AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO MAKING OF PAPER
Year: 1833

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
DICKINSON, of Buckland, near Dover, in the County of Kent, Paper Maker,
send greeting.
WHEREAS I did, by petition, humbly represent to His most Excellent
Majesty King William the Fourth, that I had invented "AN IMPROVEMENT OR
IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO MAKING OF PAPER," which I believe would be of
general benefit and advantage, and that I was the true and first Inventor
thereof, and thereupon His said Majesty, being willing to give encouragement
to all arts and inventions which may be for the public good, was graciously
pleased to issue His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of December
last, in the fourth year of His reign, and by those Letters Patent His said
Majesty did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said George Dickinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His
especial licence, sole privilege and authority, that I or they, or such others as
I or they, by myself or themselves, or by my or their deputies, servants, or
agents, or such others as I or they should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of fourteen years
from the date of the said Letters Patent, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend my said Invention within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed; and whereas the said Letters Patent contain a
proviso requiring me, the said George Dickinson, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is

page_text: to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and
to cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chan-
cery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Dickinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
in manner following, and by the aid of the Drawing hereunto annexed, that
is to say:-
The object of my improvement or improvements is to facilitate the making
of what is called laid paper by means of that kind of paper-making machinery
which operates by the continuous motion of an endless web of woven wire
cloth circulating slowly over a system of horizontal rollers, so as to form a
moving horizontal plane of wire, on which the pulp for making the paper is
spread at one end with a continual flow or stream, and during the motion of
the said plane by the circulating of the web it is shaken in order to drain away the
water from the pulp, which, by the time it has advanced with the moving wire
to the other end of the horizontal plane, is formed into a tissue of paper, which
is taken off from the wire in a continuous sheet at the other end of the moving
plane, and is transferred to an endless web of flannel or felt, which circulates
over a like system of horizontal rollers, and which carries away the newly
formed paper between suitable pressing rollers, by which the paper is suffi-
ciently consolidated to be wound or rolled up around a reel. The term laid
paper is well known to paper makers to designate all kinds of paper which
exhibit an appearance of parallel lines upon its surface in contradistinction to
the term wove paper, which exhibits an uniform and even surface. The
appearance of parallel lines in laid paper is occasioned by the paper being of
less thickness at the places which retain impressions of the wires upon which
the pulp was spread in the making of the paper. Those wires for making
laid paper are of a considerable strength and stiffness, and are disposed parallel
to each other at equal distances apart, leaving interstices between them for the
draining-away of the water from the pulp so as to form a kind of fine grating.
The strong parallel wires are tied together by finer flexible wires, which
proceed crossways and pass alternately under and over each of the stiff parallel
wires which they cross. The said fine flexible cross wires proceed in pairs, which
lie close together, and one wire of each pair passes upwards over one of the
stiff parallel wires, whilst the other fellow wire of the same pair passes under
the same stiff wire, whereby the said stiff wire is firmly grasped and retained
between the two fine wires which constitute each pair; and those two fine

page_text: wires crossing each other in the interstice between every two adjacent stiff
wires, the latter are retained at the proper intended distance asunder to keep
the openings of the grating, at the same time that they are firmly tied together
so as not to separate, and such pairs of fine flexible cross wires are disposed at
such distances from each other as to enable the stiff wires to support them-
selves and form a firm grating; and the said pair of fine cross wires leave their
impressions in the paper in an appearance of parallel white lines, at con-
siderable distances apart, traversing across the other closer parallel lines, which
are occasioned by the impression left by the stiff wires of the grating, all
which may be observed by holding up a sheet of laid paper to the light; whereas
on the like examination of a sheet of wove paper, no lines can be diserned,
because the woven wire upon which it is made was a cloth texture, woven
like cloth of fine wire. And whereas the endless webs of wire which have
been commonly used in ordinary paper-making machinery have been made of
fine wire woven flexible like cloth, all the paper made by such machinery has
necessarily been of the kind called wove paper; and laid paper, when
demanded, has been usually made in moulds by manual operations, after the
ancient system, which was followed before the invention of paper-making
machinery. And although attempts have been made to substitute for such
endless webs of fine woven wire other endless webs composed of stiff parallel
wires extending across the width of the machine, and united by fine flexible
wires intertwisted, as herein-before mentioned, across and between the stiff
wires extended longitudinary around the system of rollers over which the
endless web circulates, nevertheless such attempts have not proved advan-
tageous for the making of laid paper, for want of durability in the endless webs
so composed of stiff wires united by fine intertwisted wires, and also for want
of adequate means of causing such an endless web to circulate so correctly
around the said rollers, and in its due direction in the machine, that the lines
left in the paper by the impressions of the said intertwisting wires would
be laid correctly parallel to the margins of the paper; and also because the
lateral shaking motion which is given to the endless web in the ordinary paper-
making machines, or the up and down shaking motion which is given to the
endless web, according to improvements formerly invented by
me (and for
which a Patent was granted to me by His late Majesty King George the
Fourth, dated the Twenty-first, day of February, One thousand eight hundred
and twenty-eight), are not exactly in the proper direction of shaking the wire
for making laid paper according to the established system of making such
paper in moulds by hand manipulations, for the vat man then holds the mould
with the stiff parallel wires extending in a direction from one hand to

page_text: the other, and in shaking the mould when he has gathered the liquid pulp
upon it, he shakes it horizontally backwards and forwards to and from his
breast, with a movement which is technically termed amongst paper makers a
fore-right shake, the direction of the shaking motion being transversely across
the direction of the length of the stiff wires. And my present improvement
applicable to making of paper consist in making laid paper upon endless webs
of wire composed of stiff wires, extending parallel to each other across the
width of the paper-making machinery in which such endless webs are to be used
for making laid paper, those stiff wires being united (not by wires), but by
threads or yarns of silk, flax, or cotton, or worsted suitably twisted or plaited,
to be used as a substitute for fine flexible wire, in order to unite such stiff'
wires by intertwisting across and between them in the manner herein-before
described; but intertwisting threads or yarns of silk, flax, cotton, or worsted,
being used in lieu of wire, those threads or yarns, by their greater flexibility than
wire, will grasp the stiff wires most firmly to hold them parallel exactly at their
intended distances apart, and will permit the endless web to bend very readily
in circulating around its various rollers without being so liable to crack and'
fail as intertwisting wires are. The two ends of the web so formed are united-
by means of my intertwisting threads or yarns, which join end to end, and are
spliced by intertwisting their overlapping ends amongst those stiff wires which
are nearest to the junction, and the extreme ends of the threads or yarns when
cut off are laced down and made fast to the spliced threads or yarns by sewing
with fine wire, so that the junction of the endless web will be very strong, and
its surface so much like other parts of the web as not to cause much difference
between the impression left on the paper by that junction from the impression
left by any other part of the wire.
Figure 1 of the Drawing hereunto annexed represents a specimen of the
wires and their intertwisting threads or yarns. The ends of the stiff wires form
the margin of the web, and are bound by a tape which is doubled round those
ends so as to reach over as far as those intertwisting threads or yarn which are
nearest to the margin, and the binding tape so doubled over is firmly sewed
down to the wires and yarns or threads to preserve the ends of the stiff wires
from catching in any part of the machinery. Webs of stiff wires thus inter-
twisted with threads or yarns of silk, flax, cotton, or worsted, as aforesaid, may
be made by the means usually followed by the makers of moulds for laid paper,
taking care to begin with a sufficient length of each of the intertwisting threads
or yarns to make the required web without requiring junctions of those threads
or yarns. The length of the endless web which I prefer is about twelve feet
before the ends are united, but the length will depend upon the machine in

page_text: which the endless web is to be used; and the endless webs so composed of stiff
wires intertwisted with yarns or threads as aforesaid may be used for making
laid paper upon the ordinary paper-making machinery which is in general use,
and which is known by the name of Fourdrinier's machinery, in consequence of
an Act of Parliament passed in the forty-seventh year of the reign of King
George the Third, Session Second, Chapter 131, of Local and Personal Acts,
granting the exclusive use of such machinery to Messieurs Fourdriniers and
Gamble for a certain term, and which machinery is described in a Specification
inrolled by them, in pursuance of the said Act, on the Thirteenth day of
February, in the year One thousand eight hundred and eight. And the
application of such endless web as aforesaid to such Fourdrinier's machinery,
for the purpose of making laid paper thereby, is made by merely substituting
the same for the endless web of woven wire cloth commonly used in
Fourdrinier's machinery for making wove paper, and the mode of operation
with the machinery after such substitution being the same as usual, requires
no further description; but whereas, for want of adequate means for keeping
the said endless web truly in its intended place, laterally in the machinery
when circulating around its rollers, there will be some liability to want of
parallelism between the margin of the paper and the lines left along the paper
by the impressions of the said intertwisting threads or yarns, and also because
the horizontal sideway shaking motion of the ordinary machinery is not the
most suitable for making laid paper according to my said improvements, I
do not recommend the said endless web for making laid paper to be used on the
ordinary Fourdrinier's machinery, excepting in cases where manufacturers find
it desirable so to employ machinery of that kind which they possess already.
And, excepting in such cases, I prefer to apply such endless web to paper-
making machinery which is constructed in the manner represented and
described in the Specification of my said former Patent improvements of the
Twenty-first day of February, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight,
with the following alterations thereof for the purpose of applying such webs to
the making of laid paper thereby, videlicet :-I now form small circular grooves
around that cylinder over which the endless web is extended, at that end of
the horizontal part of the web which is furthest from the vat, and which
cylinder is marked B in the Drawings annexed to my said former Specification.
Those grooves being at suitable distances apart to admit all the prominences
which the intertwisting yarns or threads form at the under side of the web, so
as to allow the stiff wires to apply themselves fairly in contact with the said
cylinder without bearing on the intertwisting threads or yarns, which are
thereby protected from pressure, and by being so inlaid into the said grooves

page_text: the endless web is secured from lateral deviation from its true intended course
in circulating around it several rollers and passing along the machine. And
also in lieu of the mode of shaking the endless web with an up-and-down
motion, as described in my said former Specification, I now make such
alterations in the crank movements and their connections, and in the framing
and parts which support the several rollers over which the endless web is to
circulate, as will cause the shaking motion of the endless web to take place in
a horizontal plane, but backwards and forwards in a direction to and from the
vat, or lengthways of the endless web, by which means the shaking motion to
which the semifluid pulp is subjected whilst it is in the act of making into laid
paper by the machinery, will take place in a direction across the length of the
parallel stiff wires of the web, and very nearly corresponding in its operation
with what is technically termed a fore-right shake, given by the hand of the
vat man in making laid paper by hand.
The said last-mentioned alterations are herein-after more fully explained by
the aid of the Drawing hereunto annexed; and also in lieu of the leather apron
heretofore commonly used for conveying the stream of semifluid pulp from the
spout or trough of the vat, and delivering that stream upon the endless web,
a like apron may be made of thin copper plate in lieu of leather, and it will
be less liable to suck up air bubbles, the under side of the said copper apron
having grooves formed in it conformably to the intertwisting threads or yarns
of the endless web in order to admit all the prominences of the said threads or
yarns above the upper surface of the wire of the web into such grooves, so as
to avoid any rubbing or wearing away of the threads or yarns, and yet to
permit the under side of the copper apron to apply very near to the wires in
order to deliver the stream of semifluid pulp upon the endless web.
Figure 2 exhibits the whole machine at one view, but most of the parts
being similar to other machines already in use, and being fully described in the
Specification of my former Patent of the Twenty-first day of February. One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, it is unnecessary to enter into a
minute description further than is explained by the names of the parts which
are written on the Drawing, and by the letters of reference thereon, which denote
the same parts as were marked with the same letters of reference in the
Drawings annexed to my said former Specification.
A is the vat from which the pulp runs through the spout or pulp
trough I, or over the copper apron I, so as to flow out in a continual
stream upon the horizontal moving surface of the endless web a, a, which
surface is suitable for the making of laid paper by the machine, being
composed of stiff parallel wires, extending across the width of the machine,

page_text: and those wires being united together by intertwisting threads or yarns
of silk, flax, cotton, or worsted, which extend parallel to each other from
one end of the web to the other, and the ends of those threads or yarns being
joined together unite the wires into an endless web, as represented in the
Figure. The said endless web is extended and stretched over a horizontal
roller at A, beneath the spout of the copper apron I, and passes around
another horizontal roller B at the opposite end. The horizontal part of the
endless web a, a, on which the pulp is poured out, is sustained upon a number
of small horizontal rollers b, b, which are placed parallel to each other, and at
equal distances apart, suitably for sustaining the wire a, a, in a horizontal
plane.
v is a roller to bear up the under part of the endless. web,
and a an adjusting roller to strain the web to a suitable tension, and
with equal tension at each margin. All these parts are supported in a moving
frame C, D, E, which is adapted to give an endways shaking motion to the
web in a horizontal plane, alternately backwards and forwards to and from the
trough I, instead of shaking laterally from side to side of the machine, as is
done in ordinary Fourdrinier's paper-making machinery, or instead of shaking
alternately up and down, according to my former Patent of the Twenty-first-
day of February, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight; and in order
to admit of such endways shaking motion, the horizontal side rulers D, D,
which sustain the several rollers over which the endless web circulates, are
united at one end to the upper parts of their upright rocking standards C by
hinge joints at c, and their other ends have small friction trucks o which rest
upon fixed horizontal supports projecting out from the fixed upright stan-
dards 4. The lower ends of the upright rocking standards C are supported
upon centre pins d, which are borne by the fixed framing, and the upper ends
of the two rocking standards C, C, at the opposite sides of the machine, are
firmly united together by a cross bar G. Strong arms 30 are firmly affixed
to the upright rocking standards C, C, and project out therefrom in a
horizontal direction to serve as lever arms, and the extreme ends of the two
arms 30 are united by a horizontal cross bar 31 extending from one side to
the other, and to the cross bar 31 the upper ends of two crank rods e are
jointed, the lower ends of the same crank rods being jointed to the two
cranks on the horizontal cranked axis H, in the manner represented in
Figure 3, which is a vertical elevation looking towards the vat. The axis H
being turned rapidly round will communicate a rapid up-and-down motion to
the cross bar 31 and to the extremities of the lever arms 30, which action
will occasion a backwards and forwards rocking motion of the standard C, C,
about their centres d, and in consequence of the jointed connection at c, and

page_text: of the resting of the friction trucks o upon their fixed supports, that rocking
motion will communicate an endways backwards and forwards motion to the
frame D, D, and to all the several rollers and parts which sustain the endless
web a, a, so as to shake that web endways, backwards and forwards in the
most suitable manner for forming the pulp which is poured upon it into laid
paper. And note, when a different extent of shaking motion is required to be
given, the crank axis H may be removed and another put in its place with
cranks of a greater or lesser throw, as may be required. And in like manner,
if it is required to give a greater or lesser rapidity of shaking motion, the
pulley on the extreme end of the cranked axis II, by which it receives its
turning motion, may be changed for another of a different size suitable for the
rapidity which is required to be given to the shaking motion. And note,
although the machinery represented in the Drawing is adapted to give an
endway shaking motion to the endless web, composed of stiff wires with
intertwisting threads or yarns, for the purpose of making laid paper as
aforesaid, the said machinery may, nevertheless, be altered very easily, so as
to give an up-and-down shaking motion to the endless web, whenever it is
required to make wove paper thereby upon a suitable web of woven wire
cloth; and by making such alteration in the shaking motion and in the kind
of endless web, the same machinery may be used sometimes for making laid
paper, and at other times for making wove paper, according to the demand at
the time. To make such alteration, the friction trucks o or their supports
must be removed, and suitable connecting bolts must be applied from each
of the side rulers D, to each of the lever arms 30, so as to connect those arms
firmly with the side rulers D, and prevent any flexure about the joints c, in which
case the machinery will operate as described in my said former Specification.
Having now described my said improvement or improvements applicable to
making of paper, I, the said George Dickinson, do hereby declare that the new
Invention, whereof the exclusive use is granted to me by the said Letters
Patent, consists in the improvement applicable to the making of laid paper on
endless webs of wire, by substituting threads or yarns of silk, flax, cotton, or
worsted (suitably combined by twisting or platting), to be used, as herein-
before described, in lieu of fine wire, for those intertwisting ties or twists
which unite the stiff' parallel wires whereof endless webs are composed for the
making of laid paper by machines which operate by means of endless webs, as
aforesaid; and also, in the improvements applicable to the making of laid paper
by such aforesaid webs upon machines constructed according to the descrip-
tion contained in the Specification to my former Patent, dated the Twenty-
first day of February, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, excepting

page_text: that the roller or cylinder of such machine around which the said endless web
circulates is to be (according to this part of my present improvements) formed
with suitable grooves around its circumference, to admit the said inter-
twisting ties or twists of silk, flax, cotton, or worsted, in the manner herein-
before described, and thereby retain the said circulating endless web laterally
in its intended position in the machine, so as to cause the lines which will be
left in the paper by the impressions of the said intertwisting ties or twists to
range parallel with the margins of the paper, the under side of the copper
apron or spout which delivers the flow of pulp upon the moving surface of
that web being likewise formed with corresponding grooves, as herein-before
described; and also in the improvements applicable to the making of laid
paper by such aforesaid webs upon machines constructed in the manner
herein-before described, and represented in the Drawing hereunto annexed,
in order to give an endway shaking motion to the web and to the pulp during
its formation into laid paper.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Dickinson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.