Improvements in or connected with the Obtaining of Gutta Percha.
Year: 1897

page_text: Improvements in or connected with the Obtaining of Gutta Percha.
We, RICHARD JOHN FRISWELL, a Vice-President of the Institute of Chemistry,
Fellow of the Chemical Society, and a Manager and Director to Brooke, Simpson
& Spiller, Ld., and the said BROOKE, SIMPSON AND SPILLER, LIMITED, Chemical
and Dye Manufacturers, both of Atlas Works, Hackney Wick, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to the obtaining of the substance called, or known as
gutta percha," and the object of the invention is to effect improvements in the
process employed for obtaining such substance and in the apparatus used in con-
nection with such process.
Gutta percha consists of at least three bodies, two of which, albane and fluavill,
are resinous and occur in moderate, or small quantities. The main portion, known
as true gutta percha, is a compound of carbon and hydrogen, and in the best
gutta percha it amounts to from 80 to 90 per cent. of the whole substance. By
the best gutta percha," is meant that which has been purified and is fit to use
for submarine cable work and other electrical insulating purposes.
The process forming the subject of our invention, which we are about to describe,
gives a gutta percha fit for the above purposes, by means of a series of operations
carried out upon the leaves, twigs, bark, wood, roots, seeds, or any other part, or
portions of the isonandra gutta percha, or of any other plant, or tree which may
contain gutta percha.
Our said process is performed substantially as follows:-The leaves, twigs and
other parts of the plant, are first dried and then crushed, or comminuted by
passing between rollers, or mill stones, or by means of other suitable grinding,
crushing, or comminuting machinery.
The said crushed, or ground materials are then heated under pressure with
caustic soda and water in a boiler, or closed vessel of iron, or other suitable metal,
provided with an agitator, or capable of being rotated, or in any other way so
arranged that its contents are well stirred and thoroughly mixed.
When a sample drawn from the vessel shows that the softer organic tissues of
the materials have been softened, loosened, or destroyed, and that only the cellu
lose, or woody skeleton thereof, together with the gutta percha are left, the contents
are discharged from the vessel, filtered, and washed free, or nearly 50, from soda
compounds.
The resulting matter is pressed, centrifugated, or in any other suitable way,
freed from water and dried.
Such dried matter is then closely packed into iron vessels, which are then closed
and toluene is pumped into them until they are quite filled, when they are left
at rest for 24 hours, more or less.
By these means a viscid solution of gutta percha is formed, which is pumped
Price 8d 1

page_text: out, or run off, and the matter remaining is again treated with small quantities
of the solvent, till it is freed from gutta percha.
These weaker solutions obtained in washing, may be used in place of fresh
solvent on succeeding batches of the soda treated matter.
The apparatus can be arranged in a series of elements, or sections, so that each
in succession becomes the element, or section to receive the dried treated matter
from the soda boilers and fresh, or partly fresh solvent, followed by washing with
solvent and finally by steam to drive out the solvent last used to exhaust the gutta
percha.
Lastly, each element, or section in succession may be discharged and the
exhausted cellulose removed.
The solutions of gutta percha in toluene, thus obtained, are now concentrated,
until a convenient quantity of the solvent has been recovered, and then the residual
strong solution of gutta percha is cooled down by any usual or suitable method,
such as passing through pipes surrounded by cold water, or the circulation of cold
water through pipes immersed in the solution, and is then introduced into a vessel
of at least four times the capacity of the charge, provided with efficient stirring
apparatus. Strong alcohol, of from 80 to 90 per cent., or thereabouts, and in
quantity from one and a half to twice the volume of the concentrated gutta percha
solution, is now run in and the whole well stirred.
.
The gutta percha is by this means precipitated, and is withdrawn from the liquid
in due time and by any appropriate means.
It may be washed with alcohol, then with water, dried, or kept in a current of
air till the alcohol and toluene, have been driven away, and subsequently macerated
in hot water and finished for use by passage between rollers, or by any other
appropriate means well known to workers in gutta percha.
Dated this 24th day of August 1897
AMBROSE MYALL,
2, Lancaster Place, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicants.
Improvements in or connected with the Obtaining of Gutta Percha.
We, RICHARD JOHN FRISWELL, a Vice-President of the Institute of Chemistry,
Fellow of the Chemical Society, and a Manager and Director to Brooke, Simpson
& Spiller, Ld., and the said BROOKE, SIMPSON AND SPILLER, LIMITED, Chemical
and Dye Manufacturers, both of Atlas Works, Hackney Wick, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
$6
This invention relates to the obtaining of the substance called, or known as
'gutta percha," and the object of the invention is to effect improvements in the
process employed for obtaining such substance.
Gutta percha consists of at least three bodies, two of which, albane and fluavile,
are resinous and occur in moderate, or small quantities. The main portion, known
as true gutta percha, is a compound of carbon and hydrogen, and in the best
gutta percha it amounts to from 80 to 90 per cent. of the whole substance. By
the best gutta percha," is meant that which has been purified and is fit to use
for submarine cable work and other electrical insulating purposes.
The process forming the subject of our invention, which we are about to describe,
gives a gutta percha fit for the above purposes, by means of a series of operations

page_text: carried out upon the leaves, twigs, bark, wood, roots, seeds, or any other part, or
portions of the isonandra gutta percha, or of any other plant, or tree which may
contain gutta percha.
Our said process
performed substantially as follows:-The leaves, twigs, or
other parts of the plant, are first dried and then crushed, or comminuted by
passing between rollers, or mill stones, or by means of other suitable grinding,
crushing or comminuting machinery.
Such grinding, or crushing process is however not essential, for if the parts of
the plant to be treated are in sufficiently small pieces, the said process may be
omitted.
'
1
The said parts of the plant, either without, or after such grinding or crushing,
as may be most expedient, are then heated under pressure with caustic soda and
water in a boiler, or closed vessel of iron, or other suitable metal, provided with an
agitator,, or capable of being rotated, or, in any other way so arranged, that its
contents are well stirred and thoroughly mixed.
When a sample drawn from the vessel shews that the softer organic tissues of
the materials have been decomposed, dissolved, or destroyed, and that, only the
cellulose, or woody skeleton thereof, together with the gutta percha are left, the
contents are discharged from the vessel, filtered, and washed free, or nearly 80,
from soda compounds.
The resulting matter is pressed, centrifugated, or in any other suitable way,
freed from water and dried.
Such dried matter is then closely packed into iron, or other metal vessels, which
are then closed and toluene is pumped into them until the dried matter is covered,
when they are left at rest for 24 hours, more or less.
The toluene has the effect of extracting, or dissolving the gutta percha rom
the mass, in the form of a viscid solution, and such extraction may be hastened,
if desired, by means of heating and agitation.
The said viscid solution of gutta percha in toluene is then pumped out, or run
off, and the matter remaining in the vessels is again treated or washed with small
quantities of the solvent, till it is freed from the gutta percha, heating and
agitation being used as before, if desired.
These weaker solutions obtained in the said washing, may be used in place of
fresh solvent, on succeeding batches of the soda treated matter.
The apparatus can be arranged in a series of elements, or sections, so that each
in succession becomes the element, or section to receive the dried treated matter
from the soda boilers, and fresh, or partly fresh solvent, followed by washing with
solvent, and finally by steam, to drive out the solvent last used to exhaust the gutta
percha.
Lastly, each element, or section in succession, may be discharged and the
exhausted cellulose removed.
The solutions of gutta percha in toluene, thus obtained, are now concentrated,
until a convenient quantity of the solvent has been recovered, and then the residual
strong solution of gutta percha is cooled down by any usual or suitable method,
such as passing through pipes surrounded by cold water, or the circulation of cold
water through pipes immersed in the solution, and is then introduced into a vessel
about four times the capacity of the charge, provided with efficient stirring appa-
ratus. Strong alcohol, either pure, or methylated, or denatured, of 90 per cent.,
or thereabouts, and in quantity from one and a half, to twice the volume of the
concentrated gutta percha solution, is now run in and the whole well. stirred.
The gutta percha is by this means precipitated, and is withdrawn from the
liquid in due time and by any appropriate means.
The precipitated gutta percha may be washed with alcohol and then with water,
or, as an alternative treatment, it may be dried or kept in a current of air till the
alcohol and toluene have been driven away. It is subsequently 'macerated in hot
water, and finished for use by passage between rollers, or by any other appropriate
means well known to workers in gutta percha.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim, is:-
1. In the preparation, or extraction of gutta percha, the precipitation of gutta
percha from a solution of the same in toluene, by means of alcohol of 90 per cent.,
or thereabouts, substantially as herein set forth.
2. The process for the preparation, or extraction of gutta percha, consisting of,
treatment of the parts of gutta percha containing plants with soda, washing and
drying, extraction of the gutta percha therefrom with toluene, precipitation of
the gutta percha from the toluene solution with alcohol of 90 per cent., or there-
abouts, washing with alcohol and then with water, and finally, maceration and
finishing, substantially as herein set forth.
3. The process for the preparation, or extraction of gutta percha, consisting of,
treatment of the parts of gutta percha containing plants with soda, washing and
drying, extraction of the gutta percha therefrom with toluene, precipitation of the
gutta percha from the toluene solution with alcohol of 90 per cent, or thereabouts,
drying or exposure to a current of air, and finally, maceration and finishing, sub-
stantially as herein set forth.
4. As a new article of manufacture, gutta percha, prepared or extracted by
means of the process, as herein described and claimed.
Thoth of 1900
AMBROSE MYALL,
2, Lancaster Place, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicants.