A PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING PAPER
Year: 1852

page_text: A.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JEAN
ANTOINE FARINA, of Paris, in the State of France, Proprietor, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of
January, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the fifteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
mc, the said Jean Antoine Farina, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Jean Antoine Farina, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Jean Antoine Farina, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man,
and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"A PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING PAPER;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that I, the said Jean Antoine Farina, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I have
ascertained and set forth the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, in and by the following description thereof:-
My Invention consists in a certain process by which a pulp may be made
from a plant called "Spartum" or "Water Broom," which pulp may be manu-
factured into paper by any of the methods employed in making paper from
the pulp of rags. The process consists of the following operations :-
First, as a preliminary operation the root of the plant, which is harder to
treat than the stems, is to be separated from the latter, and reserved for
a suitable mode of treatment hereafter to be described, and the stems are cut
into lengths of about four to six inches.
Second, the barking or stripping.-The object of this operation is to open or
bruise the gummy envelope which surround and unites the textile matter of
the plant, and to detach it as much as possible. This is effected by means
of a carding machine, the point plates of the great drum being replaced by
"wolf teeth," teeth turned down at the end. These teeth should project about
two or two and a half inches from the drum, and be arranged chequerwise
about an inch apart. Below the drum are arranged three cross pieces, like-
wise furnished with "wolf teeth." By the action of this carding machine
the stems of the plant are bruised, opened, and divested of their gummy
envelope, which greatly facilitates the subsequent operation.
Third, the steeping, which is effected as follows:-The plant being barked
or stripped, as before described, is put into an open vat strongly hooped and
provided with a close fitting cover, and of sufficient capacity to contain about
ten or twelve cwt. of material, and a sufficient quantity of water is added to
completely cover the material. American potass is then thrown in, in the
proportion of about two per cent of the weight of the plant in the vat, and
the cover of the vat is then hermetically closed, and steam is admitted into the
vat for the space of about four hours. As soon as the plant or material has
become cold, it is withdrawn from the vat, and the water which has been
employed in this steeping may be employed in treating a similar portion of
material by the addition of about half the original quantity of potass.
Fourth, the crushing.-The material is taken wet from the steeping vat,
and submitted to the action of a fulling mill, or of a vertical mill rolling upon
its axis in a stone trough. This completes the crushing of all the gummy
parts which adhere to the filaments, and divides and opens out the latter.
Care must be taken to turn the materially continually, and to keep it
constantly wetted.
Fifth, washing. This is performed in washing stocks capable of containing

page_text: about two to three cwt. of material, and which I prefer should be of the
following dimensions,-six yards long, five a half feet wide, and two feet three
quarters deep. The cylinder should be furnished with blades of tempered iron
about one fourth of inch thick, rounded at the points, projecting about two and
a half inches from the surface of the roller, and about two inches apart from
each other. Instead of a casing there should be two washer drums. The
first washing requires but about one quarter of an hour, after which is to be
added, for the above-mentioned quantity of material, a quart of nitric or
sulphuric acid, or two quarts of muriatic acid. The water supply cock is then
closed, the apparatus revolving the while, after which the material is again
washed for about ten minutes, and then removed from the stocks.
Sixth, carding. The material when withdrawn from the washing stocks
is in the state of a kind of tow; when dried it is carded by a card similar to
that used for hemp and flax, and hemp is thus obtained, which I call rough
hemp, and which, by the operations just described, is better fitted to be
operated upon by the bleaching agents than if such operations had all been
omitted, for in the latter case the chemical agents would require to be much
stronger, and they would injure the tenacity of the filaments in a greater
degree. The material having undergone these mechanical operations is then
submitted to the following chemical operations.
Seventh, bleaching.-This may be performed in two ways: the first con-
sists in placing in a wooden vat furnished at bottom with a cock, a quantity
of the hemp, and covering the same with liquid chlorine of the strength of at
least 10° or 12° on Baumé's areometer, and stirring the material well with a
spatula. At the end of ten minutes about a pint of nitric acid is to be added
a little at a time; the vat is then closed and the hemp is allowed to remain
until it has become of a good white color. The second method consists in
placing the carded hemp in a closet hermetically sealed, and fitted with shelves
upon which the hemp is laid in thin layers. In the closet is then placed a
vessel containing about two and a quarter lbs. of chloride of lime for every
cwt. of hemp in the closet, which is to be very carefully closed. Above the
closet is placed a vessel containing white nitric acid in the proportion of one
quart to four and a half lbs. of chloride of lime, and the acid is caused to
fall very slowly upon the chloride of lime, so that the flow of the acid shall
last from six to eight hours. A disengagement of gas ensues, which fills the
closet and completely bleaches the hemp contained therein.
Eighth, washing.-The bleaching having been effected by either of these
methods, it becomes necessary to wash the hemp in order to get rid of the
nitric acid, which after some time would turn the material yellow and injure

page_text: its tenacity. The hemp therefore is taken from the bleaching vat or closet,
and placed in a cylinder mortar of the same dimensions as the washing stock,
and fitted up with its bed or platten with flat blades. This cylinder mortar,
besides washing the bleached tow or hemp, serves also to untwist it, and thus
reduces it to a real paper pulp, which requires only to be drained and dried to
render it fit for packing up in bales, or to be manufactured into paper by any
of the methods employed in the manufacture of paper from the pulp of rags.
Treatment of the roots of the plants.-As this part of the plant is both
shorter in fibre, and harder than the stems, I do not employ the "Woolf
card" to it, but only crush it in the stocks or vertical mill. The remaining
operations resemble those already described; but the mechanical and chemical
actions require to be somewhat more energetic. Thus soft soap is preferable to
American potass; the steeping may be prolonged to six hours, and the heat
should be carried as high as possible, but in no case will the pulp obtained
from this part of the plant be as white as that made from the stems, and it is
therefore only fit for the coarser kinds of paper.
Having thus described the process constituting my Invention, I shall, before
stating my claims, add a few observations in relation thereto. And I would
observe, in the first place, that although I have comprised amongst the opera-
tions "carding" both by a "Woolf card" and the ordinary card, these two
cardings, although very useful, are not absolutely indispensable, and may,
therefore, in the absence of such carding apparatus, be omitted. Secondly,
that if the material, after the steeping and before being submitted to the
stocks or vertical mill, be piled in heaps of ten or twelve cwt., and left for
eight or ten days, the filaments are separated more easily, and the bleaching
is better and more quickly effected. Thirdly, that ordinary potass may be
substituted for American potass, but one third more of it must be employed,
and the bleaching proceeds more slowly. Fourthly, a finer white may, if
requisite, be obtained by adding a few buckets full of liquid chlorine in the
cylinder mortar. Fifthly, for the same purpose the liquid chlorine made may
be saturated with concentrated nitric acid, in the proportion of one gallon of
acid for one hundred gallons of chlorine. Sixthly, the chlorurated and
acidulated waters which have served for one bath may be employed for a
second and a third, but allowance must be made for the absorption of the
liquid by the material, and, therefore, there must be an addition both of the
liquid chlorine and of the nitric acid, and also the tow or hemp must remain
longer in a bath which has been used before. Seventhly, that in the manufac-
ture of the pulp into paper, the beating should be gentle, that is, the cylinder
should not be very close to its bed, and that the teeth of both the cylinder

page_text: and the bed should not be very sharp, in order not to injure the pulp which
requires only to be slightly grased. And, lastly, that according to the quality
of the paper which is desired, and also according as the maker may have
more or less triturated the pulp, it may be either too dry or too rich. In the
first case cotton rag pulp should be added, in the second case linen rag pulp
should be added in the proportion of about one fifth of the other material;
indeed, in any case, the addition of a portion of rag pulp to the "spartum
pulp, which is very tenacious, will render it more souple and more suitable for
the purposes of manufacture.
Having stated the nature of my Invention, and the manner of carrying the
same into effect, I claim in respect thereof,-
Firstly, the preparation of pulp from the plant called "spartum" or "water
broom" for the manufacture of paper by means of the whole of the operations
herein-before described and set forth, or with the omission of the second and
sixth operations.
Secondly, the employment of American or other potass in the preparation of
pulp from spartum, as mentioned under the third operation.
Lastly, the employment of nitric acid in the preparation of pulp from
spartum,"
as mentioned under the fifth and seventh operation.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jean Antoine Farina, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
JEAN ANTOINE (L.s.) FARINA.
Taken and acknowledged by Jean An-
toine Farina, (party hereto), at Paris,
in the State of France, this 17th day
of June 1852, before me,
This is the Specification referred to in the affidavit of James Murdoch,
sworn before me, this 28th day of June 1852.
J. JEFFERSON.
James Murdoch, of Staples Inn, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
maketh oath and saith that he is acquainted with the manner and character of
the handwriting of Thomas Pickford, Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at
Paris, in the Republic of France. And this Deponent further saith that the

page_text: signature "Thomas Pickford" set, subscribed, or written in the margin of
the Specification hereunto annexed, marked A, and dated the Seventeenth day
of June instant, and purporting to be executed by Jean Antoine Farina, of
Paris, aforesaid, whereby it is stated that the said Specification was acknow-
ledged by him, the said Jean Antoine Farina, before the said Thomas
Pickford, on the said Seventeenth day of June, at Paris aforesaid, is of the
proper handwriting of the said Thomas Pickford.