IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CERTAIN FIBROUS SUBSTANCES TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP FOR. PAPER, AND FOR. CONVERSION INTO TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Duff at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th February
1870..
I, CHARLES DUFF, of Russell Street, Bermondsey, in the County of
Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF CERTAIN FIBROUS SUBSTANCES TO BE USED IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP FOR. PAPER, AND FOR. CONVERSION INTO TEXTILE
FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the treatment of certain
fibrous substances for the manufacture of paper pulp. for paper,. vegetable
parchment, or vellum, or for the manufacture of textile fabrics. I am
aware that it has heretofore been suggested to use bamboo for the manu-
facture of paper and other fabrics, and therefore there is no novelty in
the mere application of bamboo for such purposes, but the processes
hitherto adopted or suggested for the conversion of bamboo or other
analogous cane have been found to be practically useless. Bamboo· has
been treated in the first instance by chemical processes in order to.
extract the resinous ingredients and. to reduce the cane towards a fibrous:
condition ready for scutching, breaking, and carding, but by my
cane primarily to a
Invention I propose to subject the bamboo

page_text: mechanical treatment. I propose to cut the bamboo when about twelve
to fifteen months old, and to subject the same to the operation of any
suitable crushing machinery; I then further propose to compress the fibres.
so crushed by means of hydraulic or other pressure so that the material
may be packed tightly and in a comparatively small compass for con-
venient transport, which cannot be otherwise done in any considerable
quantity, and by which means the knots are made to form part of the
fibre and used simultaneously as such. The crushed material is sub-
sequently to be immersed in a caustic or other suitable alkaline solution,
-which-may-afterwards_be_forced through the material by steam pressure
or otherwise in sufficient quantity to produce a defined color, as required
according to the amount of solution used. By these means I utilize the
bamboo as grown, including knots and all waste, which are subjected
simultaneously to the same process. Or the material may be treated
according to any ordinary methods employed in treating various fibres
for the manufacture of paper. The alkaline process, the acid process,
bleaching, mixing with rags or other materials, boiling, and other
manipulations incidental to the treatment of fibre and pulp may be
carried on by any of the well-known means, and the bamboo or other
analogous cane crushed in the first instance and treated in the manner
described will form a very superior base or material for the manufacture
of paper pulp and paper. By dilute sulphuric and other acids this paper
can be converted into vegetable parchment and vellum of a superior
character.
In order to convert the fibre into a textile fabric for spinning,
weaving, and other manufacturing purposes I propose to treat the fibre
as follows-I put the same into a boiler hermetically scaled, within which
steam is caused to enter with or without alkali or other chemicals; in
about six or eight hours it will be cleansed and washed and the
gelatinous, gummy, and resinous matters separated, and the fibre left
clean and disintegrated, to be afterwards dried and passed through or
subjected to a machine suitable for reducing it into the state for carding,
spinning, or weaving.