IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURE OF INDIA-RUBBER."-Partly THE TREATMENT AND communication.
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Goodyear, of Saint John's Wood, in
the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MANUFACTURE OF INDIA-RUBBER."-Partly
THE
TREATMENT AND
communication.
Sealed the 11th March 1854, and dated the 16th December 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Goodyear
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 16th December 1853.
I, CHARLES GOODYEAR, of Saint John's Wood, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT AND MANUFACTURE OF INDIA-RUBBER" to
be as follows:-
Of late years a very large manufacture of india-rubber, combined
with sulphur and acted on by heat, has grown up in this and other
countries, such india-rubber being known as vulcanized or changed
india-rubber, & which is not soluble in the ordinary solvents; nor is
there any mode by which the cuttings and used vulcanized india-rubber
can be readily and conveniently re-worked. Now the Invention has for

page_text: its object means of working up and re-using vulcanized or changed
india-rubber, and consists of masticating vulcanized or changed india-
rubber with natural or unvulcanized india-rubber.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Goodyear in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 15th June 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
CHARLES GOODYEAR, of Saint John's Wood, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters. Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs. and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Goodyear, Her
special licence that I, the said Charles Goodyear, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Good-
year, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no other 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 TREATMENT AND MANUFACTURE OF INDIA-RUBBER,"
partly a communication, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Charles Goodyear, by an instrument in writing under my 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 Charles Goodyear, 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):-

page_text: Of late years a very large manufacture of india-rubber, combined
with sulphur and acted on by heat, has grown up in this and other
countries, such india-rubber being known as vulcanized or changed
india-rubber, and which is not soluble in the ordinary solvents; nor is
there any mode by which the cuttings and used vulcanized india-rubber
can be readily and conveniently re-worked. Now my Invention has
for its object means of working up and re-using vulcanized or changed
india-rubber, and consists of masticating vulcanized or changed india-
rubber with natural or unvulcauized india-rubber..
Having thus stated the nature of the said Iuvention, I will proceed
to describe the manner of performing the same:-The old or waste
vulcanized or changed india-rubber is first reduced to a finely divided
state before it is mixed and combined with india-rubber which has not
been vulcanized. This reduction may be done in any convenient
manner; but I prefer to employ a paper engine for the purpose, and to
treat the india-rubber therein in like manner to that in which rags
and other matters are reduced to pulp. If the vulcanized india-rubber
consists of pieces of sheets, they may be at once introduced into the
If the vul-
engine with water, and reduced to a fine state of division.
canized or changed india-rubber is in lumps or blocks, then I reduce
When the vulcanized india-rubber
them by cutting them into slices.
has been reduced to as fine a state of division as may be, I mix the
same with raw india-rubber by masticating them together; this may
be conveniently done by passing them together many times through
between pressing rollers and repeatedly folding the sheets produced till
as uniform a combination has been produced as may be, in like manner
to what has been heretofore practised when masticating india-rubber
and combining therewith other matters. The combined product of
india-rubber and vulcanized india-rubber thus obtained is then to have
mixed with it as much sulphur (or matters which will give off products
of sulphur on applying heat) as would be used for vulcanizing the
quantity of raw or fresh india-rubber that is contained in the combined
mass, and the compound is then in a state suitable to be rolled into
sheets or made up into articles, and subjected to the process of heat, as
is well understood for vulcanizing india-rubber combined with sulphur

page_text: or matters giving off products of sulphur on applying heat thereto. If
the india-rubber is to be used in making hard compounds, then the
quantity of sulphur used is to be at such a rate as to make up about
one third by weight of the whole mass of india-rubber.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, I would
remark that I do not confine myself to the means herein described of
reducing the vulcanized or changed iudia-rubber to a fine state of
division, nor to the means of mixing and masticating the same with
raw or unvulcanized india-rubber. But what I claim is, the cof-
bining vulcanized or changed india-rubber with raw or unvulcanized or
chaned in dia-rubber, as herein explained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Goodyear, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of June, in the
year
of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
FRED HARRIS.
CHARLES GOODYEAR. (L.S.)