IMPROVEMENTS IN, THE TREATMENT AND APPLICATION OF SEAWEED
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Goulston Ghislin, of Hatton Garden, in the
City of London, Importer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN, THE
TREATMENT AND APPLICATION OF SEAWEED.'
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Goulston Ghislin
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 28th April 1864.
I, THOMAS GOULSTON GHISLIN, of Hatton Garden, in the City of London,
Importer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPEOVE-
MENTS IN THE TREATMENT AND APPLICATION OF SEAWEED," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in uniting the substance of seaweed (previously
prepared as described in my Patent bearing date July 15th, 1862, No. 2035),
in various proportions with gums, gum resins, including india-rubber, gutta
percha, and substances of that class, resins, bituminous substances, fibrous
materials, and fatty substances, also with the silicates of potash and soda, so as
to produce mixtures capable of solidifying and of becoming impervious to the
action of moisture, heat, and acids.
In order to carry out my Invention I mix the seaweed (when pulverized
to any required condition) with any of the above substances intended to be
employed, either reduced or softened by heat or dissolved in a proper men-
[Price 8d.]

page_text: struum, or both, according to their nature, and I thoroughly incorporate these
matters by the use of a masticator, or any other convenient apparatus, and
afterwards, whilst the mass is soft or plastic, I give to it the shape or character
it is intended to retain, either by rolling, moulding, stamping, or any other
similar mechanical process, and when it becomes cold and dry the compound
material thus produced will be found possessed of great strength, tenacity,
and resistance. These compositions I propose to apply in the manufacture of
various classes of articles for which analogous substances have hitherto been
employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Goulston Ghislin in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 28th October 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
GOULSTON GHISLIN, of latton Garden, in the City of London, Importer,
send greeting.
".
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Thomas Goulston Ghislin, Her special license that I, the
said Thomas Goulston Ghislin, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as 1, the said Thomas Goulston Ghislin, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should and 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 TREATMENT AND
APPLICATION OF SEAWEED," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Thomas Goulston Ghislin, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, 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 Thomas Goulston Ghislin, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say:-
My Invention of "Improvements in the Treatment and Application of
Seaweed" relates to a mode of preparing both British and foreign seaweeds
and combining them with various substances so as to produce new products
available in the arts and manufactures.
In carrying out my Invention I take any of the common kinds of seaweed
found on the coasts of Europe and elsewhere, and having treated them in the
manner described in the Specification of my Patent dated July Fifteenth,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, No. 2035, and dried the vegetable
matters, I reduce them to an impalpable powder, or if operated upon in a wet
state they will be reduced to a paste. These operations are effected by
grinding or any other convenient and suitable process, and I then incorporate
this powder or paste with the following ingredients, or some of them, in any
desired proportions, according to the nature of the articles I desire to manu-
facture. The substances I propose to use for the purposes of my Invention
are gums, gum resins, including india-rubber, gutta percha, and substances
of that class, resins, natural or artificial, bituminous substances, and the
products of the same, paraffin and oily or fatty substances, together with
fibrous materials, such as shearings of woollen cloth, cotton, and flax waste,
and such substances, also the silicates of potash and soda, and I also take as
adjuncts for filling in and giving a body to the mass, pulverized chalk, talc,
and other earthy matters, metallic oxides, gelatine, farina, alum, tungstic acid,
powdered charcoal, and other analogous substances. In practice I find it
convenient in using the liquid silicates to make the liquor hot, and then to
incorporate with the silicate as much of the prepared seaweed and other
ingredients as will amalgamate therewith; the plastic mass is then fit for
moulding, stamping, embossing, or otherwise treating to give to it its intended
form. In using the silicates in a dry state, I mix with the prepared seaweed
about five per cent. of silicate and then add hot water or any other suitable
liquid. I sometimes further harden this compound and make it impermeable
to water by steeping it in boiled oil, or any drying oil, or in a solution of gum
or resin, or in any kind of varnish. When I require the material to be of a
plastic character, I use with the prepared seaweed such proportions of the
above-mentioned materials as may be necessary to give the requisite elasticity
or solidity to the articles intended to be made. For example, to produce a
material suitable for flooring purposes I use ten per cent. of india-rubber, ten
per cent. of foots of varnish, ten per cent. of foots of oil, and five to ten per
cent. of Burgundy pitch combined with from ten to fifteen per cent. of the

page_text: commoner and cheaper kinds of other bituminous or resinous substances.
To
this mixture I add fifty per cent. or rather more of the prepared seaweed.
I sometimes further add any required quantity of fibrous material and earthy
matters to give the required tenacity and consistency, then I mix and
thoroughly incorporate the whole mass in a masticator provided with mixing
rollers or any other convenient mechanical apparatus; I then pass the mass
between cylinders till it acquires its proper thickness and form. I sometimes find
it convenient to use gum resins or resins dissolved in spirit or some other solvent
in combination with the seaweed and other materials, and then amalgamate
the prepared seaweed with the same so as to form a hard and durable
substance. I further amalgamate the prepared seaweed with gutia percha by
heat in a masticator to the extent of thirty to sixty per cent. or even more of
gutta percha with a corresponding proportion of pulverized seaweed. For a
portion of the gutta percha I sometimes. substitute an equivalent proportion of
india-rubber dissolved in a solvent. This compound will then be found
available for all purposes for which gutta percha is usually employed, such as
for boot soles, pipes or tubes, driving bands for machinery, vessels of capacity,
and other articles, all of which may be manufactured from this compound in
the same way as from gutta percha.
I do not limit myself to the proportions herein specified, but I prefer to
use proportions as near thereto as the nature of the article requires, as I have
found the proportions given above to answer satisfactorily.
I propose to call this article "algæite."
It may be moulded, stamped,
pressed, or rolled into any required form, and may be applied in a solid or
plastic state to the construction of insulators for telegraph purposes, boxes for
sea and other compasses, railway buffers, flooring cloths of all kinds, ceiling,
walls, and table covers, for linings of all descriptions, tents, awnings, and
coverings of all kinds, washers, valves, rings,. ventilators, machinery, and
other belts, saddlery, boots and shoes, and all purposes where leather has been
or can be employed, aprons and hammer cloths of all kinds, hats and caps,
chimney pieces for fire-places, cornices, brackets, panels, and articles
of furniture, clock and watch stands, vases, statuettes, and various articles of
an ornamental character, billiard and bagatelle balls, engraving blocks, book
covers, pictures frames, mouldings, cameos, tablets, buttons, mouth-pieces for
musical instruments, combs, toys, handles for cutlery, bijouterie, umbrella,
parasol, screen, and other handles, walking sticks, riding and driving whips.
sword handles, and a variety of other similar useful purposes for which more
costly materials, both rigid and plastic, have been and are employed.
Having now described my Invention of improvements in the treatment and

page_text: application of seaweed, and in the manner of carrying the same into effect, I
claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid, com-
bining seaweed as herein set forth with various gummy, resinous, bituminous,
fatty, gelatinous, and earthy matters, and fibrous substances, for the purpose
above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Goulston Ghislin, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
THOMAS GOULSTON GHISLIN. (L.S.)