IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING VULCANIZED INDIA-BUBBER OR GUTTA PERCHA
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Nathaniel Shattswell Dodge, of St. Paul's Church
Yard, in the City of London, of the firm of Dodge, Bacon, & Company,
Merchants and Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TREATING VULCANIZED INDIA-BUBBER OR GUTTA PERCHA."-A communication.
Sealed the 1st April 1856, and dated the 18th January 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Nathaniel Shattswell
Dodge at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 18th January 1856.
I, NATHANIEL SHATTSWELL DODGE, of St. Paul's Church Yard, in the
City of London, of the firm of Dodge, Bacon, & Company, Merchants and
Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING VULCANIZED INDIA-RUBBER OR GUTTA' PERCHA;" a
communication from abroad, to be as follows:-
17
This Invention relates to a peculiar system or mode of treating 'vulcanized
india-rubber, whether soft or hard, or vulcanized gutta percha, for the purpose'
of rendering scraps or waste piéces of such' vulcanized" material, old 'shoes;'
railway buffers,carriage springs, or vulcanized indiá-rubber or gutta-perchain'
any form whatever, fit to be re-used or worked up into useful articles for-
fabrics without re-vulcanization. For this purpose, the material to be treated
if existing in large pieces, is reduced into 'smaller ones, and is then placed in/a>
Price 8d.].
1

page_text: vessel capable of being hermetically closed or made air-tight. To every
hundred pounds of this material is now added one quarter of a pound of
alcohol absolutus and ten pounds of carbon bisulphuratum, these two
ingredients being previously mixed together, and then poured over the
material to be treated. The vessel containing the same is then closed air-tight,
and allowed to remain so for about two hours, at the expiration of which time
the cover may be removed, when the material will be found to be in a soft,
plastic, or gummy state, and ready to be ground in the ordinary way of
grinding such gums for the purpose of manufacturing it into various useful
and ornamental articles. By adding a larger proportion of the above solvents
the gums may be reduced to a liquid state. The proportions may, how-
ever, be varied, according to circumstances and the effect desired to be
produced.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Nathaniel Shattswell Dodge in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 18th July 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, NATHANIEL
SHATTSWELL DODGE, of St. Paul's Church Yard, in the City of London, of the
firm of Dodge, Bacon, & Company, Merchants and Manufacturers, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Nathaniel Shattswell Dodge, Her special license that I, the said
Nathaniel Shattswell Dodge, my executors,administrators, and assigns, orsuch
others as I, the said Nathaniel Shattswell Dodge, my executors, administrators,
or 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING VULCANIZED INDIA-RUBBER OR GUTTA
PERCHA," a communication, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Nathaniel Shattswell Dodge, by an instrument in writing under iny hand
and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what, manner the same was to be performed, and cause the

page_text: 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 Nathaniel Shattswell Dodge, 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 :-
The said Invention relates to a peculiar system or mode of treating
vulcanized india-rubber, whether soft or hard,or vulcanized gutta pércha, for
the purpose of rendering scraps or waste pieces of such vulcanized material,
such, for example, as old shoes, railway buffers, carriage springs, fit to
be re-used or worked up into useful articles or fabrics without requiring
to be re-vulcanized. For this purpose, the material to be treated, if existing
in large pieces, is reduced into smaller ones, and is then placed in a vessel
capable of being hermetically closed or made air-tight. To this material
is now added pure alcohol (alcohol absolutus) and bisulphuret of carbon,
in the proportion of a quarter of a pound weight of the former and ten pounds
weight of the latter to one hundred pounds weight of the material, the alcohol
and the bisulphuret of carbon being previously mixed together, and then
poured over the material to be treated. The vessel containing the ingredients
is then closed air-tight, and allowed to remain so for about two hours, more or
less, at the expiration of which time the cover may be removed, when the
whole will be found to be in a soft, plastic, or gumn.y state, and ready to be
ground in the ordinary way of grinding such gums for the purpose of manu-
facturing it into various useful or ornamental articles without repeating the
process of vulcanizing. By adding a larger proportion of the above alcohol
and bisulphuret of carbon, the gums may be reduced to a liquid state. 'The
relative proportions of the two, alcohol and the bisulphuret of carbon, may,
however, be varied, according to circumstances and the effect which it is
desired to produce.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that 1 ain aware that vulcanized
india-rubber and gutta percha have been reduced to a soft and plastic state
by the aid of alkalies, with the view of extracting the sulphur therefrom, and
then of subjecting them anew to the process of vulcanization. I therefore lay
no claim to the softening or reducing of vulcanized india-rubber and gutta
percha to a plastic or liquid state by such means or for such purpose; but
what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is, the

page_text: reducing of vulcanized india-rubber and gutta percha into a soft, plastic, or
liquid state by means of alcohol and bisulphuret of carbon, as herein-before
described, so as to allow such materials to be re-manufactured into useful
or ornamental articles without being again subjected to the process of vul-
canization.
In witness whereof, I, the said Nathaniel Shattswell Dodge, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of July, Ono thousand
eight hundred and fifty-six.
N. S. DODGE. (L.e.)