IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF GLUE OR GELATINE 50 AS TO RENDER IT INSOLUBLE IN WATER, AND APPLICABLE BY THE ADMIXTURE OF OTHER SUBSTANCES TO VARIOUS PURPOSES FOR WHICH COMMON GLUE OR GELATINE CANNOT NOW BE USED
Year: 1865

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office of Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF GLUE OR GELATINE 50
AS TO RENDER IT INSOLUBLE IN WATER, AND APPLICABLE BY THE ADMIXTURE
OF OTHER SUBSTANCES TO VARIOUS PURPOSES FOR WHICH COMMON GLUE OR
GELATINE CANNOT NOW BE USED."-A communication from abroad by
Henry Wurtz, of the City of New York, in the United States of
America
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 23rd December 1865.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF GLUE OR GELATINE
SO AS TO RENDER IT INSOLUBLE IN WATER, AND APPLICABLE BY THE ADMIXTURE OF
OTHER SUBSTANCES TO VARIOUS PURPOSES FOR WHICH COMMON GLUE OR GELATINE
CANNOT NOW BE USED," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a mode of treating or acting chemically on

page_text: common glue or gelatine, so that without being deprived of its gelatinizing
power it will become in the process of drying converted into a substance
which is insoluble in water, so that by the addition of various ingredients it
may be converted into a substance similar to bone or ivory. It will be wholly
divested of its adhesiveness when moistened, and of the properties of emitting
odour or putrefying, liquefying, moulding, or otherwise changing in damp
atmospheres. It will, however, retain unimpaired its transparency, hardness,
strength, toughness, lustre, and elasticity. This change is accomplished by
heating the glue or gelatine in the form of a strong solution in water together
with a strong solution of chromic acid, or of an alkaline bichromate
(bichromate of potash, for instance). Little immediate change, except the
production of an amber yellow colour, appears in the solution, but if it is now
allowed to cool and gelatinize, and the jelly is dried, it will be found to have
undergone the alteration above described. If the application of heat to the
mixture be continued for some time it loses its fluidity to some extent, and
becomes ropy and glutinous. Before the bichromate of potash added to
the gelatinous solution the characters of the final product may be greatly and
variously modified by the admixture with the glue of various substances,
according to the purpose for which the prepartion is to be used. Weight
may be given by admixing heavy substances in powder. Hardness may be
increased by adding sand, clay, emery, pounded glass, red oxide of iron
(jewellers rouge), or tripoli; and to increase its strength and toughness
chopped fibre may be added, either vegetable, animal, or mineral, such as
cotton, hair, spun glass, asbestos. It may be prevented when in the form of
very thin sheets from becoming brittle in very dry or very cold atmospheres
by rubbing it with glycerine, which after a time is absorbed and combines
intimately with the mass. Different colouring matters may also be added to
change the colour of the substance. All these additions must be made to the
glue solution before modification by the bichromate. When powders of a
greasy or resinous nature are used the powder may be slightly moistened with
diluted alcohol before adding it to the glue solution.
Compounds having peculiar and valuable qualities may be formed by
introducing some resinous and oily substances into intimate combination with
the modified gelatine in the form of alcoholic solutions. Such substances are
castor oil and other oils soluble in alcohol, shellac, mastic, the yellow resin of
gamboge. All these products are capable when dry of being wrought like
ivory, bone, and horn. When heated also to a certain point or steamed they
become soft, and may be moulded into any form, like horn, shell, ivory.

page_text: .
The surfaces of polished moulds of any pattern of glass, metal, or any other
suitable material may be exactly copied in this material by pouring or
spreading the liquid over such surfaces and allowing it to gelatinize and dry
thereon. It is advisable when the drying is nearly complete, and while the
sheet still retains some plasticity, to lay upon it a piece of wire gauze and
apply a slight pressure to prevent warping or cracking by contraction. This
new compound is applicable to nearly every use to which hard vulcanized
rubber compounds, horn, ivory, bone, shell, papier mache have been applied,
such as for buttons, billiard balls, door knobs, paper knives, penknife handles,
penholders, pencil cases, rulers, mathematical instruments, piano keys and
various other parts of musical instruments, cheap jewellery, toys, combs,
powder horns, veneering and ornamentation of furniture in an infinite variety
of ways, coloured transparencies (for lanterns, lamp and gas shades and
reflectors, fire-screens), mouldings (for frames of pictures and mirrors, and all
other purposes). A marbled mixture of a light-coloured and a dark-coloured
glue thus modified is hardly distinguishable from real tortoiseshell. By the
use of green verditer as a coloring agent a variously shaded product, presenting
a remarkable imitation of green malachite, may be produced. The preparation
may be used for the reservoirs of lamps for burning coal oil, petroleum, and
other oils, turpentine, alcohols instead of glass, having the transparency and
all other advantages of this material without its fragility. It may be used for
lining, cementing the joints, and filling up the pores of the wood of barrels
for holding petroleum and other oils, turpentine, alcohol. It is far superior
to common glue as at present used for these purposes, as it is insoluble in
water, and is free from odour and tendency to liquefy, putrefy, or mould.
As a material for coating porous substances or iron and steel and stiffening
the rims of hats, as a material for weaving chair bottoms and baskets, for
coating, hardening, and stiffening the fibres of brooms and brushes, and
stiffening paper, leather, and textile fabrics (as a waterproof sizing); for all
these purposes of coating fibres of all kinds and fibrous and textile tissues it
is more convenient to form the compound on the fibre itself, the latter being
first coated and impregnated by soaking in a hot solution of common glue,
which is then allowed to gelatinize on it by cooling, and is subsequently
modified by application of the bichromate either in cold or hot solution. As
a substitute for common glue in uniting wood and metals which are liable to
encounter damp in the manufacture of emery sticks and emery wheels. As a
transparent varnish the preparation should be used in a rather dilute form,
and colored, if desired, with soluble colours, such as those from aniline; also

page_text: 'as a vehicle for pigments having opaque bodies (that is as a substitute for
drying oils) in in-door painting, as a substitute for oils in printers' inks.
When compounded before modification by the bichromate with a small pro-
portion of glycerine it may be used for coating leather, canvas, silk, to make
flexible gas tubes impermeable by gas, and for making elastic washers to
confine oil in the oil boxes of machinery, and also for making printers' inking
rollers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 23rd June 1866.
ΤΟ
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and. successors, give and grant
unto me, the said William Edward Newton, Her special licence that I,
the. said William Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 THE PREPARATION OF GLUE OR
GELATINE SO AS TO RENDER IT INSOLUBLE IN WATER, AND APPLICABLE BY THE
ADMIXTURE OF OTHER SUBSTANCES TO VARIOUS PURPOSES FOR WHICH COMMON GLUE
ÓR GELATINE CANNOT NOW BE USED," being a communication to me from abroad
by Henry Wurtz, of the City of New York, United States of America, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Newton, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calender months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Newton, 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 (that is to say):-
This Invention relates to a mode of treating or acting chemically on common
glue or gelatine, so that without being deprived of its gelatinizing power it
will become in the process of drying converted into a substance which is in-
soluble in water, so that by the addition of various ingredients it may be
converted into a substance similar to bone or ivory. It will be wholly divested
of its adhesiveness when moistened, and of the properties of emitting odour or
putrefying, liquifying, moulding, or otherwise changing in damp atmospheres.
It will, however, retain unimpaired its transparency, hardness, strength,
toughness, lustre, and elasticity. This change is accomplished by heating the
glue or gelatine in the form of a strong solution in water together with a
strong solution of chromic acid, or of an alkaline bichromate (bichromate of
potash, for instance). Little immediate change, except the production of an
amber-yellow color, appears. in the solution, but if it is now allowed to cool
and gelatinize, and the jelly is dried, it will be found to have undergone the
alteration above described. If the application of heat to the mixture be con-
tinued for some time it loses its fluidity to some extent, and becomes ropy and
glutinous. Before the bichromate of potash is added to the gelatinous solution
the characters of the final product may be greatly and variously modified
by the admixture with the glue of various substances, according to the purpose
for which the preparation is to be used. Weight may be given by admixing
heavy substances in powder. Hardness may be increased by adding sand, clay,
emery, pounded glass, red oxide of iron (jewellers' "rouge "), or tripoli; and
to increase its strength and toughness chopped fibre may be added, either
vegetable, animal, or mineral, such as cotton, hair, spun, glass, asbestos. It
may be prevented when in the form of very thin sheets from becoming brittle
in very dry or very cold atmospheres by rubbing it with glycerine, which
after a time is absorbed and combines intimately with the mass. Different
coloring matters may also be added to change the color of the substance. All
these additions must be made to the glue solution before operating upon it
by the bichromate. In many cases it is necessary in order to obtain homo-
geneity of mixture to grind the materials together in a mill, the grinding
surfaces of which are of course to be kept heated sufficiently to prevent the
gelatinization of the liquid. When powders of a greasy or resinous nature
are-used the powder may be slightly moistened with diluted alcohol before
adding it to the glue solution.
.

page_text: Compounds having peculiar and valuable qualities may be formed by
introducing some resinous and oily substances into intimate combination
with the modified gelatine in the form of alcoholic solutions. Such substances
as castor oil and other oils soluble in alcohol, shellac, mastic, or the yellow
resin of gamboge. All these products are capable when dry of being wrought
like ivory, bone, and horn. When heated also to a certain point or
steamed they come soft, and may be moulded into any form, like horn, shell,
or ivory.
The surfaces of polished moulds of any pattern of glass, metal, or any
other suitable material may be exactly copied in this material by pouring or
spreading the liquid over such surfaces and allowing it to gelatinize and dry
thereon. If the diameter of such a surface be more than six inches, or the
thickness of the layer of liquid applied at one time be more than two or three
tenths of an inch, it is advisable when the drying is nearly complete, and
after the sheet has entirely lost its adhesiveness but still retains some plasticity
to lay upon it a piece of wire gauze and apply a slight pressure to prevent
warping or cracking by contraction. After one layer is dry another may be
applied in the fluid form upon it, and thus any thickness may be obtained; but
in many cases it will be advisable to back the sheet with some other material
not requiring so long a time to dry, as, for instance, wood or metal cemented fast
with a resinous cement. It is advisable in all these cases to very slightly enfilm
the surface of the mould with some oily or fatty substance to prevent adhesion.
The brilliant surface next to the mould is found to have its polish sometimes
impaired. It is advisable therefore to wash over or sponge with water this
surface after separaton from the moulds; the excess of water may be taken
up with blotting paper or a soft cloth, and then the sheet may be dried again
under pressure to prevent warping. It will then be found to dry with a
brilliant surface, the polish of which no longer is in the least affected by
moisture. It is to be remarked however, that these imperfectly modified
surfaces lying next to the matrice if preserved without tarnish or contamination
do in time acquire by exposure to the air the same powerful resistance to water
as the rest of the mass. The following are the uses to which these new materials
are adaptable: --To nearly every use to which the hard vulcanized rubber com-
pounds, horn, ivory, bone, shell, papier mache have been applied, such as for
buttons, billiard balls, door knobs, paper knives, penknife handles, penholders,
pencil cases, rulers, mathematical instruments, piano keys and various other
parts of musical instruments, cheap jewellery, toys, combs, powder horns,
veneering and ornamentation of furniture in an infinite variety of ways,
colored transparencies (for lanterns, lamp and gas shades, and reflectors. or

page_text: fire-screens), mouldings (for frames of pictures and mirrors and all other
purposes). Their peculiar qualifications for these uses arise from the variety
of colors that may be imparted, and the ease with which these colors may be
commingled to produce any desired effect. For example, a marbled mixture
of a light-colored and a dark-colored glue thus modified is hardly distinguish-
able from real tortoiseshell; by the use of green verditer as a coloring agent a
variously shaded product presenting a remarkable 'imitation of green malachite
may be produced.
In consequence of the considerable shrinkage which takes place during the
drying of these compounds it appears impracticable to produce at once masses
which shall be large enough for such objects as billiard balls or door knobs
and at the same time homogeneous and free from flaws; such large masses,
therefore, must be built up gradually by uniting previously dried sheets by
using the compound in a liquid form, such sheets being kept clamped together
between sheets of wire gauze until solidly united. Two more sheets may
then be applied above and below the former and united thereto in the same
way, and so on until the requisite thickness has been attained. For this
purpose it is not advisable to attempt to use dried sheets which have had
when in the gelatinous form a greater thickness than two-tenths or three-
tenths of an inch, the tendency to warping from unequal drying at the
middle and around the edges of the sheet increasing in a rapid ratio with the
thickness. The composition may, however, be prepared in large masses at
once and cast into large blocks in moulds, to which end it must be sliced
like ordinary glue into thin sheets while in the form of jelly, which sheets
may then be first partially dried by being spread on polished metal slightly
enfilmed with oil, and when no longer adhesive it should be dried completely
betwen layers of fine wire gauze.
In the manufacture of buttons, small knobs, and similar objects the
peculiarities of the substance and considerations of economy of material have
led to the following mode of operation:-The jelly is cast into the form of
an elongated cylinder, which is rolled in tissue paper and then enclosed in a
cylindrical sausage-shaped network bag, which is then hung in the drying
chamber. This bag may be composed of elastic rubber cord, which will
follow by its contraction the shrinkage of the jelly and cause it to retain its
cylindrical shape, or the network may be devoid of elasticity, and after the
desiccation has reached a certain stage a light weight may be attached to the
lower end of the bag to make it stretch longitudinally, and therefore contract
laterally as the compound shrinks in drying. Of course the diameter of the

page_text: roll of jelly must be so calculated that when dry it will be greater than that
of the buttons or other objects to be turned out from it.
The preparation may be used for the bodies or reservoirs of lamps for
burning coal, oil, petroleum, and other oils, turpentine, or alcohols instead
of glass, having the transparency and other advantages of this material
without its fragility. It may be used for lining, cementing the joints, and
filling up the pores of the wood of barrels for holding petroleum and other
oils, turpentine, or alcohol, also of lard barrels or butter firkins. It is far
superior to common glue as at present used for these purposes, as it is
insoluble in water and is free from odour and tendency, to liquefy, putrify
or mould in warm or damp weather. It may also be used for oilproofing
bricks and other porous materials for oil tanks.
As a material for coating porous substances, or iron and steel wire and
ribbon, for making hoop skirts, parasol sticks, whip stocks, and stiffening the
rims of hats; as a material for weaving chair bottoms and baskets, for coating,
hardening, and stiffening the fibres of brooms and brushes, and for coating
and stiffening paper, leather, and textile fabrics (as a waterproof sizing),
for all these purposes of coating fibres of all kinds and fibrous and textile
tissues it is more convenient to form the compound on the fibre itself, the
'latter being first coated and impregnated by soaking in a hot solution of
common glue, which is then allowed to gelatinize on it by cooling, and is
subsequently modified by the application of the bichromate either in cold or
hot solution. It may also be used as a substitute for common glue in uniting
wood and metals which are liable to encounter damp, in the manufacture of
emery sticks and emery wheels, in making sand papers, emery papers, and
glass papers, and also as a transparent varnish for wood or metals; for this
purpose it should be used in a rather dilute form, and may be colored, if
desired, with soluble colors, such as those obtained from aniline. It is
applicable as a gold lacquer or varnish for imitation gilding, and also as a
vehicle for pigments having opaque bodies (that it as a substitute for drying
oils) in in-door painting, and as a substitute for oils in printers' inks. When
compounded before modification by the bichromate with a small proportion
of glycerine it may be used for coating leather, canvas, or silk, and to make
flexible gas tubes impermeable by gas, and for making elastic washers to
confine oil in the oil boxes of machinery, and also for making printers' inking
rollers.
Having now described the Invention that has been communicated to me
as aforesaid I claim no the India

page_text: aforesaid, the mode herein set forth of treating or preparing glue or gelatine,
so as to render it insoluble in water and applicable to various useful purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-third day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTOP
(L.S.)