, but it requires a
much longer time. The cloth or woven fabrics are then removed from the
mass, and the whole allowed to settle, during which the oil colouring and other
matter removed from the cloth precipitates, to facilitate which we add
ammonia or other suitable agent to induce that separation; the supernatant
lipuid is then drawn off, and the pasty mass recovered, which may be partially
dried and used as a paint by a suitable admixture of turpentine or oil, and, if
desired, colouring matter. If, as an ultimate result, we desire to recover the
oil from the above mentioned materials instead of the paint, we dry the pasty
mass by heat or by exposure to the atmosphere, and afterwards distil it by
introducing it into a suitable still, by which the whole of the oil comes
over in a pure and limpid state, the cbarred refuse and colouring and other
matters remaining as a residue in the still.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Bedford Pim and Charles Payne, in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 10th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
BEDFORD PIM, of Newington Butts, Stationer, and CHARLES PAYNE, of
Bermondsey Street, Southwark, Licensed Victualler, both in the County of
Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the

page_text: said John Bedford Pim and Charles Payne, Her special licence that we, the
said John Bedford Pim and Charles Payne, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said John Bedford Pim and Charles Payne,
our 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 RECOVERING.
USEFUL MATTERS PROM OIL OR FLOOR CLOTH, TARPAULIN, AMERICAN LEATHER.
CLOTH, AND OTHER LIKE SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said John Bedford Pim and Charles Payne, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, 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 we, the said John Bedford Pim and Charles
Payne, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement, that is to say:-
Our Invention relates to improvements in recovering useful matters from
oil or floor cloth, American leather cloth, and other cloths or fabrics, the coatings
of which contain or are composed of oil or paint, or it may be combinations of
those materials with varnish or other matters, such as is used in the manu-
facture of waterproof coverings, or tarpaulins as they are sometimes termed,,
and consists in recovering the oil or paint from those materials; we use old
materials such as described, but by preference waste cuttings, which we first
treat with a strong caustic alkaline solution.
For this purpose we mix about one hundred pounds of soda with twenty-five
pounds of lime to fifty gallons of water; having allowed sufficient time for the
lime to precipitate, we draw off the supernatant liquor. In this caustic
alkaline solution we boil the refuse, waste or old pieces of the above mentioned
cloths or materials, which boiling is continued until the paint or matters with
which the woven or other fabric is coated is quite separated from it. The
boiling mass should be stirred from time to time, to facilitate the separation.
Instead of boiling these materials in the alkaline solution they may be treated
cold, but the steeping and stirring must be continued for a much longer

page_text: period, but ultimately does not separate the matters so well as the boiling
process.
After the required degree of separation of the materials, the cloth or woven.
fabric is removed from the mass, which is then allowed to settle, giving time for
the oil, coloring, and other matter separated from the cloth to precipitate.
Where much white lead exists in the matter separated from the cloth and
retained in the caustic alkaline solution, it very soon precipitates, but other and
lighter matters require much longer time; it may be facilitated by introducing
a chemical agent to throw them down. In all cases we prefer to facilitate
this operation by mixing with it ammonia and muriatic or sulphuric acids.
Supposing the quantity of alkaline solution under treatment to be two
thousand gallons, we mix with it four or five gallons of ammonia, or it may be
five or six gallons of sulphuric acid diluted in not less than its own volume of
water. Both ammonia and sulphuric acid may be used, using a proportionately
less quantity of each, which we prefer in the treatment of light colored paint
materials, but for dark colored oilcloths or dirty oilcloth, we prefer to use
muriatic acid in a diluted form, using from three to four gallons of the acid to
a vat containing two thousand gallons of the alkaline mass under treatment.
Subsequently we further add a quantity of dilute sulphuric acid as before, if
necessary, to complete the separation of the paint matters from the alkaline
solution.
These matters being deposited, the supernatant liquid is drawn off from
the vat when the pasty mass may be removed, this pasty mass is then freed.
from the water it contains by drying, when it will be fit for use as a paint,
simply by a suitable admixture of oil or turpentine, to render it of a suitable
consistency, as well understood.
If necessary, coloring matter may be added to this paint before using it, but.
which must necessarily be of a dark colour.
If as an ultimate result we desire to recover the oil from the above
mentioned materials instead of the paint, we thoroughly desiccate the pasty
mass by heat or by exposure to the atmosphere, and afterwards distil it by
introducing it into a suitable still, from which the whole of the oil comes over
in a pure and limpid state, the charred refuse or colouring and other matters
remaining as a residue in the still. The woven material or cloth recovered
and removed from the alkaline solution, after being washed, is suitable for the
manufacture of paper.
Having described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, we declare that what we claim to be secured under the

page_text: herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is the recovery of paint, oil, and
other useful matter, from floor and oil cloths, American cloth, and other like
materials as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Bedford Pim and Charles
Payne, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Tenth day of
November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-eight.
Witness,
JOHN BEDFORD PIM. (L.S.)
CHARLES PAYNE.
WILLIAM CLARK, Patent Agent,
53, Chancery Lane, London.
(L.S.)