INVENTION FOR MANUFACTURING PAPER PROM STRAW, HAY, THISTLES, WASTE AND REFUSE OF HEMP AND FLAX, AND DIFFERENT KINDS OF WOOD AND BARK, FIT FOR PRINTING AND OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1801

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MATTHIAS.
Koors, of James Street, in the Parish of Saint Margaret, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty was graciously pleased to grant unto me,
the said Matthias Koops, Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, on or
about the Seventeenth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and one, by which said Letters Patent His said Majesty did
give and grant unto me, the said Matthias Koops, my executors, adiñors,
and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that
I, the said Matthias Koops, my executors, adñiors, and assigns, and every of
them, by himself and themselves, or by his and their deputy or deputies,
servants, or agents, or such others as I, the said Matthias Koops, my executors,
adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and might lawfully make, use, exercise, and vend my said "INVENTION
FOR MANUFACTURING PAPER PROM STRAW, HAY, THISTLES, WASTE AND REFUSE OF
HEMP AND FLAX, AND DIFFERENT KINDS OF WOOD AND BARK, FIT FOR PRINTING AND
OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES," within that part of the said United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said Matthias Koops, my
executors, adiñors, and assigns, or any of them, should in my or their discretion
seem meet; in which said Letters Patent there is, amongst other things, con-

page_text: .
tained a proviso, whereby it is declared that if I, the said Matthias Koops, should
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and scal, and cause the same to be inrolled in the High Court
of Chancery within twelve calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all
liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease and
become void, any thing therein-before contained to the contrary thereof in
anywise notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Matthias Koops, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following (that is to say) :-
First, I dissolve to each pound of straw or hay intended to be made into
paper about one pound and a half of quick lime in about a gallon or one
gallon and a half of river. water. When, the lime is sufficiently dissolved, I
separate the stony and undissolved parts by decantation of the white opake fluid,
or by drawing off the same by a cock or syphon, taking care to keep the mass
so agitated that the fine dissolved particles may intermix and run off with the
water.
17
Secondly, I take the straw or hay intended to be manufactured into paper,
(when either of these materials is 'to be used), and cut the same into portions
about' two inches in length, by means of a chaff-cutting engine, or by any
other ready method; and I boil this last mass in a considérable quantity of
water, namely, about two gallons of water, more or less, for every pound of
the 'material, about three quarters of an hour.
Thirdly, I draw of the liquor in which the straw or hay has been boiled,
and then soak or macerate the material (in wooden vessels) in the mixture or
combination of lime and water herein-before described, adding to the said mix
ture at the same time as much water as is sufficient to cover the whole mass,
which I have generally found together in quantity to be about a gallon and a
-half-to each pound of straw or hay, for six, seven, or eight days (as circum-
stances may require, some lime being better than-other-lime-in-which case_the
straw or hay may not be submitted to its operation so long), but seldom les
than five days. I then take care that the lime shall be applied to the surface
of the material as uniformly as possible, by frequently stirring, turning over, or
agitating the mass as often as may be requisite.
Fourthly, at the end of six, seven, or eight days, but seldom less than five,
as aforesaid, I draw of the lime and water, and then wash the material, being
straw or hay cut as. aforesaid, very clean after which, I boil the same for
$

page_text: about one hour and a half or two hours in a large portion of clean river water,
calculating the quantity at about. seven quarts of water to every pound of straw
or hay in its original state; and to this boiling, after the straw, or, hay has
boiled about one quarter of an hour; and also to the lime and water at the
commencement of the soaking or maceration, I, in some cases, add one
pound of dissolved christal of soda or potash to every thirty-six pounds of straw
or hay, for the purpose of improving the colour and texture of the paper; but
these are not ingredients essentially necessary to be used in the process of
making paper from straw or hay. I have only used either of them under an
idea that they have in some cases improved the colour, and may also have the
effect of making some addition to the texture of the paper.'
Fifthly, I again wash the material, and boil the same for about half an hour
in a like quantity of water as aforesaid; after which, I draw off and then press
out the water, and proceed to manufacture the same into paper by the usual
and well known processes of making paper. In some cases I have found it
advantageous to suffer the pressed material to ferment and heat for several days
before I reduce it into pulp, in order, to, its being made or manufactured into.
But in this the manufacturer must use his judgment according to
paper.
the season, the quantities to be, laid, in mass, and other particulars, con-
cerning which no general rule, or, specific instructions can be given, the
change and alteration of season having so much influence on a process of this
description.
Sixthly, as to that part of my said Invention which respects the making of
paper from thistles, I use the following process (that is to say): I first cause
the thistles to be cut when the bloom begins to fall therefrom; I dry them, and
cut the stems into lengths of two inches; and I then soak them in river water
for twelve hours, and afterwards dissolve them, allowing one and a half pound of
quick lime to every pound of thistles when dryed, in about one and a half gallon
of river water, which I separate from the stony part in the same manner, as
aforesaid, and then immerse the thistles in the lime and water, so separated,
adding thereto at the same time so much water as is sufficient to cover the whole
mass, which I have generally found to be in quantity altogether about a gallon
or upwards to every pound of dried thistles. I soak or macerate them in this
mixture for four or five days, taking care frequently to stir them as described
in the case of making paper from hay and straw. I then draw off the lime and
water, and wash them as clean as possible; after which I boil them in river,
water, allowing a gallon and a half of water to every pound of dried thistles, for
one quarter of an hour; then adding four pounds of potash or christal of soda
dissolved in water.to. one hundred and eighty pounds of dried thistles, and after-

page_text: wards let them boil therewith for one hour and a quarter; this being done, I
drain the liquor, and boil it again with a like-proportion of river water for half
an hour; then the water is run off, and the thistles taken out of the copper
and pressed, in which state it is manufactured into paper by the usual process.
Seventhly, with regard to the manufacture of paper from wood, according to
my said Invention, I reduce the wood into shavings, which, being done, I cut
the same with the chaff-cutting engine into lengths of about two inches; after
which I boil them in the same manner as I have before set forth respecting
the making of paper from straw and the other substances. I then take a
quantity of quick lime, in the proportion of one pound and a half, rather more
than less, to one pound of the shavings in their dried state, and make the
mixture for the process of soaking or macceration in the same manner as that
before mentioned relative to making paper from the straw or hay. This soaking
or macceration is continued for about six days, during which it must be
frequently stirred, for the reasons before mentioned. The subsequent treatment
of boiling, washing, and making it into paper, to be observed, is the same in
this as has been described in the making paper from straw or hay. I think it
here necessary to observe, that I have only hitherto effectually made paper from
willow and aspin wood, and I find that the wood which contains much turpen-
tine or resinous matter cannot usefully and beneficially be made into paper.
And with respect to the making paper from bark of different woods, the same
method is followed as described in the making paper from wood, except that
the coarse outside of the bark is to be scraped or cut off, and not used.
Eighthly, with regard to the manufacture of paper from the refuse of hemp
and flax, according to my said Invention, I soak or macerate one hundred and
eighty pounds of the raw material in lime water, or the clear solution thereof,
made by about two hundred and fifty pounds of lime being dissolved in two
hundred and seventy gallons of river water, to which I have usually added 'at
the commencement of the soaking or maceration six pounds of potash or
christal of soda dissolved in water, and continued 'the soaking or maceration for
-at-least-four days; I then boil it for one hour and a half, as before stated in
the process for making paper of hay and straw; but I-add-in-such-boiling.six.
pounds of potash or christal of soda dissolved in water, and let it remain for at
least twelve hours in the liquor after the process of boiling ceases; I then
draw off the liquor, and boil it again for half an hour in clear river water;
after this the liquor is again drained off, and the material or materials pressed.
It is then made into paper in. the usual method.
Ninthly and lastly, I do further declare and observe, that although I have
herein-before described the operations wherein my said Invention consists, and

page_text: whereby the same may and can be more effectually performed and executed,
yet, nevertheless, the whole is capable of and necessarily (like every other
manufacturing process) subject to variations, which any person sufficiently
skilled in the arts to conduct a work of this nature will without difficulty make
and adapt, according to the circumstances of the case respectively (that is to
say)- -the proportion of lime may be varied according to its goodness and to
the intended speed of operation; and that this, as well as the time of soaking
and maceration, and the number, order, and duration of the boilings, may be
varied according to the quality, growth, newness, age, gathering, storing, or
other qualities or incident of or relating to the straw, hay, or other material;
and that those woods are in general preferable which easily adhere to or
combine with water, instead of such as are hard, oily, resinous, or in other
respects obviously unfit for the purpose of making paper by any cheap or
cligible previous preparation. I think it necessary further to remark, that I
have in all the before-mentioned cases used Thames water, because I could
most casily procure that kind of water in the particular situation where the
experiments have been made; but I do not mean by naming that water in the
before detailed mode of exercising or effecting my Invention to infer that it is
indispensably necessary that Thames or river water should in all cases be used.
Spring water may probably do as well, but that I am unable to state with
certainty, for the reasons before given.
In witness whereof, I, the said Mathias Koops, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand cight hundred and two