THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER, CORDAGE, MATTING, AND OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS FROM CERTAIN VEGETABLE MATTERS NOT HERETOFORE MADE USE OF FOR THAT PURPOSE, AS ALSO FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE SAID MATERIALS TO THE STUFFING OF CUSHIONS AND MATTRASSES
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of the Patent Office, 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Tenth day of August, in the seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my exors, adññors, and assigns, and such others as I, the
the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my exors, adfiiors, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an Invention, communicated to me by a
certain Foreigner residing abroad, for "THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER, CORDAGE,
MATTING, AND OTHER TEXTILE FABRICS FROM CERTAIN VEGETABLE MATTERS NOT
HERETOFORE MADE USE OF FOR THAT PURPOSE, AS ALSO FOR THE APPLICATION OF
THE SAID MATERIALS TO THE STUFFING OF CUSHIONS AND MATTRASSES;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, under my
hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery

page_text: 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 there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully
described and set forth in and by the following Specification thereof (that is
to say)-
The said Invention consists, firstly, in manufacturing, in manner following,
paper, cordage, matting, and other textile fabrics, from the convolvuli of the
cissus genus or family of plants, which abound in the West India Islands, in
English, French, and Dutch Guiana, the Brazils, on the coast of Africa, and
other parts, instead of, as usual, from linen or cotton rags. All the plants of
this order may be used; but those known at Guadaloupe vulgarly as "oua
oua," or "baba," which is the mimosa scandens of Linneeus, the "guidandina
bandue," which is known at Guadaloupe by the name of "yeux à bourrique,"
or "yeux à bouf," and the ledum or marsh bindweed, will be found the most
suitable. The manner in which these vegetable matters are converted into
paper is as follows:-The stems are first stripped off the bank or rind, and
then beaten or bruised till the fibres are separated from one another. The
fibres are next dried in order to extract the sap, and afterwards boiled
for three or four hours with a suitable quantity of American potash. They are
next washed, and after that bleached by immersing them in hydrate of chlorine
for three or four hours, or by any other approved means of bleaching. If a
still greater degree of whiteness is desired than has been obtained by the
preceding operation, the fibres are boiled with soda, then washed, and lastly
steeped in water saturated with slack lime. The fibres after being thus
bleached or whitened to any desired degree are carded by a metal comb, and
then reduced to a pulp by pounding or beating.
The pulp thus produced is
to be afterwards manufactured into paper in the usual way, and it will be
found at least equal to that obtained from linen or cotton rags; and it may be
used either by itself for the manufacture of paper, or in combination with rag
pulp, or any other material suitable for the purpose. The bark which has
been stripped from the stems, as aforesaid, and which is of considerable thick-
ness, may also be manufactured into paper pulp of a good quality by the same
processes before described, provided care is taken to detach from it in the first
instance the epidermis or outer covering.
Another class of vegetable matters, not heretofore made use of for the manu-
facture of paper, cordage, &c., but from which a good paper may be never-

page_text: theless made by the before-described processes, consists of the plants known in
the West India Islands by the name of herbes coupuntes, and also the bark
of the West Indian pear-tree (poirier), only these substances need not be
subjected to the carding process by the metal comb before reducing them to
pulp, but may be thrown into the boilers as they come to hand, together with
a small quantity of soda and potash. To make cordage, matting, and other
textile fabrics, the plants, after being reduced to filaments, as before described,
must be first soaked, and submitted to the same processes that hemp and flax
undergo when used for similar purposes.
Secondly, the said Invention consists in applying the fibres of the plants
aforesaid to the stuffing of cushions and mattrasses. All that is necessary for
this purpose is to card the fibres after they have been treated in the same
way as for the making of paper. No bleaching or decolouring process is
requisite.
And having now described the nature of the Invention communicated to
me as aforesaid, and in what manner the same is performed, I declare that
what I claim is,-
First, the manufacturing, in manner before described, of paper, cordage,
matting, and other textible fabrics, from the several vegetable matters before
specified; and
Secondly, the application of the said vegetable matters, in the manner before
described, to the stuffing of cushions and mattrasses.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Tenth
day of February, One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.
R. ARCH. (L.S.) BROOMAN.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of February, in
the year of our Lord 1844, the aforesaid Richard Archibald Brooman came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
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