IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR SEASONING, INJECTING, AND PRESERVING WOOD, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS APPLICABLE FOR TREATING CANVASS, CORDAGE, AND ATUTO SURSTANCES TO RENDER THEM IMPERVIOUS TO DECAY
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bennington Blythe, of St. Mary Axe, in the
City of London, and No. 12, Rue St. Georges, Paris, in the Empire
of France, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
AND APPARATUS FOR SEASONING, INJECTING, AND PRESERVING WOOD, PART OF
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS APPLICABLE FOR TREATING CANVASS, CORDAGE, AND
ATUTO SURSTANCES TO RENDER THEM IMPERVIOUS TO DECAY."
Sealed the 4th October 1870, and dated the 8th April 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bennington
Blythe at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 8th April 1870.
I, JOHN BENNINGTON BLYTHE, of St. Mary Axe, in the City of
London, and No. 12, Rue St. Georges, Paris, in the Empire of France,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
'IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR SEASONING, INJECTING, AND
PRESERVING WOOD, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS APPLICABLE FOR TREATING
68

page_text: CANVASS, CORDAGE, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES TO RENDER THEM IMPERVIOUS TO
DECAY," to be as follows:-
:-
I place the wood in a closed cylinder or other chamber of any con-
struction or form, in which it is heated by the vapour of liquid hydro-
carbons, such as creosote or dead oil, coal tar, wood tar, resinous and
bituminous substances, or by the smoke of wood, peat, or any other
matter containing vapours or oils that can be driven off by heat. One
of the ends of each separate piece of wood is made to communicate with
the external air, or with condensing pipes or chambers connected with an
air pump or other means of producing a vacuum so as to aid the escape
of the sap, moisture, and air contained in the wood which is driven
through the pores (dilated by the action of the heat) by the pressure of
the vapour in the cylinder or chamber.
To inject railway sleepers, or to season pieces of wood of uniform
length, I prefer to fix them upon waggons so as to expose the whole :
of the surface of the wood (except one end) to the action of the heated
vapours, above described, in the chamber or cylinder, while an escape
into the external air or into a vacuum is kept open by means of a
chamber forming one end of the waggon, against which they are held
by means of screws or wedges upon and fixing them from the other
end.
The end of the waggon that forms the chamber just mentioned, which
is perforated to admit of the escape of the moisture so contained in the
wood, is constructed so as to close the opening in the chamber or
cylinder by which it enters. A cylinder or longitudinal chamber of
the length of two waggons would be closed at each end by their entrance
and form a simple and useful combination, but the system can be
modified in many ways to suit the wood to be treated by it. Several
waggons may be placed transversely in a long chamber of sheet iron or
brick, the end of each waggon closing the opening by which it enters,
or for large pieces of timber long tubes or cylinders may be used, into
which the timber may be slid on rollers. Caps or covers screwed on
one end of each piece of timber may be attached to pipes leading into
the external air or into a vacuum, as before described.
The chambers may be heated in any convenient manner. I prefer to
heat them externally by flues from a fire which heats a separate boiler
or retort in which the creososte, oil, or other matter is vapourised. The

page_text: vapours fill the chamber, and as they condense are returned by a pipe
to the boiler or retort to be re-heated, from whence they escape again
into the chamber. This enables me to heat a large quantity of wood
by the circulation of a comparatively small quantity of matter, but
many other modifications of the same principle may be arranged, such
as the direct applications of heat to vapourise the oils, &c. in the bottom
of the chamber itself; or wood may be first exposed to dry heat or to
steam heat, and afterwards injected in the same chamber by any of the
vapours before mentioned. The vapours may also be mixed with steam,
or carbolic acid and steam may be used alone. As steam is vapourised
at a much lower temperature than any of the heavy oils, it may be used
to maintain a pressure in the cylinder at a much lower degree of heat
than would be possible if oils alone were used.
I also employ condensing apparatus as a means of maintaining a
vacuum in the chambers at the end of each waggon as well as to
condense steam and other vapours that it may be necessary to let off
from the cylinders, and in some cases I allow the vapours to escape
through valves weighted so as to maintain a certain pressure in the
cylinders or chambers.
I apply the condensing apparatus and the method of heating a
chamber by the circulation of hydrocarbon vapour, as herein-beforo
described, to treating canvass, cordage, and other substances.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Bennington Blythe in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 8th October 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BENNINGTON BLYTHE, of St. Mary Axe, in the City of London, and
No. 12, Ruc St. Georges, Paris, in the Empire of France, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Bennington Blythe, Her special

page_text: licence that I, the said John Bennington Blythe, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Benning-
ton Blythe, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there.
after 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEans and ApparaTUS FOR SEASONIing, Injecting,
AND PRESERVING WOOD, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS APPLICABLE FOR TREATING
CANVASS, CORDAGE, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES TO RENDER THEM IMPERVIOUS TO
DECAY," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Ben-
nington Blythe, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Bennington Blythe, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
I place the wood in a closed cylinder or other chamber of any con-
struction or form, in which it is heated by the vapour of liquid hydro-
carbon, such as creosote or dead oil, coal tar, wood tar, resins, and
bituminous substances, or by the smoke of wood, peat, or any other
matter containing vapours or oils that can be drawn off by heat. One
of the ends of each separate piece of wood is made to communicate with
the external air, or with condensing pipes or chambers connected with
an air pump or other means of producing a vacuum so as to aid the
escape of the sap, moisture, and air contained in the wood which is
driven through the pores (dilated by the action of the heat), by the
pressure of the vapour in the cylinder or chamber.
To inject railway sleepers, or to season pieces of wood of uniform
length, I prefer to fix them upon waggons so as to expose the whole of
the surface of the wood (excepting one end) to the action of the heated
vapours, above described, in the chamber or cylinder, while an escape
into the external air or into a vacuum is kept open by means of a

page_text: chamber forming one end of the waggon, against which they are held
by means of screws or wedges acting upon and fixing them from the
other end.
The end of the waggon that forms the chamber just mentioned, which
is perforated to admit of the escape of the moisture, &c. contained in the
wood, is constructed so as to close the opening in the chamber or cylinder
by which it enters. A cylinder or longitudinal chamber of the length of
two waggons would be closed at each end by their entrance and form a
simple and useful combination, but the system can be modified in many
ways to suit the wood to be treated by it. Several waggons may be
placed transversely in a long chamber of sheet iron or brick, the end of
cach waggon closing the opening by which it enters, or for large pieces
of timber long tubes or cylinders may be used, into which the timber
may be slid on rollers. Caps or covers screwed on one end of each
piece of timber may be attached to pipes leading into the external air
or into a vacuum, as before described.
The chambers may be heated in any convenient manner. I prefer to
heat them externally by flues from a fire which heats a separate boiler
or retort in which the creosote, oil, or other matter is vapourized. The
vapours fill the chamber, and as they condense are returned by a pipe to
the boiler or retort to be re-heated, from whence they escape again into
the chamber. This enables me to heat a large quantity of wood by the
circulation of a comparatively small quantity of matter, but many other
modifications of the same principle may be arranged, such as the direct
application of heat to vapourize the oils, &c. in the bottom of the chamber
itself; or wood may be first exposed to dry heat, or to steam heat, and
afterwards injected in the same chamber by any of the vapours before
mentioned. The vapours may also be mixed with steam, or carbolic acid
and steam may be used alone. As steam is vapourized at a much lower
temperature than any of the heavy oils it may be used to maintain a
pressure in the cylinder at a much lower degree of heat than would be
possible if oils alone were used.
I also employ condensing apparatus as a means of maintaining a
vacuum in the chambers at the end of each waggon as well as to
condense steam and other vapours that it may be necessary to let off
from the cylinders, and in some cases I allow the vapours to escape
through valves weighted so as to maintain a certain pressure in the
cylinders or chambers.

page_text: I apply the condensing apparatus and the method of heating a
chamber by the circulation of hydrocarbon vapour, as herein-before
described, to treating canvas, cordage, and other substances.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I will
now describe some of the methods and apparatus I employ to treat,
season, inject, and preserve wood and timber.
On the accompanying Sheet of Drawings Figs. 1, 2, and 3 show an
apparatus for preserving railway sleepers.
Fig. 1 is a sido elevation of one half the chamber, the other half being
in section through the centre of the apparatus; Fig. 2 is an end elevation
with the cover in its place; Fig. 3 is a cross section through the line
1, 2, of Fig. 1, the sleepers being removed. I use cylindrical or rectan-
gular chambers; the ordinary creosoting cylinder will do, but a rectan-
gular chamber holds a greater number of sleepers. The chamber A is
rectangular in form and preferably of iron, but may be constructed of
any material. It has an outer casing of iron or brick so as to heat it
externally, and its ends have iron frames with cars C that carry eye-bolts
D. The sleepers are placed on waggons, one end of each waggon E, F,
serves as the door or cover that closes the chamber A. The plates E, F,
are cast or bolted together so as to leave between them a space O. The
plate F has slotted openings at its edges to admit the cyc-bolts D (a
method of making a tight joint against the end of the chamber is shown,
Figs. 4 and 5). The plate F has also holes or conical openings into or
against which each sleeper is held by screws, wedges, or other means
(in the Sheet of Drawings annexed the sleepers are held against knife-
edged rings by wood screws passing through the plates E and F by the
holes or tubulures P); a hole at N carrying a screw joint connects the
waggon and sleepers fixed against the plate F with a condenser or air
pump by a pipe attached thereto; thus a vacuum can be made to act
upon the ends of the sleepers when necessary, or the moisture or gases
driven out can pass through a condensing apparatus to condense any
oil vapours escaping through the sleepers or from imperfect joints. A
moveable cover suspended in the ordinary way may be used instead of
the plate E; this will leave all the ends of the sleepers open through the
conical openings in the plate F and permit the joints to be caulked or
cemented from the outside. All the plates F are made to one size and
'any number of waggons may be used, each one in its turn forming a
cover or door to close the chamber A.

page_text: The other parts of the waggons H, M, K, I, and J can be constructed
as required.
I do not confine myself to any particular mode of connecting the
pores of the wood with the air or with the condensing apparatus or air
pump; many different methods may be used, and I shew at Figs. 10, 11,
12, and 13 another mode of effecting this by calottes or caps upon the
ends of the wood. The caps have holes attached to pipes p branch-
ing into a connecting pipe q, which passes out of the chamber through
the hole into the external air, or is condensed or exhausted as before
stated. The caps screwed on to each piece of wood on the waggons are
connected by pipes into one discharge pipe, which is screwed on to another
pipe leading out of the chamber after the waggon has been run in.
The application of my system to large timber, telegraph poles, &c.
Tho
is shewn at Figs. 10 and 11, the same as in Figs. 1, 2, and 3.
boiler Q evaporates the hydrocarbon or other matter employed to
impregnate the wood. The vapour passes by a pipe R into the
chamber A and presses upon all the surface of the wood (this pressure
can be increased by steam from a steam boiler when required). A part
of the vapour enters the wood, and the condensed vapours collect on
the bottom of the chamber and return to the boiler by the pipe S,
Fig. 1, in the same manner as in the hot-water circulation used for
heating buildings. A box safety valve T allows any excess of pressure
to escape from the chamber A. A pipe leads from the valve T into a
condenser where any water evaporated is drawn off, and the hydrocarbon
oil is returned to the boiler by a force pump connected with the pipe S.
The waste heat from the fire under the boiler Q passes round the
chamber A by the outer casing B, Fig. 1, and g, Fig. 10. This can be
stopped when necessary and the heat made to pass straight to the
chimney by a separate flue and dampers.
Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section through the centre, and Fig. 7 is a
cross section of an oven or store for injecting railway timber by another
modification of my system.
I construct a chamber of brick or iron with the ends double, leaving
This space
an open space between the walls or plates forming the ends.
acts as a chimney when necessary, and keeps the heat in the chamber.
These chambers may be constructed of any size (I have shewn a
chamber holding six waggons of sleepers). These are the same as I have
already fully described in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, and when all the waggons

page_text: are in the chamber its sides are closed by the ends of the waggons as
before described, and the sleepers communicate by any of the already
mentioned systems with a vacuum or with the external air, so that as
they are heated the moisture from the sap and gases formed may have
a free escape from the pores of the wood.
This system of heating and injecting by burning upon grate-bars the
matter that gives off the preserving gases or smoke is particularly
applicable to forest exploitation, as refuse of any kind can be burned
and the operation of preserving and drying wood completed without
employing any distilled products. If, however, it is considered necessary
to inject the wood after heating with any vapourized hydrocarbon, this
can be effected by closing the openings to the grates and chimnies, and
allowing the vapourized hydrocarbon to fill the chamber. The fire-grates
are placed at each end of the chamber, and the waggons of sleepers P
stand across the chamber thereon, each side with spaces between them.
The flues R from each fire-grate, shewn in section, Fig. 7, are made to
distribute the combustion gases along the whole length of the chamber
through a great number of small openings in the metallic plates or fire
tiles that form and cover the flues R. The slow draught required to
support the combustion is maintained by small openings o at the bottom
of the chamber communicating with the spaces in the end walls or by
side chimnies (as shewn in Figs. 6 and 8).
Another modification of this chamber is shewn, Figs. S and 9. A
long iron tank U contains the matter to be evaporated. The fire-grates Y
heat the tank and do not discharge their gases into the chamber. The
oil thus vapourized bathes directly the sleepers, and what is condensed
falls to the bottom of the chamber (which is formed of iron plates) and
returns again into the tank to be re-evaporated. The waste heat from
the fires heats the chamber at the two ends and on the top by mcans
of the double casing before mentioned.
All the modifications of my system I have described are based upon
the same principle, which is to maintain at one end of each piece of wood
heated in a chamber a lower pressure than that which acts on all the
other parts of its surface; in one word, to destroy the equilibrium of the
pressure. I sometimes effect this by increasing the pressure on the
larger surface exposed, and sometimes by diminishing the resistance
against the end or smaller surface, by which the escape is effected, but
the principle is always the same. The hydrocarbon oils are the best

page_text: known antiseptics to employ with this system of injection, and I adopt
them for this reason, but I do not exclude from it the use of any other
substances (liquid or solid), the antiseptic qualities of which may be
disseminated in the vapourized state.
Newly felled trees may be treated as follows:-I fix on the end of
the trunk Z (as soon as possible after the tree has been felled, and the
end of the trunk sawn so as to present a flat surface) a calotte or cap 1,
as shewn, Fig. 14. The mode of fixing the calotte or cap has already
been shewn, Figs. 12 and 13. A pipe t leading from a steam boiler V
runs into the calotte or cap direct, as is shewn in the Drawing, or leads
into an apparatus (externally heated when necessary), into which liquid
hydrocarbon, such as carbolic acid, wood, creosote, &c. is allowed to drop.
This apparatus may have a number of metallic diaphragms on which the
hydrocarbon drops, and through which the steam from the boiler has to
pass. The steam takes up the hydrocarbon in a partly sphercoidal state,
and carries it (so to speak) into the calotte / and into the tree. The
steam forces out the sap and condensing in the tree takes its place, and
being charged with the hydrocarbon it effects the preservation of the
wood by disseminating it in the pores to be absorbed. The hydrocarbon
vapour may be supplied by a separate boiler discharging itself into the
pipe t, or liquid hydrocarbon may be allowed to fall in drops into the
calotte or cap, as shewn in the Drawing.
To treat worked up articles in wood, canvas, cordage, or fibrous
substances in general, I expose them in chambers or cylinders (I prefer
the chambers being heated externally) to the action of hydrocarbon vapour
as before described. The vapours which condense in the chamber return
to the boiler or retort by a pipe which connects the bottom of the cylinder
or chamber with the boiler or retort, and establishes a circulation such as
is well known in heating apparatus. The lighter vapours together with
the vapourized moisture from the articles under treatment escape through
valves in the top of the chamber into condensing apparatus in which
they return to the liquid state; any required pressure may be maintained
The condensed
in the chamber by weighting these escape valves.
bydrocarbon separates from the water that has come over and is allowed
to return to the boiler while the water is drawn off. By means of the
circulation thus kept up by returning the condensed hydrocarbon to the
boiler or retort, the treatment of the articles in the chamber can be
continued without increasing the heat more than may be necessary to

page_text: drive off the moisture contained in them. Vegetable fibre is toughened
and strengthened by creosote vapour when the heat of the chamber in
which the wood or other fibrous matter is placed is not too great. A
temperature gradually increased up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit can be
allowed in the chambers without injury, which will be sufficient to
evaporate all moisture from the substance under treatment.
In some cases when this has been effected the lighter distillate in the
retort can be drawn off through the condensing apparatus, and the
heavier portion driven over to give the articles under treatment a water-
proof coating.
Having now described the nature and particulars of my said Invention,
I claim the methods and apparatus herein described for treating,
seasoning, injecting, and preserving wood, timber, canvas, cordage,
vegetable fibre, and fabrics, or any mere modification thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bennington Blythe, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this First day of October One
thousand eight hundred and seventy.
TATT
DTVMHT