IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL GUM, SIZE, OR STIFFEN- ING MATTER
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Sellars, of the City of Manchester, in the,
County of Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, for the Invention of
.."IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL GUM, SIZE, OR STIFFEN-
ING MATTER."
Sealed the 27th April 1866, and dated the 1st November 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Sellars at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st.
November 1865.
I, JOHN SELLARS, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL GUM, SIZE, OR STIFFENING
MATTER," to be as follows:-
This gumming substance is applicable to the sizing or stiffening textile
fabrics or yarns, whether cotton, silk, wool, flax, jute, or a mixture of the
same or of other fibrous substances, and also to the staining or printing paper
and other similar purposes; and consists of mixing farina, rice flour, sago
flour, maize or wheat flour, wheat, rice, maize, or other starches in various
proportions according to the strength of goods to be sized, with a solution of
sulphuric, nitric, or hydrochloric acid and water boiled together; or any one

page_text: or more of the said amylaceous substances may be boiled with one of the said
or other vegetable acids, as acetic, tartaric, or oxalic, and water or other
suitable liquid, but water in preference. Having mixed any one or more of
the said amylaceous substances with water until it becomes a thick paste, I
put in weak acid and boil the whole together until it is of the proper con-
sistence, according to the purpose for which it is required, and I neutralize
the acid with any of the alkalies or other substance that will take it up; and
if necessary I add coloring, fatty, or soapy matter, as may be required for
the purpose to which it is to be applied. Farina, or any of the above-named
substances, either alone or mixed together, will answer the same purpose by
being impregnated with the acid or mixed acids before they are introduced
into the water or other liquid in which they are to be boiled, but I prefer the
acid to be mixed with the water. It is evident that I can introduce if
desirable sulphate of soda, sulphate of magnesium, china clay, or other similar
substances. The proportions of the amylaceous substance or substances, and
the acid or acids, will vary according to the quality or strength of the goods
to be sized. For light textile fabrics or yarns, or paper staining, about from
one quarter of a pound to two and a quarter pounds of the amylaceous
matter to one gallon of water, adding thereto about half a pint of acid of the
strength of about two and a half degrees Twaddell; and after boiling well
together I neutralize the acid with any of the alkalies of commerce or other
suitable means; the gummy matter thus produced is then ready for use.
For sizing heavy goods, such as fustians or similar articles, about the same
quantity of acid may be used as mentioned above, but more of the amylaceous
matter, according to the strength of the goods; and it is evident that this
strong gummy substance will allow of a large amount of china clay or other
earthy mineral substance to be added for the purpose of weighting the
goods.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Sellars, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 30th 3
April 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SELLARS, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Manufac-
turing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters 8
Patent, bearing. date the First day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of Her

page_text: reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Sellars, Her special license that I, the said John Sellars, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Sellars, 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 ARTIFICIAL GUM, SIZE, OR STIFFENING MATTER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Sellars, my executors or administrators, 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 Iuven-
tion, 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 John Sellars, do hereby declare the
nature of my 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 (that is to say):-
My Invention consists in the conversion of wheat, starch, wheat flour,
farina, sago flour, or any other amylaceous substance into a gum, size, dress
stiffening or finish, by means of submitting these or similar substances to the
action of any mineral or vegetable acids, or a mixture of any of these acids, in
any proportion when mixed with water, and submitting such mixture of
amylaceous substance with water and acid to the action of heat by introducing
an open jet of steam into the mixture, or by heating with an open fire, or by
means of a double cased vessel or suitable pan until such time as the
amylaceous matter is converted into a gummy substance, or size, or dress, and
then neutralizing the acid by any of the alkalies of commerce or other sub-
stances that will take it up, and there being so many substances that will take
up the acid (such as soda, magnesia, ammonia, and the like) I do not consider
it necessary to enumerate them, nor do I enumerate all the amylaceous substances
or confine myself to any one of them, as they can be mixed in various
proportions, and the acid and heat will act upon and convert them into artificial
gum or size, and when neutralized the adhesive matter so produced is fitted
according to the amylaceous substance or mixture of amylaceous substances used,
and the quantity of acid employed and the length of time the same are sub-
mitted to heat for their conversion into gum or size, and also the alkali or
materials used for the neutralizing of the acid after their conversion into gum

page_text: to the sizing, finishing, or stiffening of yarns or textile fabrics. Therefore as
this improvement is of so wide a scope in its usefulness for the stiffening of
yarns or textile fabrics from a thin and light piece of; fustian, or a heavy one,
up to the finest lace dressing, it is unnecessary to give the details of quantities
of amylaceous matter and acid; and length of time to submit it to the action
of heat to insure the conversion of the raw materials into gum, the same
varying so much according to the goods, cloth, or yarn for which it is to. be
used as dress or stiffening.
I do not claim the use of sodium or magnesium, or any of their salts, or of
china clay and other earthy mineral or metallic substances, in the use of
sizing and stiffening, as these are well known and extensively used, but I do
claim as being new the conversion of raw amylaceous substances into gum or
size by means of acid and heat when in a liquid or fluid state.
The makers of patent starches, who make their ordinary wheat starch into a
finer starch, or rather half starchy and half gummy substance by adding acids
to the same before placing them into the stove to dry, and continuing the heat
so as to convert the starch into a gummy substance, so much so that according
to the quantity of acid used and the length of time it is submitted to that heat
(long after the starch has become properly dry) they vary the details according
to what is wanted, so altering the nature of the starch that they can make it
require from two to four pounds of starch so treated to thicken a gallon of
water as thick as one pound of ordinary wheat starch of commerce will thicken
it, but the strength of the said starch is then in a semi-starch and gummy
state, and it is this kind of patent starch, so called, that is so extensively used
in the dressing of lace.
The conversion of farina starch and sago flour, to which is added acid, and
then submitting the same to the heat of a stove, calcining oven, or calcining
cylinders for the production of British gums, as practised extensively by British
gum makers, is a somewhat similar process, only that theirs is done in the dry
state and with more expensive apparatus, whilst my process is the conversion
of the raw into a gummy substance in the wet or fluid state, and is by the
means of acid and steam or fire heat quite a new process. Then as regards
the neutralization of the acid, sometimes for particular uses so little acid has
been used that what little remains in it is of no consequence in the use of the
gum, as for instance, for the stiffening or printing of paper, calico, and other
fabrics.
China clay or other cheap earthy or mineral matter may be used for
sizing warps or stiffening textile fabrics, as is the case now along with the
size at present in use. Soap or fatty matter may be used also at pleasure.

page_text: What I particularly and exclusively claim is the conversion of amylaceous
into gummy matter by the means above described, whether any other substance
or material is added to the size to give weight or not.
The great advantage possessed by this size in having no unpleasant smell
is a decided improvement over that of animal or bone size, for the stiffening
of fustians or any kind of goods where animal size is used, and which renders
clothes made of cloth so stiffened and worn by a great proportion of our
working population to smell badly and even nauseous.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Sellars, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
E. J. HUGHES,
Patent Agent,
Manchester.
JOHN SELLARS. (L.B.)