IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER BY THE INTRODUCTION THEREIN OF A NEW VEGETABLE
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Eveleigh, of Southampton, in the County
of Southampton, Surgeon, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF PAPER BY THE INTRODUCTION THEREIN OF A NEW VEGETABLE
Sealed the 20th March 1866, and dated the 27th September 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Eveleigh at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th
September 1865.
I, GEORGE EVELEIGH, of Southampton, in the County of Southampton,
Surgeon, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER BY THE INTRODUCTION THEREIN OF A NEW
VEGETABLE FIBROUS SUBSTANCE," to be as follows:-
I propose to make paper from a new vegetable fibrous substance combined
with other substances now used in the manufacture thereof, or to use the
vegetable substance hereafter named alone, to make from it, by the aid of
the usual appliances or apparatus, a pulp from which I propose to make
paper. The substance is made from the palmiet or palmette plant which is
found abundantly in the rivers and swamps of South Africa and elsewhere.
I propose to use the root and stem of the plant to make my pulp, but I may
find that the leaves may be used beneficially. I prepare the plant or the
portion or parts of the plant I make use of by grinding, pressing, or beating
it (previously removing the outer coating of the stem and root) mixing it
I

page_text: with water, and permitting it (if desirable) to ferment, and afterwards strain-
ing it, and the substance so treated will be a pulp fit for use to make paper
without the addition of other substance or substances; but I desire to reserve
the right of combining the vegetable fibrous substance above named with
any of the substances usually used in the manufacture of paper.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Eveleigh in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th March 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
EVELEIGH, of Southampton, in the County of Southampton, Surgeon, send
greeting.
..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said George Eveleigh, Her special licence that I, the said George
Eveleigh, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said George Eveleigh, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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
THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER BY THE INTRODUCTION THEREIN OF A NEW VEGETABLE
FIBROUS SUBSTANCE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
George Eveleigh, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 George Eveleigh, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
The new vegetable fibrous substance from which I manufacture paper is a
material obtained by treating the palmiet or prionium palmetta plant in the

page_text: following manner :-I take the whole plant and macerate the same in water,
with or without the aid of heat or steam, so as to thoroughly cleanse, soften,
and loosen the fibre, which is then split up into thin strips by pressure or by
circular or other knives; these strips are again soaked in water or steamed
and allowed to ferment and bleach in the sun. I then pass the strips so
produced with abundance of water between rollers or any suitable machinery.
so as to remove as far as may be necessary all gum, resin, or other viscid or
injurious matter, and again allow them to bleach and dry in the sun or by
other heat, passing them again through rollers, if needful, so as to remove all
moisture; they can then be packed and sent to the paper mills to be used
as rags, straw, hempen or flaxen material, and by the usual means for
making pulp suitable for paper either alone or in conjunction with other
materials. I also obtain a substance more suitable for making the finer
qualities of paper by removing some portion of the outer coating of the
stem and root of the plant, I then cut or break up the stem and root,
first longitudinally, then diagonally, by passing them with abundance of
water between pressing rollers or through any suitable machinery. I then
mix the broken stuff with water, permitting it to ferment or not as I may
deem most desirable, and either extract the small quantity of silica contained
in the plant by soda and boiling under superheated steam, or dispense with
this operation according to the quality of paper to be made from the pulp.
I also extract the gum or resin of a caoutchouc nature which is contained in
the plant by increasing the pressure between the breaking rollers or by
chemicals, excepting when making a substance for the coarser kinds of paper,
in which case I find this gum add materially to the strength and elasticity of
the article produced. I then bleach the stuff by any of the ordinary and
well-known processes, such, for example, as are used for bleaching straw, and
reduce it by the ordinary machinery for such purpose into a pulp, from which
when strained I can make paper without admixture with any other material,
or my prepared substance may be used in no greater proportions than rags to
make a pulp in combination with straw and other materials, which alone will
not give a good paper.
The fibrous substance obtained as above described may be advantageously
combined with rags, clay, straw, maize stalks, hempen materials, grasses, and
any or several of the numerous substances now used by paper makers.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which I carry it into practical effect, I would have it understood that I do
not confine myself to the use of any particular apparatus, or machinery, or to
any precise proportions of chemicals, in carrying out the several processes by

page_text: which I obtain the new vegetable fibrous substance, above described, using
any well known means which will give the desired result, and that I claim
the exclusive use of the said vegetable fibrous substance in the manufacture of
paper, whether alone or in combination with other substances.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Eveleigh, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
GEORGE EVELEIGH. (Ls.)