Improvements in or connected with Wax Matches.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Oct., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 11th July, 1890-Accepted, 23rd Aug., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or connected with Wax Matches.
I, PATRICK MOLYNEUX, of 189 Devons Road, Bow Common, London, E., Wharf
Manager, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
As at present constructed the bodies of wax matches consist of lengths of cotton
yarn or wick impregnated and coated with a wax composition consisting for example
of paraffin and stearine.
Wax matches thus composed and constructed have certain disadvantages. The
cotton yarn or fibre is very expensive. It is so supple that reliance has to be placed
upon the wax composition (of which an increased amount has therefore to be used),
to give the necessary strength and rigidity to the match. The amount of strength
and rigidity so given is however so slight that, in use, the matches require to be
held close to the head whilst being struck, or ignited by, friction. From the
necessity of thus holding the match danger and inconvenience result, in that fingers
are easily burned, or as an alternative the match has frequently to be suddenly
dropped with a resulting risk of setting fire to surrounding objects. A further
attendant disadvantage lies in the costly method of manufacture necessary in the
employment of such a material to form the body of the match.
My invention, which is designed to avoid or remedy these drawbacks, embraces
a new method of manufacturing the bodies, or splints as they are frequently termed,
of matches, and a new material to serve as a basis for the said splints.
As a material for the splints I employ a pulp of paper or other fibrous material;
and I proceed to form this material into splints by squirting or forcing it whilst in
a plastic state through a jet or orifice, so that it may issue as a continuous filament
or wire, as it were, to be afterwards dried, cut into lengths, and tipped, or to be
otherwise treated in the usual way. The wax-composition may be added to the
pulp before squirting, or to the filament after formation.
i
Dated this with day of October 2003.
J
For the Applicant,
J. G. LORRAIN,
Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent,
Norfolk House, Norfolk Street, London, W.C.
I
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or connected with Wax Matches.
I, PATRICK MOLYNEUX, of 189 Devons Road, Bow Common, London, E., Wharf
Manager do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
As at present constructed the bodies of wax matches consist of lengths of cotton
yarn or wick impregnated and coated with a wax composition consisting for example
of paraffin and stearine.
Wax matches thus composed and constructed have certain disadvantages. The
cotton yarn or fibre is very expensive. It is so supple that reliance has to be placed
upon the wax composition (of which an increased amount has therefore to be used), to
give the necessary strength and rigidity to the match. The amount of strength and
rigidity so given is however so slight that, in use, the matches require to be held close
to the head whilst being struck or ignited by friction. From the necessity of thus
holding the match danger and inconvenience result, in that fingers are easily burned,
or as an alternative the match has frequently to be suddenly dropped with a resulting
Din 1

page_text: risk of setting fire to surrounding objects. A further attendant disadvantage lies in
the costly method of manufacture necessary in the employment of such a material
to form the body of the match.
My invention, which is designed to avoid or remedy these drawbacks, embraces a
new method of manufacturing the bodies, or splints as they are frequently termed, of
matches, and a new material to serve as a basis for the said splints.
As a material for the splints I employ a pulp of paper or other fibrous material;
and I proceed to form this material into splints by squirting or forcing it whilst in a
plastic state through a jet or orifice, so that it may issue as a continuous filament or
wire, as it were, to be afterwards dried, cut into lengths, and tipped, or to be
otherwise treated in the usual way. The wax-composition may be added to the pulp
before squirting, or to the filament after formation.
Having thus described my invention in general terms and so defined its scope
I shall now proceed to describe in greater detail methods by which I carry it out in
practice.
I take a fibrous pulp (I find that fine Swedish wood-pulp gives good results) and
reduce this to a plastic state by admixture with melted paraffin wax containing a
small percentage of stearine (I obtain good results by using 2 per cent. of stearine).
The said admixture I cause to take place in a vessel heated by a steam or hot water
jacket. This vessel is furnished with a piston or plunger and a jet or orifice and
resembles the apparatus employed for the manufacture of carbon rods used for
electric are lighting. From the said jet and by the operation of the piston the
pulp is forced from the jet so as to issue in the form of a long wire or long thin
rod or filament which passing over a series of rollers or on to a travelling band
soon hardens on exposure to the air. This rod or wire is then cut up into lengths
to form splints which latter are subsequently tipped. The said cutting into lengths
and tipping being effected in the usual way.
Instead of manufacturing my splints by the method just described I sometimes
employ another method. I make the wood pulp plastic by admixture with one of the
lighter naphthas or spirits which first distill off from petroleum or shale oil or the like
& I squirt this plastic pulp as previously described but from a cold instead of a heated
vessel. The naphtha evaporates quickly from the pulp filament, especially if a current
of heated air from a fan or blower be made to pass over it, leaving the filament dry or
nearly so. It is then passed through a bath of melted paraffin & stearine, or the like
& so coated & impregnated just as paraffined cotton covered wire is manufactured for
electric purposes, after which it is dried, cut into lengths & treated in the usual
manner.
1 desire it to be understood that I employ the term "wax matches" in the generic
sense.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :
1. The improvement in or connected with wax matches consisting in the first
method of manufacturing from fibrous pulp substantially as herein before specified.
2. The improvement in or connected with wax matches consisting in the second
method of manufacture from fibrous pulp substantially as hereinbefore specified.
. 3. The improvement in wax matches consisting in splints made from fibrous pulp
substantially as set forth.
Dated this 11th day of July 1890
J. G. LORRAIN, M.I.E.E., M.I.M.E.,
Agent for Applicant.