IMPROVEMENTS IN DISINTEGRATING AND PULPING VEGETABLE SUB- STANCES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Watt, of 15, Selwood Place, Old
Brompton, and Hugh Burgess, of 7, Percy Street, Bedford
Square, both in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DISINTEGRATING AND PULPING VEGETABLE SUB-
STANCES
Sealed the 27th October 1853, and dated the 19th August 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Watt and
Hugh Burgess at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 19th August 1853.
We, CHARLES WATT, of 15, Selwood Place, Old Brompton, and
HUGH BURGESS, of 7, Percy Street, Bedford Square, both in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of our Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN DISINTEGRATING AND PULPING VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES" to
be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object better means than those at present
practised for disintegrating and pulping vegetable substances for the
manufacture of paper and other fabrics; for which purpose we take, for

page_text: instance, chips, shavings of wood, or sawdust, and boil for some hours
in water. A stream of sulphurous acid is passed through the mass till a
partial bleaching is effected. The matters are then well washed, and
placed in a solution of chlorine, chloric or chlorous acid, called also
the peroxide & protoxide of chlorine. The matters are kept in the
solution till quite white, and the fibres are disintegrated. Or we
employ chloride of sodium decomposed by electric agency. After the
above treatment we heat the fibrous mass in a warm and dilute solution
of caustic soda or potash.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Watt and Hugh Burgess in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 18th February 1854.
TO ALL. TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
CHARLES WATT, of 15, Selwood Place, Old Brompton, and HuGH
BURGESS, of 7, Percy Street, Bedford Square, both in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth 1 year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Charles Watt and Hugh Burgess,
Her special licence that we, the said Charles Watt and Hugh
Burgess, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said Charles Watt and Hugh Burgess, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN DISINTEGRATING AND PULPING VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that we, the said Charles Watt and Hugh

page_text: Burgess, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or S
under the hand and seal of one of us, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Watt, on behalf of
myself and the said Hugh Burgess, do hereby declare 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 better means than those at present
practised for disintegrating and pulping vegetable substances for the
manufacture of paper and other fabrics; for which purpose we take, for
instance, chips, shavings of wood, or sawdust, and boil for some hours
in water. A stream of sulphurous acid is passed through the mass till
a partial bleaching is effected. The matters are then well washed, and
placed in a solution of chlorine, chloric or chlorous acid, called also the
peroxide and protooxide of chlorine. The matters are kept in the
solution till quite white, and the fibres are disintegrated. Or we employ
chloride of sodium decomposed by electric agency. After the above
treatment we heat the fibrous mass in a warm and dilute solution of
caustic soda or potash.
Having thus stated the nature of our said Invention, we will proceed
to describe the manner of performing the same. The wood or
vegetable substances upon which it is intended to operate by this
process should first be reduced to very fine shavings or cuttings, the
liner the better. This may be done in any suitable machine. The
shavings are then to be boiled in a solution of caustic alkali, the
strength of which, being dependant on the nature of the vegetable
substance operated on, can only be learned by experience. For deal or
fir wood, we find that a solution of alkali of the strength indicated by
12° of the English hydrometer answers very well. The length of time
necessary for this part of the process is somewhat dependant on the

page_text: nature of the vegetable substance to be treated. We find.boiling in a
solution of caustic alkali under pressure of considerable service. We
do not claim this operation as a part of our Invention: The shavings
are then to be well washed and pressed, and the washings may be saved
and evaporated down and burned in a suitable furnace, when they are
again available for the same purpose. The damp shavings are now to
be exposed to the action of chlorine, or the compounds of chlorine
with oxygen, till, on a portion being. placed in a dilute solution. of
caustic alkali, the vegetable substance falls into a dark pulpy mass.
This part of the process is conveniently effected by placing the damp
shavings on racks or drawers, about nine inches apart: one above
another, arranged in a chamber, and allowing. the chlorine or the
compounds of chlorine with oxygen to enter the chamber and fill it.
Of the compounds of chlorine with oxygen, we prefer that known as
protoxide of chlorine or hypochlorous or chlorous acid or euchlorine.
If found more convenient, the chlorine or the compounds of chlorine
with oxygen may be used in aqueous solution, instead of the gaseous
form.
As soon as the shavings have been sufficiently acted upon by the
gas, as may be ascertained by the method above described, they may
be removed, and the hydrochloric acid which is the result of the above
process removed by washing, and the shavings well pressed. This
should be done with as little water as possible, as this acid may be
saved and made use of for the reproduction of chlorine.
The shavings are now to be placed in a weak solution of caustic
alkali, when they will fall into a pulpy mass of a dark brown color.
This part of the process may be expedited by exposing the mass to the
action of a beater or "engine" placed in the tank containing the
solution of alkali.
The pulp obtained as above described, having been freed from the
alkali by washing (which may be saved, as before directed), may now
be bleached by the usual process, or, as we prefer, by chlorite or hypo-
chlorite of soda or potash, liberating the chlorous or hypochlorous acid
by hydrochloric acid.
:

page_text: In the above processes we do not confine ourselves to the particular
apparatus or utensils herein named, but claim the use of the chemical
processes, and in the order herein stated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Watt, have hereunto set
my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness, B. GOBEY,
4, Old Square,
Lincoln's Inn.
CHARLES WATT. (L.S.)