IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OR PREPARATION OF CERTAIN FOREIGN PLANTS OR VEGETABLE SUB- STANCES, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES FOR WHICH HORN, SHELL, WHALEBONE, INDURATED LEATHER. FISH SKIN, IVORY, BONE, HARD WOOD, AND COMPOUNDS OF INDIA-RUBBER OR GUTTA PERCHA HAVE HITHERTO BEEN EMPLOYED
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Goulston Ghislin, of Hatton Garden, in the
City of London, Importer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
TREATMENT OR PREPARATION OF CERTAIN FOREIGN PLANTS OR VEGETABLE SUB-
STANCES, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES
FOR WHICH HORN, SHELL, WHALEBONE, INDURATED LEATHER. FISH SKIN,
IVORY, BONE, HARD WOOD, AND COMPOUNDS OF INDIA-RUBBER OR GUTTA
PERCHA HAVE HITHERTO BEEN EMPLOYED."
Sealed the 20th December 1861, and dated the 4th October 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Goulston Ghislin
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th October 186].
I, THOMAS GOULSTON GHISLIN, of Hatton Garden, in the City of London, Im-
porter, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE TREATMENT OR PREPARATION OF CERTAIN FOREIGN PLANTS OR VEGETABLE SUB-
STANCES, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES FOR WHICH
HORN, SHELL, WHALEBONE, INDURATED LEATHER, FISH SKIN, IVORY, BONE, HARD
WOOD, AND COMPOUNDS OF INDIA-RUBBER OR GUTTA PERCHA HAVE HITHERTO BEEN
EMPLOYED," to be as follows:-
My Invention of improvements in the treatment or preparation of certain
foreign plants or vegetable substances, and in the application of the same to
various useful purposes, consists in submitting the plant known to botanists
as the horn plant or Eiklopia buccinalis, and plants of that genus, to the action
[Price Sd1

page_text: of various chemical agents, whereby the nature of the substance of the plant
is so far changed and modified as to admit of its being moulded, pressed, or
formed into various shapes according to the particular purpose for which the
substance is to be used. The general character of the treatment which
I employ for preparing the crude plant consists in submitting it first to the
action of such chemical substances as tend most effectually to destroy its
hygrometric properties, such, for instance, as alkalies or alkaline earths; the
plant is afterwards submitted to such other chemical agents as will most
effectually harden the substance of the plant, by preference mineral acids,
which will also neutralize any free alkali that may remain in the plant after
being moulded, pressed, or otherwise formed into the desired shape. The
prepared plant, when thoroughly dry, will become hard, and will remain
unaffected by the moisture of the air, or by atmospheric changes generally,
and will be rendered applicable to many useful manufacturing purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Goulston Ghislin in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 4th April 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
GOULSTON GHISLIN, of Hatton Garden, in the City of London, Importer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One, thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Thomas Goulston Ghislin, Her special license that I, the said
Thomas Goulston Ghislin, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Thomas Goulston Ghisliu, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OR PREPARATION OF CERTAIN
FOREIGN PLANTS OR VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME
TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES FOR WHICH HORN. SHELL, WHALEBONE, INDUBATED
LEATHER, FISH SKIN, IVORY, BONE, HARD WOODS, AND COMPOUNDS OF INDIA-RUBBER
OR GUTTA PERCHA HAVE HITHERTO BEEN EMPLOYED," upon the condition (amongst

page_text: others) that I, the said Thomas Goulston Ghislin, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause 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 Thomas Goulston Ghislin, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement (that is to say):-
This Invention relates to improvements in the treatinent or preparation of
certain plants or marine substances, and the application of such plants or
substances to various manufacturing purposes. The plants or substances I use
for the purposes of my Invention are those known to botanists as the Eiklonia
buccinalis, Laminaria buccinalis, Duvillea utillea, Sarcophycus potatorum,
and their allies,
I propose to apply the above-named snbstances to the following uses, viz.,
veneering, coating, mounting, and inlaying, applied to wood, metal, glass,
papier mâche, or any other material; to the manufacture of handles for
cutlery, surgical instruments, and tools, whips, umbrellas, and parasols; to
the manufacture of walking sticks and acoustic and musical instruments,
boxes, picture and other frames, medallions, book covers, and a variety of
other articles,
In preparing the raw material for the purposes of my Invention, I cut off
or remove all extraneous matters, and then immerse the substance in a hot
lye of caustic lime for about three hours, and on removing it from the lime,it
should be steeped in a bath of sulphuric acid diluted with about fifty times its
weight of water. The substance may then be removed from the acid and
placed in a solution of common soda, after which any mucilage or dirt that
may adhere externally to the plant should be brushed away, and after washing
it for a time in pure water, the prepared substance may be removed to the
drying room, and when half dry it can be shaped into any form desired. By
opening out the tubular plant, and laying it flat to dry under pressure, it
will be converted into sheets.
As a modification of the process just described, the plant after being
trimmed may be steeped in a solution of American potash, then in dilute
nitric acid, and afterwards in spirits of naphtha, and when well brushed
out in naphtha it should be left to dry.
After the substance has been prepared in the manner above described it,

page_text: may be softened or rendered in some degree plastic by means of steam, and
when in the softened state it can be moulded into any desired shape, or the
material may be steeped for about an hour and a half in a hot solution of
common soda, then applied (while hot) to the prepared frame or moulds,
where it should be left to dry; or while on the moulds it may be steeped for
about three hours in a solution of nitrate of lead, and then left to dry, The
prepared substance then contracts and adheres to the mould; or if the moulds
are prepared to take to pieces, they can be removed, and the prepared
material will remain the shape of the mould.
Another mode of preparing the material is after trimming to steep it for
about three hours in hot water or water rendered slightly alkaline; I then
stamp, emboss, press, or pierce it as may be required. When thus shaped it
should be removed from the die press, and hardened by steeping for about
an hour in a hot solution of nitrate of lead; and in some cases I afterwards
steep it in a hot solution of common alum or in sulphate of alumina.
Another mode consists in steeping the material (after carefully trimming
and cleaning it) in a warm and very dilute solution of sulphuric acid; and
after this I steep it for about three hours in a solution of corrosive sublimate
or in nitrate of lead, or in a hot solution of alum; or, if desired, two or more
of these hardening solutions may be used in succession. It may then be left.
to dry, and subsequently steeped in a compound solution composed of spirits of
wine, methylated spirit, or pyroxilic spirit twenty parts, linseed oil twenty
parts, rosin gum, thirsk, or asphaltum twenty parts, turpentine ten. parts,
shellac five parts, sandrack five parts; I then remove it to the drying room,
and when dry it is to be softened by steam, and then laid under pressure
between sheets of warm iron, glass, or other material, taking care to protect
the grain by blankets, flannel, or felt. It should then be left till quite dry and
hard, after which it may be cut up and treated as ordinary horn, and converted
into scales for knife handles and cutlery purposes. In order to utilize the
waste pieces that result from cutting the prepared material into the required
form, the substance may be reduced to a gelatinous mass, and used in this
state for plastic purposes. To effect this object, the material is to be cut into
small pieces, and then boiled either in an open vessel or in a close vessel
under pressure in hot water or water rendered alkaline, until the substance is
rendered quite gelatinous. The superflous liquid is then to be drained off,
and the mass is hardened by running it through a solution of nitrate of lead.
Sometimes the material may be steamed until reduced to a soft state, and then
submitted to the action of a press in wooden moulds at first, and afterwards
to steel dies.

page_text: Another method of operating on the substance consists in reducing
it to fine powder by grinding, and I mix the powder with a strong solution of
glue, adding thereto a portion of alum and powdered rosin, and then amalga-
mate the whole till it arrives at the consistency of putty; or I mix the
pulverized substance with coal tar or a solution of bitumen or asphaltum in
any suitable solvent. The mass may then be rolled out and submitted to:
pressure in moulds or steel dies, as may be desired. The articles when made
of a mixture of coal tar or asphaltum should be submitted to a baking process
at from three hundred to five hundred degrees of temperature, whereby the
articles will be hardened. This latter composition when moulded has the
appearance of carved wood, and when dry it should be brushed over with oil,
and polished by friction.
I also propose to extract the coloring matter from the substance, and to give
it the appearance of ivory by submitting it to the action first of a warm
solution of soda, second of sulphurous acid, third of chloride of lime, and
fourth (if required) of chlorine dissolved in water or in the form of gas. The
bleaching operation may be repeated until a pure white is obtained, and then
dyes such as picric acid, mauve, magenta, and other dyes may be applied, and
various colours thereby imparted to the substance; other colours may be
produced by various means; if black be desired, a compound of logwood and
nutgalls may be prepared, and the material steeped in the hot liquor. Another
colour may be produced by steeping logwood and alum together, and sub-
mitting the substance to it while quite hot; but to produce a variegated
brown, so desirable in imitating horn, the external surface of the natural
protuberances of the substance should be rubbed off with fine emery paper,
and a varnish composed of shellac dissolved in methylated spirit should be
applied. Sometimes copal varnish may be advantageously employed, and at
other times gold or bronze powder, ultramarine blue, or other pulverized
coloring matters may be applied. As to the strength of the acid solutions and
other chemical agents used in the above process, I generally use dilute solutions
containing from two to five per cent. of acid, and I continue the steeping for
about six hours if the solutions are used cold, and from two to three hours
when used hot. No general rule, however, can be observed upon these points,
as the proportions must always depend on the age, strength, and condition of
the substances operated on. I do not therefore confine myself to the details
here described.
Having now described my Invention of "Improvements in the Treatment
or Preparation of certain Foreign Plants or Vegetable Substances, and in the
Application of the same to various Useful Purposes for which Horn, Shell,

page_text: Whalebone Indurated Leather, Fish Skin, Ivory, Bone, Hard Woods, and
Compounds of India-rubber or Gutta Percha have hitherto been Employed,"
I claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent, as aforesaid, the
application to various purposes in the arts, as herein set forth, of the marine
plants above mentioned, and generally all those plants known by botanists
under the generic name of laminaria.
I also claim the modes herein set forth of treating or preparing such plants
for the several purposes herein set forth, or other analogous purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Goulston Ghislin, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
THOMAS GOULSTON GHISLIN. (L.S.)