CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MAKING PAPER
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BREWER, of Surrey Place, Old Kent Road, in the Parish of Saint George,
Southwark, in the County of Surrey, Wire Weaver, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the
Fourth, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of March, in the second year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Henry Brewer, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Henry Brewer, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Brewer, my executors, adminis
trators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MAKING PAPER;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that I, the said Henry Brewer, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Brewer, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained by the following description thereof, reference being had to the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:-
My improvements in machinery or apparatus for making paper consists of
two parts: First, a peculiar construction of sieve or strainer, to intercept
and arrest the knots, lumps, and other matters which may be mixed with the
fine fibres of pulp prepared for making paper; and, secondly, the adaptation
of such sieves, in combination with other apparatus, for manufacturing paper
both by machinery and by hand. The sieves or strainers are formed by com-
bining a series of round wires or rods, which are placed side by side, in parallel
positions, at very small distances apart (the width of the spaces between the
wires being dependant upon the intended quality of the paper to be made).
These rods or wires may be secured to a frame in any convenient way; that
is, either by screwing, riveting, soldering, or otherwise fastening their ends to
metal bars, rods, or plates, and strapping the rods by means of thin strips of
plate metal laid across upon their surfaces.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 represents a plan or horizontal view
of part of one of my improved sieve bottoms. Figs. 2 and 3 are section of the
same taken edgeways. These Figures shew the manner in which I connect
the wires or rods to form the sieve; but I do not intend to confine myself pre-
cisely to this method of connecting them, as other modes might answer equally
well. Neither do I intend to limit myself to the employment of round wires
solely, as eliptical, triangular, or other shaped rods, bars, or wires would
answer the purpose, provided that their upper surfaces are not perfectly flat.
Neither do I confine myself to any particular size of wires, bars, or rods to be
used for the purpose of making these sieves, but consider that rods from one
eighth of an inch to three eights in diameter or thickness would be most
generally useful. I sometimes make the sieves by combining thin flat rods,
but rounded on their upper and lower edges, and under some circumstances I
propose to make the sieve bottoms of rods or bars, shaped as above described,
of glass, or other materials which may be less liable to corrode than metal.
The distances at which the rods or bars forming the sieve are to be placed
asunder must be dependant upon the fineness of the paper to be made, and
therefore cannot be here stated; but I should say, for general purposes, such
as in making fine writing and printing papers, that they may be placed at
from the fiftieth to the eightieth of an inch apart. I sometimes construct the
sieve bottoms with moveable rods or bars, as shewn at Fig. 4, which represents
the under side of a sieve, with its frame, each rod being connected to two

page_text: parallel slides a, a, by pivot joints. One end of each slider a is attached to the
frame at b, b, by a pin or button passed through a slot in the slider, and fixed
into the frame. The reverse end of each slider carries a small screw box,
turning upon a pivot, through which screw box the shaft c, c, passes, and on
turning this shaft by its small thumb-screws, or in any other convenient way,
the sliders will move and bring the rods nearer together or farther apart. The
sieve bottom or strainer being thus formed, I enclose it in a casing or box,
open both at top and bottom, fastening the sieve or strainer in a horizontal
position, near the middle of the box, by screws passed through the sides of the
box into the edges of the strainer frame. The sieve is then perfect, and ready
to be adapted to machinery employed for making paper, which constitutes the
second head of my Invention, and is effected in the following way :-
Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section of a vat intended to be connected to a paper-
making machine in which four of the sieves or strainers are employed. a, a, a,
represents the thickness of wood forming the vat. b, b, b, are stretchers or
transverse pieces extending from the sides of the vat, and holding it firmly
together. c, c, c, are standards supporting a rotary crank shaft d, d, d, which
may be driven by a band and rigger e. The boxes or casings of the sieves
are shewn at ff, f, f, and the wire strainers fixed in the boxes at 9, 9, 9, 9.
Bridles h, h, are affixed to the sieves, extending across them, and small
arms i, i, hang from the sides of the bridles, which are intended to slide up
and down in the grooves and sockets of the stretchers b, for the purpose of
guiding and steadying the sieves when they are put in motion. To the
middle of each bridle a crank rod k is attached by a joint, and the reverse end
of the rod connected to the crank shaft d. It will now be seen, that on
giving a rapid rotary motion to the crank shaft d, the sieves will be made to
vibrate with a quick up-and-down movement. The pulp or stuff of which the
paper is to be made being delivered from spouts or shutes or by other con-
venient means into the several sieves, to be strained from its knots, lumps, or
other gross matters, the shaking or vibratory action of the sieves affected by
the means described assists in carrying the fine fibres of the pulp through the
open spaces between the wires, while the knots and lumps, are retained in the
sieves, and the pulp so strained flows away through the aperture 7, shewn at
the bottom of the vat in the transverse section Fig. 6, and over the lip m,
whence it proceeds down the inclined plain n to the wire web of the paper-
making machine. Though I have shewn four sieves connected to the rotary
crank shaft, I do not intend to confine myself to that precise number in the
construction of a straining apparatus for a paper-making machine, as one or
more sieves, constructed as above described, having the shaking or vibratory

page_text: action, would answer the purpose. This apparatus for arresting the knots or
lumps in the pulp for making paper will work in a paper-machine vat of any
depth, but I generally place it in a vat of nine inches deep, as the action of
the sieves sufficiently disturbs the pulp, and supersedes the necessity of a hog
being placed in the vat. Fig. 7 shews a mode of adapting these improved
strainers to a vat in which paper is to be made by hand moulds.
a, a, is the
vat, shewn in section, containing the pulp as usual, from which vat the pulp
is taken, by dipping moulds into it, in the ordinary way of making paper by
hand. At the bottom of this vat a hog b is employed for the purpose of
agitating the pulp. c is a sectional representation of the vat and strainer
described above, and shewn at Fig. 6, in which the sieves are suspended from
a crank shaft, or may in any other way receive the up-and-down vibratory
motion for the purpose of sifting the pulp. The pulp may be supplied from
a chest, as at d, and passed through a cock into a trough e, by which it is
conveyed to the strainers. A pipe f, from the bottom of the vat, leads into
a lifter box g, shewn also in section, which is designed to convey thin pulp
into the sieve, to dilute that which is delivered from the chest. This pipe
also enables the small lumps called rolls, produced in the vat, to be resifted.
The pressure of the pulp and water in the vat a forces the pulp up the pipe f
into the lifter box, from whence it is taken by the rotary lifters h, h, h, and
discharged into the trough e, where it runs down, and mixes with the thick
pulp from the chest, as before said. By these means the contents of the
vat a is completely resifted in the course of about every hour. In this Figure
I have shewn several parts and contrivances commonly known and employed
by paper makers, and to the Invention of which I lay no claim. But I do
claim their combination with my improved sieves for sifting or straining the
pulp from knots and lumps when applied to making paper by hand, and I do
not confine myself to the particular arrangement of the apparatus as shewn in
this Figure, as that must be subject to considerable variation, according to the
convenience of premises in which it is to be placed.
I therefore claim the employment of the pipe f, and lifters h, h, h, to carry
up the pulp from the bottom of the vat, in whatever manner the same may be
arranged in connection with my improved sifters.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Brewer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.
HENRY (L.s.) BREWER.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of September,
in the third year of the reign of His present Majesty King William the
Fourth, the said Henry Brewer came before our Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing
therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instru-
ment aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of September, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-two.