IMPROVE- MENTS IN TREATING LIGNEOUS SUBSTANCES, IN SEPARATING AND RECOVERING THE FIBROUS PORTIONS THEREFROM, IN PREPARING, BLEACHING, AND SIZING THE SAME, AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN TREATING LIGNEOUS SUBSTANCES, IN SEPARATING AND RECOVERING
THE FIBROUS PORTIONS THEREFROM, IN PREPARING, BLEACHING, AND SIZING
THE SAME, AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN."- A communication
from abroad by Pierre Celestin Victor Baud, and Theodore Casimir
Delamarre, both of Paris, France.
Sealed the 15th April 1864, and dated the 21st October 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald Brooman
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st October 1863.
I, RICHARD. ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING LIGNEOUS SUBSTANCES, IN SEPARATING AND
RECOVERING THE FIBROUS PORTIONS THEREFROM, IN PREPARING, BLEACHING, AND
SIZING THE SAME, AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
By a combined series of mechanical and chemical means I extract from
ligneous plants, particularly the broom, their fibrous parts, free these parts
from coloring and clogging matters, soften and decolorize them in such

page_text: manner that in their new state they are fitted to the uses of textile substances,
and particularly to the manufacture of paper. The means and machinery I
use are as follows:-I take the ligneous vegetable substance in its green
state, or after having been preserved and restored as far as may be to its
green state by immersion or soaking in water just prior to use, I then pass it
through a machine consisting of a pair of rolls driven at different speed, in
front of which there is a fluted feed roller for guiding the substance between
the rolls, a table or apron first delivers the substance to the feed roller. On
issuing from the rolls the substance is guided on to an inclined shoot, whereby
it is delivered between a drum and a semi-cylindrical concave plate; the
distance between the drum and plate is regulated by set screws; the drum is
made to rotate, and at the same time to move to and fro in the direction of its
length; a perforated pipe delivers continuous showers of water between the
drum and plate. The ligneous substances issue from the rolls in strips more
or less wide, and spread out with a separation of their longitudinal fibres to
some extent effected, and the action produced between the the drum and concave
plate aided by the liquid gets rid of the resinous and clogging matter. The
substances are next transferred to a beating and washing machine, consisting
of a cylinder placed horizontally, and flattened at bottom, in which a shaft
carrying beaters is made to revolve at intervals; inside the cylinder are
projections, which the beaters nearly or quite touch. A door in the top serves
for the introduction of the substances to be operated on. Water is introduced
into the cylinder, and flows out through a trap and through a sieve, which
retains all fibrous matter carried off by the water. In order to complete the
softening and decolorizing of the fibrous matter, I submit it to successive and
alternate actions of a solution of ammonia and of sulphurous acid. These
two agents are poured successively into the beating and washing machine. I
proceed in the order following:-1st, upon, say, 50 lbs. of the matter under
treatment in the beating machine I pour a first dose of liquid ammonia
containing one quart of normal solution to 25 quarts, more or less, of water;
2nd, a dose of cold water; 3rd, a dose of sulphurous acid solution of about
the same strength as that of the ammonia is next poured in. After this third
dose the matter saturated with the sulphurous solution and with a certain
portion of sulphite of ammonia is exposed in thin layers to the air. The
sulphite of ammonia can only pass into the state of sulphate of ammonia by
absorbing oxygen from the matter, and in proportion to the quantity absorbed
so will the matter be decolorized. The matter may now be readily bleached
by the processes followed in bleaching textile substances, yet by a novel com-
bination of these means I produce a superior effect. I use a solution of

page_text: acetate of potass instead of pure water to keep the fibrous matter in sus-
pension, which is subjected to bypochlorite of lime. I terminate the operation
by the addition of liquid sulphurous acid to the bath of acetate of potass and
bypochlorite of lime. The proportion of sulphurous acid to be added depends
upon the degree of bleach required. The fibrous matter is now ready for the
market, but as far as relates to its use, especially as pulp for paper, I employ
a new method of sizing. I choose the most accessible organic matters in
which fibrin exists, such as muscular flesh, blood, and gluten of cereals. This
natter is digested for, say, 24 hours, at a temperature of from about 65 to 85.
degrees Fahrenheit, in a solution of hydrochloric acid. I use about ten quarts.
of this solution to about two pounds of the fibrinous matter. This solution
filtered or decanted and neutralized by an alkali precipitates the fibrinous
matter which it held dissolved. The precipitate is washed in clear water. At
the time of using it in the sizing of paper it is dissolved in milk of lime under
a low temperature, and in this state it is mixed with the pulp in the ordinary.
manner of sizing with vegetable size. On the paper passing between the
heated rolls in the paper machine the heat coagulates the albuminous matter,
and imparts adherence to the fibres used in preparing the pulp.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st April 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,.
the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at 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 TREATING LIGNEOUS SUBSTANCES.,

page_text: IN SEPARATING AND RECOVERING THE FIBROUS PORTIONS THEREFROM, IN PREPARING
BLEACHING, AND SIZING THE SAME, AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN,"
communicated to me from abroad by Pierre Celestin Victor Baud, and
Theodore. Casimir Delamarre, both of Paris, France, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say :-
.
By a combined series of mechanical and chemical means I extract from
ligneous plants, particularly the broom, their fibrous parts, free these parts
from coloring and clogging matters, soften and decolorize them in such
manner that in their new state they are fitted to the uses of textile substances,
and particularly to the manufacture of paper. The means and machinery I
use are as follows:-I take the ligneous vegetable substance in its green
state, or after having been preserved and restored as far as may be to its
green state by immersion or soaking in water just prior to use, I then pass it
through a machine consisting of a pair of rolls driven at different speed, in
front of which there is a fluted feed roller for guiding the substance between
the rolls; a table or apron first delivers the substance to the feed roller. On
issuing from the rolls the substance is guided on to an inclined shoot, whereby it
is delivered between a drum and a semi-cylindrical concave plate; the distance
between the drum and plate is regulated by set screws; the drum is made to
rotate, and at the same time to move to and fro in the direction of its length;
a perforated pipe delivers continuous showers of water or other liquid between
the drum and plate. The ligneous substances issue from the rolls in strips
more or less wide, and spread out with a separation of their longitudinal fibres
to some extent effected, and the action produced between the drum and
concave plate aided by the liquid gets rid of the resinous and clogging matter.
The substances are next transferred to a beating and washing machine, con-
sisting of a cylinder placed horizontally, and flattened at bottom, in which a
shaft carrying beaters is made to revolve; at intervals inside the cylinder are

page_text: projections, which the beaters nearly or quite touch. A door in the top serves
for the introduction of the substances to be operated on. Water is introduced
into the cylinder, and flows out through a trap and through a sieve, which
retains all fibrous matter carried off by the water. In order to complete the
softening and discolorizing of the fibrous matter, I submit it to successive and
alternate actions of a solution of ammonia and of sulphurous acid. These
two agents are poured successively into the beating and washing machine. I
proceed in the order following:-First, upon, say, fifty pounds of the matter
under treatment in the beating machine I pour a first dose of liquid ammonia
containing one quart of normal solution to twenty-five quarts, more or less, of
water; second, a dose of cold water; third, a dose of sulphurous acid solution
of about the same strength as that of the ammonia is next poured in. After
this third dose the matter saturated with the sulphurous solution and with a
certain portion of sulphite of ammonia is exposed in thin layers to the air.
The sulphite of ammonia can only pass into the state of sulphate of ammonia
by absorbing oxygen from the matter, and in proportion to the quantity
absorbed so will the matter be decolorized. The matter may now be readily
bleached by the processes followed in bleaching textile substances; yet by a
novel combination of these means I produce a superior effect. I use a
solution of acetate of potass instead of pure water to keep the fibrous matter
in suspension, which is subjected to hypochlorite of lime; I terminate the
operation by the addition of liquid sulphurous acid to the bath of acetate of
potass and hypochlorite of lime. The proportion of sulphurous acid to be
added depends upon the degree of bleach required. The fibrous matter is
now ready for the market, but as far as relates to its use, especially as pulp
for paper, I employ a new method of sizing. I choose the most accessible
organic matters in which fibrin exists, such as muscular flesh, blood, and
gluten of cereals. This matter is digested for, say, twenty-four hours, at a
temperature of from about sixty-five to eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit in a
solution of hydrochloric acid. I use about ten quarts of this solution to about
two pounds of the fibrinous matter. This solution filtered or decanted, and
neutralized by an alkali, precipitates the fibrinous matter which it held
dissolved. The precipitate is washed in clear water. At the time of using
it in the sizing of paper it is dissolved in milk of lime under a low temperature,
and in this state it is mixed with the pulp in the ordinary manner of sizing
with vegetable size. On the paper passing between the heated rolls in the
paper machine, the heat coagulates the albuminous matter, and imparts
adherence to the fibres used in preparing the pulp.
The accompanying Drawings represent the machinery I employ.

page_text: Figure 1 is a transverse section of the machine in which the substance
under treatment is passed between a pair of rolls, and of the machine
composed of a drum and a semi-cylindrical concave plate; Figure 2 is a
longitudinal elevation of this latter machine; Figure 3 is a longitudinal
section, and Figure 4 a transverse section of the beating and washing
machine.
a, b, Figure 1, are two rolls, held in standards c, c, fixed to the frame of the
machine. The rolls a, b, are driven at different speeds, the roll 6 being driven
at, say, sixty revolutions, and the roll a at forty revolutions per minute; they
receive motion from a pulley f and wheels g, h; i is a fluted feet roller for
guiding the substance between the rolls a, b; it is supported by cheeks j fixed
to the standards c, c; k is an inclined table which delivers the substance to
the roller i; is a lever pointed to the cheeks j for guiding the substance on
to an inclined shoot m, which delivers it to the second machine composed of a
drum p (Figures 1 and 2), grooved or plain, and of a semi-cylindrical concave
plate o fixed to a solid support 9; the drum p is made to rotate, and at the
same time to move to and fro in the direction of its length; the distance
between the drum and the plate o may be regulated as required by screws;
r is a perforated pipe extending the whole length of the drum, and which
delivers continuous showers of water or other liquid between the drum and
plate. The substance under treatment is delivered by the shoot m between
the drum and plate below the pipe r. The to-and-fro motion is imparted to
the drum p by means of a cam D, Figure 2, on the shaft e of the drum; this
cam works in a mortice made for the purpose in a casing F formed in a piece
with the framing G which supports the shaft e; the shaft e slides in guides,
and carries the drum p with it.
The beating and washing machine is arranged as follows:-a is a shaft
carrying beaters t, and made to revolve by means of pulleys, or otherwise, in a
hollow cylinder ; u, u, u, are slightly convex projections inside the cylinder,
and which the beaters t nearly or quite touch in their rotation. The apparatus
is charged through an opening a kept closed by a door y during the operation;
is a pipe by which water or other liquid may be introduced into the
cylinder v; the water is drawn off when required by a cock, or by a trap w;
A is a trough below the apparatus, the bottom of which is composed of metal
cloth, which retains all fibrous matter carried off by the water. All the
metallic parts of the apparatus which come in contact with the acids employed
should be rendered inoxidizable.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,

page_text: First, treating ligneous substances, separating and recovering the fibrous
portions therefrom, and preparing, bleaching, and sizing the same by the
combined series of mechanical and chemical means herein-before described.
And, second, the construction of machinery, acting in manner and for the
purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of April, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-four.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)