IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Carter Millbourn, of No. 17, Clyde Terrace,
Beatrice Road, Blue Anchor Road, Bermondsey, in the County of
Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF AND
Sealed the 20th February 1872, and dated the 30th December 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Carter Millbourn at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th December 1871.
I, CARTER MILLBOURN, of No. 17, Clyde Terrace, Beatrice Road,
Blue Anchor Road, Bermondsey, in the County of Surrey, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS
OF AND APPARATUS OR MACHINERY FOR MAKING PAPER," to be as follows:-
In the machinery usually employed for making paper in web the pulp
spread upon wire gauze is caused to pass over stationary vacuum
chambers, and is subjected to considerable local roller pressure before it
attains the character of a coherent sheet.

page_text: The object of my Invention is to give the desired coherence to the
pulp by passing it over a rotating vacuum chamber presenting a soft
and absorbent surface of large extent, against which the pulp is pressed
and subjected to vacuum action, so as to be drained of a large portion
of its moisture. For this purpose I mount in bearings on the framing
of a paper machine a hollow cylinder having its periphery formed of
wire gauze or of perforated sheet metal. The axis of this cylinder is
tubular, and its interior is divided by radial diaphragms into several
segmental compartments, each of which communicates by a hole or
holes with the interior hollow in the axis. In this hollow there is a
fixed tube with one or more longitudinal slots, or with openings arranged
round part of its circumference. This tube communicates with a
chamber where a partial vacuum is formed by means of an air pump, or
by the condensation of steam, or in any other known manner. A
continuous sheet of felt or flannel is passed round a considerable part of
the periphery of the cylinder and round a tightening roller acted on by
weights or springs, so as to make the felt or flannel embrace the per-
forated surface of the cylinder with such pressure as may be desirable.
The openings in the hollow axis of the cylinder and in the tube within
it are so arranged with reference to each other that as the cylinder
revolves each of its segmental compartments is successively put in
communication with the vacuum chamber, while the surface of that
compartment is covered by the felt or flannel, but the communication
is cut off while the compartment is moving over that part of its
revolution where it is not so covered. The cylinder is caused to revolve
so that its circumference moves at the same rate as the travelling wire
gauze on which the pulp is spread, and by means of guide rollers this
wire gauze is also made to embrace a part of the circumference of the
roller along with the felt or flannel. The pulp which had been spread
on the gauze in the ordinary way is thus brought by the continuous
movement of the gauze and the cylinder to be squeezed between the
gauze and the felt or flannel, and to be subjected to the action of the
vacuum formed in the compartments of the cylinder, which causes a
large portion of its moisture to be drained through the felt or flannel
and gives the pulp a coherent consistency. The wire gauze after
leaving the circumference of the cylinder is turned by guide rollers
back to the part of the machine where it receives the pulp, while the
felt or flannel with the coherent pulp on it passes between two rollers,
the outer one of which is heated by steam in the usual way. The

page_text: coherent pulp leaves the felt or flannel and passes over the heated roller
to the ordinary drying and pressing rollers of the machine.
Instead of using a vacuum cylinder divided into compartments, as I
have described above, a cylinder without such division might be used,
but with less advantage, because the vacuum action would in that case
extend over the whole periphery, including the portion not covered by
the felt or flannel where it is not required.
Also a cylinder might be employed with a fixed diaphragm supported
on a fixed tubular axis within it, the purpose of such fixed diaphragm
being to cut off the vacuum action from that part of the periphery of
the cylinder which is not covered by the felt or flannel. This arrange-
ment would however also be less advantageous than that first described,
as there would be a difficulty in causing the diaphragm to fit the
interior of the revolving cylinder with the necessary degree of tight-
ness.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Carter Millbourn in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th June 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CARTER
1 MILLBOURN, of No. 17, Clyde Terrace, Beatrice Road, Blue Anchor
Road, Bermondsey, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Carter Millbourn, Her special licence that
I, the said Carter Millbourn, my executors, dministrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Carter Millbourn, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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,

page_text: wire gauze, which in the Figure is broken off at A' and A³, is continued
in the ordinary way round suitable guide rollers at the end of the
machine, where the pulp is deposited on it so that it forms a continuous
travelling surface. C is a vacuum cylinder, which is caused to revolve
so that its periphery travels at the same velocity as the wire gauze A.
The cylinder C is hollow, and its interior is in communication with a
chamber in which a vacuum is maintained by an air pump, or by the
doncation of steam or any other known means

page_text: subjected to the action of the vacuum, which is required only over that
part of the periphery which for the time is covered by the web D. For
this purpose the interior of the cylinder C is divided into several
segmental compartments, each of which communicates with the interior
of a hollow axis by passages c, c. Within the hollow axis is fixed a
tubular chamber F, which communicates with a chamber in which a
vacuum is maintained by a pipe F¹ passing through one of the trunnions
of the cylinder C, and provided with a stuffing box to prevent leakage.
The tubular chamber F has holes through its sides, and on its upper
part is fitted with a packing piece G, which is pressed upwards by
springs 9, 9, so as to bear against the interior of the hollow axis of the
cylinder C. As the cylinder C revolves in the direction of the arrow
the passages c, c, communicating with its segmental compartments are
covered by the packing piece G during that part of the revolution when
the surface of the compartment is not covered by the web D, but these
passages after passing the packing piece G are in free communication
with the interior of the hollow axis, and thus cach segmental compart-
ment is successively put in communication with the vacuum chamber F
11
11
11

page_text: from turning. Two nuts k, k, one on each side of the hole in the
framing, are secured on the stem of the plug, and serve to adjust the
tightness of the plug in the conical seat in the cylinder C. L, M, are a
pair of rollers pressed together, the roller M being heated by keeping
its interior filled with steam.
The action of the apparatus when put in motion is as follows:-Pulp
laid on the gauze A is brought between the gauze and the web D
immediately after passing the guide roller B'. It is conveyed between the
gauze and the web D round the under part of the periphery of the
cylinder C, being subjected during its passage to the draining action of
the vacuum within the compartments of that cylinder and to the
pressure of the gauze A on the web D. On passing the guide roller B³
the gauze A leaves the now coherent pulp, which is carried upwards by
the web D till it passes between the pressing rollers L and M. Here
it leaves the web D and is turned away by the heated roller M, as
indicated at O, and is thereafter continued over the ordinary steam and
pressing rollers used in such machines.
Instead of carrying the web D over guide and tightening rollers, as
shewn in Figure 1, it might be laid close over the whole of the porous
periphery of the cylinder C, forming a coating of flannel, felt, or other
suitable fabric on which the pulp is pressed, and in this case the heated
roller M would be applied directly to the cylinder C beyond the point
where the wire gauze leaves it. Also the wire gauze A instead of being
carried round so large a portion of the periphery of C as shown in
Figure 1, might embrace only a small portion of it and be turned back
from it by guide rollers, another travelling web of gauze, or of flannel,
felt, or other suitable fabric being brought by guide rollers to bear over
any desired portion of the periphery of the vacuum cylinder C.
And other obvious modifications might be made in the forms, arrange-
ments, and proportions of the parts without departing from the essential
features of my Invention, which form the subjects of the following
claims, that is to say, I claim,-
ST....L
L

page_text: Second. The combination of such rotating chamber with a travelling
web between which and the porous periphery of the chamber the pulp
is pressed, substantially as herein described.
Third. The process of consolidating paper pulp by pressing it by a
travelling web against the porous surface of a rotating vacuum chamber,
substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Carter Millbourn, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of June, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two.