IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING PAPER AND BOARD' FROM VEGETABLE, ANIMAL, OR MINERAL SUBSTANCES, AND IN DRYING, REELING, AND CUTTING SUCH PAPER OR BOARD."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tidcombo, junior, trading as the Firm of
.
G. Tidcombe & Son, Paper Maker's Engineer, of Watford, in the County of
Herts, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS
FOR MAKING PAPER AND BOARD' FROM VEGETABLE, ANIMAL, OR MINERAL
SUBSTANCES, AND IN DRYING, REELING, AND CUTTING SUCH PAPER OR
BOARD."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Tidcombe, jr., at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th September 1881.
GEORGE TIDCOMBE, junior, trading as the Firm of G. Tidcombe & Son, Paper
Maker's Engineer, of Watford, in the County of Herts. 'IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING PAPER AND 'BOARD' FROM VEGETABLE,
ANIMAL, OR MINERAL SUBSTANCES, AND IN DRYING, REELING, AND CUTTING
SUCH PAPER OR BOARD."
This Invention relates to certain improvements in means of and apparatus for
making paper and "board" from vegetable, animal, or mineral substances, or any
one or more of such substances, and in drying, reeling, and cutting the same
continuously, the whole being primarily for continuous paper or board making
from such substances, or for drying, reeling, and cutting the same by the following
means:-
The board pulp is led between two travelling machine wires over or through
rollers of large diameter, and after the pulp is set the travelling wires that then
receive it are placed out of the level transversely or longitudinally, or both, for
leading off the water or combining liquid from the pulp or board; or pipes having
lips of a peculiar shape are introduced where the water or fluid accumulates, through
which it is drawn off by suction or driven off by blasts of air, or elastic sweepers
are worked across the wires for this purpose. It is then led through a drying
machine in a hot chamber between wires or hot felts or heated plates or surfaces,

page_text: or streams of dessicated air are introduced by blast or otherwise to absorb and take
off the moisture gradually without injuring the board by violent hent.
The drying cylinders or heated rollers employed are of extra large diameter
built up of iron segments, surfaced and fastened together on the inside, and of such
sectional area that when fitted together the metal is of equal thickness and will
have equal expansion when heated and give an equal drying of the boards or
instead of large hot cylinders a series of small ones are placed round and adjacent
to a circular frame of radius large enough so as not to crack or break the board or
injure it as it passes over the circle. The cylinders or rolls may have strips (of
wood) fastened upon them at irregular distances apart over which the board travels
so as not to mark and scorch the boards nor dry them irregularly.
The paper made of these materials may be dried in the same manner or by
ordinary cylinders or air druins.
After being dried the board or paper is slit by slitters or circular knives or saws
running at higher speed than the board and cross cut at the same time by heavy
cross cut knives continuously as being made, and the apparatus used for this
purpose can with certain modifications be also used for cutting widths, webs, or
ribbons of paper and other fibrous material.
For this cutting or cutting purpose I make a roller of the length of the width of
the web made up of ferrules as short as the required widths, which ferrules are
hored out accurately and fitted upon a spindle. Between each of them is a circular
..knife-or-saw-for-dividing-the-paper-into the required widths.
The wide web from the primary_wide_reel-or-from-the-paper-making-machine-is-
rewound upon a spindle having suitable bobbins thereon, of the same lengths as
the ferrules above described. A few revolutions of this spindle winds on enough
of the web to begin with, and the slitting roller having the circular cutters upon
it is lowered upon or placed against it and driven by frictional contact or
otherwise, so that as the reels increase in diameter a roller presses against them
and keeps the webs hard and even whilst the circular cutters continue to slit the
paper. The webs can afterwards be separated, and being wound on suitable
bobbins will be ready to be again hung truly on their respective working spindles
and unwound evenly by the bag making, printing, or other machine for which they
are required.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Lettors Patent filed by
the said George Tidcombe, jr., in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th March
1882.
GEORGE TIDCOMBE, junior, trading as the Firm of G. Tidcombe and Son, Paper
Maker's Engineer, of Watford, in the County of Herts. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING PAPER AND BOARD' FROM VEGETABLE,
ANIMAL, OR MINERAL SUBSTANCES, AND IN DRYING, REELING, AND OUTTING
SUCH PAPER OR BOARD."
This Invention relates to certain improvements in means of and apparatus for
making paper and "board" from vegetable, animal, or mineral substances, or any
one or more of such substances, and in drying, reeling, and cutting the same
continuously. It is also applicable to the treatment of finer or coarser pulp and
also to asbestos materials, the whole being primarily for continuous paper or board
making from such pulp or for drying, reeling, and cutting paper or board.
Mill boards are now made by hand in moulds or from paper by the paper
making machine and the paper is wound round rollers until thick enough, and
then cut into boards which are dried in a hot chamber on lines or in the open air,
but this is tedious and costly.
In carrying the present Invention into practice, I employ the following
means:-
The board pulp is led between two machino wires through rollers of large
diameter, and after the pulp is partially set the wires that then receive it are
placed out of the level transversely or longitudinally, or both, for leading off
the water or combining liquid from the pulp or board; or peculiarly shaped lips
are introduced where the water or fluid accumulates through which it is drawn off
by suction, at the same time the damp board is pressed by rollers. It is then led
through a drying machine in a hot chamber between wires, or hot felts or streams of
hot air are introduced by blast or otherwise across the board to absorb and take off
the moisture. The drying cylinders or heated rollers employed are of extra large
diameter and peculiar construction so as not to crush, break, or wrinkle the board;
or instead of large hot cylinders a series of small ones are placed round and
adjacent to a circular frame of large radius, large enough so as not to bend the
board and injure it as it passes over the curve.
After being dried the board or paper is slit by slitters or circular knives or
saws running at higher speed than the board and cross cut at the same time by
heavy cross cut knives continuously, and the apparatus used for this purpose can
with certain modifications be also used for cutting widths, webs, or ribbons of
paper and other fibrous material.
For this cutting or slitting purpose I make a roller of the length of the width
of the web, made up of ferrules as short as the required width of the webs or
ribbons which ferrules are bored out and fitted upon a spindle.
Between each of the ferrules is a circular slitter for dividing the paper into the
required widths; this roller being turned truly, rolls evenly between the slitters
upon the narrow webs as they become slit, and presses them evenly and solidly.
The wide web from the primary wide reel or from the paper making machine is
re-wound upon a spindle having suitable bobbins (as to width) thereon of the
same short lengths as the ferules above described of the slitter cylinder. A few
revolutions of this spindle winds on enough of the web to begin with, and the
slitting roller above described, having the circular cutters thereon, is lowered upon
or placed against the same, and driven by it by frictional contact or otherwise, so

page_text: that as the reels increase in diameter the roller rises upon them up a guide carriage,
and keeps the reeled webs hard and even whilst the circular cutters continue to
slit the paper. The webs can afterwards be separated, and being wound on suitable
bobbins can be hung again truly on their respective working spindles, and
unwound evenly by the hagmaking, printing, or other machine for which they are
required.
Fig. 1 of the Drawings shows in vertical sectional view the arrangement for
forming or setting the board or web, and leading off the superfluous water or com-
bining liquid. A is the head or jet supplying the pulp from the strainers; B, B¹,
are the wires between which the pulp is led, said wires being arranged vertically,
or may be inclined, and are carried by the rollers C, and the rollers Care stretching
and guide rollers; D is a trough formed with lips or doctors bearing against the
wires, and the liquid is by them strained off into the said trough, whence the wires
pass over the other rollers, provided with troughs D' for collecting the further
expressed liquid. The wires are made to gradually approach each other and
compress the pulp in its passage, and the so formed board or web is delivered at E
to be dried. This Fig. 1 is a diagram, and the dotted portions of the lines at a
are for purpose of showing that at this point there may be proportionately greater
length.
"
Fig. 2 shows in like view the double wires B, B', carried horizontally; C¹ are
--guide- rollers-which-press-the-double-wire up to the drum CD, and effect a hugging
kind of action against it, which_can_be_regulated_to_any_required_degree,-and-the
drum CD serves in this case the combined purposes of the top cylinders C and the
noctor trough D of Fig. 1; this drum CD is of metal covered with a wire like a
dandy roll," or can be made with metal having a slitted surface or perforations
in its periphery. Interiorally of this drum CD are formed the radial buckets or
scoops D², which form lips for carrying away the superfluous water from the
surface of the formed board or web; these lips are worked on a centre spindle F,
which has a space around it through which the surplus water is conducted away,
and this drum may be driven faster than the web carrying wires.
Fig. 3 represents a modification of the foregoing, varying only as to design of
the buckets D, and the direction in which the wires B, B1, are carried.
Fig. 4 is a further modification of the drum CD for carrying off the top water
from the board or web by means of suction apparatus; G is a circular or crescent
shaped or otherwise formed internal diaphragm, and elastic lips are provided at H,
or accurately fitting lips of suitable material to work against the internal circum-
ference of the perforated cylinder or drum CD, thus forming a shield from the
atmosphere. The stays 1 support these extremities or lips of the internal
diaphragm G, and an air tight space K is thus formed which communicates with a
vacuum pump or other exhausting means to draw off the water from the top side
of the board through the centre of the cylinder.
This cylinder CD may revolve, or the disc only may be used, and then it would
be stationary, and the double wire slide over it as in the case of stationary vacuum
boxes. A leech lip or mouth pipe or pipes L only, or other suitable form of mouth
or pipe, can be used across the wire communicating with an exhaust for this purpose
of taking up the top water.
Instead of drawing off the top water from the board, as before described, I may
use an elastic sweepor across the top surface of the wires when not working
vertically, and work the sweeper by a reversing screw or other means across the
wire.
In some cases (although not recommended) the arc or drum may be made
open ended, or be placed out of level for the water to run off.
For making extra thick boards 1 use the above means with two or more paper
making machines, and run and press the webs together continuously before drying;
or I run the single webs separately on reels, then re-reel any required number of
them together, passing them through a bath of suitable fluid for uniting them to
the thickness required before drying.

page_text: Figs. 5 and 6 show the way in which I work the necessary deckle belts along
with the wires to enclose the pulp.
The deckle belt M is a thick one, and runs a certain distance past the point at
which the top wire joins the bottom wire, as from a to b, so far past that the pulp
can be kept back by the side of the deckle-belt.
Again, as shown in Fig. 6, a pulley or pulleys N with a second deckle belt N'
may work upon the top wire to make the necessary joint or enclosure for any
required thickness of pulp.
I will now describe the means I employ in drying such boards, the consideration
being the continuous production. Fig. 7 shows the construction of the cylinder of
large enough diameter (even 30 feet if required), so as not to bend and crack thick
boards when led over its circumference. This circumference or rim is built in
segments with the inner portions P at the parts of junction, which, when bolted
together through flanges provided, give an equal sectional thickness to the parts OP,
so that any expansion of the ring or cylinder will therefore be equal. Q are the
hollows or space for the steam or heating medium, and R. one of its supporting
arms. The steam or heating medium will be supplied through the centre from
whenco also the water of condensation is drawn.
As represented in Fig. 8 for drying some kinds of material, I use an arrange-
ment of felts S with drying cylinders as absorbing and drying means, and one way
of using such felts is by placing the rollers T in a radius or curve flat enough, so us
not to crack the board when led over them, or between the travelling felts S.
U are hot rolls for drying the felts, or skeleton drums or reels may be used when
dessicated air may be blown or forced through the centre of their spindles, or about
the drums for absorbing the moisture. The circular knives or slitters driven at
higher speed than the boards are not shown; the cross cut knives are indicated
at W.
In the manufacture of paper and other fibrous materials, as above described, I
find it necessary to have means of clearing the rolls and cylinders of portions of
pulp that adhere to them, more especially in the drying process; therefore I use an
automatic or movable "doctor" operated transversely by an internal thread or screw
encased within a protecting box or covering. The motion is given by a cam plate
connected to the grooved end of the doctor.
Figs. 9, 10, and 11, illustrate the cutting or slitting roll; Fig. 11 shows the
slitting cylinder made up with the ferrules a on spindle b, with knives c for the
slitting purpose; d is the driving pulley. Fig. 9 shows the reel as it commences
to receive the web, and Fig. 10 the slitted web rolled on.
Having now described the nature and particulars of the said Invention in such
manner that the same may be readily understood and carried into practical effect,
I claim,
The improvements in the means of and apparatus for making paper and board
continuously from vegetable, animal, or mineral substances, and in drying, reeling,
and cutting such paper or board as specified, and for the purpose herein described
and shown by the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tidcombe, junior, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty two.