Improvements in the Manufacture of Material to be Used as a Substitute for Gutta Percha, Rubber, or Oiled Tissues for Surgical Bandages, Sheeting, and other Purposes.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Sept., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 26th June, 1889-Accepted; 27th July, 1889.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Material to be Used as a
Substitute for Gutta Percha, Rubber, or Oiled Tissues for
Surgical Bandages, Sheeting, and other Purposes.
1, HARRY ADRIAN SCHLESINGER of 25 Lime Street, London, in the County of
Middlesex Merchant do hereby declare the nature of. this invention to be as
follows:-
I take a silk tissue or other fine woven fabric, or a felted fabric such as paper and I
saturate the same in any convenient manner with gelatin or glue, or with a mixture
of gelatin or glue with a resinous substance, which may first be rendered more soluble
by means of an alkali.
After the material has been saturated with the gelatinuous substance I immerse it
in a bath consisting of a solution of either iron alum, or chrome alum, or in a bath.
consisting of a solution of any other agent which will render the gelatinous substance
insoluble.
If the material is required to be soft and pliant I also treat. it with glycerine
by immersing it in a bath of glycerine and water after the gelatinous substance has
been rendered insoluble, or in any other convenient manner.
Antiseptic properties are imparted by adding carbolic acid or other antiseptic agent
to the last bath to which the material is subjected, or by subjecting the material to a
separate bath of the respective antiseptic agent. In the case of salicylic and boracic.
acids these agents may be added to the hot solution of the gelatinous substance.
Aromatic properties may also be imparted by adding aromatic substances to the
last bath to which the material is subjected or in any other convenient way.
I
may also form a compound material by combining several layers of the material
whilst the gelatinous substance is in an adhesive condition and subsequently treating
such material as herein before mentioned.
Dated his aca
H. A. SCHLESINGER.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Material to be Used as a
Substitute for Gutta Percha, Rubber, or Oiled Tissues for
Surgical Bandages, Sheeting, and other Purposes.
I HARRY ADRIAN SCHLESINGER of 25 Lime Street London in the county of Midillesex
Merchant 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:
In carrying this invention into practice 1 take a suitable fabric, such as silk tissue
or other fine woven fabric; or a felted fabric, such as paper. I more generally
employ the latter and I prefer it unsized and of as long a staple as possible.
saturate this material in any convenient manner with gelatine or glue; or with a
compound of gelatine or glue mixed with a resinous, fatty or greasy substance..
The gelatinized material is then subjected to a fixing bath consisting of either
chrome alum, iron alum, or of a mixture of a bichromate with an aluminous salt.―
or to a bath of any other agent having equivalent effects.
The material is then further treated according to the uses. to which it is to be put.
For the bigher classes of purposes, as for instance for. surgical bandages, coverings,
sheeting and any allied purposes, I more generally employ paper. made of a pure
Pine 1

page_text: manilla fibre kept of a very long staple, and I prefer to employ good gelatine alone
for the saturation, or mixed with 10 to 30% of a good quality of soap for the
purpose of giving the material to be produced a slippery or greasy nature. For this
purpose I prefer to employ the soaps with which petroleum jelly or vaseline has been
combined. The gelatine is soaked in cold water for 12 to 24 hours and is there
dissolved, by heating, in the water it has absorbed. If soap is employed it is simply
dissolved with the gelatine.-The consistency of the size depends upon the quantity
of gelatine it is desirous to incorporate with the fibrous material. The size may bo
employed without the addition of more water than the gelatine has absorbed
spontaneously, but more generally it is diluted with one half as much again of
water. I do not however confine myself to any particular consistency as good
results are produced with thick as well as with thin solutions.-The sizeing solution
is kept at about boiling heat or somewhat under boiling point. The material to be
saturated is either simply drawn through the sizeing solution and wound upon a roll
over the surface of the hot size and thus left for 5 to 15 minutes in order to insure
perfect saturation; it is then unwound and hung up to dry.-Or the size is applied
with a felt in the same way as color is applied to the surface of papers by a paper
staining machine, the size simply taking the place of the color in the trough.-Or, if
the material is strong enough, it is drawn through the size and passed between a pair
of conveniently fitted squeezing rolls, which force the size through the material and
take off the oxcess from the surfaces. Or the saturation is accomplished in any other
convenient manner. After the saturation with size the material is preferably air
dried and it is then subjected to a fixing bath consisting of one of the before
mentioned chemical agents.-Chrome alum is most generally employed for the
purpose in a cold and preferably almost saturated solution I also usually add a slight
percentage of an iron salt to the solution for the purpose of producing a brown
shade in the material to be treated. The material is generally left in the bath for
6 to 12 hours. Good results are, however, also obtained by passing the sized material
from a roll through the chrome bath and then between a pair of squeezing rolls,
covered with felt or other soft material which force the solution into the body of the
gelatinized fabric.
Instead of the method just described I may utilize the action of light upon
bichromate for fixing the gelatine, but not so practically. For this purpose I mix
about 2% of bichromate of potash with the gelatine bath and I then expose the
fabric, saturated with the bichromatized gelatine to the action of daylight until fixed
throughout, which may take from 8 to 16 hours according to the intensity of the
light. This is of course only applicable to thin material which the light can penetrate.
After the gelatinized material has been fixed or rendered insoluble and air dried I
prefer to stack it closely together and allow it to season for a few days.-It is then
immersed in clean water and rinsed until all excess of the fixing agent has dis-
appeared.
Most generally the material is required soft, tough and pliant and for this purpose
I treat it after the washing with water, with glycerine, which is applied in any
convenient way, but more generally by immersing the gelatinized fabric in a bath of
glycerine diluted with an equal to 2 parts of water and leaving the fabric in the
bath for about 12 hours.-This renders the material soft, tough and pliant, but as a
further improvement I coat it when fresh from the glycerine bath-that is-before
the water, with which the glycerine has been combined has dried out, with petroleum
jelly, vaseline or its equivalent and I then hang the material in a warm place until the
water has evaporated and I subsequently take the excess of greasy matter off the
surface by passing the material between a pair of doctors or india rubber squeezers.―
If the petroleum matter is employed I use, as a rule, the more diluted solution of
glycerine and I may also obtain a certain degree of toughness by omitting the
glycerine entirely and coating the fabric directly after the washing with water, or
whilst otherwise in a moist condition, with the petroleum matter in its plain state or
made into an emulsion with soap which has been softened with about an equal

page_text: quantity of water, and proceeding as before described, that is-the material is
subjected to warmth and dried and subsequently the excess of greasy matter is taken
off the surfaces.
Other ways may be employed to incorporate the petroleum matter with the
material, thus: an emulsion may be made of glycerine & the petroleum matter and
this compound applied to the surfaces of the material whilst the latter is in a moist
condition.
In most cases the material is also medicated or rendered antiseptic.
The respective agents for this purpose may be applied in any convenient manner.
For instance, carbolic acid is mixed with the glycerine bath in a proportion of 5 to
10%, if the material is subjected to such a bath or it may be mixed with tho
glycerine if the latter is applied in any other way.-If no glycerine is employed the
carbolic acid may be added to the washing water or the material may be subjected to
a separate bath of water containing 5 to 10% of carbolic acid. In the same way a
great variety of antiseptic agents and medicaments may be applied. If vaselino is
employed this may also be utilized as the carrier of a variety of medical compounds.
If no vaseline is used in the final treatment of the material, the surfaces of the
latter are sometimes slightly rubbed with oil, plain or medicated and the material is
then laid in a warm place to cause absorption of the fatty matter.
Although most antiseptic and medical agents are incorporated with the fabric at or
towards the. final stage of the manufacture, as just described, there are some which
do not readily dissolve in the cold, as for instance salicylic acid.
This agent
therefore I prefer to incorporate with the material by mixing it with the gelatine'sizo,
with which the material is saturated, in a proportion of 3 to 6% otherwise making
no alterations in the before described proceedings.
If desired aromatic properties may also be imparted to the material by mixing
aromatic substances with the glycerine, the vaseline or the oil with which the material
is finally treated, or in any other convenient way.
In some cases the finished material is further treated by perforating it so as to give
free ventilation when applied to certain kinds of wounds or diseases.
Instead of the single texture material above described, a material of double or
compound texture may be made, such as a paper fabric and a fine woven fabric
combined surface to surface whilst the size is fresh, or such similar combination, the
manipulations being otherwise as herein before described.
With the object of producing materials for more ordinary purposes, such as for
similar purposes for which the cominon vegetable parchment is employed, I take an
unsized paper, preferably of a long staple and I saturate the same with a compound
of gelatine or glue with common rosin alone or combined with rosin oil.-I may
employ from 25 to 75% of resinous matter to animal glue, according to the quality
of the material to be produced.-Generally the larger the proportion of resinous
matter employed the commoner the resulting material will be.
For this purpose the rosin is saponified in the ordinary way and allowed to separate
from its lye. The solid rosin soap is mixed with the dissolved animal size under heat,
and in case of rosin oil being employed, this is preferably mixed with the rosin soap
before the latter is added to the animal size & generally in a proportion of 20% to
unsaponified rosin, or as much as will chemically combine with the rosin soap.―The
oil being principally employed for the purpose of counteracting the brittleness of the
rosin and to lessen the frothing of the size.
In the place of the rosin oil other oils or fatty matters, or turpentine, or petroleum
jelly in smaller proportions may be employed in the same manner. I usually add as
much as the rosin will chemically take up. Also for the purpose of producing a
more or less slippery nature in the material to be manufactured I employ soap as
herein before described.
Generally this compound size is employed in a rather diluted condition, that is to
say-in addition to the. water which the glue or gelatine has spontaneously absorbed,
and the water in the rosin soap, there is added from 4 to 6 times as much again. I

page_text: wish it to be understood, however, that I do not confine myself to any particular
consistency. .
The size is kept closely upon boiling heat and the material is saturateil in"any
convenient way as before described, or it may be handled in a more simple manner as
follows:
The fibrous material' is drawn from a roll through the size and between a pair of
doctors to take off the excess from the surfaces. It is then passed over boxes heated
to about 200 to 220° F., or otherwise through heated space, the object being to keep
the size sufficiently liquid to permeate the body of the paper thoroughly and also to
dry the material more or less. It is then passed directly into the fixing bath,
consisting most generally of a saturated solution of chrome alum, and then through
a pair of squeezing rolls which force the solution into the body of the material.
It is then dried, preferably air dried, or it is partially dried by heat and then allowed
to dry completely in bulk. Afterwards, if the purposes for which it is intended
necessitate it, it is passed through clean water with the object of removing all excess
of the chemical agent. The material may subsequently be calendered like ordinary
paper or it may be rendered soft & pliant, antiseptic and aromatic as herein before
described. I may also in this case produce material of a double or compound
texture as before described, viz.-by joining two or more layers surface to surface
whilst the size is in an adhesive condition. Such material, however, could not be merely
run through the fixing bath but must remain immersed in the solution for a length of
time depending upon the thickness; as a rule 6 to 8 hours may be calculated for each
layer. Instead of taking separate layers, sizing them and then joining them I may
take a material of the requisite thickness in the first instance, such as a porous mill-
board, and saturate it with the size and otherwise pass it through the process herein
detailed. ⚫
It is to be understood that I do not in any way exclude the material manufactured
with the cheap compound size just described from the higher purposes referred to
in the earlier part of this specification.
Having now described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:
1st. A fibrous fabric. saturated with gelatine, or its equivalent, alone or mixed with
fatty or resinous substances and subsequently rendered insoluble and finally treated
with petroleum jelly or its equivalent for the purpose of aiding in rendering the
fabric soft, tough and pliant substantially as herein described.
2nd. A fibrous fabric saturated with gelatine, or its equivalent, combined with a
resinous matter with or without oils or other fatty matters and subsequently fixed or
rendered insoluble substantially as herein described.
3rd. A fibrous fabric saturated with gelatine pure or mixed, with which salicylic
acid has been combined substantially as herein described.
4th. A perforated fibrous fabric manufactured substantially as herein described.
5th. The improvements herein ombodied in the process of manufacture of material
substantially of a nature as herein described.
6th. The application of a material; manufactured substantially as herein described,
to surgical and allied purposes.
Dated this 26th day of June 1889..
HARRY ADRIAN SCHLESINGER.