IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF DECORATIVE MATERIAL FOR WALLS AND OTHER DECORATIVE PURPOSES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN THE SAID MANUFACTURE, THE SAID IMPROVEMENTS BEING IN PART APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT PAPERS AND MILLBOARD
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas John Palmer at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th April 1883.
THOMAS JOHN PALMER Decorator's Salesman of 10 Letterstone Road. Fulham
in the County of Middlesex, IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
DECORATIVE MATERIAL FOR WALLS AND OTHER DECORATIVE PURPOSES, AND IN
THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN THE SAID MANUFACTURE, THE
SAID IMPROVEMENTS BEING IN PART APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT
PAPERS AND MILLBOARD
.
This invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of decorative
material for walls and other decorative purposes and in the machinery or apparatus
employed in the said manufacture. The said improvements being in part applicable
to the manufacture of felt papers and millboard.
My improvements are as follows.
I take any materials such as are, or may be used in the manufacture of paper
and prepare the same into a pulpy mass after the manner in which paper pulp is
prepared and I convey the said pulp onto the machine in the way practised in the
manufacture of paper but in a thick layer suitable for the purposes of my invention.
It has been bitherto difficult, or impossible, in making thick paper material suffi-
ciently to deprive it throughout its thickness of moisture. To enable this to be
done I use an endless blanket of great absorbent power which I bring onto the top
of the pulp and which blanket travels with the pulp until it reaches, or nearly
reaches the couch rolls. I then pass the said blanket over a roller to which roller
I attach an adjustment to regulate the thickness of the paper material being made
and return the said blanket by passing it over rollers attached to a special framing,
one of which rollers I use as an expanding roller. I then pass the said blanket
between two other rollers where it receives a pressure to force out the water it has
taken up in its passage over the pulp. Under these pressing rollers I place a
suitable box to receive the water pressed out of the blanket, to which box I affix a
suitable pipe to convey the water beneath the machine or to any suitable place.
The paper material having reached the couch rolls proceeds in the usual way on an
endless blanket until it passes the first pressing rollers. I now use another endless
blanket and an endless wirecloth of suitable guage. I convey the paper material

page_text: first onto the wirecloth and then bring the said wirecloth by means of rollers to
the blanket so that the blanket is undermost, the paper material uppermost, and
the wirecloth between, and in this position I convey them between pressure rollers,
one of which has a pattern engraved or formed on its surface, which pattern will
thus become embossed on one surface of the paper material. The other roller is a
plain surfaced roller to receive the pressure. I thus make a paper material
embossed on its face in solid relief and with a flat back, except that the back will
have indentations coresponding with the wirecloth which will render it much
easier to secure onto surfaces. After the paper material has been embossed I
seperate the wirecloth from the blanket and convey the said blanket between
pressure rollers to press out the water it received from the paper material when
being embossed. Beneath these pressure rollers I place a suitable box to receive
the water to which box I attach a suitable pipe to carry off the the water. The
blanket is then returned by means of rollers, one of which rollers may be a tension
regulating roller. The endless wirecloth with the embossed paper material on it I
convey upwards over other rollers which convey the paper material onto drying
cylinders or other suitable apparatus for drying the material, the wirecloth being
returned so that it meets the blanket and travels with it back again over suitable
guide rollers to receive the unembossed paper material as before described.
If I desire to emboss the paper material in hollow relief I may leave out the
endless wirecloth before described as used when embossing the paper material in
solid.relief and use only the endless blanket.
In making felt paper or millboard I use the same process as before described
until the paper reaches the couch rolls. From this point I proceed in the well
known way when making felt paper, but if making millboard I may convey the
paper from the first pressing rollers direct to the second pressing rollers where I
substitute a plain surfaced roller for the embossing roller before described. From
this point I convey the millboard to be dried by some well known or suitable
process.
I may also take previously made thick felt paper or asbestos felt and pass it
through a suitable bath to thoroughly saturate it, the said bath being situated
between the couch rolls and the first pressing rollers and then proceed to emboss a
pattern on it by the same processes as before described.
If I desire to parchementize my paper material I may do so in some well known
way during the progress of the paper material through the machine.
By the bereinbefore mentioned term paper material I mean any material or pulp
which can be treated as paper is treated in its manufacture.