IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OP PAPER
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Richardson, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
Chemist, and Robert Irvine, of Hurlet, Renfrewshire, Analytical
. Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OP
PAPER."
Sealed the 11th February 1862, and dated the 22nd August 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Richardson and
Robert Irvine at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 22nd August 1861.
We, THOMAS RICHARDSON, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Chemist, and ROBERT
IRVINE, of Hurlet, Renfrewshire, Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER,"
to be as follows:-
These improvements consist in applying in the manufacture of paper
aluminous cakes obtained by acting on pit or alum shale or blaes either in a
natural or roasted state, or on those ashes of bituminous minerals which consist
chiefly of silicate of alumina with sulphuric acid in substitution of the alum or
aluminous cake heretofore employed, and which is extracted and manufactured
from the compound of shale, blaes, or ashes and acid above mentioned at
considerable cost.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Richardson and Robert Irvine in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 20th February 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wе, THOMAS
RICHARDSON, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Chemist, and ROBERT IRVINE, of
Hurlet, Renfrewshire, Analytical Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Thomas Richardson and Robert Irvine, Her especial licence that we,
the said Thomas Richardson and Robert Irvine, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Richardson and Robert
Irvine, our executors, administrators, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Thomas Richardson and Robert Irvine, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their bands and seals,
or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 Thomas Richardson, on behalf of
myself and the said Robert Irvine, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
that is to say :-
These improvements consist in applying in the manufacture of paper
aluminous cakes obtained by acting on pit or alum shale or blaes either in a
natural or roasted state, or on those ashes of bituminous minerals which
consist chiefly of silicate of alumina with sulphuric acid in substitution of the
alum or aluminous cake heretofore employed, and which is extracted and
manufactured from the compound of shale, blaes, or ashes, and acid above
mentioned at considerable cost.

page_text: In the manufacture of sulphate of alumina and alum an impure aluminous
mineral is sometimes employed as the source of the alumina such as is known
in England and Scotland under the name of pit shale or blaes, and alum
shale, which are composed of various proportions of silica, alumina, oxide of
iron, lime, and magnesia, with organic or coaly matters. These minerals are
burnt with the free access of the air to destroy the organic or coaly matters,
and to render the mineral matter more susceptible of the action of the
sulphuric acid. The residue is reduced to a fine powder and the acid heated
to 300° Fahrenheit, is added while the whole is being stirred by the workman
or the calcined mineral is drawn from the furnace in a hot state and thrown
into the acid, or the two materials are boiled together, or the acid is run on
the mineral in the furnace, and the whole exposed to a moderate heat while
the mass is agitated the workman. When the operation is finished, and
the mass has cooled down, it is lixiviated with water, and the solution treated
in the manner well known to manufacturers for the production of sulphate of
alumina or alum.
Now our Invention consists in applying the crude mass obtained by acting
on the aluminous mineral with sulphuric acid, without any further treatment
in the manufacture of the common brown papers instead of the sulphate of
alumina or alum.
Any of the, plans adopted for preparing this crude aluminous cake, will
answer our purpose, but when we employ the alum shales of Yorkshire,
which are now thrown aside after the extraction of the sulphate of alumina by
the process at present in use, we do not require to calcine them.
We also employ those ashes of bituminous minerals which consist chiefly of
silicate of alumina, such as that left by burning bog head coal. When this
and similar minerals are distilled, a coke is left, out of which we burn off the
carbon in a furnace or otherwise, and we find it advantageous to mix 4 or 5
per cent. of the ordinary muriatic acid of commerce with such coke previous
to calcination, as it assists in removing a portion of the iron contained in such
ashes. These ashes are reduced to powder under edge stones or rollers, and
then passed through a wire sieve 30th to the inch. 6 to 7 cwts. of the
ash are thrown into a box or pit, into which 5 to 6 cwt. of sulphuric acid of
145° Twaddell, and heated to 300° or 350° Fahrenheit is running. The
materials are stirred about so as to mix the ingredients when the acid begins
to act, and in a short time a solid mass of impure sulphate of alumina and
silica is obtained; this mass is then dried at a temperature of about 212°
Fahrenheit, crushed or ground, and may be employed by makers of common
brown papers in the same manner as they use other aluminous cakes.

page_text: The process we have just described for preparing our cake from coal ashes
is equally applicable when pit and alum shale or blaes or the exhausted
Yorkshire alum shale is used.
It is desirable to select those aluminous minerals or coal ashes which
contain the least iron, but this substance in even large quantity does not effect
our plan, so long as sufficient alumina is present.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Richardson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
THOMAS RICHARDSON. (L.S.)