IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR TREATING INDIA-RUBBER AND OTHER SIMILAR Gums
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in
the County of Middlesex, and of 166, Buchanan Street, in the City of
Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR TREATING INDIA-RUBBER AND OTHER SIMILAR
Gums." A communication from abroad by Austin G. Day, of Seymour,
Connecticut, United States of America.
Sealed the 8th July 1859, and dated the 13th May 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 13th May 1859.
1. JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of 166, Buchanan Street, in the City of Glasgow, North
Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR TREATING INDIA-RUBBER AND
OTHER SIMILAR GUMS," a communication from abroad by Austin G. Day, of
Seymour, Connecticut, United States of America, to be as follows-
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
machinery or apparatus for breaking down and cleansing as well as for mixing
and grinding india-rubber and other similar gums. and consists in the
employment for such purpose of peculiarly constructed toothed rollers, arranged
either in pairs, or in sets of three rollers working together, by the aid of suitable
toothed gearing.
[Price Sd.]
The rollers which it is proposed to employ are covered with

page_text: quadrangular pyramidal teeth arranged in rows parallel with the axis, and also
at right angles thereto, that is. in a series of parallel rings. The teeth of one
roller work in the intervals between the parallel rings of teeth.on the next
roller, so that a slipping motion may be obtained, which is accomplished by
driving each roller faster than the preceding one.
When crude rubber is to be. cleansed and purified from foreign matters,
it is submitted to the action of these rollers, preferring a set of three, for the
breaking and cleansing process, and is thereby thoroughly broken down and
sparated into small pieces, from which, by other operations, the foreign
matters may be readily removed.
During the breaking process it is further proposed to direct a stream of
water upon the rollers, whereby a quantity of dirt will be washed away, and
sticks and bark floated off with the rubber, which may then be partly removed
by hand. The whole may then be put through the rollers a second time, and
further comminuted and purified in readiness for any further purifying process.
as, for example, by the applications of alkali. These rollers may also be used
for washing out the alkali from rubber so treated; they are also equally appli-
cable to the grinding and mixing of rubber, and incorporating.it with sulphur or
her ingredients, and may be employed also for rolling the material into sheets,
for which last-mentioned process they are armed with smaller pyramidal teeth
than when intended for the breaking process in the treatment of crude gums.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th November 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I. JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON. of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex, and
of 166, Buchanan Street, in the City of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that I, the said
John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and

page_text: 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 MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR TREATING INDIA-RUBBER
AND OTHER SIMILAR GUMS," a communication from abroad by Austin G. Day, of
Seymour, Connecticut, United States of America, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Henry Johnson, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, should particularly 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 John Henry Johnson, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
The said invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
machinery or apparatus for breaking down and cleaning as well as for mixing
and grinding india-rubber and other similar gums, and consists in the employ-
ment for such purpose of peculiarly constructed toothed rollers arranged either
in pairs, or in sets of three rollers working together, by the aid of suitable toothed
gearing. The rollers which it is proposed to employ are covered with
quadrangular pyramidal teeth arranged in rows parallel with the axis, and
also at right angles thereto, that is, in a series of parallel rings. The teeth of
one roller work in the intervals between the parallel rings of teeth on the next
roller, so as to admit of a slipping motion, which is accomplished by driving
each roller faster than the preceding one.
When crude rubber is to be cleaned and purified from foreign matters, it is
submitted to the action of these rollers. preferring a set of three, for the breaking
and cleansing process, and is thereby thoroughly broken down and separated
into small pieces, from which, by other operations, the foreign matters may
be readily removed.
During the breaking process it is further proposed to direct a stream of
water upon the rollers, whereby a large quantity of dirt will be washed away,
and sticks and bark floated off with the rubber, which matters may then be
partly removed by hand. The whole may then be put through the rollers a
second time, and further comminuted and purified in readiness for any further
purifying process, as, for example, by the applications of alkali.

page_text: And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all
the Figures.
Figure of the Drawings represents a side elevation of a machine fitted
with a set of three of the herein-before referred to rollers; Figure 2 is a front
elevation of the same; and Figure 3 is a transverse section of the set of
rollers.
A, A, is the main framing of the machine provided with three rollers B. C,
and D. of which B is the feeding roller, C the crushing roller, and D the
friction or stretching roller; E is a counter shaft, which carries a pinion F
gearing into the large spur wheel G, keyed on to one end of the axis of the
feeding roller, and turning consequently with a slow motion. This shaft
carries also a spur wheel H. which gears into another spur wheel I. keyed on
to the end of the axis of the stretching roller D. which is thus driven at a
greater speed than the feeding roller. The crushing roller C is driven from
the main shaft through the large spur wheel J, keyed on to the end of the axis
of the crushing roller. The whole of the above gearing is so arranged as to
drive the feeding roller at a rate of about ten revolutions per minute, the
crushing roller thirty revolutions per minute, and the stretching roller ninety
revolutions per minute. The arrows indicate the direction of rotation of the
several rollers, and the entrance and exit of the gum to and from the rollers.
K, K, are set screws connected with the sliding bearings L, L, of the rollers B
and D for the purpose of regulating the space between the rollers so as to feed
fast or slow according to the character of the material under treatment. The
quadrangular truncated pyramidal teeth or projections a. a, on the surfaces of
the rollers are arranged in rows parallel to the axes of the rollers, and also in
a series of rows or parallel rings at right angles to the axes. The annular
rows of teeth at right angles to the axis on the feed roller B mesh into or
work in the corresponding annular spaces left between similar rows of teeth on
the crushing roller C. By this arrangement the teeth on the roller B can
approach very close to those on the roller C without at all interfering with the
slip occurring between the two rollers by reason of the one running at three times
the speed of the other. This slipping motion causes the gum to be effectually
raked, torn, and distintegrated on its passage between the surfaces of the two
rollers B and C, which treatment is repeated as it passes between the rollers C
and D, since the latter roller D in its turn revolves three times faster than the
crushing roller. The effect of the above treatment is to detach and loosen

page_text: foreign bodies and impurities from the gum, and to reduce the gum to small
pieces, in which state it is easily treated by other agents.
I may here observe that I am aware that gums have been broken down and
treated by toothed cylinders working together similar to spur wheels, and
known as the masticator," but the effect of such machine is to work the gum
into a homogenous mass, whilst the object of the present Invention is to
separate the gum into small pieces, from which, by other and separate processes,
the foreign matters are readily removed.
According to one of these processes, and to which I give the preference,.
the broken or comminuted gum on leaving the rollers is subjected to the action
of a watery solution of caustic or carbonated alkali in such a manner that the
alkali shall penetrate into the pores of the gum and of the foreign bodies
imbedded therein or intermingled therewith, by the aid of exhaustion alone, or
by exhaustion and compression, as described in the Specification of Letters
Patent granted to me on or about the Thirteenth day of August. One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-eight. When the mass of rubber has been thoroughly
charged with the alkaline liquor, it is removed therefrom, or the liquor is drawn
off, and the mass is well washed with water, and again passed through the
herein-before described toothed rollers, by which and the abundant supply of
water, the bark and sticks are loosened and sink to the bottom of the cistern,
whilst the gum floats on the surface of the water.
To remove those impurities which are not removed by simply soaking in
alkali, such, for example, as dried or moist sap contained in cavities within
the mass of gum, I place the mass, after leaving the breaking rollers, in an iron
cylinder, and exhaust the air to a practical vacuum, by which the cavities of the
rubber expand and the liquid contents exude, whereupon the alkaline solution
is let in and the cylinder is filled. To increase the effect I propose to use a
force pump so as to produce a pressure of twenty to thirty-five pounds to the
square inch. by which means the alkaline liquor is forced into the minutest
pores of the gum, so that by the subsequent action of the rollers and the
water the foreign bodies are almost entirely removed. The gum and alkali
are allowed to remain in contact from fifteen to sixty minutes, after which the
mass is removed from the cylinder and thoroughly washed in water, the
foreign matters sinking to the bottom and being carried off by a current
through the washing vessel. The mass is then brought to the rollers again,
which work in water, and is thereby run into sheets. This process squeezes
out the remaining alkali, which carries with it the sap and coloring matter,
which are removed by the plentiful supply of pure water.
The same description of toothed rollers are also applicable for grinding and

page_text: mixing rubber, and incorporating with it sulphur or other ingredients. These
rollers are also used for rolling the material into sheets, for which last-
mentioned operation they are provided with smaller pyramidal teeth than when
intended for the breaking up of crude gums. It will be found that the cleansing
and breaking process can be equally well accomplished by two rollers as by a
set of three, but the work will not be effected so rapidly. When a pair of
rollers are used, the feeding roller makes about ten revolutions for twenty
revolutions of the crushing roller, both rollers being of equal diameters.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that what I consider to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the hercin-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is,
First, the general construction and arrangement of machinery or apparatus
for treating india-rubber and other similar gums; as herein-before described.
Second, the application and use to and in the treatment of india-rubber and
similar gums, of rollers provided with quadrangular pyramidal projections,.
disposed in such a manner on their surface as to admit of such rollers having a
slipping motion between them, whilst they are kept in close contact with each
other.
Third, the breaking, cleansing, and purifying of india-rubber and similar
gums by the combined application of the machinery and processes herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal this Twelfth day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-nine.
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