IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLOORCLOTHS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bland Wood, of Broughton, in the Parish of
Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Doctor of Medicine, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLOORCLOTHS."
Sealed the 2nd June 1865, and dated the 23rd January 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bland Wood at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd January 1865.
I, JOHN BLAND WOOD, of Broughton, in the Parish of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLOORCLOTHS,"
be as follows:-
I take buffalo or other untanned hides or parts of hides, previously.
macerated in water, the temperature of which should not exceed eighty
degrees of Fahrenheit, the water being slightly acidulated with hydrochloric
acid, using for this purpose about one part of the cominercial acid to a
thousand parts of water. The shreds or strips of hides should be allowed to
remain in this water for the period of one or two days, or until the texture of
the hides is sufficiently softened. The hides or shreds are then removed from
the bath in which they were immersed, and subsequently put into a rag engine or
other suitable machine, in which they are macerated or bruised in combination
with a sufficient quantity of water until the whole shall be reduced into one

page_text: uniform fluid fibrous mass; this is afterwards to be mixed with from fifty to sixty
per cent. of cotton, cotton waste, linen or linen waste, linsey, linsey rags or other
fibrous materials until the whole becomes equally blended throughout; the
liquid fibrous pulp thus obtained is afterwards placed in a vat in which it is
kept constantly in motion, from which the flow is regulated as required on to
the wire of a machine similar in most respects to that for making paper; the
remaining portion of the process approximating very closely to that now in use
for the manufacture of paper or millboards, the thickness and width of the
material being regulated at pleasure. The cloth thus made is afterwards
coated over with varnish or oil paint until an equal and uniform body is
obtained, upon which any pattern or design that may be necessary can be
made as is now done in the manufacture of oil and other similar cloths.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Bland Wood in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th June 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BLAND WOOD, of Broughton, in the Parish of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Doctor of Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said John Bland Wood, Her special licence that I, the said
John Bland Wood, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said John Bland Wood, 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 IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLOORCLOTHS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Bland Wood, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Bland Wood, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
.I take buffalo or other untanned hides or parts of hides previously macerated
in water, the temperature of which should not exceed eighty degrees of Fahren-
heit, the water being slightly acidulated with hydrochloric acid, using for this
purpose about one part of the commercial acid to a thousand parts of water.
The shreds or strips of hides should be allowed to remain in this water for the
period of one or two days, or until the texture of the hides is sufficiently
softened. The hides or shreds are then removed from the bath in which they
were immersed and subsequently put into a rag engine or other suitable
machine in which they are macerated or bruised in combination with a
sufficient quantity of water until the whole shall be reduced into one uniform
fluid fibrous mass; this is afterwards to be mixed with cotton, cotton waste,
linen, or linen waste, linsey, linsey rags, animal hair, or other fibrous materials;
until the whole becomes equally blended throughout. The combination which I
prefer is as follows, namely, about thirty parts of the pulped hide combined
with thirty parts of linsey rags reduced to a pulp, and forty parts of animal
hair ground up extremely short and fine in the rag engine or other suitable
machine. The pulped hide may however be mixed in other proportions than
those above given with fibrous materials; the liquid fibrous pulp thus obtained
is afterwards placed in a vat in which it is kept constantly in motion, from
which the flow is regulated as required on to the wire of a machine similar in
most respects to that for making paper, but inasmuch as the amount of pulp
requisite to be upon the wire at any given time is considerable, I prefer in
order to prevent the too rapid separation of the water from the pulp, and to
insure an equal diffusion of the pulp over the whole surface of the wire, to use
a wire which shall run on or more or less under the surface of water contained
in a tank or cistern equal in breadth to the wire of the machine, so that at all
times the upper surface of the wire shall be more or less covered with a stratum
of water; the length of the tank I prefer to be about 4 or 5 feet, but this
may be considerably varied; by this arrangement of the wire the pulp as it
flows from the vat cannot immediately part with any of its water so that its
perfect fluidity is maintained, and its equal diffusion over the surface of the
wire effectually secured. The wire during the whole of the time travels
forward at a comparatively very slow rate, the combination and thorough
intermixture of the fibres being at the same time effected by the lateral shake
given as in an ordinary paper mill. This having been done, the wire travels

page_text: onwards leaving the surface of the water in the tank, and thus immediately
allowing the greatest bulk of water contained in the pulp at once to escape.
The more complete separation of the water is afterwards effected by the
application of vacuum boxes and air pumps as now done in a paper machine,
aided by the compression of one or more pairs of wire rollers or other rolls.
By this time the pulp is sufficiently consistent to permit of its being passed
through a series of couch rolls covered with felt, the number of which may be
more or less as required, until the whole or nearly the whole of the water
which the cloth contains is removed; the fabric is then to be passed over one
or more large jacketed cylinders moderately heated by steam in a similar
manner to that employed in the manufacture of paper.
The cloth thus made or produced may be finished in different ways as desired,
either in imitation of and as a substitute for the common oil floorcloth, or a
substitute for what is now technically called and known as kamptulicon, for
the former the cloth is painted over with a mixture of oil paint and colors,
in the same way as is now practised in the manufacture of oil floorcloths, with
any pattern or design as may be thought necessary; for the latter the cloth is
covered over with a mixture of boiled linseed oil and india-rubber in about the
proportions of one pound of rubber to two gallons of oil, which may be combined
with any coloring matter which is required; this solution or colored varnish is
then applied by means of rollers equally over the whole surface of the cloth,
which when dry and hard may be painted upon with oil color. Any pattern
or design that may be necessary may be thus produced, as is now done in
the manufacture of oil and other similar floorcloths.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself
to the details above given, but what I claim is, the manufacturing floorcloth
from buffalo or other untanned hides or parts of hides reduced to pulp in com-
bination with fibrous substances as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bland Wood, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
JOHN BLAND WOOD. (L.S.)