OR IMPROVED PLASTIC COMPOUNDS APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS PURPOSES WHERE WOOD, HORN, AND OTHER LIKE SUBSTANCES ARE NOW EMPLOYED
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Franz Fried at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd July 1866.
I, FRANZ FRIED, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "NEW OR IMPROVED PLASTIC COMPOUNDS APPLICABLE TO
VARIOUS PURPOSES WHERE WOOD, HORN, AND OTHER LIKE SUBSTANCES ARE NOW
EMPLOYED."
This Invention relates to the manufacture or preparation of a new plastic
compound, which the Inventor calls "artificial wood," and which is applicable
to various purposes where wood, horn, and other like substances are now
employed.
The essential ingredients which constitute this compound are,-1, milk
curds well drained and partially dried in the air; 2, quicklime; 8, sawdust.
of any kind of wood in a fine state of division, or in lieu thereof any substance
of a cellular nature. In preparing a colored artificial wood the sawdust
must be dyed or stained to the color required, for example, if a black wood
be required the sawdust, which should be by preference of oak or other hard
wood, may be treated with a mordant of chromium. It is then dried and
a small quantity of the coloring substance known in commerce as "patent
black" is added thereto. The paste may be prepared in a cold state, and
may be removed from the mould immediately it has been moulded. Should

page_text: other colors be required the paste may be colored by the employment of
suitable vegetable and mineral coloring matters.
The following proportions have been found to give a good result in the
manufacture of artificial wood:- first prepare a powder composed of 7
parts by weight of finely powdered quicklime; 25 parts of sawdust or of any
cellular substance; 25 parts of any mixture of finely divided sawdust and of
pulverized mineral substance, such, for example, as coke, magnesia, sulphur,
plaster, wood, charcoal, chalk, and suitable coloring matters according to the
color required, as, for example, ultramarine, madder, crome or imperial
yellow, vermillion or red lead, ochre, mineral green or green verditer, and
'patent black." Tthen take curds, which I separate by pressure from the
milk, and partially dry-the same in the air, so that it may still-remain in a soft
or plastic condition, and incorporate with it the powder above mentioned by
passing the mixture between rolls. In practice one pound of the powder to
one pound of the curds will produce a mass of sufficient consistency for
moulding in matrices, but this proportion may be varied as well as the
proportions of the ingredients of the powder. The plastic compound thus
obtained is pressed in the moulds of the form required by any convenient
pressing apparatus, and so soon as moulded the article is taken out of the
mould and dried in the air or in a stove. The composition of this plastic
compound will vary according to the special purposes to which it may be
applied, for example, in the manufacture of black buttons the ingredients
will be very different to those of the plastic-compound above mentioned. The
powder which I use in the preparation of a compound for the manufacture.ef
black buttons consists of the following ingredients and proportions::-
.6 parts by weight of powdered wood charcoal.
8 do.
do. of sawdust died black.