IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBINING AND MIXING CERTAIN SOLUTIONS OF PYROXYLENE WITH ANIMAL, MINERAL, AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES, BY WHICH ITS QUALITY IS ALTERED IN SUCH MANNER AS TO PRODUCE HARD, RESISTENT, ADHESIVE, PLASTIC, OR RESILIENT COMPOUNDS AND ARTICLES UNALTERABLE IN THEIR NATURE, AND VARIED IN COLOUR, WHICH SAID COMPOUNDS IN A STATE OF SOLUTION MAY ALSO BE ADVANTAGEOUSLY EMPLOYED AS PAINTS OR VARNISH
Year: 1860

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to Stephen Barnwell, of Coventry, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, and Alexander Rollason, of the same Place,
Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBINING AND MIXING
CERTAIN SOLUTIONS OF PYROXYLENE WITH ANIMAL, MINERAL, AND VEGETABLE
SUBSTANCES, BY WHICH ITS QUALITY IS ALTERED IN SUCH MANNER AS TO
PRODUCE HARD, RESISTENT, ADHESIVE, PLASTIC, OR RESILIENT COMPOUNDS
AND ARTICLES UNALTERABLE IN THEIR NATURE, AND VARIED IN COLOUR, WHICH
SAID COMPOUNDS IN A STATE OF SOLUTION MAY ALSO BE ADVANTAGEOUSLY
EMPLOYED AS PAINTS OR VARNISH."
Sealed the 12th March 1861, and dated the 15th September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Stephen Barnwell and
Alexander Rollason at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 15th September 1860.
We, STEPHEN BARNWELL, of Coventry, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
5 facturer, and ALEXANDER ROLLASON, of the same Place, Chemist, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBINING AND
MIXING CERTAIN SOLUTIONS OF PYROXYLENE WITH ANIMAL, MINERAL, AND VEGE-
TABLE SUBSTANCES, BY WHICH ITS QUALITY IS ALTERED IN SUCH MANNER AS TO
PRODUCE HARD, RESISTENT, ADHESIVE, PLASTIC,, OR RESILIENT COMPOUNDS AND

page_text: ARTICLES UNALTERABLE IN THEIR NATURE, AND VARIED IN COLOUR, WHICH SAID
COMPOUNDS IN A STATE OF SOLUTION MAY ALSO BE ADVANTAGEOUSLY EMPLOYED AS
PAINTS OR VARNISH," to be as follows, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists in dissolving pyroxylene in any of its known solvents,
and adding thereto oils, animal, vegetable, or mineral, varying in their nature
and their action with pyroxylene, selecting any of these to suit any particular
views we may entertain relative to the subsequent use of the compound. To
this we add if desirable gums or resins, and also oxidisable salts, such as oxide
of manganese or oxide of copper as colouring agents; any other suitable
colouring may likewise be employed; other mineral substances, such as chloride
of calcyium and iodide of cadmium, are useful when articles of an uninflammable
nature are to be produced. Animal matters in the shape of glue, gelatine, or
wool flock, or of nature similar to these, we also find useful for the purpose
of strengthening the compound. The material resulting from these combina-
tions is applicable to the manufacture of many solid, hollow, or tubular
articles that have hitherto been made of glass, china, metal, wood, india-
rubber, and such like materials, and the treatment of the compound for the
purpose of making such articles would vary with the nature of the article to
be produced; for instance, buttons may be made either by stamping them from
a solid sheet of the new material after the manner of horn-button making, or
they may be shaped in moulds whilst the material is in a plastic or semi-fluid state,
so with drinking cups, bowls and flasks, which may be made by coating either
the inside or outside of glass or polished metal moulds with repeated layers of
the new compound in a state of solution, or by the mode by which pressed
glass is made, the material being used in a plastic state, in which state also it
would be found very useful for employment in moulding or taking fine
casts, such as those required for purposes of dentistry and modelling for
jewellers, goldsmiths, and other industries needing sharp, smooth, and inde-
structible models or moulds; it may also be employed for making tubes and
instruments for surgical and byienic uses. Cups, bowls, tubes, and such like
things, may also be made by coating textile fabrics with our solution, and
then cutting such fabric out into the desired shape, and afterwards cementing
the edges, or the raw material of such textile fabrics may be saturated with our
solution, and from which various articles may be produced; these are but a
few of its applications. In the solid form in sheets it would be useful for book-
binders and fancy box makers, for making collapsible tubes for colours, and for
all the purposes for which collapsible tubes are used, and as it can be rendered
adhesive by some of the modifications already mentioned in the manufacture,
its applications in this form would be multifarious. In a state of solution its

page_text: uses would be as a vehicle for pigments, either oil or water, or as varnish for
pictures, painting, prints, or papers, a lacquer or wash for gilded and plated
wares, whether on wood or metal to protect them from injury, as a coating for.
hat bodies, for boots, shoes, and leather in general, lining or covering plastic
casts, pens, telegraph wire, and all delicate parts of machinery requiring
protection.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Stephen Barnwell and Alexander Rollason in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 15th March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, STEPHEN
BARNWELL, of Coventry, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and
ALEXANDER ROLLASON, of the same Place, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Stephen Barnwell and Alexander Rollason, Her special licence that
we, the said Stephen Barnwell and Alexander Rollason, our executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Stephen Barnwell and
Alexander Rollason, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN COMBINING AND MIXING CERTAIN SOLUTIONS OF PYROXYLENE WITH
ANIMAL, MINERAL, AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES, BY WHICH ITS QUALITY IS ALTERED
IN SUCH MANNER AS TO PRODUCE HARD, RESISTENT, ADHESIVE, PLASTIC, OR RESI-
LIENT COMPOUNDS AND ARTICLES UNALTERABLE IN THEIR NATURE, AND VARIED IN
COLOUR, WHICH SAID COMPOUNDS IN A STATE OF SOLUTION MAY ALSO BE ADVAN-
TAGEOUSLY EMPLOYED AS PAINTS OR VARNISH," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Stephen Barnwell and Alexander Rollason, by an
instrument in writing under our 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..

page_text: NOW. KNOW YE, that we, the said Stephen Barnwell and Alexander
Rollason, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, that is to say:-
Our Invention consists in dissolving pyroxylene in any of its known solvents,
and adding thereto oils, animal, vegetable, or mineral, varying in their nature
and their action, with pyroxylene, selecting any of these to suit any particular
views we may entertain relative to the subsequent use of the compound. To
this we add, if desirable, gums or resins, and also oxidisable salts, such as
oxide of manganese or oxide of copper as colouring agents. Any other suitable
colouring may likewise be employed. Other mineral substances, such as
chloride of calcyum and iodide of cadmium, are useful when articles of an unin-
flammable nature are to be produced. Animal matters in the shape of glue,
gelatine, or wool flock, or of nature similar to these, we also find useful for
the purpose of strengthening the compound. The material resulting from
these combinations is applicable to the manufacture of many solid, hollow, or
tubular articles that have hitherto been made of glass, china, metal, wood,
india-rubber, and such like materials, and the treatment of the compound for
the purpose of making such articles would vary with the nature of the article
to be produced; for instance, buttons may be made either by stamping them
from a solid sheet of the new material after the manner of horn button
making, or they may be shaped in moulds whilst the material is in a plastic
or semi-fluid state. So with drinking cups, bowls, and flasks, which may be
made by coating either the inside or outside of glass or polished metal moulds
with repeated layers of the new compound in a state of solution, or by the
mode by which pressed glass is made; the material being used in a plastic
state, in which state also it would be found very useful for employment in
moulding or taking fine casts, such as those required for purposes of dentistry
and modelling for jewellers, goldsmiths, and other industries needing sharp,
smooth, and undestructible models or moulds. It may also be employed for
making tubes and instruments for surgical and hygienic uses. Cups, bowls,
tubes, and such like things may also be made by coating textile fabrics with
our solution, and then cutting such fabric out into the desired shape, and
afterwards cementing the edges; or the raw material of such textile fabrics
may be saturated with our solution, and from which various articles may be
produced.
These are but a few of its applications. In the solid form in sheets it would
be useful for bookbinders and fancy box makers, for making collapsible tubes for
colours, and for all the purposes for which collapsible tubes are used; and as

page_text: it can be rendered adhesive by some of the modifications already mentioned in
the manufacture its applications in this form would be multifarious.
In a state of solution its uses would be as a vehicle for pigments, either
oil or water, or as varnish for pictures, painting, prints, or papers, a lacquer or
wash for gilded or plated wares, whether on wood or metal, to protect them
from injury; as a coating for hat-bodies, for boots, shoes, and leather in
general; lining or covering plastic casts, pens, telegraph wire, and all delicate
parts of machinery requiring protection.
We will now proceed to describe the process by which we combine
pyroxylene with the various substances, animal, vegetable, and mineral, before
named, so as to obtain a complete amalgamation between them, and thereby pro-
duce compound materials capable of being employed for many useful arts to be
herein-after mentioned; and firstly, with reference to the pyroxylene itself, and
its manufacture, which has hitherto been effected by a difficult, uncertain, and
expensive process arising from the fact that the mixed acids, nitric and
sulphuric, used in converting the fibre into pyroxylene could not be employed
more than twice in the same operation, as they would be found to hold
either a considerable quantity of pyroxylene or converted fibre in suspension,
or that the nitrogen was partially exhausted, or from both these evils together;
consequently, after twice using, these acids were of no further service for such a
purpose. With the view, therefore, of utilising these waste acids we employ as
our fibre, and in place of cotton wool (which we can employ, although we prefer
the following) common rags of any description, plain or coloured, and having
submitted them to the action of the acids in the same manner as cotton, we
find that they do not become disintegrated as the cotton would, and conse-
quently after twenty or twenty-four hours' contact with the acids, the acids
may be drawn off free from any suspended pyroxylene.
The partially
exhausted acids are then put in suitable air-tight vessels until a sufficient
quantity may have been reserved. The bulk is then to be thoroughly and
evenly mixed and boiled, then analysed, and the loss of strength ascertained;
after which the equivalent must be supplied by the introduction of very strong:
fresh acids in the requisite proportions, by which they will be restored to their
original strength, when they may be re-used. This re-use and renewal may.
be repeated as often as may be found desirable. This is the description of.
pyroxylene we prefer to employ in our subsequent processes of manufacturing:
compounds of pyroxylene into various useful articles, though any description of
pyroxylene will also answer these ends, but, as before stated, at greater cost. .
We also obtain a very useful description of the same article by submitting.
fibrous and other matters containing cellulose to the action of mixed acids of

page_text: such modified strength and temperature that they will be only partly converted
into pyroxylene, and consequently they will be only partly soluble in the
solvents of pyroxylene; this forms a kind of half-stuff. But in all cases both
the pyroxylene and the partially converted fibre or half-stuff must be freed
from acids and dried before advancing to the further processes.
As to the ingredients. We compound with the pyroxylene, which com-
pounding or amalgamation takes place in some instances before, and in others
subsequent to the pyroxylene, having been submitted to the action of its
solvents, varying as the nature of any peculiar manufacture may demand; they
are as follows:-Assuming that we desire to make paper or other like article
of dry pyroxylene, and whether it be destined to be afterwards dissolved, or to
be employed in its state of paper, we reduce the pyroxylene to pulp, and
manufacture it into paper in the ordinary way, and by the well-known means,
mixing with the pulp, if we choose, and whilst in process of manufacture,
common paper pulp or any other vegetable, mineral, or mineral product free
from water, and capable of imparting to the mass strength, weight, or
durability, such, for instance, as leather shavings, animal hair, cocoa-nut fibre,
kaolin, coke dust.
In producing compound solutions of pyroxylene with other ingredients to be
employed either in the manufacture of solid articles or in a fluid or semifluid
state, as it would require to be for the purposes of spreading upon surfaces,
coating, or cementing, we mix and intimately combine with the solution of
pyroxylene either individually or collectively in character and proportion to be
governed by the special requirements of each case,—
Oils. Essential, animal, vegetable, or mineral.
Gums. Resins, balsams, tar, pitch, bitumen cements, wax, tallow, and grease,
india-rubber, and gutta percha.
Ivory and Bone Dust.-Powdered bark, farinaceous and amylaceous
substances, starch and dextrine.
Vegetable or mineral pigments and bronzes may be introduced as colouring
agents, care being taken that everything employed in the compound be free
from water; the solution of pyroxylene will, from its adhesive nature, combine
freely with almost any foreign matter, and the compounds thus formed may be
rendered available for a great variety of purposes, to be herein-after more
particularly specified.
We also use chloroform and bisulphide of carbon for the purpose of
dissolving india-rubber and gutta percha, being the best solvents of these
gums, to be afterwards mixed with our compound. Ether and alcohol for
thinning or reducing the strength of the compound. All anhydrous basic salts

page_text: that may be soluble, or that will in any way combine with the pyroxylene,
iodide of potassium, and cadmium, oxides of metals capable of imparting colour
or density, iron combined with oxyde of zinc producing red, iron and chromium
for violets, copper and oxyde of zinc for greys, cobalt for greens, nickel for
yellow and olive, and manganese for yellows, kaolin with oxyde of zinc and a
cobalt, to give a blue green. We also apply certain materials to or upon our
compound independently of those which we mix or incorporate with it, and
these materials applied to it may be so applied either whilst our composition is
in course of drying or after it is well dried, and they consist for the most part
of ingredients which would not combine with our compound material without
destroying its cohesive and homogeneous character, unless employed in very
small proportions. These are all descriptions of varnishes, paint, tar, pitch,
bitumen, resins, balsams, soaps, stearine, tallow, grease; these separately or
combined. Gelatine, isinglass, gums, starch, dextrine, gluten, albumen,
amylaceous, farinaceous, and such like substances, whether soluble or insoluble
in water. Phosphate, borate, tungslate, and silicate of soda and potash, and
other substances that would only mechanically mix with our composition, such
as sulphur, kaolin, ground flint, powdered gums, and resins, bone dust, waste
leather, and almost all similar substances free from water, and which our
composition would agglomerate or cause to adhere. Again, glycerine and
other like ingredients, the menstruum of which is water, most of which when
laid upon our composition and dried would adhere to it firmly, and would
impart to it either strength, substance, or uninflammability, and would con-
sequently be very useful. Flocks, such as are used in the manufacture of
paper-hangings, bronze powders, and gold and silver leaf may also be applied
for purposes of ornamentation, and these delicate parts may also be completely
protected from damage by the simple application of another coat. of our
composition in solution.
With respect to the more solid articles into which our compound may be
worked up, such as all materials used in the manufacture or making up of
garments, such as buttons, boxes, or wrappers for steel toys, needles, pens,
jewellery, and for fancy goods; articles capable of holding fluids, such as
bottles and flasks, or grease, such as pots for ointments and perfumery; for
surgical uses, such as nipples, tubes, splints, and skins; articles for which
moulds or impressions are required, such as type seals, medals, duplicates of
engraved plates, or to take the place of engravings, wood, metal, or plaster for
printers' uses; for all purposes of dentistry requiring indestructible moulds or
models; hollow wares, such as cups, bowls, flasks, and tubes for upholsterers
and carvers and gilders' uses, for picture frames, parts of furniture, imitations

page_text: of wood and leather, artificial coral for jewellers, for boot and shoe makers to
produce both soles and uppers. We also make toys, artificial leaves and flowers,
and many fancy articles usually made in metal, wood, bone, glass, ivory, china,
and earthenware, india-rubber, gutter percha, plaster, and wax, and our process
of making such articles is (when the nature of the article will admit of such
treatment) by employing moulds or dies of any suitable material for which our
composition has no affinity, or to which it will not adhere, and casting or
pressing out the article from composition in a plastic, semifluid, or fluid state.
If in a plastic state, then it may be treated as a paste; if in a fluid condition,
it may
be poured or brushed upon the mould, or the mould or model may be
immersed in it, until by adding coat upon coat, sufficient thickness has been
acquired, and as each coat attains the desired condition, that is to say, dry or
partially so, according to circumstances, we can introduce a coat or sheet of
any material to make up thickness and inflexibility, such as varnish, starch,
jelatine, afterwards proceeding to apply thereupon an additional coat or coats
of our compound; but if flexibility be desired, we should avoid the use of any
of these intermediate materials.
Another mode in which we can manufacture buttons and other solid forms
is by stamping, pressing, or cutting them out of a sheet of the material
previously formed into a sheet by repeated coatings or layers of the compound
in solution, in which state we also employ it for coating and insulating tele-
graph wires, whether such wires have been already protected by covering of any
kind, or upon the bare metal. The solution is also a complete protective coat-
ing for percussion caps. A film formed on the inside, or a thin washer placed
therein, thoroughly and efficiently preserves the charge of detonating mixture
from damp.
In the manufacture of gunpowder we find pyroxylene extremely useful, and
this forms one of the most important applications of our Invention. We take
dry pyroxylene, and reduce it to powder, in which state we employ it in place
of or in conjunction with charcoal in the manufacture of a gunpowder. This,
from the highly explosive character of the material, adds very much to the
strength of the gunpowder, whilst it avoids, to a very considerable extent, if not
altogether, the residuum that remains after the discharge of ordinary gun-
powder, and at the same time is free from the danger attending the use of
gun cotton.
We will now enumerate a few of the uses to which these compounds of
pyroxylene in a state of solution may be applied, in which condition they form
an excellent coating or dressing for all descriptions of textile woven fabrics,
oiled or painted cloths, silks, or paper, manufactured india-rubber and gutta

page_text: percha goods, cotton, thread, string, rope, and similar manufactures of silk,
cotton flax, or wool; as a varnish for paper, prints, drawings, felted goods,
leather goods, and wax in sheets; for metal work, wood, and composition,
gilded, painted, or polished; as a preservative of stone, bricks, or plaster from
the action of the atmosphere.
In making oiled cloths, or in other similar manufactures, which in the course
of making might require artificial heat in drying, we should employ a com-
position containing, in addition to dissolved pyroxylene, some drying oil, such
as linseed, nut, or poppy, and upon the cloth coated with this composition,
when dry, we should either paint or varnish, and allow this to dry, and then
cover it with another coat of our solution, repeating these operations until the
desired effect and substance had been attained. If the article in course of
manufacture be required to be inodorous, or to be perfumed, and does not
require artificial heat for drying, we should mix with the solution of pyroxylene
olive, almond, castor, or other similar oils, the smell of which would evaporate
in drying, or could be destroyed by the admixture of perfumes. When we
desire to produce a very firm stiff coat upon any surface, we introduce into
the composition gums, resins, balsams, and other similar ingredients having a
tendency to harden the coating. In dressing silks and other like fabrics we
prefer to use the solution in a very limpid state, varying the ingredients and
the proportions of the same according to the requirements of the case, and as
to whether the article was to be dried by artificial heat or spontaneously.
In making varnishes, lacquers, or cements, also the solution may be mixed
with a view to drying by heat or spontaneously. These solutions used as
dressings or coating for surfaces may be applied either by the brush, the
spreading knife, by dipping, or from polished surfaces. For instance, strong
textile or woven fabrics we should prepare by laying on the composition with
a spreader; any article that could best be saturated we should dip in a bath
of the solution; thin fabrics, such as gauze or muslin, would be best coated by
means of polished surfaces of metal or glass, upon which, the solution being
poured until the surface is covered, the fabric is laid upon it, and becomes
attached to it, and the whole is removed from the polished surface in one
united fabric, or by laying the thin fabric upon the polished surface, and
spreading the solution evenly over it, by which means the fabric becomes
saturated in manner referred to in the Specification of a former Patent granted
to Alexander Rollason, and dated December Eleventh, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-eight; or we can adopt both these processes with the same
material. The same methods of dressing or coating would be used upon any
material that had been previously covered by some other means, such as oiled,

page_text: and painted cloths, silks, papers, fabrics of paper pulp, now made into collars
and cuffs, vegetable parchment and other like manufactures, and these we can
treat either upon the side already coated, or upon the reverse side; and by
the employment of our composition two or more surfaces or sheets of any of
the fabrics enumerated, or of similar description thereto, may be cemented
together, and thus very strong and tenaceous materials may be made, suitable
for uses, such as machine bands, harness, and tubing.
The uses or applications of the various description of material that may be
manufactured under this our Invention are far too numerous to be particularly
classified; the following are but a few of them:-Articles of apparel of every
kind, umbrellas, parasols, cart covers, tents, sails, machine bands, straps, belts,
tubes, harness, for bookbinders' uses both as a cement, and also as a material
for the covers of books; air and water-bed and cushion covers; sponge and
other bags; cups, bowls, basins, and jugs; to protect cartridges, caps, and
projectiles from damp; for bottles, boxes, and jars; for surgical and den-
tistical purposes, as well as for the manufacture of sticking plaister and surgical
instruments, and for any other purpose analogous to or of a kindred nature to
any of these; in a pulverized state as a substitute for charcoal in the manu-
facture of gunpowder. In the state of varnish or lacquer it may be used for
wood, papier maché, leather, metal, bricks, stone, plaster, glass, china, earthen-
ware, bone, ivory, india-rubber, gutta percha, gelatine, and all other articles
made of or similar to these, or of a nature akin to these. For rendering
impervious to the action of the atmosphere all articles desired to be preserved;
for finishing and stiffening every description of paper and pasteboard; as a
varnish for oil and water-colour paintings, and a vehicle for pigments; for
sheathing for ships, and roofing; for saturating articles or goods requiring it;
and, generally, for any and all purposes of a like nature to those we have
already enumerated.
As to the proportions of the several ingredients employed in carrying out
the various branches of our Invention, and the manipulations required to
bring the same to a successful issue, these must be left to the judgment and
skill of the operator; they vary as the nature of the article to be produced,
and practice alone can determine the course to be followed in every case.
Any ordinary practitioner acquainted with the nature and properties of
pyroxylene will readily understand this; he will, at the same time, find no
difficulty in working out the Invention.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, we wish it understood that we do not
confine ourselves to the precise details herein given, as many variations of the

page_text: same might be suggested without departing from the spirit of our Invention ;
but that which we claim, and desire to have secured to us by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is,―
Firstly, the several improvements in combining and mixing certain solutions
of pyroxylene with animal, mineral, and vegetable substances, by which its
quality is altered in such manner as to produce hard, resistent, adhesive,
plastic, or resilient compounds and articles unalterable in their nature and
varied in colour, which said compounds in a state of solution may also be
advantageously employed as paints or varnish; and we claim these several
improvements substantially as herein set forth and specified.
And, secondly, we claim the manufacture of the peculiar solutions of
pyroxylene herein described, and the making of the said pyroxylene, in the
manufacture of which we can utilize the waste acids, and re-employ them with
great economy, as also herein more fully set forth and specified.
In witness whereof, we, the said Stephen Barnwell and Alexander
Rollason, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Thirteenth
day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-one.
STEPHEN BARNWELL.
(L.S.)
ALEXANDER ROLLASON. (L.S.)