THE MANUFACTURE OF FIBRES OR THREADS FOR TEXTILE FABRICS AND CORDAGE, ALSO OF PAPER, MILLBOARD, AND OTHER SIMILAR BOARDS, FROM PLANTS OR PORTIONS OF PLANTS NOT HITHERTO USED FOR THESE PURPOSES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William George Plunkett, of Belvidere Place,
Dublin, Gentleman, and John Bower, of Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin,
Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "THE MANUFACTURE OF FIBRES OR
THREADS FOR TEXTILE FABRICS AND CORDAGE, ALSO OF PAPER, MILLBOARD, AND
OTHER SIMILAR BOARDS, FROM PLANTS OR PORTIONS OF PLANTS NOT HITHERTO
USED FOR THESE PURPOSES."
Sealed the 3rd June 1856, and dated the 5th December 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William George Plunkett
and John Bower at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 5th December 1855.
We, WILLIAM GEORGE PLUNKETT, of Belvidere Place, Dublin, Gentleman,
and JOHN BOWER, of Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin, Civil Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "THE MANUFACTURE OF FIBRES OR
THREADS FOR TEXTILE FABRICS AND CORDAGE, ALSO OF PAPER, MILLBOARD, AND
OTHER SIMILAR BOARDS, FROM PLANTS OR PORTIONS OF PLANTS NOT HITHERTO USED FOR
THESE PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in the application to such manufactures of the
following plants or portions of plants, viz., the iris pseud acorus, commonly
called the yellow flagger; the arctium bardana, or wooly-headed burdock; the
tussilago farfara, or common coltsfoot; and the beta vulgaris, or red or white
beet or mangold worzel, and turnip leaves and stems.
In the manufacture of fibres for textile purposes, the first-named plant, or its
stalk, leaves, and roots, is intended more particularly to be used; and in the
manufacture of pulp for paper, &c., all the above-named plants, or the stalks
and leaves thereof, are intended to be used, either separately or in combination
with each other, or with rags, straw, or rushes.

page_text: The mode of treating the said plants in, order to adapt them for application
to such purposes is as follows:-The plants or stalks and leaves or roots
thereof are taken either in a green. or a dried state, and boiled in water with
the addition of a sufficient quantity of a caustic alkali, and when sufficiently
soft they are to be taken from the boiler and cooled either by plunging them
into cold water or by exposing them to the atmosphere; they are afterwards
to be separated into fibres either by the hand or by a hackle or backling or
sentching machinery. The fibre is thus to be obtained in a rough state, when
it is to be further prepared by beetling and heckling to adapt it for textile
purposes or for the manufacture of cordage; and for its conversion into pulp
it is required to be ground or otherwise suitably reduced to such state.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William George Plunkett and John Bower in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 5th June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
GEORGE PLUNKETT, of Belvidere Place, Dublin, Gentleman, and JOHN BOWER,
of Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing' date the Fifth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said William Georgo Plunkett and John Bower, Her special license that we,
the said William George Plunkett and John Bower, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William George Plunkett
and John Bower, 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 "THE MANUFACTURE
OF FIBRES OR THREADS FOR TEXTILE FABRICS AND CORDAGE, ALSO OF PAPER,
MILLBOARD, AND OTHER SIMILAR BOARDS, FROM PLANTS OR PORTIONS OF PLANTS
NOT HITHERTO USED FOR THESE PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others)
'that we, the said William George Plunkett and John Bower, by an instrument
in writing under our hands and seals, or 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
'

page_text: in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Lotters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William George Plunkett and John
Bower, 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 (that is to say) :-
Our Invention of the manufacture of fibres or threads for textile fabrics and
cordage, also of paper, papier maché, millboard, and other similar boards, from
plants or portions of plants not hitherto used for these purposes, consists in the
application to such manufactures of the following plants or portions of plants,
(viz.,) the iris pseud acorus, commonly called the yellow flagger; the arctium
bardana, or woolly-headed burdock; the tussilago farfara, or common colts-
foot; and the beta vulgaris, or red or white beet or mangold worzel.
In the manufacture of fibres for textile purposes, the first-named plant, and
its stalks, leaves, and roots, is intended more particularly to be used, and also
the stalks and stems of the second-named plant; and in the manufacture of
pulp for paper, &c., all the above-named plants, or the stalks and leaves
thereof, are intended to be used either separately or in combination with each
other, or with rags, straw, or rushes. The mode of treating the said plants in
order to adapt them for application to such purposes is as follows:-The plants
or stalks and leaves or roots thereof are taken either in a green or a dried
state and boiled in water, with the addition of a sufficient quantity of a caustic
alkali, and when sufficiently soft they are to be taken from the boiler and
cooled, either by plunging them into cold water or by exposing them to the
atmosphere: they are afterwards to be separated into fibres either by the hand
or by a hackle or hackling or scutching machinery. The fibre is thus to be
obtained in a rough state, when it is to be further prepared by beetling and
heckling to adapt it for textile purposes or for the manufacture of cordago;
and for its conversion into pulp it is required to be ground or otherwise
suitably reduced to such state.
In order, however, that our Invention may be fully understood, we will
proceed to describe more particularly the mode by which it may be carried
into effect, but we do not confine ourselves in all cases to the precise mode of
treatment herein-after described.
We cause the leaves, stems, and roots or bulbs of the plants referred to
above to be crushed by means of rollers or other suitable means by which the
juicy or liquid moisture is extracted therefrom. We then boil the expressed
leaves, stems, &c., in a caustic alkali, composed (according to the age and
growth of the plants) of from about two to eight parts of fresh slaked lime

page_text: and two to eight parts of potash to one hundred parts of water, or in such
larger proportions of lime and alkali as the particular condition of the plants
may render necessary or advisable. We do not confine ourselves to the use of
a caustic alkali of any specific strength, but we use it of such strength as we
find to be suitable for separating all gelatinous and glutinous vegetable matters
from the fibres and their tissues and cleaning them. When this has been done,
if it is intended to make paper, papier maché, millboard, &c., from these
portions of the plants, wo submit them for white paper to a bath of chloride of
lime, or the chlorine process generally used, but if only intended for the
coarser kinds of paper or millboards, &c. they do not require to be thus
bleached. The material thus produced, whether in a bleached or unbleached
state, is reduced to pulp in the ordinary manner in making paper from rags;
and we would remark, that we use the pulp obtained from the plants or
portions of plants above referred to, either separately or in combination with
each other simply, or in combination also with rags, rushes, or other suitable
substance.
We would, however, remark, that when we use the bulb of the turnip or
the red or white beets, we first deprive the crushed bulbs of their saccharine
matter by subjecting them to a process of fermentation, by mashing them in
the usual way of mashing corn or malt for distillation, and fermenting the
mash with yeast. The fibrous matter being thus freed from the saccharine,
we cause it to be boiled in a moderate caustic alkali, and when thoroughly
washed and freed therefrom, we proceed with the bleaching and pulping
processes, as above described, and then convert the pulp into paper, millboard,
&c. in the usual manner.
For the purpose of making textile materials or fibres suitable for spinning
into yarns for weaving or for being formed into threads, or for making cords,
ropes, or mats, we use only the fibres obtained from the iris and tho burdock,
which we treat under our Invention in the following manner:-After boiling
in the caustic alkali, and thoroughly washing and pressing the water therefrom
either by screw or hydraulic or other pressure, we comb the iris plant with
iron combs or hackles, either by hand or by means of suitable mechanism.
Having thus separated the fibres, we spread them out to dry, or dry them by
artificial means. When sufficiently dried, we boil the fibre in a solution
composed of salt, alum, muriate of ammonia, and water, or any other suitable
solution which will preserve the strength and pliability of the fibre and the
filament. When the fibre is nearly dry (after this process), or in a damp state,
we cause it to be beetled, scutched, rehackled, and then spun into yarn or
formed into thread ready for different uses, according to the fineness of the

page_text: yaru or thread produced, whether for the purposes of weaving or for being
made into cords or strands for ropes or mats or other similar articles.
The fibre of the burdock plant, which for textile purposes can only be
obtained from the stem or stalk of the plant, we produce and prepare for
the purposes just described, (as yielded by the iris plant), in the following
manner: The stems or stalks of the burdock plant having been boiled in a
caustic alkaline solution, as before described, are well washed, and when dried
beetled, and the pith or other similar substance is separated from the fibre by
hackling by means of common flax or hemp hackles, either by hand or by
means of suitable mechanism. The finer portions of the fibre thus obtained
after being boiled in a solution of alum, salt, muriate of ammonia, and water,
and then washed, are treated and used by us in the same manner as those of
the iris plant, using the same means of spinning in both cases, while the waste
or coarser portions of both are used by us in the manufacture of paper, papier
maché, nillboard, &c., as herein-before described.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, we would have it understood that we do not
intend to confine ourselves to the particular mode or modes herein-before
described of obtaining fibres and preparing them for the purposes described, as
it may be found desirable to vary such mode or modes of treatment in the
case of particular plants; but what we claim as of our Invention is, the manu-
facture of fibre or fibres, obtained from the plants herein-before mentioned,
into yarn and threads for textile fabrics and cordage; also the manufacture
from the said fibre or fibres obtained from the plants herein-before mentioned,
and the leaves, stems, and bulbs thereof, of paper, papier maché, millboard,
&c., as described.
In witness whereof, we, the said William George Plunkett and John
Bower, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Second day of
June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-six.
Witness,
WILLIAM KENNY,
WILLIAM GEORGE PLUNKETT. (L.S.)
JOHN BOWER.
29, Cook Street, and 44, Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin,
Clerk & Office Keeper.
(L.S.)