AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
Year: 1855

page_text: Sealed the 28th December 1855, and dated the 3rd October 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Dickinson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
October 1855.
I, JOHN DICKINSON, of Old Bailey, in the City of London, Paper Manu-
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER" to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to produce a paper which will possess on its
opposite sides two different characters of surface, thereby rendering it adapted
for different kinds of printing.
The Invention consists in bringing together in a very wet state, that is to
say, in an unfinished stage of manufacture, and each in a continuous course of
delivery, two webs of paper; one being made by the machine in common use,
and called Fourdrinier's paper machine; the other web being made by the
paper machine invented by myself, also in common use, and called the cylinder
machine; and after the first contact of the webs supplying such means of
removing the water contained in the paper; and also of gradual and successive
pressure as will cause the cohesion of the two webs, and effect their consoli-
dation into one apparently homogeneous web of paper.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Dickinson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
3rd April 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
DICKINSON, of Old Bailey, in the City of London, Paper Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Dickinson, Her special license that I, the said John
Dickinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said John Dickinson, 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 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 "AN IM-
PROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Dickinson, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, 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 John Dickinson, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of a paper which by possessing
on its opposite sides varying characters of surface will permit of its being used
indifferently for copper-plate or lithographic printing. For this purpose I bring
together in a very wet state, (that is to say, in an unfinished stage of manu-
facture), two webs of paper as they are delivered from their respective machines,
and these webs I combine into one by pressure, and dry and consolidate them,
o that they shall form one homogeneous web of paper. One of these webs I
form on what is known in the trade as the "Fourdrinier" or "shake machine,"
and the other I form on the machine invented by myself, and commonly
known as the "cylinder machine."

page_text: The arrangement of machinery which employ in carrying out this new
manufacture is shewn in the accompanying Drawing, and consists of a shake
machine and a cylinder machine combined with a suitable arrangement of
felts and guide rollers for traversing the two webs, and also of pressing rollers
for expressing the moisture from the paper, and effecting the consolidation of
the two webs into one. As the construction of paper-making machinery is so
well known, I have not thought it necessary to shew more than the relative
positions of the several working parts, the details being similar to paper-making
machines generally. In the Diagram the part marked A represents the
Fourdrinier machine, now in general use, for making paper upon an endless
sheet of woven wire, which receives a horizontal oscillatory motion during the
period that the pulp is allowed to flow upon its surface. The direction of
motion of the wire cloth is indicated by arrows, and while the machine is in
action the pulp which flows out of the pulp vat is conducted by the wire cloth
to the wet press at b. At this point the pulp attains the form of a web or
sheet, and after being pressed it adheres to the upper or couching roll, and is
afterwards drawn off that roll on to the traversing endless sheet of felt d, which
carries it on until it arrives at the roll c. The web of pulp or partially formed
paper is at this point detached from the felt, and made to descend upon a web
of pulp or partially formed paper that is led off (in contact and travelling with
an endless sheet of felt) from a cylinder machine indicated at B. The paper
coming from this machine must be made at a rate rather exceeding the rate at
which the paper is delivered from the Fourdrinier machine. The two webs of
wet or newly formed paper now pass under the large dandy roll e, and over a
suction or exhaust trough f, which is situate immediately beneath it, the paper
being conducted between these by two endless felts, as shewn in the Drawing.
The combined action of the roll e and exhaust trough f will be to discharge
a considerable portion of the water contained in the webs of paper, and to form
these two into a compound web, which then passes forwards to the press
rolls h, h, to be consolidated by pressure. The dandy roll e is rotated by the
upper felt 9: which receives its motion from a pair of press rollers g*, 9*,
employed for squeezing out the superfluons water from the felt. These rollers
receive motion from any suitable driving gear, and if in drawing round the felt
they tighten up the dandy roll e too much, the spindle must be weighted to
keep it down. On the other hand, the dandy roll e may, if needful; be elevated
by tightening the felt g, which may be done by shifting the guide roll i, the
bearings of which should be made to traverse horizontally by means of a pair
of tightening screws worked simultaneously in the manner adopted for different
parts of paper machines, and the paper drying apparatus used therewith at

page_text: present. 'The width of the two machines, the paper of which it is proposed to
combine, may be adjusted to convenience; but the width of the one web of
paper destined to be combined with the other ought of course to be con-
formable to it, and so conducted to the point of junction as to make the edges
of each correspond. The cylinder machine B, which manufactures the lower
stratum of paper, will require rather a faster motion than the machine A, which
inotion must be made adjustable. The motion of the felt g must also be made
to keep time with the machine B; but the means of varying the rates of
different parts of paper machines, even when going, are so generally understood
and applied in paper making, that it is unnecessary to describe them here.
The dandy roll may be about two feet in diameter, as shewn in the Drawing,
or somewhat varied, if found convenient. The upper surface of the suction
trough beneath the felt should be somewhat curved to suit the shape of the
dandy roll, and adjustable, so that one side or the other may be elevated, as
found to suit best in working. By following the course of the arrows in the
Drawing, it will be seen that the surfaces of the webs of paper that are brought
into contact and caused to unite are those which lay at the time of formation
next the wire cloth of the endless sheet and cylinder machines respectively, and
that when brought together they are subjected to slight mechanical pressure
between the felts, and also to atmospheric pressure caused by the partial vacuum
of the exhaust vessel f, by which action the cohesion of the two webs is effected.
The discharge of water remaining in the paper is effected by the action of the
pressing rolls, as will be well understood.
Having now set forth the nature and object of my Invention of "An
Improvement in the Manufacture of Paper," and explained the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above
in part recited Letters Patent I claim the manufacture of paper, by combining
together in the manner above set forth two webs formed simultaneously, the
one on a Fourdrinier and the other on a cylinder machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Dickinson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Second day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
JOHN DICKINSON. (L.S.)