IMPROVED METHOD OF AND PROCESS FOR UTILIZING THE FIBRE OF LALANG GRASS AND CITRONELLA GRASS FOR MAKING PULP TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER, AND ALSO FOR SPINNING INTO THREADS OR ROPES TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CLOTH OR WOVEN FABRICS, OR FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Fisher at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd March 1881.
"
JOHN FISHER, of 40, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex.
IMPROVED METHOD OF AND PROCESS FOR UTILIZING THE FIBRE OF LALANG
GRASS AND CITRONELLA GRASS FOR MAKING PULP TO BE USED IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF PAPER, AND ALSO FOR SPINNING INTO THREADS OR ROPES
TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CLOTH OR WOVEN FABRICS, OR FOR OTHER
PURPOSES."
My Invention has for its object a novel method of and process for utilizing the
fibre of the plants known as lalang grass and cetronella grass, which are abundant
in the Strait's Settlements and other parts of Asia, but the fibre of which has
heretofore been of little or no use, on account of the presence in the plant of a
considerable quantity of gummy or glutinous matter.
In order to render useful for the desired purposes the fibre of the said plants, I
take the leaves or fibrous parts of the plants or grasses and I submit them for a
sufficient length of time, which may vary according to their age and character, to
the action of water heated under pressure and containing in solution a sufficient
proportion of an alkaline material such as caustic soda.
For this purpose I take one or more sufficiently strong closed vessels or boilers,
preferably of wrought iron, having openings through which the material can be
introduced and removed, and through which the liquid can be drawn off as desired.
The leaves or fibrous parts of the lalang and citronella grasses having been
introduced into the vessel together with the alkaline solution, and the openings
having been closed so as to resist internal pressure, the solution is heated either by
the direct action of fire upon the vessel, but preferably by the introduction of
super-heated steam through one or more perforated pipes arranged at or near the
bottom of the vessel. The solvent action of the alkaline solution, aided by the
high temperature obtained by the pressure under which the boiling takes place,
speedily and thoroughly dissolves and removes the gummy and glutinous matters
and woody covering present with the fibres, and leaves the latter clean, soft, and
flexible. The action of the liquid may be facilitated, if desired, by means of
agitators, stirrers, or beaters, arranged to revolve or otherwise operate within the
vessel by steam, hand, or other power.

page_text: The alkaline solution which I use in the manner and for the purpose above
described, may be varied to suit the varying character of the fibrous grasses
operated upon, but I prefer to use a solution of caustic soda in the proportion of
about fourteen pounds to one hundred-weight of the fibrous material. When the
boiling process has been continued sufficiently long, the pressure in the boiler or
vessel is then reduced by allowing the latter to cool, and the fibrous material is
withdrawn and is throughly washed until the alkaline solution has been entirely
removed, either by soaking it in a succession of different waters or preferably by
submitting it to the action of a stream of constantly changing water.
The pure clean fibres remaining are then in a state well adapted for the
manufacture of pulp for paper by beating and disintegrating them in any of the
ordinary well known methods, and using them either alone or in combination
with more or less ordinary paper pulp. Or the cleaned and softened fibres may be
carded or otherwise treated in the usual way, so as to bring them into a condition
to be spun and twisted into threads, which may be used either alone or together
with cotton, flax, or other materials, for the purpose of making rope, or cloth, or
other woven fabrics.
The fibrous material, after having been cleansed and treated in the way first
described, may, if desired, be bleached by the action of chloride of lime, or other
well known means, before being used for the manufacture of paper, threads, or
woven fabrics. And where it is not required that the whole of the gummy and
glutinous matters should be removed from the fibrous materials, the latter may
boiled in the alkaline solution in open vessels at ordinary atmospheric pressure
instead of in closed vessels under great pressure, as first described..
.be
By my Invention the fibrous parts of lalang grass and citronella grass are cheaply
and easily prepared and made available for the manufacture of paper, threads, and
woven fabrics.