IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP FROM STRAW AND OTHER LIKE STALKY OR REEDY FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morgan-Brown, of the Firm of Brandon and
Morgan-Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings,
London, and 1, Rue Laffitte, Paris, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP FROM STRAW AND OTHER LIKE STALKY
OR REEDY FIBROUS MATERIALS." A communication from abroad by Charles
Chapin and Henry Augustus Chapin, of Springfield, Massachusetts, United
States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Morgan-Brown at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th June 1880.
WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-Brown,
Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London, and 1, Rue
Laffitte, Paris. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP FROM
STRAW AND OTHER LIKE STALKY OR REEDY FIBROUS MATERIALS." [A com-
munication from abroad by Charles Chapin and Henry Augustus Chapin, of
Springfield, Massachusetts, United States of America.]
Heretofore the processes employed in converting said fibrous materials into paper
pulp have consisted of what may be termed "wet-processes," that is to say, the
said materials have been subjected to the action of various solutions containing
chemical agents or to the action of water, boiling or otherwise, or treated under
various degrees of steam pressure.
The above-named wet processes, owing to the refractory nature of the silicious
glaze or coating common to straw, esparto-grass, sisal-hemp, sugar-cane stalks, and
like stalky or reedy fibrous materials, are operated at the expense of much time
and strong chemical solutions applied thereto under a high degree of steam
pressure.
The above named severe treatment of said fibrous materials seems to be
demanded by the natural resistance of the said silicious glaze to the disintegrating
action of said heated chemical solutions, and to be practised also for the purpose
of freeing the said materials from said glaze and from the coloring properties
thereof.

page_text: The object of this Invention is to provide an improved process for so effectually
destroying the said silicious glaze on the aforesaid fibrous materials previous to
submitting them to the action of any of the well-known wet processes, as to render
the disintegration of the fibres much less difficult and expensive, and to destroy
the coloring properties of said silicious glaze previous to treating said materials in
disintegrating solutions.
In carrying this Invention into effect the straw or other of said fibrous materials
is first submitted to the action of dry heat by baking them in any convenient
apparatus or in an oven; one of the most effective ways being to enclose them in
suitable metallic cylinders, which may be made to rotate in an oven or furnace,
so as to cause said cylinders to be evenly heated over their whole surface, and also
to cause the fibrous material contained therein to be properly agitated and the
contents thereof to be brought in contact with or near to the interior surface of
said cylinder, so that they may be uniformly baked.
The degree of heat which produces the best effect for destroying the silicious
glaze or coating on said materials is between 450° and 500° Fahrenheit, and an
exposure of the said materials to the action of dry heat, as aforesaid, during the
space of about fifteen minutes serves to so far destroy the said glaze or coating
that said material can be easily reduced to pulp by subsequently boiling it in a weak
solution of caustic lye, say of about 7° strength, for a short time; or, if straw is
being treated, boiling in a weak solution of sal-soda will be found sufficient, and the
disintegration of the fibres can be fully accomplished by afterward passing said
boiled material between rollers or similar crushing appliances.
The pulp so produced may be washed and bleached by any of the well known
means employed for that purpose.
When an unusually strong fibred pulp is required the materials may be exposed
to a baking-heat not exceeding 450° Fahrenheit, when by boiling them in a lye
of the above-named strength for about one hour disentegration may be accomplished
by crushing, as before-mentioned.
It is preferable to cut the material into short lengths to prepare it for roasting
or baking, as in that form the heat acts more uniformly upon it, and it is thus
reduced to the most convenient state for boiling and subsequent treatment, as
above set forth.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Morgan-Brown in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th
November 1880.
WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-Brown,
Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London, and 1, Rue
Lafitte, Paris. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP FROM
STRAW AND OTHER LIKE STALKY OR REEDY FIBROUS MATERIAL." A com-
munication from abroad by Charles Chapin and Henry Augustus Chapin, of
Springfield, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Heretofore the processes employed in converting said fibrous materials into
paper pulp have consisted of what may be termed "wet processes," that is to say,
the said materials have been subjected to the action of various solutions containing
chemical agents, or to the action of water, boiling or otherwise, or treated under
various degrees of steam pressure.
The above-named wet processes, owing to the refractory nature of the silicious
glaze or coating common to straw, esparto-grass, sisal-hemp, sugar-cane stalks, and
like stalky or reedy fibrous materials, are operated at the expense of much time
and strong chemical solutions applied thereto under a high degree of steam
pressure.
The above named severe treatment of said fibrous materials seems to be
demanded by the natural resistance of the said silicious glaze to the disintegrating
action of said heated chemical solutions, and to be practiced also for the purpose
of freeing the said materials from said glaze and from the coloring properties
thereof.
The object of this Invention is to provide an improved process for so effectually
destroying the said silicious glaze on the aforesaid fibrous materials previous to
submitting them to the action of any of the well known wet processes, as to render
the disintegration of the fibres much less difficult and expensive, and to destroy
the coloring properties of said silicious glaże previous to treating said materials in
disintegrating solutions.
In carrying this Invention into effect the straw or other said fibrous materials
is first submitted to the action of dry heat by baking them in any convenient
apparatus or in an oven; one of the most effective ways being to enclose them in
suitable metallic cylinders, which may be made to rotate in an oven or furnace, so
as to cause said cylinders to be evenly heated over their whole surface, and also
to cause the fibrous material contained therein to be properly agitated and the
contents thereof to be brought in contact with or near to the interior surface of
said cylinder, so that they may be uniformly baked.
The degree of heat which produces the best effect for destroying the silicious
glaze or coating on said materials is between 450° and 500° Fahrenheit, and
an exposure of the said materials to the action of dry heat, as aforesaid, during the
space of about fifteen minutes serves to so far destroy the said glaze or coating that
said material can be easily reduced to pulp by subsequently boiling it in a weak
solution of caustic lye, say of about 7° strength, for a short time; or, if straw is
being treated, boiling in a weak solution of sal-soda will be found sufficient, and the
disintegration of the fibres can be fully accomplished by afterward passing said
boiled material between rollers or similar crushing appliances.
The pulp so produced may be washed and bleached by any of well-known means
employed for that purpose.
When an unusually strong fibred pulp is required the materials may be exposed
to a baking-heat not exceeding 450° Fahrenheit, when by boiling them in a lye of

page_text: the above-named strength for about one hour, disintegration may be accomplished
by crushing, as before mentioned.
It is preferable to cut the material into short lengths to prepare it for roasting
or baking, as in that form the heat acts more uniformly upon it, and it is thus
reduced to the most convenient state for boiling and subsequent treatment, as
above set forth.
Having now described and particularly set forth the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner of carrying the same into effect, I would have it understood that
what I claim is,―
First. The hereinbefore described improvement in the art of making paper pulp
from straw, sisal-hemp, sugar-cane stalks, and other stalky or reedy fibrous
materials, which consists in baking or roasting said materials without moisture
previous to boiling them in chemical solutions or otherwise for the purpose of
disintegrating them.
Second. The within described method of destroying the silicious glaze existing
upon the surface of straw, sisal-hemp, sugar-cane stalks, and the like stalky or reedy
fibrous materials, viz., by roasting or baking the same without moisture to
prepare them for easy disintegration and manufacture into pulp, substantially as
set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Morgan-Brown, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty seventh day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty.