IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN REDUCING STRAW AND OTHER VEGETABLE MnnACTURE
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Burnett Houghton, of 6, Clarendon Terrace,
Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN REDUCING STRAW AND OTHER VEGETABLE
Mnn an D
Sealed the 4th April 1862, and dated the 14th October 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Burnett
Houghton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 14th October 1861.
I, FREDERICK BURNETT HOUGHTON, of 6, Clarendon Terrace, Kensington,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN REDUCING STRAW AND OTHER
VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PULP FOR MAKING PAPER," to
be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus employed in
reducing straw and other vegetable substances in the manufacture of pulp for
making paper. For these purposes I employ a boiler of a cylindrical form
with hemispherical ends; within this boiler a shaft or axis works, passing
through a stuffing box at one or both ends. On this shaft are fixed several bent
or curved blades, the edges of which are bent up, so as to form scoops; these
blades are fixed at intervals all round the shaft, and they are of a length to come
within a few inches of the inner surface of the boiler. To this shaft rotatory

page_text: motion is communicated, by which the materials under operation are continuously
moved and raised out of the alkaline solution in the lower part of the boiler,
which is about one-third filled with that fluid. The boiler is heated from the
interior by water circulated in closed pipes or tubes, on Perkins' principle; at
the upper part of the boiler is a man-hole, through which the straw or other
vegetable materials are introduced, and there is also a blow-off steam pipe,
and a safety valve at the top of the boiler; at the bottom of the boiler there
are man-holes for withdrawing the charge, also a pipe or pipes to draw off
the liquid and the water introduced, as herein-after mentioned, into the boiler,
to cool it and to wash the vegetable matters before withdrawing them from
the boiler. When the boiler and the materials therein are to be cooled, water
is pumped into the boiler, for which purpose one or more pipes connected with
suitable forcing machinery are used. In some cases, in place of the boiler
having man-holes to introduce and remove the vegetable matters, one end of
the boiler is arranged to come off, and reticulated cages fitting the interior of
the boiler are used to contain the vegetable matters, (such as hemp or flax,
whether in the straw, or old ropes or fabrics made therefrom); and to facilitate
the movement of these cages in the boiler a rail or tramway is formed
therein. When using this arrangement of apparatus the boiler is filled, or
nearly so, with the alkaline solution, and there is an upper vessel connected
with the boiler into which the liquor when heated expands. The heating and
cooling of the contents of the boiler are as before described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick Burnett Houghton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 14th April 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
BURNETT HOUGHTON, of 6, Clarendon Terrace, Kensington, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Frederick Burnett Houghton, Her special licence that I, the said
Frederick Burnett Houghton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Frederick Burnett Houghton, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time

page_text: to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN REDUCING STRAW
AND OTHER VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PULP FOR MAKING
PAPER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick
Burnett Houghton, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Frederick Burnett Houghton, 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:
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus employed in
reducing straw and other vegetable substances in the manufacture of pulp for
making paper. For these purposes I employ a boiler of a cylindrical form
with hemispherical ends; within this boiler a shaft or axis works, passing
through a stuffing box at one or both ends. On this shaft are fixed several
bent or curved blades, the edges of which are bent up, so as to form scoops;
these blades are fixed at intervals all round the shaft, and they are of a length
to come within a few inches of the inner surface of the boiler. To this shaft.
rotatory motion is communicated, by which the materials under operation are
continuously moved and raised out of the alkaline solution in the lower part of
the boiler, which is about one-third filled with that fluid. The boiler is heated
from the interior by water circulated in closed pipes or tubes on Perkins' prin-
ciple; at the upper part of the boiler is a man-hole, through which the straw
or other vegetable materials are introduced; and there is also a blow-off steam
pipe and a safety valve at the top of the boiler; at the bottom of the boiler
there are man-holes for withdrawing the charge, also a pipe or pipes to draw
.off the liquid and the water introduced into the boiler to cool it and to wash
the vegetable matters before withdrawing them from the boiler. When the
boiler and the materials therein are to be cooled, water is pumped into the
boiler, for which purpose one or more pipes connected with suitable forcing
machinery are used. In some cases, in place of the boiler having man-holes
to introduce and remove the vegetable matters, one end of the boiler is
arranged to come off, and reticulated cages fitting the interior of the boiler

page_text: are used to contain the vegetable matters (such as hemp or flax, whether in
the straw, or old ropes or fabrics made therefrom); and to facilitate the move-
ment of these cages in the boiler a rail or tramway is formed therein. When
using this arrangement of apparatus the boiler is filled, or nearly so, with the
alkaline solution, and there is an upper vessel connected with the boiler into
which the liquor when heated expands. The heating and cooling of the
contents of this boiler are as before described.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more fully to
describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a longitudinal section of a boiler, such as is used by me in
carrying out the first part of my Invention. This boiler is heated by the cir-
culation of hot water in small closed pipes, which are not shown, but the
manner of applying them is well understood, it being the same as when heating
the interior of a boiler according to what is known as Perkins' system or
principle, to which mode of heating separately I make no claim, and the
boiler A is also similar to other cylindrical boilers with hemispherical ends. B
is a man-hole, where the fibrous materials are introduced into the boiler; C is
the steam discharge cock; D is the cock through which the alkaline ley is
supplied, and also through which water is forced into the boiler when the
contents are to be cooled down and washed; E is the cock through which the
liquor is discharged; F, F, are man-holes, through which the fibrous materials
are discharged; H is a stuffing box, through which the end of the shaft or
axis K works; this shaft has intermediate bearings M, and it can be caused
to rotate in its bearings by giving motion to the pinion G', which gears with
the toothed wheel G, this toothed wheel being fast upon the shaft. On the
shaft or axis there are arms N, bent into such form as, when the shaft or axis
is caused to rotate, to lift the fibrous material from the lower part of the
boiler out of the liquor, and to allow the fibrous materials again to descend
into the liquor, so that by the rotation of the shaft or axis the fibrous
materials will be alternately immersed in and raised out of the liquor; and it
is this alternate action, when subjecting straw and other fibrous matters to a
boiling process at high temperatures in a close vessel, which constitutes the
peculiarity of this part of my Invention.
Figure 2 shows a longitudinal section of another boiler, arranged and con-
structed in such manner as to have one of its ends removed, in order to
charge and discharge the materials to be treated. These charges are put into
cylindrical cases suitably formed to admit of their being readily moved. into

page_text: and out of the boiler, rails or guides being fixed at the bottom of the boiler
to facilitate such movements. This boiler is heated in like manner to that
described in respect to the previous one. In Figure 2, A is the boiler; B is
the moveable end; C, liquor discharge cock; D, steam discharge cock; E,
expansion vessel, the alkaline liquor being supplied so as to fill the boiler, but
not the expansion vessel; F, cock through which the liquor is supplied; this
cock is also used when pumping water into the boiler to cool and wash the
contents; g, g, are the joints to the cover.
The peculiarity of this part of the Invention consists in treating fibrous
materials in a boiler and apparatus such as above described, when such
fibrous materials are subjected to alkaline liquor at high temperatures; but no
claim is made to any parts of the boiler and apparatus separately.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Burnett Houghton, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.