PRODUCING IMITATIONS OF AND SUBSTITUTES FOR WOOD, IVORY, STONE, AND OTHER HARD SUBSTANCES APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF BILLIARD BALLS AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd August 1869.-A communication from abroad by David Blake,
of Albany, State of New York, United States of America.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "PRODUCING IMITATIONS OF AND SUBSTITUTES FOR WOOD, IVORY,
STONE, AND OTHER HARD SUBSTANCES APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF
BILLIARD BALLS AND OTHER ARTICLES," a communication to me from abroad
by David Blake, of Albany, State of New York, United States of
America," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the production of imitations of or substitutes
for wood, ivory, stone, and other hard substances, and especially appli-
cable to the manufacture of billiard balls and other like articles.
In carrying out this Invention I take any kind of fibrous vegetable,
animal, or even mineral matter, such, for instance, as flock paper,
leather chips, or asbestos, and reduce the same to a very fine state so

page_text: that the particles can be intimately and thoroughly mixed with a
pulverized, cementing, or agglutinizing substance.
The improvements in the employment of ivory dust, bone dust, or
other suitable powdered substances in conjunction with an aggluti-
nating substance, such, for example, as a solution of pyroxiline, and then
placing the compound so formed into moulds, where it is subjected to
heat and great pressure. In order to improve the appearance and
quality of the surface of the billiard ball or other article I sometimes
apply a coating of pyroxiline and some of its compounds; this coating
may be applied either by dipping the ball into a solution of the pyroxiline
colored by the addition of any suitable coloring matter or by moulding
the same on to the surface of the ball, or the coloring matter may be
subsequently applied.
My process of moulding is as follows:-I first take the soluble gun
cotton and dissolve it in ether and alcohol or any of its known solvents,
using only enough of the solvents to make the mass into a thick plastic
state. I then employ a cylinder which contains a forcing piston. The
plastic mass is placed in the cylinder between the piston and the head
of the cylinder; in the head of the cylinder is a nozzle leading into a
mould of a suitable size and shape. During the operation of moulding
the piston is forced by any suitable application of power (such as a screw
or lever) against the plastic mass, forcing it through the nozzle into the
mould attached thereto and containing the article to be coated. For
billiard balls the mould is formed with a smooth and spherical cavity of
proper size, and is made to part in sections to allow the moulded ball to
be removed in the side of the mould. Opposite the orifice connecting with
the nozzle on the cylinder I place three adjustable pins or set screws,
against the ends of which the ball rests so as to be kept equidistant from
all sides of the mould while the plastic mass is being forced into the mould
and around the ball so as to ensure an even thickness of the coating on the
entire surface. At a point opposite the inlet of the mould I have a vent
hole to allow the air in the mould and a portion of the plastic mass to
pass out so that the coating may become perfectly united; after this
the vent is closed, and the adjustable pins or set screws are retracted till
their ends are flush with the interior surface of the mould, when a slight
additional pressure will fill the cavities left by the ends of the adjustable
pins, thus making the coating perfect and entire. For many articles

page_text: besides billiard balls which do not require to be coated on the entire
surface the article may be kept in proper place without the aid of
adjustable pins. After the moulded coating of the billiard ball is allowed
to harden it is turned and polished.
My Invention further relates to the production of solid compounds
consisting of xyloidine or soluble gun cotton in conjunction with
pigments, ivory dust, asbestos, or any of the before-mentioned ingredients
by admixing the same when in a finely divided state either in a wet or
dry condition, and when the admixture has been effected in the wet
state then the resulting mixture is to be dried and the resulting materials
are to be placed in suitable moulds or forms, and when under pressure
the vapour of or the solvents of xyloidine are to be admitted so that their
solvent action may be exercised upon the xyloidine and thus affect
the solidification of the ingredients into the desired form.