IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE TREATMENT OF STRAW, ESPARTO, WOOD, AND STUTTAD SAWS an MUTH MANY OF PADED
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Holker, of Lumb, near Bury, in the
County of Lancaster, Paper Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE TREATMENT OF STRAW, ESPARTO, WOOD,
AND STUTTAD SAWS an MUTH MANY OF PADED "
Sealed the 29th April 1873, and dated the 18th December 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Holker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th December 1872.
I, SAMUEL HOLKER, of Lumb, near Bury, in the County of Lancaster,.
Paper Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said, Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE TREATMENT OF STRAW, ESPARTO, WOOD,
AND SIMILAR SUBSTANCES USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER," to be as
follows:-
It is well known that in the manufacture of paper from straw, esparto,
wood, and other such substances that the material is boiled in a solution of
alkali or its carbonate, and that the water is subsequently evaporated to
recover the alkali.

page_text: The object of my Invention is to avoid to a great extent the expense
of this process of evaporation, and at the same time to effect the said
recovery. For this purpose I add to the liquor which has been used for
the above mentioned process a fresh quantity of alkali, and then use the
old solution for boiling a second or further quantity of paper-making
material, by which means I accumulate a large quantity of alkali without
an evaporation for each treatment of the material, and the expense of
such evaporations is avoided. I find that I can continue these boilings
several times in the same liquor, and I then subsequently evaporate the
water in the usual manner, and recover by one process the alkali arising
from the several operations.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Holker in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 18th June 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
HOLKER, of Lumb, near Bury, in the County of Lancaster, Paper Manu-
facturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in
the thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Holker, Her
special license that I, the said Samuel Holker, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel Holker,
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
"IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE TREATMENT OF STRAW, ESPARTO, WOOD, AND
SIMILAR SUBSTANCES USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER," upon the condition,
amongst others, that I, the said Samuel Holker, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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

page_text: 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 Holker, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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 :—
It is well known that in the manufacture of paper from straw, esparto,
wood, and other such substances that the material is boiled in a solution
of an alkali, and that the water is sometimes subsequently evaporated to
recover the alkali.
of
The boiling down of these comparatively weak solutions is an expen-
sive process, owing to the large quantity of fuel required, and the object
my Invention is to lessen the expense of effecting the said recovery,
and in order to explain the method of carrying out my Invention, I will
describe the whole process of treating a substance for the manufacture
of paper, and subsequently point out that which I claim as new. To
one ton of chopped oat straw, for instance, I add four hundred and
twenty pounds of soda ash containing fifty per cent. of caustic alkali,
the soda ash being made caustic by being boiled with lime in the usual
manner, and heat the whole in a vessel ordinarily employed for such
purposes to a temperature equivalent to a pressure of eighty pounds per
square inch, and continue to heat until the liquid is evaporated nearly
to the surface of the straw. The straw is then withdrawn from the
boiler, the liquor being pressed out and collected to be returned to the
boiler, the straw being used in the ordinary manner.
The above mentioned are operations commonly adopted, and when it
is desired to recover the alkali, the liquor is boiled down, a fresh quantity
being made for another charge of straw or other such material; but
according to my Invention I revive the said liquor by again adding
thereto the same quantity of caustic alkali, and then use it in the
manner above described for treating a second quantity of straw or other
such material, and I find that I can continue this reviving process five
or six times for as many charges of the straw or other such material.
At the conclusion of these operations it follows that I have a highly
concentrated liquor, which I evaporate, and the alkali is then recovered
by burning as usual, and as I have less water to evaporate for a given