AN IMPROVED MODE OF APPLYING SIZE TO PAPER
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, MATTHEW
TWOGOOD, of Dartford, in the County of Kent, Paper Maker, and LEAPIDGE
SMITH, of Paternoster Row, in the City of London, Stationer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighteenth day of August, in the first year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Matthew Twogood and Leapidge Smith, His especial licence, sole privilege
and authority, that we, the said Matthew Twogood and Leapidge Smith, our
exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as we, the said Matthew Twogood
and Leapidge Smith, our exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our
Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF APPLYING SIZE TO PAPER;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said Matthew Twogood
and Leapidge Smith, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Leapidge Smith, for myself and for the said Matthew Twogood, do hereby

page_text: declare that the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, is described and ascertained in manner following
(that is to say):
Our Improved Mode of Applying Size to Paper consists in pressing liquid size
forcibly upon the surface of the paper by pouring out or spreading a thin film
of liquid size upon the surface or surfaces of certain revolving pressing rollers,
of a cylindrical form, between the adjacent surfaces of two or more of which
pressing rollers the paper is passed, 'and by means of the pressure given to the
paper by those said adjacent surfaces (one or more of which surfaces is or are
covered, as aforesaid, with liquid size) a suitable quantity of size is applied to the
paper, and forcibly pressed thereon at the moment when the paper is passing
between the said pressing rollers. The said pressing rollers are mounted in
the usual manner of what are called press rollers in paper-making machines;
viz, the gudgeons at their ends are mounted in a suitable frame, with their
axes parallel to each other, and those axes are forced towards each other by
screws, weights, or other suitable means, in order that the paper may be com-
pressed with adequate force between the adjacent surfaces of the said rollers,
when the said rollers are turned round so as to pass or roll the paper forwards
through and between their adjacent surfaces. The size which is to be applied
to the paper must be spread upon the surface of one or more of the said
pressing rollers, so as to cover the said surface with a thin and uniform film of
liquid size, which may be done either by pouring out the liquid size in a
number of small streams or jets, which fall upon or impinge against any
convenient part of the circumference of the pressing roller, and by the
revolving motion thereof its surface becomes covered with a continuous film of
size, which will be applied to the paper when it is passing between the pressing
rollers; and in so passing the paper will be compressed between the surface so
covered with a film of size and the adjacent surface of the other corresponding
pressing roller; that application and pressure taking place as soon as can be done
after the size has been so poured out on the said surface of the pressing roller.
Or else, if more convenient, the size may be spread upon the surface of one or
more of the said revolving pressing rollers by contact thereof with another
revolving roller or rollers, on the surface of which the liquid size may be
poured in small streams, as aforesaid, or in lieu thereof the lower part of the
latter roller may be immersed in a trough containing liquid size, the surface
of the said latter roller being covered with felt, or, it may be, surrounded
by an endless web of felt or other suitable substance, which, being of an
elastic and spungy texture, will absorb the liquid size, whilst the felt or other
substance is uncompressed, but from which felt or other substance the liquid

page_text: size which it has so obsorbed (or part thereof) will be readily expressed and
squeezed out again, when (by the revolving motion of the rollers) the said
felt or other substance is brought in contact with the surface of that pressing
roller on which the size is to be spread, as aforesaid, and on which surface the
size so squeezed out from the felt or other substance will be deposited, and will
afterwards be communicated and applied to the paper with pressure, in order to
force the size upon the surface of the paper, as aforesaid: and by virtue of our
said improved mode of applying size to paper whilst the paper is undergoing the
pressure produced by passing the paper between revolving pressure rollers, as
aforesaid, that application may be made whilst the paper is in a wet state, or
only partially dried. The size may be applied by our improved mode either to
only one side of the paper, or to both sides thereof, as the substance and quality
of the paper which is to be sized may require size to be applied to both sides or
only to one side. The said revolving pressing rollers, by means whereof we
apply size to paper on our improved mode, may be added to the ordinary
paper-making machines (known by the name of Fourdrinier's Machinery, and
which operates by means of an endless web of woven wire cloth, moving hori-
zontally, and circulating over a system of revolving rollers), and by that
addition to such machinery size may be applied to one or both sides of the
paper made by the machinery during the operation of the machinery.
And whereas the said ordinary paper-making machines are now usually
provided with drying machinery, consisting of a series of hollow revolving
cylinders, which aro kept hot by steam withinside of them, and the paper,
being passed over the external surfaces of these cylinders in close contact
therewith, can be dried before it is removed from the machinery, such drying
machinery may be used in the said paper-making machinery in manner fol-
lowing, in conjunction with the revolving pressing rollers aforesaid, whereby
we apply size to paper on our improved mode, that is to say: The paper
after it comes out from between what are called the dry press rollers of the
paper machinery, may be conducted over one or more such revolving steam
drying cylinders before it is passed between the said revolving pressing rollers,
whereby we apply size to the paper on our improved mode, and the admission
of steam into the said drying cylinder or cylinders may be so restrained and
regulated as will cause the said cylinder or cylinders to dry the paper partially,
and leave it with only so much wetness as will be the most proper state for
applying size thereto on our improved mode; and after the size has been so
applied, the sized paper, as it comes out from between the said pressing rollers
for applying the size, as aforesaid, may be gathered around a reel, in the usual
manner, and cut off from that reel into detached sheets of paper, which may

page_text: be afterwards dried by hanging them up in the air. Or else (for such kinds of
paper as will bear rapid drying after being sized), the said sized paper, as it
comes out from between the said pressing rollers for applying the size, as
aforesaid, may be conducted over as many other drying cylinders as will dry it
completely before it is gathered around the reel in order to be cut into detached
sheets. Or otherwise the said revolving pressing rollers, by means whereof we
apply size to paper on our improved mode, may be arranged in a distinct
machine from any paper-making machinery, into which distinct machine
detached sheets of paper in a wet state, or only partially dried, can be intro-
duced one after another, in order to pass them between the adjacent surfaces
of the said revolving pressing rollers for the purpose of applying size to the
paper according to our improved mode, and one or more of the said revolving
pressing rollers, whereby we apply size to paper on our improved mode, may
be made hollow within, in order to receive steam, which can be admitted in
such quantity as will keep the metal of the roller, and the film of size which is
spread upon its surface, as hot as is desirable for applying size to paper on our
improved mode. And some of the said revolving pressing rollers, whereby we
apply size to paper on our improved mode, are covered on the outside with felt,
in order that one of the adjacent surfaces between which the paper is pressed
(during its passage between the revolving pressing rollers) may present a
yielding substance to one side of the paper, whilst the other of those adjacent
surfaces presents a hard and smooth surface of metal to the opposite side of the
paper. Or, instead of so covering the said revolving pressing rollers with felt,
the same may be surrounded by an endless web of felt, which is so extended
over a system of supporting rollers as to circulate freely over them, and that
web, passing through between the adjacent surfaces of the pressing rollers, the
felt will be interposed between the metal surface of the rollers and the paper,
whilst it is subjected to the pressure occasioned by passing through between
the rollers. Such endless felts may be applied around each of the two
pressing rollers, which act on the opposite sides of the paper, so that the paper
will be pressed between two felts, and the liquid size may be communicated to
the paper from the revolving pressing rollers through the thickness of those
endless felts; for which purpose the two pressing rollers between which the
felts pass, with the paper included between them, must be kept constantly
covered with a continuous film of liquid size, either by causing one of the
rollers to be immersed at the lower part of its circumference in a trough
containing liquid size, or else by pouring out liquid size in streams or jets
against the surface of the pressing rollers, between which the said endless felts
pass, with the paper included between them, and the size which is spread

page_text: on the surface of the said pressing rollers will, by their pressure, be forced
through the thickness of the felts, and applied to the paper which is between
them. The latter arrangement of two endless felts, through which the size is
to be pressed, is most suitable for a distinct machine for applying size by our
improved mode to detached sheets of paper; and, in order to facilitate the
introduction of such detached sheets of paper between the two endless felts, two
rollers out of the aforesaid two systems of supporting rollers over which the
two endless felts circulate may be disposed so near to each other as to bring
the two endless felts opposite to each other at some distance from the place
where the same two felts are compressed between the adjacent surfaces of the
pressing rollers, and the paper being introduced between the two endless felts at
the commencement of the part where they come opposite to each other will be
included between the adjacent surfaces of the two felts, and will remain so
included whilst those felts move some distance forwards and carry the
paper with them between the pressing rollers to receive size therefrom,
by the pressure of the rollers forcing the size with which their surfaces
are covered through the thickness of the felts, so as to apply the size to the
рарег.
For the more full explanation of the means of performing our said Inven-
tion, we have hereunto annexed a Drawing, wherein Figures 1 and 2 repre-
sent so much of a Fourdrinier's paper machine as is necessary to explain the
manner whereby we have added thereto the pressing rollers and other appa-
ratus herein-before set forth, for the purpose of applying size to paper on our
improved mode during the operation of the machine; and Figure 3 represents
a distinct machine containing the pressing rollers and other apparatus herein-
before set forth, for the purpose of applying size by our improved mode to
detached sheets of paper, which are introduced. one after another into the
machine. The construction of Fourdrinier's paper-making machine is so well
known to mechanists and paper-makers that it is unnecessary to enter into
any detailed description thereof beyond the names of the several parts, which
names are written on the Drawings. The additional pressing rollers for apply-
ing size to paper on our improved mode are added to the machine without
alteration in any part whereof the action precedes the action of the dry-press
rollers, between which the paper is pressed a second time in contact with the
endless felt, and after coming out from between those dry-press rollers, the
paper is usually gathered upon a reel, or else, in more modern machines,
the paper is conducted around the first revolving steam cylinder of the series
of drying cylinders; but when additional pressing rollers, for applying size to

page_text: paper on our improved mode, are to be added to the machinery, the said reel
may be removed from that part of the machine, or else the first of the drying
cylinders may be removed, in order to gain a sufficient space for the said
additional pressing rollers at 1, 2, 3, and also a drying cylinder A may be
placed above the dry-press rollers, the paper being conducted upwards from
those rollers over a carrying roller a, which brings the paper in contact
with the cylindrical metal surface of the drying cylinder A, and the paper
passes nearly around that cylinder, as far as the conducting roller b, from
which it proceeds to the additional pressing rollers 1, 2, 3. B is a metal
roller which bears, by its weight, upon the paper at the highest part of the
drying cylinder A; and the roller B, being covered with felt, presses upon
the paper at the opposite side thereof to that side which was pressed in con-
tact with the felt, in passing between the dry-press rollers. Note, the
weight of the roller B should be rather less than what will produce the
slightest pressure that can ever be required for the most tender kind of paper,
and hooks should be applied to the gudgeons at each end of the roller B, in
order that so much extra weight may be applied, by means of loaded levers, to
bear down the roller B, as will regulate the pressure to make it suitable for
any other kind of paper, in the same manner as is usually done for the upper
roller of the wet press rolls of the common machinery. The drying cylinder A
is turned round by an endless strap c, c, which is applied upon a sheave dat
the end of the axis of the lowest of the dry-press rollers, and also upon a
larger sheave e on the axis of the steam cylinder A; the relative diameters
of the two sheaves d and c must be accurately in proportion to the relative
diameters of the lower dry-press roller, and of the steam cylinder A, in order
that the surface of the latter may move with so nearly the same velocity as
the velocity wherewith the surface of the dry-press rollers move, as will cause
the drying cylinder A to take up the paper precisely as fast as the dry-press
rollers deliver out the paper, but no faster. The paper is partially dried by
passing round the cylinder A, and the admission of steam into that cylinder is
regulated, so that it may not dry the paper more than is requisite, in order to
bring it to the most fit state for applying the size thereto on our improved
mode. The pressing rollers 1, 2, and 3, which we add to the machine may
be three in number, placed side by side, with their surfaces nearly in contact.
The paper passes down between the first and second pressing roller, and then
up again between the second and third pressing rollers, so as to be subjected
to two successive pressures. The size is applied to that side of the paper
which was uppermost upon the endless web of wire, when the paper is going

page_text: through the first of those pressures, viz, between the pressing rollers 1 and 2 ;
and the size is applied to the opposite side of the paper when it is undergoing
the second of those pressures, viz, between the pressing rollers 2 and 3. The
middle roller ? may be turned round by means of an endless strap 4, 4, which
passes round a large sheave 5; on the end of the axis of the drying cylinder A,
and also round a small sheave 6, on the end of the axis of the middle roller 2,
the strap 4, 4, being crossed, in order to turn the said roller round in a proper
direction, and the relative diameters of the sheaves 5 and 6 must be in true
proportion to the relative diameters of the cylinder A and of the roller 2, in
order that the pressing rollers 1 and 2 may take up the paper as fast as the
cylinder A delivers it out. Note, instead of the strap 4, 4, being applied
upon the large sheave 5 of the drying cylinder A, the middle pressing roller 2
may be turned round by applying the endless strap 4, 4, upon a sheave of a
suitable size, which is fixed on the axis of the lower dry-press roller at the
side of the sheave d. The other two additional pressing rollers 1 and 3 may
be turned round by the middle roller 2; and to ensure that the three rollers
1, 2, and 3, shall turn round together with certainty, a spur wheel may be
fixed on the end of the axis of each roller, the teeth of those wheels engaging
each other. The gudgeons at the opposite ends of the three pressing rollers
1, 2, & 8, are supported in one frame, the bearing brasses for the gudgeons of
the two outside rollers 1 and 3 being adjusted by setting screws 7, 7, which
advance the three rollers one towards the other, in order that they may press
the paper between them. The two outside rollers 1 and 8 are covered with felt;
but the middle roller 2 is a smooth metal surface. The paper first passes over
about one fourth of the circumference of the roller 1, near the upper part
thereof, and the size is applied to the paper on one side at the moment when
the paper is pressed, in passing downwards between the rollers 1 and 2; then
the paper encompasses the lower half of the circumference of the middle
roller 2, and passes upwards between the rollers 2 and 3, size being applied to
the other side of the paper at the moment when it receives a second pres-
sure between the rollers 2 and 3. After that second pressure the sized paper
passes over about one fourth of the circumference of the roller 3, and is con-
ducted away either to the steam cylinders of the drying machinery, in case the
paper is of a quality to bear quick drying after it has been so sized; or if not,
then the sized paper may be gathered on a reel in a damp state, in the usual
manner, as fast as it comes away from the third additional roller 3.-Note,
when the sized paper is to be dried in the machine by the steam cylinders, as
represented in Fig. 1 at F, G, H, it will be advisable to cover the first of those
steam cylinders F with felt, in order to protect the fresh-sized paper from a

page_text: too sudden application of heat; and note, if the revolving motions of the
several drying cylinders F, G, H, are communicated from one to another by
toothed wheelwork, with intermediate wheels, in the usual manner of drying
machinery, allowance must be made in the diameter of the metal of that first
cylinder F, for the thickness of its covering of felt, so that the diameter of the
outside of the felt covering may be the same as the diameter at the metal
cylinder would be if no such covering was used; but if the motion of the first
steam cylinder F is transmitted to the next cylinder G by an endless strap,
then the allowance may be made in the diameters of the sheaves on which
the endless strap is applied. The series of steam drying cylinders F, G, and H,
are turned round in the usual manner, by means of an endless strap extended
from a small sheave on the axis of the lowest dry-press roller (or else on the
axis of the additional pressing roller 2) to a large sheave on the axis of one
of the drying cylinders, or else to a sheave on the axis of a toothed pinion
which works in one of the toothed wheels on the axis of one of the drying
cylinders; and the diameters of the sheaves on which the endless strap is
applied must be truly proportioned, in order that the first steam cylinder F
may take away the paper just as fast as the third additional pressing roller 3
deliver it out. The liquid size is conveyed by a pipe 8 from an elevated size
chest 9, in which the size is kept warm by means of steam applied within a
hollow bottom to the chest or otherwise. The size is poured out at the lower
end of the pipe 8, in a small stream, which is regulated by turning a cock at
the upper end of the pipe 8 and that steam runs into a long narrow trough
or gutter 10, which extends horizontally all the length of the rollers nearly
over the space between the two rollers 1 and 2. The trough 10 is fixed first
to an iron bar which extends across the frame, and the bottom of the trough 10
is perforated with small holes at equal distances apart in a row, which holes
allow the size to drop or run in small streams, which are directed against the
surface of the middle roller 2, in order to cover the surface of that roller with
a film of liquid size; and if there is an excess of size, it lodges in the vacant
space between the two rollers just above their place of pressure; and the paper
wrapping over the roller 1, the size is applied to the surface thereof, and
that application is followed instantaneously by pressure given by the rollers 1
and 2 during an imperceptibly short interval of time; for the rollers, being
continually in motion, and carrying the paper downwards, it is brought in
contact with the size with which the surface of the roller 2 is covered at the
instant before it passes down between the adjacent surfaces of the rollers 1
and 2, and the paper being subjected to a considerable pressure between those
surfaces, that pressure tends to force the size into the substance of the paper,

page_text: but does not allow any accumulation of size to remain on the surface of the
paper after it has passed through the pressure given between the rollers.
If any excess of size is allowed to flow out of the pipe 8, beyond that which
the paper absorbs or carries away with it, that excess flows off from the two
ends of the vacant space between the rollers 1 and 2, at each end of those
rollers, and is caught in a large tray 11, which is fixed beneath the pressing
rollers 1, 2, and 3, and which has an overflow spout from it to convey the size
to a lower size chest 19, which may be situated in any convenient place, or at
the side of the machine, and the size which collects therein must be raised up
again from time to time into the elevated size chest 9, in order to be warmed
and used over again. 12 is another pipe from the upper size chest 9, with a
cock at the upper end, and a spout at the lower end, to convey the liquid size
into a trough 18, in which the lower part of a roller 14 is immersed. The
upper part of that roller makes a close contact with the under part of the third
pressing roller 3, and the roller 14 is turned round by that contact. The roller 14
is partially covered with a fillet of felt wound spiralwise about it, and by revolv-
ing in the size contained in the trough 13, it carries up size to the roller 3, which
is covered with felt, and communicates as much size to the surface thereof as
will enable the roller 3 to apply size to the paper at the opposite side thereof
to that side to which size was previously applied, when the paper receives a
pressure between the rollers 1 and 2, as aforesaid. The said application
of size by the roller 3 being made at the moment when the paper is pressed
between the rollers 2 and 3, if any excess of size is admitted from the pipe
12 into the size through 13, it will overflow therefrom by a waste spout, and
fall into the tray 11, from which it is conducted to the lower size chest 19,
before mentioned. To keep the size warm steam may be admitted into the
interior of either of the pressing rollers 1, 2, or 3, the roller being left hollow
within for that purpose, and the gudgeons at each end of the roller on which
it is supported being perforated like tubes, in order to admit the entrance of
steam at one end of the roller, and to allow the exit of condensed water
at the other end. The junction of the steam conveyance pipe, and of the pipe
for condensed water, with the ends of the hollow gudgeons being made tight
by stuffing boxes in the usual manner of steam drying cylinders; a section of
such a hollow gudgeon and stuffing box is represented in Figure 2, and the
construction thereof is so well known to mechanists and paper makers as to.
require no further description. A cock must be provided in the steam con-
veyance pipe to regulate or stop off the admission of steam into the hollow
pressing roller, as may be required, in order to regulate the heat which shall
be given by the steam to that roller.-Note, I have found that the size may

page_text: be kept as hot as is requisite for sizing many sorts of paper, without admitting
any steam into the hollow pressing roller; 15 is a scraper of steel called a
doctor, its edge presses against the surface of the roller 2, and removes any
knots of paper, or other extraneous matters which may get upon the roller,
and the doctor scrapes the surface of the roller clean. Figure 3 is a section
of a distinct machine for applying size to detached sheets of paper. 1 and 2
are the pressing rollers mounted one above the other in a suitable frame; the
lower one is turned round either by a handle fixed on the end of one of its
gudgeons, and worked by the strength of a man, or else by a connection of
machinery with the end of one of its gudgeons. The upper roller 2 is hollow,
in order that it may not be too heavy, and it is weighted down (to make it act
with suitable force of pressure) by hooks applied to each of its gudgeons, and
connected with loaded levers in the manner usually practised for the wet press
rolls of paper machinery. 20, 20, is an endless web of felt which circulates
over a system of supporting rollers. 21, 21, 22, 22, 23, 23, is another endless
felt, which also circulates over a system of supporting rollers 24, 25, both the
endless felts 20 and 23 pass between the pressing rollers 1 and 2, so as to be
subjected to pressure therefrom, and the endless felts derive their circulating
motion about their respective supporting rollers from the pressing rollers. The
supporting roller 24 is so placed as to bring the upper endless felt 23 in
contact with the lower endless felt 20, at some distance from the place where
the pressure is produced between the pressing rollers 1 and 2. The detached
sheets of paper are spread out one after another upon that part of the lower
endless felt 20, which is extended nearly in a horizontal plane, and the lower
felt, by moving continually forwards, carries the sheets of paper with it under
the upper felt 23, at the part where that felt turns under the rollers 24; so
that the paper is introduced between the two felts, and is subjected to the
pressure of the pressing rollers 1 and 2, whilst it remains interposed between
the two felts. The liquid size is applied to the surface of each of the pressing
rollers 1 and 2, by means of troughs 27 and 28, which are fixed horizontally
opposite to the surface of the rollers 1 and 2, with rows of holes in the bottoms
of them to pour out the liquid size, and cover the surfaces of the rollers with
contenuous films thereof in the manner before described and represented in
Figure 1; and in like manner the troughs 27 and 28 are supplied with size by
pipes 29 and 30 proceeding from an elevated size chest, which is not represented
in Figure 2, but wherein the size is kept hot by application of steam, or other-
wise. The cocks in the pipes 29 and 30 should be regulated so as not to
allow size to flow into the troughs 27 and 28 any faster than the sheets of
paper, which are passed in succession through between the rollers 1 and 2,

page_text: will absorb and carry away the size with them. The size with which the
surfaces of the rollers 1 and 2 are thus covered is forced thro' the thickness
of the endless felts 20 and 23, and applied thro' their medium from the rollers
to the paper at the moment when the paper, together with the two felts
between which it is interposed, are subjected to the pressure occasioned by
passing between the adjacent surfaces of the pressing rollers 1 and 2;
31 and 32 are scrapers fixed with their edges in contact with the surfaces of
the two pressing rollers 1 and 2 in a suitable manner, to act as doctors and
keep the rollers clean.-Note, the selvages of the endless felts 20 and 28
may be extended by sewing edgings to them, to run between suitable guide
wheels in the usual manner of the endless felts of paper machines, in order to
keep the said felts stretched out to their full width.
Having now set forth the nature of our said Invention, and fully described
the manner of performing the same, we do hereby declare that what we claim
as our Invention is the improved mode herein-before described of applying
size to paper, and which improved mode consists in passing the paper between
two or more revolving pressing rollers, the surface of one or more of those
rollers being previously covered with a continuous film of liquid size (by some
of the means herein-before described) at such part or parts of the surface of
the roller or rollers as will produce pressure on the paper during the passage
thereof between the said rollers, and which pressure forces the size (wherewith
one or more of the said pressing rollers is covered as aforesaid) upon the
surface of the paper, with a tendency to press the size into the substance thereof,
in the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Leapidge Smith, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, tbis Eighteenth day of February, One thousand eight