IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER AND IN SIZING THEREFOR
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Tomlinson Bousfield at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 6th April 1869.-A communication from abroad by Zenas Crane
Warren, of Brooklyn, in the State of New York, United States of
America.
I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton,
in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER AND IN SIZING
THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
Previous to this Invention it has been customary to size fine papers
with animal size prepared either from glue or from scraps of raw hide
and similar articles. The expense of such sizing is a material part of
the cost of manufacturing paper, and the effect of such size upon the
paper is to cause it to contract materially in the subsequent operation of
drying.
The object of this Invention is to reduce the expense of sizing the
paper and also to lessen the contraction in drying after sizing. To this
end the first part of the Invention consists of a composite sizing con-

page_text: taining sago (or equivalent starchy matter) and nitric acid as component
parts with or without animal glue. The second part of the Invention
consists of the combination of the said composite sizing with paper, the
combination when formed constituting a new article of sized paper.
In order that the Invention may be fully understood I will proceed to
describe the mode in which it has been practised with success.
To prepare a composite sizing suitable for sizing fine writing papers
the following materials are used in the following proportions, viz. :-
Sago flour
Glue
Nitric acid (commercial)
Aqua ammonia (commercial)
Carbolic acid (crystallized)
700 lbs.
-
300
"
-
15
"
-
10
"
3 oz.
The glue is soaked in cold water, and then the excess of water which
has not been absorbed by the glue is poured off. The nitric acid is
stirred into 1,400 lbs. of cold water, and then the sago flour is stirred into
said water together with the carbolic acid. The mixture is heated as
rapidly as possible to the boiling point, and the soaked glue is added to
it as soon as the heat has risen sufficiently to keep the sago flour
suspended in the water. When the mixture arrives at the boiling point
it is boiled for thirty minutes (more or less as found expedient) and then
the aqua ammonia is stirred into it. The composite sizing thus pro-
duced is to be thinned with water by the aid of heat before it is combined
with the paper; it may be so thinned by adding to it while hot water in
the proportion of three quarts of water for each two pounds of sizing, and 2
by heating the mass to the boiling point and stirring it until an equable
solution is produced. The solution is kept hot, say at a temperature of
about 125° of Fahrenheit or more, and the paper is passed through it in
the same manner and by the same means as are employed by paper
makers in the operation of what is called "tub sizing." The paper so
treated is subsequently dried and finished in the same manner as when
sized with the ordinary animal sizing.
When the composite sizing is not to be combined at once with the
paper it is preferred to prepare the sizing in the following manner :-
The glue is soaked as before described and is then heated in the water 3
until it is dissolved therein. The solution is permitted to cool down
until it is about milk warm, say about 100° F., and then the nitric acid
is stirred in. Immediately afterwards the sago flour is stirred into the

page_text: solution, and the whole is heated until the mass becomes thick, but not
long enough to effect the solution of the sago flour. The sizing is then
permitted to cool, or the carbolic acid may be first added to it, and then
it may be permitted to cool. When the sizing is to be combined with
the paper water is added to the sizing in the proportions before mentioned
and the mixture is heated to the boiling point until the material is
dissolved in the water, then the thinned material so produced may be
combined with the paper as before stated. The aqua ammonia in this
case need not be added, because the excess (if any there be) of nitric acid
cither passes off with the steam produced by boiling or ceases to be
detrimental.
The two essential elements of the composite sizing are the sago flour,
or some equivalent starchy material, and the nitric acid, or some
equivalent which produces substantially the same useful effect as that
acid does upon starch, the useful effect of that acid in the preparation
of the composite sizing being the rendering of it liquid, so that it can be
freely applied to the paper notwithstanding the comparatively small
quantity of water used in its preparation. The effect of the ammonia
is to neutralize any free acid that may exist in the mixture, and it
may be omitted if this result is not required. The effect of the car-
bolic acid is to preserve the composite sizing from spoiling in case it
be kept before using; if the article is to be used immediately the carbolic
acid is not required. In practice it has been found convenient to heat
the mixture of materials and boil it in a tub by the use of a coil of steam
pipe; the heating and boiling may, however, be conveniently effected in
any other competent manner, as, for example, by introducing steam
directly into the mixture, but in this latter case the quantity of cold
water used, should be reduced as the condensed steam unites with the
mixture, the reduction being made equal or thereabouts to the water
derived from the condensation of the steam.
In practice it is proposed to vary the proportions of the ingredients
as circumstances render expedient. For example, a composite sizing
sufficiently good for sizing second class papers may be produced by
omitting the glue and substituting an equal weight of sago flour in its
place. It is also proposed to use equivalent materials for the sago flour
if found expedient; thus, for example, potato starch may be substituted
for the sago flour, but in this case it has been found necessary first to
dissolve such starch in the smallest quantity practicable of water by the

page_text: aid of heat, then to dry the article at a temperature of about 140° of
Fahrenheit, so as to produce an article resembling in its qualities pearl
sago, and lastly to grind the dried article to powder. The starch flour
thus prepared may be substituted for the sago flour.
What is claimed as the Invention to be secured by Letters Patent
is, the composite sizing for paper herein-before described containing
starch material and nitric acid as constituent ingredients; also the com-
bination of the said composite sizing (containing starch material and
nitric acid as constituent ingredients) and paper as described, the whole
constituting a new article of sized paper.