IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF CERTAIN PRODUCTS OBTAINED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER OR OF PAPER STOCK
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Routledge, of the Ford Works Company
(Limited), Sunderland, in the County of Durham, and Thomas Richard-
son, of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Chemist, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF CERTAIN
PRODUCTS OBTAINED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER OR OF PAPER STOCK."
Sealed the 22nd August 1865, and dated the 25th February 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Routledge and
Thomas Richardson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 25th February 1865.
We, THOMAS ROUTLEDGE, of the Ford Works Company (Limited), Sunder-
land, in the County of Durham, and THOMAS RICHARDSON, of the Town and
County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF
CERTAIN PRODUCTS OBTAINED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER OR OF PAPER STOCK,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists, firstly, in lixiviating the so called black balls of the
alkali maker, or black balls made specially for the purpose, with the spent
leys or waste liquors, concentrated or otherwise, resulting from the boiling
process of esparto, straw, or other fibrous substances instead of water as now
employed.

page_text: Secondly, in using the liquor obtained from the above lixiviation for the
boiling of esparto, straw, or other fibrous materials, instead of the ordinary
alkaline leys as now practised.
Thirdly, in boiling down the liquors resulting from the lixiviation of the
black balls according to the first part of our Invention to dryness in an
ordinary furnace, and subjecting the resulting product to a red heat to destroy
the organic matter, and lixiviating the residuum to obtain a ley suitable for
the treatment of the said fibrous materials.
The spent leys or liquors previously concentrated or evaporated down to a
pasty consistence may be mixed with sulphate of soda, salt cake, nitre cake,
or other commercial forms of sulphate of soda, submitted to calcination in an
ordinary reverberatory furnace, and the resulting product will furnish a liquor
which may be used in the boiling of esparto, straw, or other fibrous substances.
The aforesaid pasty mass may also be mixed with the usual materials in the
ordinary balling process of the alkali manufacture, and the resulting product
lixiviated or treated in the usual manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Routledge and Thomas Richardson in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 25th August 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
ROUTLEDGE, and Ford Works Company (Limited), Sunderland, in the County
of Durham, and THOMAS RICHARDSON, of the Town and County of Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of February, in the.
year
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Thomas Routledge and Thomas Richardson, Her special license
that we, the said Thomas Routledge and Thomas Richardson, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Routledge
and Thomas Richardson, our executors, administrators, or 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 "Iμ-
PROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF CERTAIN PRODUCTS OBTAINED

page_text: IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER OR PAPER STOCK," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Thomas Routledge and Thomas Richardson, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Thomas Routledge and Thomas
Richardson, 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 :-
In the manufacture of alkali as at present conducted the product of one of
the processes is known under the name of black balls, in lixiviating which the
soda ash obtained contains more or less caustic soda. The yield of caustic
soda from these black balls can be increased by diminishing the proportion of
sulphate of soda in the mixture for the balling furnace, and it is.to such black
balls so made that we allude as specifically made for our purpose.
The process of extracting the soluble constituents of these black balls by
means of water is well known, and our improvements consist in performing
this lixiviating operation with the spent leys or waste liquors obtained from
the boiling process of esparto, straw, or other fibrous substances. These waste
liquors for lixiviating the black balls may be used as they come direct from
the boiling process, but if the quantity of liquid obtained be too large for use
it may be reduced by concentrating it to any convenient bulk by evaporation
5 by surface or bottom heat, or on the other hand, if the quantity prove too
small the bulk may be increased by diluting it with water.
The process of lixiviation with the above liquors may be conducted in the
apparatus and in the manner, at present in use in alkali works.
The liquor obtained by the above method of lixiviating black balls is to be
used in the boiling process when treating esparto, straw, or other fibrous
materials. The strength of the liquor is either increased by concentration by
boiling, or diminished by dilution with water, as the case may be, taking care
that the liquor is about from 9° to 12° Twaddle. If the liquor does not contain
sufficient soda in the caustic form the proportion is increased by boiling with
5. quick lime as at present practised when using the ley from ordinary alkali, in
which case the quantity of lime to be added is determined by the results of a
chemical analysis of the soda contents of the liqour. When the liquors
resulting from our mode of lixiviating black balls contain too large'a proportion
of organic matter, we boil them down by surface or bottom heat in
any suitable

page_text: furnace, and expose the resulting mass to a red heat to carbonize or destroy
the organic matter. The residuum is lixiviated in the usual way, and the
liquor so obtained may be causticised (rendered caustic) by lime or not,
as the case may be, in order to obtain a ley suitable for treating the said
fibrous materials.
We also treat the spent leys or liquors charged with organic matter by
another plan; we concentrate them by evaporation in the usual way, or boil
them down to a pasty consistency, when we throw in or mix a quantity of
sulphate of soda in any of its commercial forms and submit the whole to
calcination by preference in a close reverberatory furnace. The resulting mass
is lixiviated in the ordinary manner, and the liquor so obtained can be used for
boiling esparto, straw, or other fibrous substances. Instead of heating the
pasty mass as above described we' mix it with the ordinary materials of the
balling mixture, and submit the whole to the balling process of the alkali
manufacture, the resulting black balls are lixiviated in the usual manner.
We would remark that in each case the liquors obtained in any of our
processes are brought to the strength of about 9° to 12° Twaddle before they
are used for boiling esparto, straw, or other fibrous matters, and further when
the chemical analysis indicates that the soda present has not sufficient causticity
for treating the said fibrous materials in an efficient manner or as rapidly as
may be desirable, they are boiled with the necessary quantity of quick lime for
this purpose.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, we would observe in conclusion that what we consider to be novel
and original and therefore claim as the Invention secured to us by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First, the lixiviating the black balls obtained in the manufacture of alkali by
means of the spent leys or waste liquors resulting from the boiling process of
esparto or alfa grass, straw, or other fibrous substances.
Second, the employment or use of the liquor obtained by the process last
claimed in the process of boiling esparto, straw, and other fibrous material.
And, third, the obtaining a ley or leys suitable for the treatment of esparto,
straw, and other fibrous materials by boiling down the liquors resulting from
the process firstly and secondly claimed as our Invention, and afterwards
destroying the organic matter therein by means of a red heat, and finally
lixiviating the residuum as herein-before described.
Fourth, the obtaining of a substance which after lixiviation is suitable for
leys for the treatment of esparto grass, straw, or other fibrous material, by

page_text: concentrating or evaporating (to a pasty consistency) the spent leys or waste
liquors resulting from the boiling process above claimed, and mixing the same
with sulphate of soda, and then submitting the same to calcination as herein-
before described.
Fifth, the obtaining of a ley or leys suitable for the treatment of esparto
grass, straw, or other fibrous material by evaporating or concentrating to a
pasty consistency the spent leys or waste liquors above claimed, and mixing the
same with sulphate of soda, carbonate of lime, and coal, the ordinary materials
of the black ball, and submitting the whole to what is known as the balling
process and then to lixiviation, as is well understood.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Richardson, on behalf of myself
and the said Thomas Routledge, have hereunto set my hand and seal,
the Twenty-third day of August, One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-five.
THOMAS RICHARDSON. (L.S.)
THOMAS RICHARDSON. (L.S.)