IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PULPING STRAW AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Montague Stevens, of Holywell, in the County of
Flint, Paper Maker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR PULPING STRAW AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES."
Sealed the 16th November 1858, and dated the 24th May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Montague Stevens at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th May 1858.
I, MONTAGUE STEVENS, of Holywell, in the County of Flint, Paper Maker,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR PULPING STRAW AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES," to be as
follows:-
The
My Invention consists in constructing an engine for reducing the fibres of
straw and of other vegetable productions into pulp, as hereafter explained. I
employ a roller or cylinder with plates, plain or corrugated, secured thereon.
at intervals, so as to leave between every two plates a groove or space; or I
take a plain roller or cylinder with grooves along the breadth thereof, and
I cause this roller to rotate in a bed composed of a semi-cylinder of a diameter
and form corresponding with but a little larger than that of the roller.
roller is kept clear of the bed, and by means of shifting bearings in which the
axle of the roller revolves, the distance between the roller and bed can be
regulated as required. There is a cover to the pulper, and the fibre to be
reduced to pulp is fed in between the roller and bed by an inclined shoot.
The roller being made to rotate rapidly reduces the fibres to an even pulp by
the rubbing action kept up upon them between the surfaces of the roller
and bed.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Montague Stevens in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 24th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MONTAGUE
STEVENS, of Holywell, in the County of Flint, Paper Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Montague Stevens, Her special licence that I, the said
Montague Stevens, any executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Montague Stevens, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the terin 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 MACHINERY FOR PULPING STRAW AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBRES,"
upon the condition (amongst others), that I, the said Montague Stevens,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing-under my
or their, or one of their 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Montague Stevens, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner: the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say
J
My Invention consists in constructing an engine for reducing the fibres
of straw and of other vegetable productions into pulp, as hereafter explained.
I employ a roller or cylinder with plates, plain or corrugated, secured thereon
at intervals, so as to leave between every two plates a groove or space; or I
take a plain roller or cylinder with grooves along the breadth thereof, and
I cause this roller to rotate in a bed composed of a semi-cylinder of a diameter
and form corresponding with but a little larger than that of the roller. The
roller is kept clear of tho bed, and by means of shifting bearings in which the
axle of the roller revolves, the distance between the roller and bed can be

page_text: regulated as required. There is a cover to the pulper, and the fibre to be
reduced to pulp is fed in between the roller and bed by an incliued shoot, or
between rollers placed over the main roller. The roller being made to rotate
rapidly reduces the fibres to an even pulp by the rubbing action kept up upon
them between the surfaces of the roller and bed.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a front, and Figure 2 a side
elevation, of an engine or machine for pulping straw and other vegetable
fibres constructed according to my Invention. A is a roller or drum on which
corrugated or plain plates B, B, are secured, or the roller may, be formed with
grooves, as shewn in section at Figure 3. The roller revolves in the semi-
cylindrical bed C, which may be formed in one part, or in two or more segments.
The roller A is supported on an axle D, which works in plummer blocks E, E.
F, F, are levers or lighters on which the plummer blocks E, E, rest, having
their fulcrum at G. Through the outer ends of these levers, shafts H, H,
which are screw-threaded, pass, and are connected together by means of bevil
wheels I, I, and cross shaft K. Motion is communicated to the shaft by a
hand wheel L, in order to regulate the distance of the drum A from the bed C.
M, M, are set screws to adjust the roller in the plummer blocks; N is a
hopper, into which the straw or other fibrous material is placed; 0, 0, aro
two fed rollers at the bottom of the hopper, between which the material is
drawn and fed into the pulping engine; P, P, are pulleys, round which
a belt Q passes to communicate motion to the feed rollers. I sometimes form
the bed plate in three pieces, the upper piece having springs behind it to keep
it up to the revolving roll.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the pulping of
straw and other vegetable fibres by means of a roller constructed and acting
in the manner described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Montague Stevens, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of November, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-eight.