An Improved Process of and Apparatus for Treating Peat for the Manufacture of Paper Pulp.
Year: 1892

page_text: .
he decision of the Comptroller-General, of the 9th day of April 1894,
allowed, under Section 18 of the Patents, &c. Act, 1883, an Amendment
of this Specification.
Date of Application, 1st Sept., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 3rd July, 1893-Accepted, 19th Aug., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Process of and Apparatus for Treating Peat for the
Manufacture of Paper Pulp.
I, ARTHUR BRIN of 24, Park Road, Twickenham, Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to an improved method of and apparatus for the mechanical
and chemical treatment of peat for the manufacture of paper pulp and it has
mainly for its object to effect a thorough bleaching of the material (which all
other processes have hitherto failed to effect) and also to economize time and
materials and to enable the operations to be carried on without danger to the
workmen.
In carrying out my invention the peat is first disintegrated by being passed
between one or more pairs of masticating rollers from which it is charged into a
closed vessel containing one or more pairs of squeezing rollers between which the
peat is caused to pass repeatedly by the circulating action of helical agitators
at the same time that it is subjected to the action of a hot solution of caustic soda
at, say, 2% and under steam pressure of, say, 5 atmospheres contained in the said
vessel. After being subjected for a sufficient time to this cooking treatment the
disaggregated cellulose is conveyed to a tank where it is washed or diluted with
cold water and agitated and when cooled it is forced by a jet of steam into the
bleaching vessel which like the previous one contains one or more pairs of squeezing
rollers between which the pulp is caused to continuously circulate by agitators as
before described and wherein it is subjected to the bleaching action of hypochlorous
acid supplied thereto or produced therein by injecting, by means of a steam jet,
what I term active oxygen or oxychloride of hydrogen being a mixture of oxygen
and dry chlorine (resulting from the passage of oxygen over binoxide of manganese
in the presence of liquid hydrochloric acid) the gaseous mixture in excess passing
on and being caught or absorbed in the fourth vessel hereafter referred to.
When the charge has been sufficiently treated it is run off into an open tank
wherein it is exposed to light for a sufficient time. It is thence pumped or otherwise
transferred into a third vessel furnished like the other two with pairs of squeezing
rollers and means for circulating the pulp through the same. This vessel contains
a solution of caustic soda at about 5° or 6° B. and into it is run water acidulated
with two or three per cent. of hydrochloric or sulphuric acid for the purpose of
disengaging chlorine which passes off through a dip pipe into the fourth vessel
which is closed containing a solution of caustic soda at, say, 20° B. whilst the pulp
now completely bleached is run off from the third vessel into a tank ready for
paper making, the hypochlorous acid formed in the fourth vessel being used over
again for bleaching another charge in the second vessel, the strength of the
bleaching agent being restored or maintained by the injection of active oxygen as
before described.

page_text: By the action of the squeezing rollers in the several vessels, the fluid contained
in the cellulose is expressed and replaced by the liquors which are thus brought
into the most intimate contact with the cellulose of the peat and enabled to exert
a most efficient decolorising action thereon without however affecting prejudicially
the physical qualities of the fibres whereby they are rendered suitable for making
the finest and whitest paper.
.
The several vessels are provided with the necessary valves and adjuncts for
permitting the progress of the several operations to be watched and tested.
Dated this 1st day of September 1892.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.
'
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION (AMENDED).
An Improved Process of and Apparatus for Treating Peat for the
Manufacture of Paper Pulp.
I, ARTHUR BRIN of 24, Park Road, Twickenham, Engineer, 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 :--
My invention relates to the chemical and mechanical treatment of peat for the
manufacture of paper pulp, and it has mainly for its object to effect a thorough
bleaching of the peat and render it suitable for making the finest and whitest paper
(which other processes have hitherto failed to effect) and also to economize time
and materials and to enable the operations to be carried on without danger to the
workmen.
The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings,
forming part of this Specification, which illustrate in a more or less elementary form
the apparatus employed in carrying out the process, it being understood that the
apparatus may be varied according to requirements.
The peat is first brought to a loose fibrous condition, free from the accompanying
sand and decomposed vegetable matter, by being passed between a pair of opening.
rollers, such as shewn at A, armed with teeth by which the fibres are opened out or
Ioosened at the same time that the earthy and soluble matters are washed away by
a copious stream of water. For this purpose the rollers A may be contained in a
chamber B and provided with strainers & beneath the rollers to retain the fibres
and allow the water to pass away, combs a being provided for detaching the
fibres from the teeth of the rollers A.
The fibres, having been thus opened out and cleaned, are charged, through a
suitable valve, into a vessel C containing a pair of squeezing rollers D made of
hard wood or other material not acted on by the reagents employed, whereby
the coloring matter contained in the capillary fibres of the peat is expressed, in
order that it may be replaced by the liquors used for the treatment of the peat
which by being thus brought into the most intimate contact with the cellulose
of the peat are enabled to exert a much more effectual decolorizing action without
affecting prejudicially the physical qualities of the fibres. The rollers D are
mounted in spring-pressed bearings, and the peat fibres are caused to pass between
them by an Archimedean screw E and are at same time subjected to the action
of a hot solution of caustic soda at, say, 24° Baumé and to a steam pressure of,
say, five atmospheres contained in said vessel C the apparatus being so arranged
as to admit of a continual circulation of the matters under treatment so that the
fibres shall be caused to pass repeatedly between the rollers.
After being subjected for a sufficient time, say 1
fibrous mass is discharged into a tank E' where it
hour, to this treatment, the
is washed with cold water

page_text: sprayed from a rose F, the dirty water being run off through a wire cloth strainer
at the bottom of the tank. From this tank the mass, which is kept agitated by
a wheel G, is conveyed by a jet of steam and gas issuing at a nozzle immersed
therein, through a pipe I to the bleaching vessel K which contains a pair of
squeezing rollers between which the mass is caused to pass repeatedly whilst
being subjected to the bleaching action, the arrangement being similar to that of
the vessel C. The gas is supplied by a pipe H and is caused to mingle with the
steam supplied by pipe L by the action of the steam issuing from a nozzle within
the chamber. The gas employed is what I term active oxygen or oxychloride
of hydrogen being a mixture of oxygen and chlorine resulting from the passage of
oxygen over binoxide of manganese in the presence of liquid hydrochloric acid.
The gaseous mixture thus supplied to the vessel K forms hypochlorous acid which
exercises a powerful bleaching action on the pulp, any gas in excess passing on and
being caught as hereafter mentioned.
When the charge has been sufficiently bleached it is run off from vessel K into a
tank M whence it is transferred by a pump P or by other means, into a closed
vessel N, containing a solution of caustic soda at about five or six degrees Baumé,
and into which is run, through pipe n, water acidulated with two or three per cent.
of hydrochloric or sulphuric acid for the purpose of disengaging chlorine which
passes off through a dip-pipe O into a fourth vessel R containing a solution of
caustic soda at, say, five degrees Baumé. The pulp now completely bleached is
run off from vessel N into a tank S ready for paper-making, whilst the hypochlorous
acid formed in the vessel R may be used for bleaching another charge in vessel K,
the strength of the bleaching solution being maintained by the injection of gas
along with the steam, as before described.
The several vessels are provided with the necessary valves and other adjuncts
for permitting the progress of the several operations to be controlled and tested.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I would observe that a
previous Patent was granted to myself and Léon Quentin Brin dated April 2nd 1887
No. 4953 for a process of bleaching fibrous substances used in paper making by means
of bleaching agents in a gaseous form. The said process consisted essentially in
subjecting the said fibrous substances to the action of an electrified mixture of chlorine
and oxygen gases and for certain apparatus employed in the said process of bleaching,
and I do not therefore claim anything contained in my said former Patent but I declare
that what I claim is-
1. The herein described process of treating peat fibres and converting the same
into pulp for paper.
2. In the herein described process of treating peat, effecting the bleaching of the
fibres by the action of oxychloride of hydrogen in the manner described.
3. In the herein described process of bleaching peat, effecting the decomposition
of the gas contained in the matters treated for recovering the gas employed in the
bleaching operation, for use over again as specified.
Dated this 1st day of July 1893.
ARTHUR BRIN.