AN IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PULP FOR PAPER AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1871

page_text: `LETTERS PATENT to Robert Patton, of Snodland, in the County of
Kent, Engineer, and William Piper, of Maidstone, in the same
County, Millwright, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
MACHINERY EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PULP FOR PAPER AND
OTHER PURPOSES.”
Sealed the 10th November 1871, and dated the 18th May 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Patton and
William Piper at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 18th May 1871.
We, ROBERT PATTON, of Snodland, in the County of Kent, Engineer,
and WILLIAM PIPER, of Maidstone, in the same County, Millwright,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PULP FOR PAPER AND OTHER
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
:-
Our Invention relates to an improvement in the internal shape of the
washing, grinding, or beating engines, commonly used by paper makers.
These engines have hitherto been made with upright sides and-flat

page_text: bottoms, having also in some cases an angle fillet to fill up the corners;
but notwithstanding the application of these angle fillets it is found in
working these engines that the materials employed, straw, esparto, wood,
or other fibre, instead of travelling continuously round the engine
through the rotary knives and fixed plate, and being broken or beaten
into pulp, settle down on various parts of the bottom of the engine and
at various angles thereof, these accumulations forming what are com-
monly called "lodgments," which the workman must from time to time
remove with a stirring stick, and which therefore necessitate continual
supervision.
We propose to dispense altogether with the use of angle fillets by
constructing these engines with a curved in lieu of a flat bottom, this
bottom being constructed with various and suitable curves of such form
and shape as to prevent the materials operated upon from settling down
or accumulating at any part of the engine. This improvement obviates
the necessity of the workman removing the accumulations by stirring
from time to time, and it also enables the pulp to travel regularly
between the roll and plate, and thus enables more work to be accom-
plished with the same power, no time being wasted in grinding or
washing those portions which in the ordinary engine lie dormant
while the rest is being prepared by the action of the roll bars and plate
upon it. These lodgments are a great evil, for if the workman neglect
to remove them with the stirring stick they often break away at a time
when the other part of the pulp is prepared, and thus damage the whole,
or prevent the engine from being emptied at the proper time, the
finished pulp being necessarily kept in the engine until the other is
brought to the same state.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Patton and William Piper in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 17th November 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
PATTON, of Snodland, in the County of Kent, Engineer, and WILLIAM
PIPER, of Maidstone, in the same County, Millwright, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of May, in the year

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Robert Patton and William Piper,
Her special licence that we, the said Robert Patton and William Piper,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Robert Patton and William Piper, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY
EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PULP FOR PAPER AND OTHER PURPOSES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Robert Patton
and William Piper, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, 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 performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Robert Patton and William
Piper, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Our Invention relates to an improvement in the internal shape of the
washing, grinding, poaching, or beating engines, commonly used by
paper makers. These engines have hitherto been made with upright
sides and flat bottoms, having also in some cases an angle fillet to fill
up the corners; but notwithstanding the application of these angle
fillets it is found in working these engines that the materials employed,
straw, esparto, wood, or other fibre, instead of travelling continuously
round the engine through the rotary knives and fixed plate, and being
broken or beaten into pulp, settle down on various parts of the bottom
of the engine and at various angles thereof, these accumulations
forming what are commonly called "lodgments," which the workman
must from time to time remove with a stirring stick, and which
therefore necessitate continual supervision.
We dispense altogether with the use of angle fillets by constructing
these engines with a curved in lieu of a flat bottom, this bottom being

page_text: constructed with various and suitable curves of such form and shape as to
prevent the materials operated upon from settling down or accumulating
at any part of the engine. This improvement obviates the necessity of
the workman removing the accumulations by stirring from time to time,
and it also enables the pulp to travel regularly between the roll and
plate, and thus enables more work to be accomplished with the same
power, no time being wasted in grinding or washing those portions
which in the ordinary engine lie dormant while the rest is being
prepared by the action of the roll bars and plate upon it. These
* lodgments" are a great evil, for if the workman neglect to remove
them with the stirring stick they often break away at a time when the
other part of the pulp is prepared, and thus damage the whole, or
prevent the engine from being emptied at the proper time, the finished
pulp being necessarily kept in the engine until the other is brought to
the same state.
On the accompanying Sheet of Drawing, Figure 1 represents an
elevation; Figure 2, a plan; and Figures 3 to 5, sections of a beating
engine embodying our Invention.
D, D, indicate the curved bottom which constitutes our Invention.
It will be observed that the degree of curvature differs in the various
parts of the bottom of the engine. The various parts of the curved
bottom may be connected to the sides by flanges as shown, or in any
convenient manner and at any desired height. The other parts of the
engine presenting no feature of novelty we do not deem it necessary to
describe them.
Our improved washing, grinding, poaching, or beating engine may be
constructed of any suitable material and of any desired dimensions,
and be used not only for the manufacture of pulp for paper making,
but also for washing gun cotton or other materials, and for other
analogous purposes.
We would have it distinctly understood that we do not limit ourselves
to any precise degree of curve in any part of the bottom of the engine,
employing as above stated such curves as may be found the most
suitable for preventing "lodgments "in any part of the engine.
Having now described and ascertained the nature of our said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we claim as
secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, the

page_text: use of curved bottoms of any degree of curvature in washing, grinding,
or beating engines employed in the manufacture of pulp for paper, or
for any analogous purposes.
In witness whereof, we, the said Robert Patton and William
Piper, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fourteenth
day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-one.