A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF PAPER AND PAPER PULP
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Lucius Henry Spooner, of Munlochy, in the County
of Ross, North Britain, Agricultural Engineer and Farmer, for the
Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF PAPER AND PAPER
PULP."
Scaled the 20th October 1857, and dated the 30th April 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Lucius Henry Spooner at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th April 1857.
I, LUCIUS HENBY SPOONER, of Munlochy, in the County of Ross, North
Britain, Agricultural Engineer and Farmer, do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention "A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF PAPER AND PAPER PULP,"
to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the manufacture of paper and paper pulp from
plants of the zostera family, which plants are ordinarily called wrack grass or
wreck grass. In manufacturing paper and paper pulp from the said plants, I
treat the said plants according to any of the well known methods of treating
plants for the purpose of obtaining therefrom vegetable fibre suitable for paper
and paper pulp. As the said processes are commonly practised, I do not think
it necessary to describe the same, the ossence of my Invention consisting in the

page_text: use of the plants herein-before specified for the manufacture of paper and
paper pulp. The said pulp may be applied to the manufacture of papier
mâché, and such other articles as are or may be made from paper pulp.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Lucius Henry Spooner in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th October 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LUCIUS
HENRY SPOONER, of Munlochy, in the County of Ross, North Britain,
Agricultural Engineer and Farmer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Lucius Henry Spooner, Her special licence that I, the said Lucius Henry
Spooner, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, tho
said Lucius Henry Spooner, 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 "A NEW OR
IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF PAPER AND PAPER PULP," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Lucius Henry Spooner, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and scals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and causo
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 Lucius Henry Spooner, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
My said Invention consists in the manufacture of paper and paper pulp from
the plants called zostera or zostera marina, which said plants are ordinarily
called wrack grass or wreck grass. In manufacturing paper and paper pulp
from the said plants, I proceed in the following manner :-The plant is first
picked and sorted, and if necessary, dusted, washed, or otherwise separated

page_text: from any impurities with which it may be mixed. The said plant is afterwards.
boiled in an alkaline solution, the said solution consisting either of limo water
or milk of lime, or solution of caustic soda, or caustic potash, or carbonate of
soda, or carbonate of potash, or any mixture of the said solutions. Or, the
plant may be treated with a cold alkaline solution, in which the said plant is
steeped. Or, I treat the plant with a dilute solution of sulphuric acid, or
muriatic acid, or other acid, the said acids being made to act upon the plant
either with or without the alternate use of an alkaline solution. The method
which I prefer to employ is to boil the plant in an alkaline solution containing
both lime and soda, and afterwards to treat the said plant with a dilute acid.
By the treatment described, the plant is sufficiently disorganized, and the
vegetable fibres separated and purified from the various matters which are
usually associated with the cellular tissue of plants. After the plant has been
subjected to the operations of steeping and boiling, either singly or in con-
junction, the vegetable fibre obtained is washed for the purpose of getting
rid of so much of the colouring matter as may be removed by washing. If,
however, the vegetable fibro is to be employed for the manufacture of brown
paper, millboard, papier mâché, or other purpose where the dark colour of the
vegetable fibre is unobjectionable, I omit the washing process. The vegetable
fibre is next reduced to pulp by the ordinary method, and treated, according to
the quality of the paper or pulp to be produced, by applying the several
operations of bleaching, colouring, and sizing. As the said operations of
bleaching, colouring, and sizing are well known and commonly practised, and
constitute no part of my Invention, I do not think it necessary to describe the
same. The pulp, manufactured from wrack grass or wreck grass, may be
applied, either alone or mixed with pulp obtained from other plants, to the
manufacture of various kinds of paper, pasteboard, millboard, papier mâché,
and to such other purposes as paper pulp has been or may be applied.
Although the method or methods I have described of obtaining vegetable
fibre, proper for the manufacture of paper and paper pulp, from wrack grass or
wreck grass, which, in practice, I have found to answer very well, yet I do not
confine myself to any particular method of obtaining paper or paper pulp
from the said wrack grass or wreck grass, the essence of my Invention con-
sisting in the use of the plants called zostera, otherwise called wrack grass or
wreck grass, for the production of paper and paper pulp, and not in the methods
of treating the said plants.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I claim as my
Invention the manufacture of paper and paper pulp from the plants called

page_text: zostera, otherwise called wrack grass or wreck grass, whether the vegetable
fibre obtained from the said plants be used alone or in combination with
vegetable fibro obtained from other plants, and whether the said paper and
paper pulp be applied to any of the purposes herein enumerated, or to other
purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Lucius Henry Spooner, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
LUCIUS HENRY SPOONER. (L.B.)
Witness,
JOSEPH BARKER RICHARDSON.