IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING PISTONS, PISTON RODS, AND OTHER PARTS OF MACHINERY, AND IN THE PREPARATION OF MATERIAL THEREFOR
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Ward, of No. 2, Clouds Hill Villas,
St. George's, Bristol, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING
PISTONS, PISTON RODS, AND OTHER PARTS OF MACHINERY, AND IN THE
PREPARATION OF MATERIAL THEREFOR."
Sealed the 3rd June 1864, and dated the 12th December 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Ward at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
December 1868.
I, PETER WARD, of No. 2, Clouds Hill Villas, St. George's, Bristol, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING
PISTONS, PISTON RODS, AND OTHER PARTS OF MACHINERY, AND IN
PARATION OF MATERIAL THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in packing pistons, piston
rods, and other parts of machinery, and in the preparation of material therefor.
For these purposes esparto grass is employed, prepared in the following
manner: The raw esparto grass is steeped in a hot solution of caustic
soda for some hours. The grass is then boiled in a solution of carbonate
of soda until so much of the earthy matters and gum have been removed.

page_text: as will prevent the esparto from sticking when in use as packings for steam
and other pistons, piston rods, or other parts of machinery; or the esparto is
boiled in a solution of the double sulphide of calcium and sodium, and is
afterwards washed in water acidulated with muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid),
and then in hot water.
The prepared esparto may be used in the same manner as flax is at present
employed for packing pistons, piston rods, and other parts of machinery
requiring to be similarly packed, by being made into the form of rope or
otherwise, and saturated with tallow, or oil, or other lubricating materials.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Ward in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th
June 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
WARD, of No. 2, Clouds Hill Villas, St. George's, Bristol, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Peter Ward, Her special licence that I, the said Peter Ward,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter
Ward, my 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 PACKING PISTONS,
PISTON RODS, AND OTHER PARTS OF MACHINERY, AND IN THE PREPARATION OF
MATERIAL THEREFOR," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Peter
Ward, 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 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 I, the said Peter Ward, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof, that is to say
This Invention has for its object improvements in packing pistons, piston
rods, and other parts of machinery, and in the preparation of material therefor.
For these purposes esparto grass is employed, prepared in the following
manner: The raw esparto grass is steeped in a hot solution of caustic soda for
some hours. The grass is then boiled in a solution of carbonate of soda until
so much of the earthy matters and gum have been removed as will prevent
the esparto from sticking when in use as packings for steam and other
pistons, piston rods, or other parts of machinery; or the esparto is boiled in a
solution of the double sulphide of calcium and sodium, and is afterwards
washed in water acidulated with muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid), and then
in hot water.
The prepared esparto may be used in the same manner as flax is at present
employed for packing pistons, piston rods, and other parts of machinery
requiring to be similarly packed, by being made into the form of rope or
otherwise, and saturated with tallow or oil, or other lubricating materials.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention; I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
In preparing esparto grass for the packing of pistons, piston rods, and other
parts of machinery, I use an iron pan of the dimensions of about 8 feet wide
by 6 feet deep, set up in brickwork, with a fire-place underneath, in the
ordinary way for heating the same; and I place therein a false bottom perforated,
with holes and placed on iron supports, about 6 inches from the bottom, on the
centre of which I place an upright cast-iron pipe, 8 inches in diameter and
open at both ends, reaching within about 1 foot of the top; with a perforated
cap placed on the top end to prevent any of the esparto passing down the
same, and kept in its position by stays. To the bottom of the pan is attached
a stop-cock, to be used for drawing off the liquor, and a loose cover for the
top completes the whole. I then fill up the pan with esparto and run on to
it a solution of caustic soda in water. The heat is then raised until the solu-
tion has been brought up to a temperature of about 210° Fahrenheit, or
nearly to the boiling heat of water, and kept at that point during the whole of
the time that the esparto grass is allowed to steep; after which the solution is
run off and the pan filled up again with water and heated to ebullition, and
kept boiling for about 2 hours; after that time the water is run off and the
esparto washed over with water, and finally boiled with water containing &
little carbonate of soda in solution, so as to extract the loose colouring matter

page_text: and to soften down the esparto grass. This boiling may last from 1 to 2 hours,
or until such time as the esparto seems to have become heavy and adheres
slightly together. The esparto is then removed from the pan and pressed,
when.it may be dried. in the open air or in a store, after which it is oiled and
carded or opened out by any convenient means for spinning into strands and
afterwards into rope; or it may be used in any other suitable form, and oiled
after being spun or prepared in any other way for use.
The quantity of caustic soda required for 1 ton of esparto may vary from
2 cwt. to 3 cwt., according to the state of the esparto and the work for which
it is intended. I find that 2 cwt. of caustic soda of 64% of soda to be
sufficient for the steeping of 1 ton of esparto, water sufficient to cover the
esparto being used, and the time I allow for steeping is about 6 hours. I
judge of the effect produced by taking a little out of the pan during the pro-
cess of steeping, rolling it up in the hand, squeezing, and washing with water
until the colouring matter has been separated.. I then wring it in a towel, and
if sufficiently steeped it will stick together and present the appearance of
rough tow when wet and wrung in a similar way, and when opened out into a
loose fibrous form and dried it should feel tolerably soft and remain so.
The quality of the packing made from esparto thus treated will do for all
ordinary work, but for the inside spindles of railway steam engines, and where
a great pressure of steam is worked, a larger quantity of soda will be required,
the object being to remove from the esparto grass a sufficient, quantity of the
gum and
gum resin and other matters contained in the fibres, so as to prevent
them from sticking together and becoming solid or set hard while being used
as a packing. On the other hand care must be taken not to remove so much
of those matters as to cause the packing to become too soon charred into dust,
as flax is known to become after a few days in use in the packings of a loco-
motive engine. For this purpose I use from 2 to 3 cwt. of caustic soda per
ton of esparto, and I allow it to steep from 4 to 5 hours, when I treat it in
all other respects as before described. I may here remark that the more soda
or other alkaline salts which is used in steeping, the lighter will be the colour
of the esparto when finished.
When I use the double sulphide of calcium and sodium or the sulphuret of
sodium, I use them in the same way and in about the same proportions as I
use of caustic soda, and instead of steeping the esparto it may be at once boiled
in the solution of one or other of the salts; and to remove any of the sul-
phuret which may adhere to the esparto grass, I steep it for a short time in a
very diluted solution of hydrochloric acid, and then wash with hot water

page_text: softened with a little carbonate of soda. I then press, dry, and finish as in
the former case.
When the last-named proportions of alkalies are used the solution may be
used a second time in the steeping of a further quantity of esparto so as to
exhaust the whole powers of the alkalies.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Ward, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
PETER WARD. (L.S.)