Improvements in or appertaining to the Utilisation of a Waste or Nearly Waste Product, and the Manufacture of a Useful Gum or Gummy Compound therefrom.
Year: 1894

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or appertaining to the Utilisation of a Waste or
Nearly Waste Product, and the Manufacture of a Useful Gum or
Gummy Compound therefrom.
1, PETER CAMERON DOUGLAS CASTLE of 7 Temple Street, Liverpool in the
County of Lancaster, Secretary and Manager of The Gum Tragasol Supply Co.
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Letters Patent No. 8793 of 1893 have been granted to me, John Hanson and
James Henry Morrison jointly for the production of a gum or gummy compound
which will supersede gum tragacanth, size and other materials in sizing or
lubricating yarns for weaving cloth, putting the finish or gloss on cloth, also for
use instead of other gums or size in colour printing and dyeing.
The object of the present invention is to greatly improve this gum or gummy
compound which as stated in the Specification of said prior Patent is obtained
from the kernels or beans from the pods of the locust or carob tree, ceratonia
siliqua, a species of acacia and moreover to reduce the time required for
manufacture.
In carrying out my invention, the best procedures known to me for extracting
the gum are as follows, I take the kernels or beans and wash them quite free from
the last vestige of the saccharine matter which adheres to them, then split them in
two and the germ which lies in the centre of the bean got rid of. The split beans
or kernels are then by one process used without removal of the cuticle or husk or
by another process the split halves or cotyledons are used after removal of the
cuticle.
By the first process, I place the kernels in a steam-jacketted vat which may be
lined with lead, aluminium, or silver and then proceed as follows:-
To 100 lbs. of kernels, I add 200 gallons of boiling water stirring the whole
with the mixing machinery in the vat for two or three minutes and then letting
the whole stand for at least half an hour or a little longer according to the
quality, age or freshness of the beans, then again stirring for a few minutes,
repeating the stirring at intervals during a period of from 2 to 3 hours. The
temperature being kept up at from 160 to 180° Fahrenheit, according to the
quality, age, or freshness of the bean a little more or less time as experience showy
to be necessary.
The muss is then run into a beater below the vat and agitated by powerful
machinery which extracts a still further quantity of the gum and whilst still
warm the whole is run out by degrees into a hydro extractor which is driven
by steam up to 1000 revolutions per minute. The gum of the consistency of a
thick cream is there separated from the remaining portion of the kernels and run
into a large wooden vat which contains wooden agitators; the kernels being again
placed in another vat to have the remainder of the gum extracted as hereinafter
described.
When as much gum as is required has been run into the wooden vat or the first
:

page_text: ruuning from 100 lbs. run through the extractor it may be left there until the
second running is completed as follows.―
The partially exhausted kernels are again placed in the same or another vat and
100 gallons up to 150 gallons according to the quality of the bean added to them
boiling. But it is safer to put the smaller quantity of water at first and add to it
as experience alone can show. The steeping and stirring at intervals are continued
from three to four hours at the temperature of from 160 to 180° Fahrenheit
and then run off and treated precisely as in the case of the first running
with which it can either be mixed or further treated by itself as hereinafter
described.
To the gum now in the wooden vat is added carbolic acid in the proportion of
1 part to 1000 parts and slowly agitated by wooden agitators driven by an eccentric
gearing or in any way found suitable until it is seen that the acid is thoroughly
incorporated with the gum. It is then run into a wooden tank which is covered
with silks, such as are used in flour dressing in order to extract any specks of the
cuticle which the hydro extractor has failed to retain, and is then ready for the
final operation in this process. This tank has an outlet into a cylindrical steam
jacketted mixer made of iron, lined with lead, tiu, aluminium or silver, having two
mixers or beaters, the shafts and flanges of which are made of solid aluminium.
The gum is run into this mixer and to the total quantity there is added 5 per cent.
of the finest quality of farina, preferably that made from wheat which has been
previously mixed with a small quantity of the gum to the consistency of thick
cream. The whole is then heated by steam up to but not exceeding 180 Fah. and
kept continuously stirred with the aluminium stirrers for from 20 to 25 minutes.
When still at from 160 to 180° Fah. there is added by hand pure hydrochloric
acid about 1 part to 1000 parts and rapidly stirred until the whole mass is of as
uniform a consistency as the original gum. The action of the two acids will be
found to effect this thoroughly. It will also be found that a large proportion of
the hydrochloric acid has been evaporated whilst the carbolic acid is retained as an
antiseptic.
The mass whilst still hot is run out of this mixer into casks placed below it
and sets into a firm paste which contains 95% gum and only 5% farina and this
substance will keep for any length of time without producing mould or any fungoid
growth and is chiefly used for heavy sizing of cotton and woollen yarns or other
textile fabrics.
It may be found useful to vary the proportion of farina up to 10 and 12% of
the entire mass where heavy loading is required.
Any of these combinations will act as a size and assimilate with any other
substance used for loading when boiled together in the sizing machines, and will
work without tallow or with a smaller proportion of that article than is at present.
in use and is equal and in certain respects superior to gum tragacanth which is
much more expensive.
The foregoing description relates to my process without excision of the cuticle
or husk, and I will now proceed to describe the process and results in making the
gum from the cleaned cotyledons, it being understood that the vessels and linings
are the same as in the first process. I place say 100 lbs. of the clean kernels in
vat No. 1 adding to good fresh material 200 gallons boiling water, stirring the
same at intervals of hour for 2 hours and then adding 65 to 70 gallons boiling
water and stirring at intervals of 15 minutes for 3 hours or thereby, when
the whole will be found to be one homogeneous mass and ready for the next
operation.
During the first 3 hours of above steeping, it is better to cover, or partially
cover, the vat and then remove the cover during the final 24 hours or thereby.
The temperature during the whole process need not be over 180 after the boiling
water has fallen to that heat. The mass will now be further beaten up whilst hot
in the powerful beater as in the first process and then passed into a press con-
structed somewhat like a hop press, but of cone shape lined with tin, lead,

page_text: aluminium or silver and perforated all round and covered with suitable wire
through which the gum passes into the mixing wooden tank, the still imperfectly
extracted kernels being put aside for further use as hereinafter described.
The gum thus extracted sets a firm bright yellowish jelly not unlike fine gum
arabic solution, and when not to be used in textile or other kindred uses
hereafter mentioned is of great value in culinary confectionery compounding of
boluses and other medical uses and in various other ways. But when to be used
as in sizing and other textile preparations it is run into the wooden mixing vat
where it is slowly agitated as hereinbefore described and mixed with the same
proportion of carbolic acid as in process No. 1. It is then filled into casks or
other vessels and is ready for use.
The unexhausted kernels are now placed in vat No. 2 and to the entire residue
are added 100 gallons of boiling water. The vat being uncovered and stirring at
intervals for 4 hours or thereby during which time with the temperature at about
180° Fah. great evaporation will have taken place and the whole mass is then
ready to be run into the press and the gum squeezed out leaving the entire woody
fibre in the press.
This last running is a beautifully clear gelatinous gum and can be used as in
the same way and for the same purposes as the first running, but is of especial
value for sizing, dressing, and finishing the finer cotton fabrics and also linen and
silk. It is also superior to any known substance for thickening colours in
calico and other printing. When necessary it is also antiseptised as in the first
extraction.
I have also discovered that by taking either or both the above described
extractions of the gum when cold and placing them in the cylindrical iron mixer
as described in our first process and adding thereto a further quantity of carbolic
acid (Calvert's No. 5) of 1 part to 1000 or rather more and violently beating the
same with the aluminium stirrers I change the gum into a milky white emulsion
which is even softer and more slippery than the original gum, which is a valuable
substitute for tallow in sizing and other kindred operations.
Any and all of these products can, when desirable, be solidified as stated in my
original Patent aforesaid. The residuum from either of the processes not being
touched with any of the acids used can be adopted for animal feeding either alone
or mixed with other feeding substances. I also extract valuable ayes from the
cnticle.
The gum is also of use in papermaking and kindred manufactures.
Dated this 19th day of December 1894.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, Patent Agents for the Applicant.
COME LEIE
Improvements in or appertaining to the Utilisation of a Waste or
Nearly Waste Product, and the Manufacture of a Useful Gum
or Gummy Compound therefrom.
1, PETER CAMERON DOUGLAS CASTLE of 7, Temple Street, Liverpool in the
County of Lancaster, Secretary and Manager of The Gum Tragasol Supply Co. do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
Statement:-
Letters Patent No. 8793 of 1893 have been granted to me, John Hanson and
James Henry Morrison jointly for the production of a gum or gummy compound.

page_text: which will supersede gum tragacanth, size and other materials in sizing or
lubricating yarns for weaving cloth, putting the finish or gloss on cloth, also
for use instead of other gums or size in colour printing and dyeing. In this Patont
a process was set forth which sometimes failed and sometimes succeeded, the
differences being without apparent cause. After a vast number of experiments
I discovered that if the gum be heated beyond 180° Fahrenheit it was greatly
injured in property while unless the material were heated to about 160°, the gum
would not dissolve out at all and that it is only by maintaining the heat between
these two narrow limits that a good result is achieved. In some cases too it was
found that a fungoid growth started on the gum, the present improvements are
partly to prevent this.
The object of the present invention is to greatly improve this gum or gummy
compound which as stated in the Specification of said prior Patent is obtained
from the kernels or beans from the pods of the locust or carob tree, ceratonia
siliqua, a species of acacia and moreover to reduce the time required for
manufacture.
In carrying out my invention, the best procedures known to me for extracting
the gum are as follows, I take the kernels or beans and wash them quite free from
the last vestige of the saccharine matter which adheres to them, then split
them in two and the germ which lies in the centre of the bear got rid of. The
split beans or kernels are then by one process used without removal of the cuticle
or husk or by another process the split halves or cotyledons are used after reinoval
of the cuticle.
By the first process, I place the kernels in a steam jacketted vat A shown in
Figs. 1 & 2 of the accompanying drawing which may be lined with lead,
aluminium, or silver and then proceed as follows:-
To 100 lbs. of kernels, I add 200 gallons of boiling water stirring the whole
with the mixing machinery in the vat for two or three minutes and then letting
the whole stand for at least half an hour or a little longer according to the quality,
age or freshness of the beans, then again stirring for a few minutes, repeating the
stirring at intervals during a period of from 2 to 3 hours. The temperature
being kept up at from 160° to 180° Fahrenheit, according to the quality, age, or
freshness of the bean a little more or less time as experience shows to be necessary.
The mass is then run into a beater or mixer B below the vat A. and agitated by
powerful machinery which extracts a still further quantity of the gum and whilst
still warm the whole is run out by degrees into a hydro extractor C which is driven
by steam up to 1000 revolutions per minute. The gum of the consistency of a
thick cream is there separated from the remaining portion of the kernels and run
into a large wooden vat D Figs. 3 & 4 which coutains wooden agitators E, the
kernels being again placed in another vat to have the remainder of the gum
extracted as hereinafter described.
When as much gum as is required has been run into the wooden vat or the first
running from 100 lbs. run through the extractor it may be left there until the
second running is completed as follows:-
The partially exhausted kernels are again placed in the same or another vat and
100 gallons up to 150 gallons of water according to the quality of the bean added
to them boiling. But it is safer to put the smaller quantity of water at first and
add to it as experience alone can show. The steeping and stirring at intervals
are continued from three to four hours at the temperature of from 160 to
180° Fahrenheit aud then run off and treated precisely as in the case of the first
running with which it can either be mixed or further treated by itself as herein-
after described.
To the gum now in the wooden vat D is added carbolic acid in the proportion
of 1 part to 1000 parts and slowly agitated by the wooden agitators E driven by
an eccentric gearing or in any way found suitable until it is seen that the acid is
thoroughly incorporated with the gum. It is then run into a wooden tank F,
Figure 5, provided at about half its depth with a false bottom or grating G on

page_text: which rests a skeleton frame H lined with silks, such as are used in flour dressing
in order to extract any specks of the cuticle which the hydro extractor has failed
to retain, and is then ready for the final operation in this process. The drawing
shows the frame H raised off the grating for the sake of clearness. This tank F
has an outlet into a steam jacketted mixer I, Figures 6 and 7, made of iron, lined
with lead, tin, aluminium or silver, having two mixers or beaters J, the shafts and
flanges of which are made of solid aluminium. The gum is run into this mixer
and to the total quantity there is added 5 per cent. of the finest quality of farina,
preferably that made from wheat which has been previously mixed with a small
quantity of the gum to the consistency of thick cream. The whole is then heated
by steam up to but not exceeding 180° Fah. and kept continuously stirred with the
aluminium stirrers for from 20 to 25 minutes. When still at from 160° to
180° Fah. there is added by hand pure hydrochloric acid about 1. part to
1000 parts and rapidly stirred until the whole mass is of as uniform a con-
sistency as the original gum. The action of the two acids will be found to
ffect this thoroughly. It will also be found that a large proportion of the
hydrochloric acid has been evaporated whilst the carbolic acid is retained as an
antiseptic.
The mass whilst still hot is run out of this mixer into casks placed below it and
sets into a firm paste which contaius 95% gum and only 5% farina and this
substance will keep for any length of time without producing mould or any
fungoid growth and is chiefly used for heavy sizing of cotton and woollen yarns or
other textile fabrics.
.
It may be found useful to vary the proportion of farina up to 10 and 12% of
the entire mass where heavy loading is required.
Any of these combinations will act as a size and assimilate with any other
substance used for loading when boiled together in the sizing machines, and will
work without tallow or with a smaller proportion of that article than is at present
in use and is equal and in certain respects superior to gum tragacanth which is
much more expensive.
The foregoing description relates to my process without excision of the cuticle
or husk, and I will now proceed to describe the process and results in making the
gum from the cleaned cotyledons, it being understood that the vessels and linings
are the same as in the first process. I place say 100 lbs. of the clean kernels in
vat No. 1 adding to good fresh material 200 gallons boiling water, stirring the
same at intervals of hour for 2 hours and then adding 65 to 70 gallons boiling
water and stirring at intervals of 15 minutes for 3 hours or thereby, when
the whole will be found to be one homogeneous mass and ready for the next
operation.
:
During the first 3 hours of above steeping, it is better to cover, or partially
cover, the vat and then remove the cover during the final 2 hours or thereby.
The temperature during the whole process need not be over 180° after the boiling
water has fallen to that heat. The mass will now be further beaten up whilst hot
in the powerful beater as in the first process and then passed into a press
constructed somewhat like a hop press, but approximately of the shape shown in
Fig. 8. lined with tin, lead, aluminium or silver and perforated all round and then
covered with suitable wire through which the gum passes out of the press and into
the mixing wooden tank D, the still imperfectly extracted kernels being put aside
for further use as hereinafter described.
Referring to the press shown in Figure 8, K is the perforated receptacle, L the
plunger which passes through a stuffing box M and is operated by screw or
hydraulic power or in any other well known manner.
The gun thus extracted sets a firm bright yellowish jelly not unlike fine gum
arabic solution, and when not to be used in textile or other kindred uses hereafter
mentioned is of great value in culinary confectionery compounding of boluses and
other medical uses and in various other ways. But when to be used as in sizing

page_text: and other textile preparations it is run into the wooden mixing vat where it is
slowly agitated as hereinbefore described and mixed with the same proportion of
carbolic acid as in process No. 1. It is then filled into casks or other vessels and is
ready for use.
The unexhausted kernels are now placed in vat No. 2 and to the entire residue
are added 100 gallons of boiling water. The vat being uncovered and stirring at
intervals for 4 hours or thereby during which time with the temperature at about
180° Fah. great evaporation will have taken place and the whole mass is then ready
to be run into the press and the gum squeezed out leaving the entire woody fibre in
the press.
This last running is a beautifully clear gelatinous gum and can be used as in the
same way and for the same purposes as the first running, but is of especial value
for sizing, dressing, and finishing the finer cotton fabrics and also linen and
silk. It is also superior to any known substance for thickening colours in
calico and other printing. When necessary it is also antiseptised as in the first
extraction.
It should be explained that whilst I can by either of the aforementioned
processes obtain a gum solution which sets solid and keeps sweet and free from
mould or any fungoid growth for any length of time, I can also by evaporation
obtain a solid gum-(1) by continually stirring in an open vat at a temperature not
exceeding 180° Fahrenheit; or (2) by the use of vacuum condensors in which the
various solutions can be boiled at a much lower temperature than that of boiling
water 212° Fahrenheit, but it is to be particularly observed that in neither case
must the solution be heated much over 180° Fahrenheit because if so heated the
gum, whether as a thick jelly or as a solid, becomes lumpy and of unequal density
throughout.
I have also discovered that by taking either or both the above described
extractions of the gum when cold and placing them in the cylindrical iron
mixer as described in our first process and adding thereto a further quantity of
carbolic acid (Calvert's No. 5) of 1 part to 1000 or rather more and violently
beating the same with the aluminium stirrers change the gum into a milky
white emulsion which is even softer and more slippery than the original gum,
which is a valuable substitute for tallow in sizing and other kindred operations.
Any and all of these products can when desirable be solidified as stated in my
original Patent aforesaid. The residuum from either of the processes not being
touched with any of the acids used can be adopted for animal feeding either
alone or mixed with other feeding substances. I also extract valuable dyes from
the cuticle.
The gum is also of use in paper making and kindred manufactures.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
1. The treatment of the carob kernels characterised by depriving them of their
husks and germs, and heating them in water at such a temperature (namely
from 160° to 180° Fahrenheit but not higher) as will dissolve out the gum
without dissolving other and deleterious ingredients or disintegrating the
solid matter or injuring the gum (all of which actions take place above
180° Fahrenheit) and conemati
L
1:1

page_text: 4. The improvement in the process substantially as described in Claim 1, the
agitation of the gum with air and carbolic acid whereby a white emulsion is.
obtained that will keep for long periods and which is very different in appearance
and lubricating qualities from the original gum.
Dated this 21st day of September 1895.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and London, Patent Agents..