IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE. MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
Year: 1856

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Paterson at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st October
1856.
I, JOHN PATERSON, of the Town and County of Linlithgow, North Britain,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE. MANUFACTURE OF PAPER," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the mode of washing and
triturating or rubbing the rags or other materials that are adapted for the
production of pulp or stuff for paper.
The rags or materials, after being carefully assorted, are deposited in an
acidulous and alkaline solution alternately, or in one or both, as will be judged
to be best fitted for their quality and condition by the practical man. The
materials are then removed to the rubbing machine, which consists of
a receiver or holder with a base of metal, stone, or other suitable material.
This base is grooved or indented along or across its surface, and may either
be flat or in some parts may be somewhat elevated. Upon the said base or
bottom surface rests a roller of metal, stone, or suitable material, with grooves
or indentations similar to and in the same direction with those upon the
bottom surfaces. The roller is then propelled back and forward upon the
materials placed upon the grooved or corrugated base. This gives a powerful

page_text: rubbing or rolling action upon the rags or other materials, and renders the
process of cutting them, as is now practised when they are in a dry state, in
most cases unnecessary, while the dirt and extraneous matters contained in
the materials are much more effectually disengaged from them. It will be
obvious to the practical man that the softening or rubbing process may be
obtained in various ways; the metal base may be of a circular or oval shape,
so that the roller may reyolve continuously over its surface in the same direc-
tion, or may be driven so as to be reversed at pleasure; or in place of a roller
revolving round its own axis, the rubbing surfaces or grooves may be those of
a flat or curved surface propelled in the same plane, either continuously or
backward and forward upon the base of the receiver or holder; or the rubbing
process may be performed without grooves or indentations in one or both of
the respective surfaces by the friction of plain surfaces against each other, and
the crushing and rubbing of the materials interposed, as is done in the gun-
powder manufacture, by means of rolls or cylinders rubbing powerfully on each
other, and such as are used for grinding sand, paints, and other substances;
also rollers for rubbing, if placed and driven according to the usual mode
practised in paper engines and greatly reduced in their rate of revolution,
will be found suitable for this purpose.
The materials, either before or after being reduced, may be boiled in a boiler
containing a mechanical agitator, which is also the boiling steam supplier.
The boiler is a vertical cylinder, and the steam is supplied to it from above
through a vertical rotating pipe fitted with a stuffing box joint. Hollow
branch arms are fitted to this central pipe, and these arms have steam jet orifices
in them; when at work the steam is passed into the boiler amongst the
materials through these jet branches, whilst the latter at the same time rotate
and aid the boiling and preparing effect.
When the boiling is effected by the agency of external heat, a solid agitator
is used so as still to combine mechanical agitation and beat in the process;
after the pulping reduction in the "rag engine," the reduced mass is deposited
for a short time in a souring or acidulous solution, when it is finally treated
with the proper bleaching agent in the usual manner.