CEB- TAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
Year: 1840

page_text: DICKINSON'S SPECIFICATION,
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
DICKINSON, of Bedford Row, Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Paper
Manufacturer; send greeting.
1
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-third day of December, in the fourth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself; Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John'
Dickinson, Her especial license; that I, the said John Dickinson, my execu-'
tors, administrator's, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Dickinson,
my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should- and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CEB-
TAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER;" in which said Letters*
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, by an Instrument in writing, under
my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said John Dickinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and
ascertained in the plan hereunto annexed, and the following explanation
thereof, that is to say :-
4
"
My said Invention consists in the sizing of paper continuously, by the mode
of unwinding a scroll of dried paper from a reel or roll of ordinary dimensions,
and conducting the paper through heated size of the ordinary strength, and,
after pressing out the superfluous size, re-winding the same paper on to another
reel, the whole being.. performed in an air-tight vessel, partially exhausted of 1
air in the manner described in the Specification of my Patent for Improve-
ments in the Manufacture of Paper, dated Seventeenth October, One thou-
sand eight hundred and thirty-nine. The apparatus for this process is more
particularly described in the Drawing hereunto annexed, in which Figure 1
represents a longitudinal section." Figure 2 a transverse section. Figure 3.1
a plan; and the same letters of reference are affixed to the different parts of the
apparatus in the three Figures. A is a vessel of cast iron, which has a flanch
round the top, and also a cross bar with a flat wide upper surface. The whole of
this surrounding flanch and cross bar is made smooth and level on the top side.
B. B, are two lids, each of them in the form of half.a hollow cylinder, and the s
bottom side of each of these lids has also a smooth flanch. C, C, are joints, by
means of which the lids may be opened for the purpose of placing and re-
moving the reels of paper D. and E. When the lids are closed they, meet, in
the centre of the before-mentioned cross bar, and it is intended that the surface
of the flanches on, the, lids should be well and accurately fitted to the surface of
the flanch round the top of the vessel A, and also to, the flat surface of the
cross bar, so that when the lids are closed they may fit in such manner as to
prevent any influx of air through the joints or lines of contact. And. in, order
to effect this, more completely, I propose to fix a leather, by way of packing,
between the joints, and to use a small quantity of tallow, and other contrivances
usually adopted for rendering joints air-tight, when so required. It is intended
that the reel D should carry the paper, which, having been previously dried,
is intended for sizing.. This; being fixed in its place, the end of the is
led down below the guide roll, F, and is carried horizontally to a similar guide
roll G, after passing under which it .is.led up through the press rolls H, H,
and the end of it is then;secured to the reel E. This being down the lids are
carefully closed, and the exhaustion of the vessel A may be commenced by the
working of a pair of double-acting air pumps, similar, to what are commonly
used in paper mills, which it is unnecessary to shew here, but..which should be
paper

page_text: of sufficient magnitude and worked 'fast. enough to draw the air out of the
vessel A, so as in a short time to rarify it sufficiently to raise a column of
mercury about 20 inches, or from that to 25:inches, according to the strength
and temperature at which it may be found eligible to use the size. This being
done the influx of hot size should be permitted from a boiler-by means of-a
stopcock, and during the continuance of the sizing process the level of the
size should be maintained about, as shewn in the Drawing Fig. 1 and Fig..";
and for this and other purposes it is requisite. to have a thick piece of plate
glass so fixed, with air-tight joints on each side of the vessel, that the level of
the size-in-the-interior may be watched and regulated; and also that the
exhaustion may not be carried so far as to create a great ebullition of the size;
and for this purpose there should be an inverted safety valve-attached to the
vessel A, and means of regulating the.draught of air. to the air pumps--by a
stopcock in the pipe of communication, and it will be convenient to have
means of regulating the rate of working the air pumps during the sizing process
suitably to the draught of air required. The reel :D has a small pinion on its
spindle, which works into another pinion on a small spindle I, below it, which
passes through the side of the box A through a stuffing box; by means of which
the hole through which it passes is made air tight. The paper being led and
fixed, as above stated, the vessel A exhausted of air, and the size supplied, the
working may be commenced; and; as the reel Dis. unwound, by the paper
being drawn from it, it causes the spindle I to revolve; and upon the spindle. I
there is' fixed, on the outer side of the vessel. A,.a slipping.motion R; by means
of which the spindle can be made to act as a drag: upon the reel :D, and
cause a tension of the paper as it is drawn from it, and this tension may be
regulated on the outside of the vessel according to any adjustment required
by the well-known operation of the slipping motion. The réel E has a motion
communicated to it by a spindle K, which is driven from any convenient power
by a drum W in the centre of an adjustable slipping. motion; similar to those
in common use in paper mills, and this spindle Kalso works through a stuffing
box so as to prevent the influx of air into the: vessel A by the' hole through
which it passes. The press rolls H, H, are covered in the usual manner. with
fine roll clothing, and are driven; byrany convenient means at such rate per
minute as may be found suitable to the substance of the paper and other cir-
cumstances; and the motion is communicated by: the spindle; of one of them
passing through the side of the vessel A; and through a stuffing box, also X, as
in the other two cases, and when in action one rolledrives the other with the
paper between them, according to the usual mode: of pressing paper. The,
rate of the paper travelling is determined by the speed given to the press.

page_text: rolls H, H, for they alone carry it forward, the reel Emerely having sufficient
movement communicated to it for winding the paper. tightly on to its surface
as the press rolls deliver it, and there should be means of adjusting the rate of
the latter from ten feet up to forty feet per minute, according to the substance
and other circumstances of the paper. The press roll H 1 is made to shift,
and to be easily drawn away from or pressed towards the other by an action
outside communicating also to the interior through stuffing boxes. The
spindle L has, two mitre wheels, which work into two similar wheels on the
socket spindles M, M, which have the power of revolving, but are so fixed in
their bearings by collars that they cannot move, endways, and they pass
through stuffing boxes to the interior of the vessel A, and the bearings, of the
press roll H 1 have each a screwed tail S, S, which are received into a female
screw in the socket of the spindles M, M; so that by turning the spindle L
those sockets are turned uniformly with it, and the press roll H 1 is moved
by the screws to and from the other press 5 roll so
as to adjust the pressure, and
still always keeping the press rolls parallel. The paper may be prevented from
wrinkling or bagging in passing through the size from the guide roll F to
the guide roll G, by a well-known process of causing it to draw or slip over a
board or copper plate, with ribs diverging from the centre at an angle of about
forty-five degrees, by which means the paper is supported and gradually ex-
tended as it expands. in soaking. The vessel. A should be furnished with a
barometrical gauge to shew the degree of exhaustion, and also a thermometer to
shew the temperature of the size, which may average about 120°, or rather
above that heat, so as there be not any considerable ebullition, T is merely
a float suspended to the cross bar of vessel A, but which is four inches distant
from the sides; it is for the purpose of diminishing the surface of size exposed
to evaporation. The vessel A should be lined with lead or copper, and the
lids are formed of strong hammer'd copper, supported by external ribs of iron.
The dimensions will admit of considerable variation, and in particular .the
width of the vessel A, reels, press rolls, &c., will require to be suited to the
paper the machine is required to size. V is an enclos'd space under the bottom
of the vessel A, into which steam or hot water is introduced, as requir'd for
raising the temperature of the size. Thin papers, and such as soak easily, will
imbibe sufficient size in passing a less distance thro' it than as shewn in the
section Fig. 1, and that may be carried into effect by fixing the roll F
near the centre of the vessel A, and unwinding the paper from the reverse side
of the reel D to that shewn in the section Fig. 1. In the event of such a
change being occasionally adopted, the float T would require to be of reduc'd
size and differently suspended; and the part of the vessel A under reel D should

page_text: be partition'd off, so that the size could not flow into it, in order to limit as
much as possible the surface of size expos'd to evaporation.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Dickinson, have hereunto set my
band and seal; the Twenty-third day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
JOHN (L.B.) DICKINSON.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of June, in the
fifth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said John
Dickinson came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
continued and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Twenty-third day of June, One thousand eight hundred and
p.forty-one."