Improve- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
Year: 1871

page_text: "
LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Brown, of Newcastle-on-Tyne.,.
Merchant, and James Bowron, of South Shields, in the County of
Durham, Chemical Manufacturer, for the Invention of "Improve-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER."
Sealed the 13th June 1871, and dated the 21st January 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Brown and
James Bowron, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 21st January 1871.
'
We, JOHN HENRY BROWN, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Merchant, and'
JAMES BOWRON, of South Shields, in the County of Durham, Chemical'
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER," to be as follows:-
1.
not improvements in the manufacture of

page_text: We subject this bark to mechanical disintegration, and then at once and
without previously boiling it we submit it to the action of hydrochloric
acid and a solution of chlorine. In this way we discharge the color
more effectually than would be possible economically were the bleaching
or extraction of the color. deferred until after the fibre has been boiled.
After the acid and chlorine treatments. we boil the material with soda or
other alkali.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Henry Brown and James Bowron in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st July 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
HENRY BROWN, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Merchant, and JAMES BOWRON, of
South Shields, in the County of Durham, Chemical Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of January, 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
successors, give and grant unto us, the said John Henry Brown and
James Bowron, Her special license that we, the said John Henry Brown
and James Bowron, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said John Henry Brown and James Bowron, our
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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said John. Henry Brown and James Bowron, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or
their hands and seals, or under the hand and scal of one of us or them,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-..
vention, 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
nfonths next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Brown, on behalf of
myself and the said James Bowron, do hereby 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 thereof, that is to say :-
Our Invention has for its object the manufacture of paper from the
bark of the Adausonia digitatis by a simple process. We first subject
this bark to mechanical disintegration either by a machine of the kind
commonly known as "devil" or by the ordinary "potching machine"
of paper makers, or by any other machinery that will obtain the above
object of mechanically disintegrating the bark and isolating the fibre as
much as possible. We then subject the bark to a steeping process, either
in water alone or in water mixed with muriatic acid so, that, the mixture
stands at about four degrees of Twaddle's hydrometer, but we do not
confine ourselves just to this particular strength of acid. This steeping
process is continued for about twelve hours more or less, and is
followed in the case of steeping with dilute muriatic acid by washing
with water.
The next process is the immersion of the fibre in a solution of chloride
of lime, commonly called "bleaching powder," or of "bleaching liquor,"
or any other solution containing or evolving chlorine in the free state.
We find a suitable strength of the bleaching solution to be at five degrees
of Twaddle's hydrometer, but it can be employed somewhat weaker or
stronger without detriment to the process. This process we continue
likewise for twelve hours, but it is not necessary to confine it exactly to
these hours. After this the fibre is washed again and boiled with a
solution of commercial soda ash containing ten pounds soda ash for
every hundred pounds of fibre taken into operation or thereabouts. This
boiling operation need not be continued for a long time, and in some
cases, if followed by washing, produces a fibre sufficiently bleached for
most purposes, but, if necessary, a slight bleaching may be employed to
give the fibre the last finish after boiling.
The further opérations in the manufacture of paper remain as hereto-
fore. Instead of steeping and bleaching in ordinary cisterns these
processes may be carried on in "potching engines" as used by paper
makers, or other contrivances for imparting motion to the liquid and the
fibre. Instead of commercial soda ash other, kinds of alkali may be used,
and we prefer the above only on account of its cheapness.

page_text: Our claim for novelty rests on the use of this fibre for the manufacture
paper, and the simple process for converting it into a state suitable
for use as described above.
of
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Brown, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
Witness,.
GEORGE C. WHITFIELD..
JNO. H. BROWN. (L.S.)