Improvements in the Method of Obtaining Raw Material or Fibre Employed in the Manufacture of Brooms, Brushes, and such like Articles.
Year: 1888

page_text: Dite of Application, 31st Dec., 1888
Soecification Accepted, 16th Feb., 1889
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Method of Obtaining Raw Material or Fibre
Employed in the Manufacture of Brooms, Brushes, and such like
Articles.
I, JEAN FRANÇOIS NICOLAS BIESMAN SIMONS of 17 Chobham Road, Stratford, in
the County of Essex, Bass and Cane Importer, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :—
Hitherto some of the raw material or fibre employed in the manufacture of brooms,
brushes, and such like articles, has been obtained from plants or trees of the Palm
tribes, and in such case it has been derived from the coriaceous or ligneous spathes of
the catkins and regimes, or from other ligneous and coriaceous frequently reticulated
substance or membrane round the petioles, or from the husks of nuts. These sub-
stances are collected in a dead state, that is to say, they have died naturally on the
plant or tree before being gathered, and give imperfect results, so that a great part of
such material as imported is useless or waste.
I obtain Palm fibres, according to my invention, from all kinds of Palms, and I
preferably cultivate them on my own land from the seed upwards, and so direct their
growth as to make them best accord with the use to which the fibre is intended to be
applied, so as to enable me to obtain a suitable and homogeneous or equal quality of
product.
For this purpose I allow the Palms to grow to a certain or suitable height,
according as experience may dictate as the best for the particular character of fibre
it is desired to obtain, a softer, finer and shorter fibre being obtained from
Palm plants or trees comparatively young than from such plants or trees when they
are older.
From these plants or trees, grown to a suitable height, I cut lengths of from 6 inches
to many feet in length, and after they have been cut to the desired length, and, when
sufficiently old or fully grown to require it, I crush these lengths between rollers, or
in any suitable manner, so as partially to separate the fibres from each other, and from
the medullary or amyloid or resinous or other matter, with which they are found
associated.

page_text: These lengths, after being crushed, or without being crushed in cases where such
process is not necessary, are then either hackled, carded or combed, so as fully to
separate the fibres from each other, and to clean them and, if required to he dyed, I
then steam or steep them and afterwards immerse them in the dye bath, or I dye them
by any suitable process.
By my invention I do not obtain dead material as hitherto, that is to say, material
which has fully matured and been allowed to die on the plant or tree, and which
consequently has lost some of its best qualities, but I obtain live fibres, that is to say,
fibres containing all the juices of tho live plant or tree, and these fibres can be found
in the petioles and in the stipes or stems of the different Palms when carefully
cultivated as above described, or when Palm plants or trees of a suitable age or
growth are cut into lengths and treated as above described, and my invention or
method of obtaining Palm fibres is a decided and unique departure from the imperfect
systems hitherto pursued, and yields a fibre of much superior and carefully regulated
quality altogether unobtainable by any other means.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is :-
The improved method of obtaining raw material or fibre from plants or trees of the
Palm tribes, substantially as herein described and. for the purpose stated.
Dated this 31st day of December 1888.
JEAN FRANÇOIS NICOLAS BIESMAN SIMONS.
By Harris & Mills,
23, Southampton Buildings,
Agents.