IMPROVEMENTS IN BOILING WOOD OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL FOR THE THE ManufactuRE OF PAPER, AND IN THE TREATMENT OF THE WASTE LEYS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Abraham Lee, of the Severn Engineering
Works, Lydney, in the County of Gloucester, for the Invention of
** IMPROVEMENTS IN BOILING WOOD OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL FOR THE
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Abraham Leo
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 21th February 1878.
I, JAMES ABRAHAM LEE, of the Severn Engineering Works, Lydney,
in the County of Gloucester, do hereby declaro tho nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BOILING WOOD OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL
FOR THE ManufactuRE OF PAPER, AND IN THE TREATMENT OF THE WASTE LEYS,”
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in boiling wood or
other fibrous material for the manufacture of paper, and in the treatment

page_text: In boiling fibrous materials under pressure with caustic soda until
the fibre be separated from the resinous matter a certain amount of
acetic acid is produced or liberated. In conducting this process I exhaust
the air from the vessel containing the material to be boiled, and consc-
quently from the material itself, before applying heat, and after admitting
the caustic liquor, by which means the wood or other material becomes
thoroughly charged and saturated with the liquor before boiling. To
the spent ley I add enough acetic acid to convert the romaining freo
alkali into acetate of soda, which has the effect of precipitating the
resinous and carbonaceous matters having a solution of acetate of soda,
which may be evaporated or crystalized or otherwise treated by processes
known to commerce. The solid precipitate from the process can be used
for fuel or other useful purpose. In case market values should give pre-
ference to some result other than acetate of soda the solid matter in the
spent ley may be precipitated by the addition of any acid except carbonic
acid, which only appears to precipitate the carbonaceous refuse, leaving
tho tar and rosin in solution, and the products so obtained treated by the
various methods known to commerce, and the acetic acid could be
extracted in a free state.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Abraham Lee in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 20th August 1878.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
ABRAHAM LEE, of the Severn Engineering Works, Lydney, in the County
of Gloucester, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Abraham Lee, Her special license
that I, tho said James Abraham Lee, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Abraham Leo, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during

page_text: 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 "Ix-
PROVEMENTS IN BOILING WOOD OR OTHER FIBROUS MATERIAL FOR THE MANUFACTURE
5 OF PAPER, AND IN THE TREATMENT OF THE WASTE LEYS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said James Abraham Lec, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describo and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
O samo was.to bo performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Scal Patent Offico within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Abraham Lec, do hereby
declaro 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 improvements in boiling wood or
other fibrous material for the manufacture of paper, and in the treatment
of the waste leys.
In boiling fibrous materials under pressure with caustic soda until the
fibro be separated from the resinous matter a certain amount of acctio
acid is produced or liberated. In conducting this process I exhaust the
air from the vessel containing the material to be boiled, and consequently
from the material itself before applying heat and after admitting the caustic
liquor, by which means tho wood or other material becomes thoroughly
charged and saturated with the liquor before boiling. To the spent loy
I add enough acetic acid to convert the remaining free alkali into acetate
of soda, which has the effect of precipitating the resinous and car-
bonaceous matters, leaving a solution of acetate soda, which may be
evaporated and crystalized or otherwise treated by processes known to
commerce. The solid precipitate from the process can be used for fuel
or other useful purpose. In case market values should give preference
to some result other than acotate of soda the solid matter in the spent
ley may be precipitated by the addition of any other acid except carbonic
acid, which only appears to precipitate the carbonaceous refuse, leaving
the tar and rosin in solution and tho products so obtained treated by the
various methods known to commerce, and the acetic acid could be
extracted in a free stato by the ordinary process of distillation.

page_text: What I claim is the recovery of acetic acid and the acotates that are
produced by the boiling of wood under pressure in caustic soda in the
manner as herein set forth, that is to say, precipitating the resinous
matters with acids or with substances that by chemical decomposition in
the liquor would produce sulphuric acid, such as alum or gypsum, and
then either crystallizing the liquor or distilling it, according as it may be
desirable to produce either acetic acid or acetates.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Abraham Lee, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
JAMES A. LEE. (L.S.)