A NEW PREPARATION OF FIBRE APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP, TEXTILE FABRICS, YARNS, THREADS, CORDAGE, AND TWINE
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton; of the Office for
Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, for the Invention of "A NEW PREPARATION OF FIBRE APPLICABLE
TO THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP, TEXTILE FABRICS, YARNS, THREADS,
CORDAGE, AND TWINE."-A communication from abroad by Henry Von
Phul, Draper, of Hannibal, in the State of Missouri, United States
of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward
Newton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 23rd March 1871.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON; of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
5 Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "A NEW PREPARATION OF FIBRE APPLICABLE

page_text: ΤΟ THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP; TEXTILE FABRICS, YARNS, THREADS,
CORDAGE, AND TWINE," to be as follows:-
"
It is well known that any article in order to be a substitute for
rags in the manufacture of paper should combine the qualities of
cheapness, strength, toughness, and elasticity, and not be brittle or hard.
A greater or less per-centage of rags or other articles, more or less
costly, are usually mixed with straw, wood, or other substitutes, thus
enhancing materially the first cost of the pulp. My correspondent has
discovered a material free from the defects inherent in wood, straw;
and other like substances, and which will produce without admixture
with other materials a strong elastic and tough paper, and also fibres
of various degrees of fineness. Among botanists the plant from which
the pulp or fibres are obtained is known as the "abutilon avicennae,"
sometimes called "
rag weed"
or "stamp weed; it grows in great
profusion in Missouri, Illinois, and other States. The whole of the
plant above the root is first cut into small pieces and placed in any
suitable vessel and boiled, say, from one hour and a half to two hours
in a strong alkali made from water and wood. ashes, to which if a small
quantity of unslacked lime be added the reduction will be more rapid.
The pith of the plant will be washed away by the liquid while the
remainder of the plant will be converted into a dingy colored pulp,,
which may be bleached either by chloride of lime or otherwise. When
it is to be manufactured on a large scale the plant may be submitted
to the well-known process of reducing straw and the like by means
of alkalies and steam pressure. The pulp is made into paper in the
ordinary way. Not only will this material, without admixture with
other substances, produce a most excellent paper pulp, but it may also
be used with other materials as a substitute for rags and other expensive
materials now used with wood and straw pulp in order to produce paper
of superior quality.
In order to prepare the plant for the purpose of manufacture into
textile fabrics, yarns, threads, cordage, and twine it may be submitted
to the usual rotting processes cither by water or dew. The dew-rotting
process is the cheaper for it requires much less handling than hemp
when dew rotted. It can be well dew rotted as it stands on the field,
the lint separating very readily from the stalk. The lint may be stripped
off in any convenient manner, and to remove the thin skin surrounding

page_text: the lint it may be roughly hatchelled though running it through a mill
or ordinary "brake" will remove a great deal of the skin. Of course
the finer the article to be manufactured the more carefully must the
preliminary preparation be made. After the lint is obtained it may
then be submitted to any of the usual processes of spinning and weaving,
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 22nd September 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the
thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Edward Newton, Her
special licence that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Edward
Newton, my 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
"A NEW PREPARATION OF FIBRE APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
PULP, TEXTILE FABRICS, YARNS, THREADS, CORDAGE, AND TWINE," being a com-
munication to me from abroad by Henry Von Phul, Draper, of Hannibal
in the State of Missouri, United States of America, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Newton, 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.

page_text: 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 (that is to say) :-
It is well known that any article in order to be a substitute for rags
in the manufacture of paper should combine the qualities of cheapness,
strength, toughness, and elasticity, and must not be brittle or hard.
In order to overcome these defects it has heretofore been found necessary
to mix these substances with a greater or less per-centage of rags or
other articles more or less costly, thus enhancing materially the first
cost of the pulp. The Inventor of the present process has discovered
a material which is not only free from the defects inherent in wood,
straw, and other like substances, but experiment has proved that
it will produce without admixture with other materials a pulp from
which strong, clastic, and tough paper free from brittleness or hard-
ness, and of various degrees of fineness can be produced. Among
botanists the plant from which pulp or fibres possessing the required
qualities can be obtained is known as the abutilon avicennae, sometimes
called "rag weed" or "stamp weed." It grows in great profusion in
Missouri, Illinois, and other States. The plant requires no preliminary
sorting or like preparation before being cut up preparatory to the
reducing process. The whole of the plant above the root is first cut
into small pieces and placed in any suitable vessel and boiled, say, from
one hour and a half to two hours, in a strong alkali made from water
and wood ashes, to which if a small quantity of unslacked lime be added
the reduction will be more rapid. The pith of the plant will be washed
away by the liquid, while the remainder of the plant will be converted
into a dingy colored pulp, which may be bleached either by chloride
of lime, or otherwise. The process above described will produce the
pulp, but in practice it will be better (when it is to be manufactured
on a large scale) to submit the plant to the well-known process of
reducing straw and the like by means of alkalies and steam pressure,
as it has been proved by experiment that this plant when put through
such process is quickly converted into pulp. The pulp may be made
into paper in the ordinary way, as it requires no peculiar treatment.
Not only will this material, without admixture with other substances,
produce a most excellent paper pulp, but it may also be used with other

page_text: materials as a substitute for rags and other expensive materials now
used with wood and straw pulp in order to produce a paper of superior
quality.
In order to prepare the plant for the purpose of manufacture into
textile fabrics, yarns, threads, cordage, and twine it may be submitted
to the usual rotting processes, either by water or dew as used with hemp,
but the dew rotting process is cheaper, as it requires much less handling
than hemp when dew rotted. It can be well ɖew rotted as it stands
on the field, the lint separating very readily from the stalk and the
leaves falling off very soon after maturity on the first approach of frost.
The lint may be stripped off in any convenient manner, and to remove
the thin skin surrounding the lint it may be roughly hatchelled, though
running it through a mill or ordinary "brake" will remove a great deal
of the skin. Of course the finer the article is required to be manu-
factured the more carefully must the preliminary preparation be made.
After the lint is obtained it may be submitted to any of the usual pro-
cesses of spinning and weaving, or it may be made into rope or twine
in the ordinary way. Of course this lint may be used with other
substances in the manufacture of textile fabrics, &c.
Having now described the Invention that has been communicated
by my foreign correspondent, and having explained the improved pre-
paration of fibre applicable to the manufacture of paper pulp, textile
fabrics, yarns, threads, cordage, and twine, I claim as the Invention
secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid, treating the plant known
to botanists as the abutilon avicennae, as herein set forth for the purpose
of obtaining therefrom pulp or useful fibres for the purposes above
mentioned.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have