MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF COMPOUNDS RESEMBLING GUTTA PERCHA AND CAOUTCHOUC FROM FLOUR, FIBRINE, GELATINE, AND OTHER TT
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Joseph Hughes, of the City of Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, Patent Agent, for the Invention of IMPROVE
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF COMPOUNDS RESEMBLING
GUTTA PERCHA AND CAOUTCHOUC FROM FLOUR, FIBRINE, GELATINE, AND OTHER
TT
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Joseph Huglies
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th January 1857.
I, EDWARD JOS .PH HUGHES, of the City of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF COMPOUNDS
RESEMBLING GUTTA PERCHA AND CAOUTCHOUC FROM FLOUR, FIBRINE, GELATINE, AND
OTHER VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL SUBSTANCES," being a communication from a
foreigner residing abroad, to be as follows:-
The nature of my said Invention cousists in producing compounds bearing
resemblance to gutta percha, india-rubber, leather, and similar materials, by
[Price 8d.]

page_text: combining fibrine, starch, gluten, or substances containing them, as flour
from wheat, peas, beans, &c., with gelatine resins, gum resins, fats, oils, and
substances containing tannine.
The manner of carrying my said Invention into practical effect is as
follows: take twenty pounds of wheat flour, twenty pounds of gutta percha,
two pounds of colophane, two pounds catechu,one pound glue or gelatine,mix
them together and expose them to the action of hot water or steam until the
combination is effected. The product so obtained may be used as a substitute
for gutta percha. By altering the said proportions or changing the said
ingredients to some of the others already named the compounds may be
made to resemble leather, india-rubber, wood, &c., or a substance suitable
for covering telegraph wires, or similar purposes. It will also be useful for
many compounds to add tanned animal fibrine from meat, fish, or membranes,
or old leather decomposed by high-pressure steam; or tallow butter, wax,
sugar, caseine, and albuminous matter may also be used.
For some purposes the compounds may be improved by exposing them to
the action of hydrogen sulphurous gas, sulphuretted hydrogen nitrous gas or
ammonia. Dextrine, starch, gluten, fibrine, or substances containing them,
such as peas, beans, oats, barley, rye, maize, buckwheat, rice, linseed, rape-
seed, mandioca, arrowroot, and vegetables; grains, seeds, roots, or tubers may
be employed for different compounds instead of wheat flour; sumac, gall nuts,
and all substances containing tannine,and salts with properties similar to alum
may be used instead of catechu; and instead of gutta percha, caoutchouc or
similar gum resins may be used for some purposes; resins or resinous sub
stances, copal pitch, and turpentine may be used instead of colophane. Some
of the compounds thus obtained will be applicable to lining ships, and when
dissolved may be used for waterproofing fabrics, and may also be in xed with
animal and vegetable fibres, such as wool, silk, cotton, linen, &c.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Joseph Hughes in the Great Seal Patent Office ou
the 7th July 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, EDWARD
JOSE HUGHES, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Patent Agent, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Let'ers
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of January, in the year or our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edward Joseph Hughes, Her special licence that I, the said Edward Joseph
Hughes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Edward Joseph Hughes, 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 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 THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF COMPOUNDS RESEMBLING
GUTTA PERCHA AND CAOUTCHOUC FROM FLOUR, FIBRINE. GELATINE, AND OTHER
VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL SUBSTANCES," being a communication from abroad, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward Joseph Hughes, by an
instrument in writing under may 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 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 Edward Joseph Hughes, 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 (that is to say) :-
I produce compounds bearing a resemblance to gutta percha, india-rubber,
leather, and similar articles by combining fibrine, starch, gluten, or substances
containing them, such as flour, with gelatine resin, gum resins, fats, oils and
substances containing taunine, of which the following will serve as an example:
-I take ten pounds weight of wheaten flour, twenty pounds gutta percha,
twenty pounds colophane, two pounds catechu, one pound glue or gelatine,
mix them together and expose them to the action of heat, either of hot water
or steam, until the combination is effected. The product so obtained may be
used as a substitute for gutta percha, wood, and similar substances. Or I
make a compond with soap as the bases as follows:-I take twenty parts of
wheaten flour and five parts of colophane dissolved in ten parts of caustic
alkali at 50° Twaddel, with any part of choudrine in five parts of water, and
mix them with forty parts of melted soap, either in a hot or boiling state. By
altering the proportions of the ingredients the compounds may be made to

page_text: resemble leather, india-rubber, or other similar substances, and made suitable
for covering telegraph wires, or other similar purposes.
For some purposes it is necessary to add to the compound tanned animal
fibrine from meat, fish, or membranes, or old leather decomposed by high-
pressure steam; or tallow, butter, wax, sugar, caseine, and albuminous matter
may also be used, and the said compounds may be improved by exposing them
to the action of hydrogen sulphurous gas, sulphuretted hydrogen introus gas,
or ammonia. l'extrine, starch, cellulose, gluten, fibrine, or substances con-
taining the same, as peas, beans, oats, barley, rye, maize, buckwheat, rice,
linseed, rapeseed, mandioca, arrowroot, and other vegetables; grains, seeds,
roots, tubers, woods, stalks, leaves, or basses may be employed for different
compounds instead of wheaten flour; sumac, gall nuts, or any substance con-
taining tannine, and salts or acids containing properties similar to alum, may
be employed instead of catechu and caoutchouc; or similar gum resins may
be employed instead of gutta percha for some purpose when the compound
is required to be more elastic; and also resins or resinous substances, copal,
pitch, asphalte, tar, and turpentine may be employed instead of colophane.
Some of the compounds thus obtained way be usefully employed in coating
or lining vessels, or they may be dissolved and used for waterproofing woven
fabrics or materials. They may also be mixed or combined with animal sub-
stances and vegetable fibres, as wool, silk, cotton, linen, paper pulps, bran,
spent tan, and dye woods, paper waste, rags, jute, hemp, straw, hair, horn
shavings; or they may be improved for some purposes by adding to them
silicates, sulphates, or resinates of lime, linseed oil, varnishes, &c., aud may be
spun like glass, producing silky fibres.
These compounds are also peculiarly applicable for the manufacture of
driving bauds or pickers for power looms, but to make them sufficiently hard
for the latter purpose they must be covered with a compound of choudrine or
colline, made insoluble by catechu or other tannine matters, or lime. All kinds
of hides, skins, cloth, or felt may be rendered hard by the application of the
said compounds.
Having thus fully described the nature of the said Invention as com-
municated to me from abroad, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, I desire it to be distinctly understood that I do not confine myself
to the exact proportious of the ingredients herein set forth, as such may be
advantageously varied to suit different purposes; but I claim the application
or mixture of flour, or vegetable substances containing fibrine, cellulose, or
starch, for compounds, with gelatine, choudrine, colline, caseine, resins, soaps,

page_text: tar, asphalte, pitch, oils, and tannine, or tannine substances, for the purposes
herein described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Joseph Hughes, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-seven.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the within-
named Edward Joseph Hughes, in the
presence of
EDWARD T. HUGHES,
E. J. HUGHES. (L.S.)
17, Cross Street, Manchester.