IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Isaac Palmer, of Reading, in the
County of Berks, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER."
Sealed the 8th March 1870, and dated the 24th September 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Isaac Palmer
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 24th September 1869.
I, WILLIAM ISAAO PALMER, of Reading, in the County of Berks,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
PAPER," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the effectual removal of all hard or
uncooked pieces, knots, or other like matters from the pulp or half stuff
of wood or other fibrous material which have been boiled for the
purpose of manufacture into paper.
To effect this object a machine is employed constructed in the
following manner :-In the upper part of a box or case are fixed two.

page_text: knotter plates set at an angle with each other. Within the V formed by
the said knotter plates are placed two or more fans or iron plates fixed
on spindles and revolving, and on the under sides of the said knotter
plates are also fixed two or more of such fans or revolving iron plates.
The machine being supplied with water and the various fans or revolving
iron plates being set in motion, the boiled pulp or half stuff is supplied
by hand by shoots, by lifters, or otherwise within the V formed space
enclosed by the knotter plates. The fine fibre is then by the motion of the
machine drawn or washed through the knotter plates and runs with
the water into the lower part of the box or case, and thence by taps or
otherwise into drains, cisterns, or chests placed to receive it. The
hard or uncooked pieces, knots, and such like matters are retained by
the knotter plates within the V and taken out of the bottom thereof
when the machine is at rest, bar knotters plates are preferred for the
purpose, the bars being set anglewise to each other, and the two plates
are fixed by preference to form an angle of 45° or thereabouts. Ordinary
knotter plates may in some cases be used for the machine..
By these means any pieces of the wood or material which have not
been properly acted upon by the boiling process are completely
separated before the half stuff or pulp goes into the beating engine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Isaac Palmer in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th March 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ISAAC PALMER, of Reading, in the County of Berks, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of Fourth, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Isaac Palmer, Her special
licence, that I, the said William Isaac Palmer, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Isaac Palmer,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the

page_text: 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 " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Isaac
Palmer, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing ⚫
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particu-
larly 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 William Isaac Palmer, 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:-
This Invention has for its object the effectual removal of all hard or
uncooked pieces, knots, or other like matters from the pulp or half stuff
of wood or other fibrous materials which have been boiled for the purpose
of manufacture into paper.
To effect this object a machine is employed constructed in the
following manner:-In the upper part of a box or case are fixed
two knotter plates set at an angle with each other. Within the
V formed by the said knotter plates are placed two or more fans or
iron plates fixed on spindles and revolving, and on the under sides
of the said knotter plates are also fixed two or more of such fans or
revolving iron plates. The machine being supplied with water and the
various fans or revolving iron plates being set in motion the boiled pulp
or half stuff is supplied by hand, by shoots, by lifters, or otherwise
within the V-formed space enclosed by the knotter plates. The fine
fibre is then by the action of the machine drawn or washed through the
knotter plates and runs with the water into the lower part of the box or
case, and thence by taps or otherwise into drainers, cisterns, or chests
placed to receive it. The hard or uncooked pieces, knots, and such like
matters are retained by the knotter plates within the V and taken out of
the bottom thereof when the machine is at rest. By these means any
pieces of the wood or material which have not been properly acted upon
by the boiling process are completely separated before the half stuff or
pulp goes into the beating engine.

page_text: In the Drawings hereunto annexed is shewn a machine constructed in
the manner I prefer for carrying out my Invention.
Figure 1 is an end elevation, and Figure 2 a transverse section of the
machine. In these Figures a, a, are two sieves or knotter plates set at
an angle to one another, as above described; b, b, are two fans or
agitators placed within the V formed by the two knotter plates and caused
to revolve in opposite directions, as shewn by the arrows; these fans
keep the half stuff or pulp in a state of agitation and cause it to sweep
in streams over the surface of the sieves or knotter plates; c, c, are two
fans placed on the under side of each of the two knotter plates; these
fans serve to draw the pulp through the sieves or knotter plates; d, d, is
the box or case in which the fans and knotter plates are enclosed; this
box or case forms the framing of the machine.
The manner in which motion is transmitted to the spindles of the fans
is shewn at Figure 1. e, e, is the driving shaft placed at one end of
the machine, and having upon it a toothed pinion f which gears with a
toothed wheel g. This wheel turns on a pin or stud carried by the end
framing of the machine, and it gears with a pinion h on the axis of one
of the fans b; on the opposite end of this axis is a toothed wheel gearing
with a pinion on the axis of the other fan b. These two fans or agitators
are thus driven in opposite directions. The toothed wheel g also gives
inotion to the axes of one of the fans c beneath each of the two knotter
plates and drives them in the direction shewn by the arrows, which is
the direction in which I prefer they should be driven. On one side of
the machine the toothed wheel gears directly with a pinion k on the
.axis of one of the fans, whilst on the other side it gears with an inter-
mediate pinion / which transmits motion to the pinion on the fan axis.
On the opposite ends of the axis of the two fans c, which are thus
driven by the toothed wheel g, are pinions, which by intermediate pinions
transmit motion to pinions on the axes of the two other fans c. Each of
the two fans on the under side of each knotter plate will thus be driven
in the same direction.
When the machine is in operation pulp is fed in at the top of
the machine, and the joint action of the agitators 6 and fans c above
and below the knotter plates draws the pulp through, whilst the
lumpy or knotty matters are left behind. The strained pulp is
received in chambers n, n, at the two sides of the machine, and can be
drawn off through taps fixed at the points m, m, at the end of the

page_text: machine, and the matters which will not pass through the knotter
plates can also be drawn off at this end of the machine at o. Any dirty
matters which may settle down from the pulp in the chambers n can be
drawn off at the orifices p.
I would state that although I prefer that the sieves or knotter plates
should be placed in an inclined position, as shown by the Drawings, they
might although, I believe, not so advantageously be placed horizontally
or otherwise, and similarly have combined with them agitators on one
side to keep the pulp or half stuff in motion, and fans on the other side
to draw the pulp through.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that what I
claim is,
First. The general arrangement or combination of machinery, sub-
stantially as herein described and shewn by the Drawings annexed.
Second. The employment in machines for straining or sieving half
stuff in the manufacture of paper of revolving fans at the outer side
of sieves or knotter plates to act in combination with revolving fans
or agitators on the opposite side of such sieves or knotter plates.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Isaac Palmer, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy.
WILLIAM I. PALMER. (L.s.)