IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HALF STUFF AND PAPER
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Routledge, of 17, Gracechurch Street, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HALF STUFF AND
PAPER."
Sealed the 30th January 1857, and dated the 31st July 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Routledge at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st July 1856.
I, THOMAS ROUTLEDGE, of 17, Gracechurch Street, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HALF STUFF
AND PAPER," to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in the preparation of half stuff (paper pulp) and
paper from esparto, or Spanish grass, and other raw fibrous substances, by
treating them (when cut to suitable lengths) with a caustic ley, composed in
the ordinary manner, of soda or potash and lime, but containing an excess of
lime, that is to say, more lime being present than is necessary to render the
alkali caustic, this being necessary to bring the gums resinous and siliceous
matter (coating and cementing together all raw vegetable fibres more or less)
to a soluble state. The substances after being boiled in this ley are washed in
a rotating vessel, or in the ordinary rag-beating engine, and then bleached in
another rotating vessel, let down into a receptacle to steep and afterwards
drained and washed, and are then fit for making the ordinary descriptions of
paper.
For a superior quality of paper, after boiling in the first ley with excess of
lime, the fibre is drained and boiled a second time in a bath of common car-

page_text: bonate of soda, (washing soda), drained, washed, and reduced to half stuff in
the ordinary rag-beating engine, and submitted twice to the bleaching process,
washed, treated with acid, which is washed out and then made into paper, or
sold as half stuff.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Routledge in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th January 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ROUTLEDGE, of 17, Gracechurch Street, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Routledge, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Routledge
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Routledge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HALF STUFF AND PAPER," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Routledge, my executors or admi-
nistrators, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Routledge, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
The Invention consists in the preparation of half stuff (paper pulp) and
paper from esparto, or Spanish grass, by an improved and economical process,
which is also applicable to other raw fibrous substances.·
.
All raw vegetable fibrous substances are more or less combined or their
fibres coated with gummo-resinous and siliceous matter, which must be

page_text: removed before the bleaching process can be efficaciously carried out. To effect
this, I boil the esparto or other fibrous substances (first cutting the same into
pieces of a few inches in length) in a caustic ley, composed as follows, in the
proportion to the hundredweight of fibrous material to be treated:-I take soda
(using the impure caustic carbonate, known in commerce as soda ash, by pre-
ference,) and quick or caustic lime, from ten to fifteen pounds of the former,
and a similar quantity of the latter; these are boiled together in a suitable
vessel with a sufficient quantity of water (not less than ten times the weight
of soda used), and after allowing the mechanical impurities to subside I decant
or syphon off the caustic solution, adding thereto a further quantity of water,
so as nearly to cover the fibrous substance in the boiler or vessel in which the
boiling operation is to take place. The solution is in a milky state from the
presence of excess of lime, and I have found in practice that a caustic ley
composed in this manner has a more active effect in bringing into a soluble
state the gummo-resinous and other matters combined with the fibre. The
above strength of ley is sufficient for an ordinary class of half stuff, suitable for
cartridge and common printing papers. When it is desired to produce a whiter
half stuff, the quantity of soda with lime (in proportions as above described)
may be increased with advantage up to twenty or even twenty-five pounds to
one hundredweight of material treated to facilitate the subsequent process of
bleaching, or the lime in excess may be allowed to deposit and the ley used
clear, if considered desirable, for the finer or more delicate description of fibres.
The strength of the caustic ley cannot be distinctly defined (except within the
limits above mentioned) for every description of fibre or for any individual
fibre, as each will naturally be procured in different stages of growth and
preparation; but the desired strength of ley may be considered determined when
the fibre is found, after boiling, on being broken or torn asunder to present a
pointed or jagged end, and the strength of the ley must be increased or
diminished a little more or less until this point is arrived at.
The esparto, or other fibrous substance, is boiled in the caustic ley a suitable
time, which is ordinarily from three to five hours, and I find out when the
boiling operation has been carried on for a sufficient time by taking a sample
of the fibre and pulling it apart, as before mentioned. When the proper indica-
tions are given, the fibre is drained, and then either in the same or another
vessel boiled again for a short time in a solution composed of common car-
bonate of soda, in the proportion of two to five pounds to the hundredweight of
fibrous material, or the bicarbonate may be used in less proportion; one hour's
boil is sufficient to liberate or set free the coloring and gummy resinous matter
already disturbed, and which up to this time have been incorporated with the

page_text: fibres, which latter are then completely disintegrated, and in a fit state to be
taken to the ordinary rag-breaking and washing engines as at present in use,
when the material is broken down into half stuff and bleached in the ordinary
manner, as practised with rags, half stuff, then manufactured into paper, either
by itself or mixed in varying proportions with the present rag material,
according to the quality of paper desired to be produced. I may add that the
boiling process in either case may be conducted in the ordinary rag boilers as
known and practised. I employ the Lancashire bowking kier, also Donkin's
cylindrical boiler, and also that I use the leys and soda solution again and
again, until, too highly charged with coloring and extractive matter, bringing
them up to the desired degree of strength by adding the requisite quantity of
soda or lime to bring them to standard, and as they become foul I use them in
the manufacture of inferior half stuff and paper.
I am well aware that in February, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
two, a Patent was granted to Jean Antoine Farina, for treating esparto for the
manufacture of paper pulp, but his process is too tedious and costly for general
use. A Patent also was taken by Mess" Coupier and Mellier, for treating straw,
and generally herbaceous matters, reducing the same into pulp without the aid
of machinery, by boiling in strong caustic alkali and treating with hypochlorite
of alumina; but neither the one nor the other will admit of a long and perfectly
bleached half stuff retaining its fibrous characteristics as desired by the paper-
maker being economically obtained. Several other Patents have also been
taken for processes in treating fibrous materials, most of which being inoperative
it is useless to refer to. I do not therefore claim the manufacture of half stuff
or paper from esparto or other raw fibre generally; but what I claim is, the
treatment of esparto and other raw fibres by a ley containing more lime than
is necessary to render the alkali caustic, and afterwards boiling and rinsing the
fibro in a solution of carbonate or bicarbonate of soda.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Routledge, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
THOS. ROUTLEDGE. (L.S.)