IMPROVEMENTS. IN MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING PAPER
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTUS
SIEBE, of Denmark Street, Soho, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer and
Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the First day of May, in the fifteenth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Augustus Siebe, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Augustus Siebe, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said Augustus Siebe, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exer-
cise and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS. IN MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING PAPER,"
being partly a communication from abroad; in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Augustus Siebe, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Augustus Siebe, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):--
This Invention consists in the construction of two improved machines, the
first for knotting or straining paper pulp, the second for rolling, flattening,
and glazing paper. The knotting or straining machine is designed to arrest
and keep back the knots and other foul or objectionable matters out of the
pulp about to made into paper, in order to produce a finer and stronger paper,
by leaving all the longer fibres in the pulp free from knots, and causing a
smaller loss of stuffs than by the old or previously known modes of straining
pulp for the making of paper.
The main feature of improvement as respects the knotting or straining
machine, is the peculiar construction of strainer or sieve employed, and the
means of agitating the pulp and forcing it through the strainer by means of
reciprocating fans.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal elevation of
a complete machine taken partly in section; Fig. 2 is a horizontal or top
view of the same, certain portions in both being removed to shew the internal
constructions of the operating parts; and Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the same
machine.
I shall, in the first place, describe the peculiar construction of the strainer
.or sieve.
'
Fig. 4 represents the upper or under surface of a ring of brass or other
suitable metal, sinooth on the inner surface, but bevelled and V-edged on its
outer periphery. A series of these rings, say forty or more, are to be com-
bined, as shewn in the sectional view Fig. 5, and they are to be held together
by vertical rods (say six) passed through all the corresponding holes of the
series, and being pressed tightly by nuts screwed at top and bottom of the
rods, the series of rings will be all kept securely and firmly in contact with
'each other, and form a cylindrical vessel intended to be employed as a sieve
or' strainer of the pulp which is intended to be passed laterally through it.
In order to form passages for the pulp between the several rings, thin collars
or washers are to be put upon all the vertical rods between the rings before
they are screwed up tight, the necessary thickness of which collars or washers
must depend upon the fineness of the paper intended to be made, for according
to the width of the spaces between the several rings, so will the pulp be more
'or less strained, and consequently the paper to be made be of a finer or
coarser quality. These cylindrical sieves are to be fixed upright in a box

page_text: or pulp chest, several of them in a suitable range, and each closed at bottom,
as will be shewn in describing the machine in which they are applied. The
tops of the sieves are to have covers which I call hoppers, with apertures to
receive the rough pulp and conduct it into the sieves. Within each cylin-
drical sieve I place a reciprocating fan, by the movements of which the pulp
to be strained will be driven by centrifugal force through the narrow spaces
between the rings. These fans I propose to make hollow and of a star form,
as represented in Figs. 1, 2, and 2*. They are to be constructed of thin
sheet copper, or other suitable material as light as may be practicable, and
closed at top and bottom. A spindle or shaft is passed perpendicularly through
and made fast to the fan, for the purpose of enabling it to turn upon a pivot
at bottom, and the shaft being extended upwards, will admit of the fan being
turned round by any convenient means mounted within the cylindrical sieve.
Having now described the improved construction of sieve and of fan to
be placed within it, I proceed to show in what manner the same or several
of them may be mounted in a machine, and made to perform the operation of
straining paper pulp :-A strong chest of wood a, a, (Figs. 1 and 2,) is pro-
vided, and lined, if necessary, with zinc, lead, copper, or other suitable material,
into which the pulp is to be forced through the strainer. This wooden chest
must have sufficient braces and ends of iron on the outside to support the
machinery for working the fans as shewn at b and 6*. In the bottom of the
chest I fix the circular dishes or rings c, c, in which the cylindrical sieves d
are to be inserted and fixed (say three), as shewn in the Drawing, or any
other convenient number of sieves may be employed. These dishes or rings c,
with the sieves d, are to be securely fastened by bolts to the bottom of the
chest as shewn. A fan, e, of the construction described and shewn in Figs. 2
and 2*, is then to be placed within each cylindrical sieve, the pivot of its axle
at bottom being supported by a suitable step or socket f, and the upper part
of the axle turning in a bearing in the longitudinal bar 6* fixed along the
top of the chest. The cover or hopper g, with its ring, is then placed over
the sieve, and suitable machinery applied to give the fans rapid reciprocating
movements on their axes. This reciprocating motion I effect by attaching
an arm h, as a lever, to the top of each of 'the vertical fan shafts, and con-
ecting these arms (as many as there may be fans and strainers) to crank
ods i, connected to an excentric or crank j, as shewn in Fig. 2; this being
system of ordinary driving gear, it need not be further explained. The
repared rough pulp is then to be poured from above the machine into the
training cylinders d, d, d, through the hoppers, and the driving power being
pplied to the pulley to actuate the gear work, the fans e will be put in
apid vibratory motion upon their axes, and as they reciprocate will agitate

page_text: the pulp, and by the centrifugal force of the fans the pulp will be forced
laterally through the narrow passages of the strainers d into the pulp chest a,
leaving the knots, lumps, and other injurious substances in the interior of
the sieves at bottom, and these may be drawn off at intervals whilst the
straining operation of the pulp is going on through openings k in the bottom!
of the chest, by means of slides worked by handles I, 1, 1, at the end of the
machine. In order to prevent the strained pulp from settling at the bottom
of the chest after it has passed through the sieves, I employ vibrating flap
agitators m within the chest, as shewn by dots in Fig. 3. These may be
moved by any suitable means connected with the driving parts of the machine,
as shewn in the Drawings. It will of course be understood, that as the chest
fills, the strained pulp will flow over the edge of the chest on to the wire cloth
as usual.
Figure 2 is a top view of another arrangement of gearing for driving one of
my pulp straining machines; the wooden chest a, cylindrical strainers d, and
vibrating fans e, being all the same as in the arrangement above described,
but the driving parts in this example are somewhat different. In this instance
a long horizontal shaft j, has three cranks formed in it, which cranks are
severally connected by crank rods i, i, i, to the ends of the respective
levers h, h, h, on the tops of the fan shaft, and these levers being set in
different positions to each other, will, by means of the three-throw crank, act
more uniformly, and agitate the pulp with better effect than the machinery of
the former arrangement. As it is necessary that the joints of the connecting
rods and levers in this last described machine should have a considerable
amount of free action, I make those joints with a sort of ball and socket
connection as shewn in the two auxiliary Figures 6 and 7.
The improved method of rolling, flattening, and glazing paper, consists in
passing sheets of paper between two endless bands inade of thin metal plates.
I prefer very thin plates of steel, which are to be distended over tension rollers,
and passed between two heavy pressing rollers.
Fig. 8 is a side or longitudinal elevation of the machine, in which these
endless plates are mounted.
Fig. 9 is an end view of the same.
The heavy pressing rollers p, p, are supported in two standards q, q, and
are geared together by toothed wheels r, r, on their axles in the usual way
the rollers turning freely with the ordinary arrangement for bringing their
peripheries closer together by means of screws as may be required. The
endless bands 8, 8, 8, 8, are distended over tension rollers t, t, t, t, mounted or
frames u, u, placed at some little distances from: each end of the pressing
roller standards, and these bands are passed between the pressing rollers p, p

page_text: where they are brought nearly in contact; rotary motion being given to the
lower pressing roller by any convenient means, the upper pressing roller will
turn likewise. The paper to be pressed is then introduced between the
endless bands at one end, when by the rotation of the pressing rollers p, p,
the bands 8, 8, 8, 8, with the paper will advance and pass between those rollers,
and the paper become flattened or glazed as may be required, and discharged
from the endless bands at the opposite end. In order to glaze paper by this
machine, one of the endless bands must be made to travel faster than the
other, and this I effect by employing coupling wheels which have dissimilar
numbers of teeth gearing into each other upon the axles of the two pressing
rollers.
Having now described my improvements in machinery for manufacturing
paper, I desire it to be understood, that I particularly claim as new the con-
struction of sieve or pulp strainer formed by rings as described above; but
I do not intend to confine myself to circular rings, as nearly the same effect
might be produced if those rings were polygonal, or of any other slight
variation in form, provided they are combined or piled one on another, as
described.
I also claim the novel construction of vibratory fans, without intending to
confine myself to the number of vanes in each, or of the particular forms of
such vanes.
And, lastly, I claim the employment of endless metallic bands, between
which paper may be passed under pressing rollers to be pressed or glazed, as
above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Augustus Siebe, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
Enrolled the First day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.