An Improved Process for the Manufacture of a Substitute for Wood or Stone.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Jan., 1898-Accepted, 2nd Apr., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by VINCENZO MICHELI, of 10, Piazza Pitti, Florence, in
the Kingdom of Italy, Civil Engineer and Professor at the Academy of Fine
Arts, Florence.]
An Improved Process for the Manufacture of a Substitute for
Wood or Stone.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents, 45,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to bo
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to a process for the manufacture of a paste having as its
base the dust, powder or detritus of natural or fossil carbons such as anthracite,
coal, lignite and peat or artificial carbons such as coke, charcoal and fossil resins,
either with or without the addition to the said powder of terra cotta, puzzolanas,
ashes, fossil farina and the like and intended to be moulded so as to manufacture
from it various objects of different forms and dimensions. Carbolignolite may in
short be advantageously employed to replace, in buildings, the arts and industries;
stone and wood, more especially wood, either in a natural or in a worked or carved
condition; in card board, paste board, papier mache and the like either alone or
with the insertion of metallic parts or of vegetable fibre and the like.
In order that the process of manufacture which forms the subject of this invention
may be readily understood, I will now describe one of the methods of carrying out
the same consisting of three distinct operations :
(1) The preparation of the powders.
(2) The formation of pastes by means of an amalgamating substance capable of
resisting fire, in order to render the pastes incombustible if so desired, and
(3) The formation of objects, works of art, building materials and so forth in
moulds, matrices and the like.
The first of these operations is effected by the reduction of the substance
enumerated above into powder, granular particles, detritus or the like in accordance
with the paste it is desired to obtain for the purpose of manufacturing the desired
object or its different parts, and having regard to the purpose for which it is to be
employed and also its cost; noting that the powder of natural wood which is
intended for use in covering objects and giving to them the colour of the essence
to which they belong, is obtained either by sawing or scraping the wood which it is
desired to imitate.
The second operation which relates to the manufacture of pastes from the
powders is effected by mixing, either heated or cold according to circumstances,
with the powders named above, either already mixed or not with terra cotta, ashes,
puzzolanas or fossil farina, a certain quantity of amalgamating mastic to which is
added alum or a salt having a base of alum or of some other substance equivalent in
its effects, having the property of giving to the paste in the highest degree the
characteristic property of retarding or of preventing combustion.

page_text: The third operation which consists in the moulding of the objects, is effected by
working the paste, by hand if it is a question of plastic objects, or by placing it
in moulds, matrices or the like of different kinds according to the object which it
is desired to obtain and according to the degree of compression and of compactness
which it is wished to impart to it; the object thus formed acquires the desired
degeee of consistency in 48 hours.
In the process for manufacturing carbolignolite, the inventor has found that one
of the methods or proportions which gives the best results, and which he gives by
way of example, consists in soaking the powders referred to in a solution of alum
and in then drying them, after which they are mixed with the amalgamating
substances, proceeding in the following manner.
When the substances above referred to, that is to say, natural and artificial
carbons and the like, have been reduced to powder, and when they have been
soaked in the alum solution and afterwards dried, they are formed into a paste by
moistening them with a solution composed of equal parts of water and of
hydrochloric acid in which carbonate of magnesia hydrate has been caused to
re-act until entire cessation of effervescence has taken place.
This paste is then further mixed with oxide of magnesia made into a paste by
its mixture with the water of the solution above-referred to, which oxide acts as an
agglomerant substance, after which the paste is placed in moulds matrices or the
like, and compressed in accordance with the usage to which it is to be put. For
oxide of magnesia, oxide of iron or of lead, or cements and the like may
advantageously be substituted.
These effects may be obtained either to a greater or less extent, according to
the object which it is desired to manufacture, by employing all the amalgamating
substances comprised under the name of lime, oil, resin, sulphur, amidon or soluble
glass mastics, that is to say mineral, vegetable and animal mastics.
The inventor wishes to disclaim the amalgamating receipts, but he reserves, the
right of introducing into his invention all the modifications which. practical
operations and experience may suggest to him.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated
to me by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
A process for the manufacture of a paste for replacing stone and wood in every
manner in which these materials are employed and in whatever form, by paste having
as its base powders or detritus of natural or fossil carbons, such as anthracite, coal,
lignite and peat, or artificial carbons such as coke, charcoal and fossil resins, either
with or without the addition to the said powders, of terra. cotta, puzzolanas,
ashes fossil farina or the like, the said paste consisting of a mixture of powders
of the above materials with a mastic or amalgamating substance of any kind,
substantially for the purposes stated.
1
7
1000
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.