IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WASHING AND PREPARING FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sydney Pitt, of Sutton, in the County of Surrey, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WASHING AND PREPARING
FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP."
A cominu-
nication from abroad by Auguste Pochez, junior, of St. Amand-les-eaux,
France.
Sealed the 17th December 1878, and dated the 20th June 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sydney Pitt at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 20th June 1878.
SYDNEY PITT, of Sutton, in the County of Surrey. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AP-
PARATUS FOR WASHING AND PREPARING FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFAC-
TURE OF PAPER PULP." [A communication from abroad by Augusto Pochez, junior,
of St. Amand-les-eaux, France.]
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for washing and
preparing fibrous materials for the manufacture of paper pulp. For this purpose
the washing is effected in a long horizontal steam boiler.
The materials to be washed are packed into the interior of trucks or cages of
wire gauze or cloth. At the upper part of the trucks are wheels to run on rails,
carried by brackets along the interior of the upper part of the boiler. The boiler
is of a length to receive a number of such trucks. The trucks when filled are run
into the boiler through one of its ends, from which a cover is previously removed.
A chain is attached to the truck first run in to the boiler to facilitate the with-
drawal of the trucks after the washing operation has been completed.
When the boiler has been filled with trucks, the end cover is put on and secured.
Below the boiler is set another tubular boiler, and the boilers are connected one
with the other by a number of pipes. The two boilers are both heated from the
same furnace. Above the upper boiler is a tank for containing the caustic alkaline
solution with which the fibrous materials are to be acted on.

page_text: At the top of the tank is a horizontal wheel with chains hanging down from it
carrying balls, which when the wheel is turned serve to stir the solution, and keep
it of a uniform strength.
When the boiler has been filled and its end cover secured, the alkaline solution is
allowed to run from the vat into the boiler. Fire is then lighted in the boiler
furnace, and as the pressure rises in the lower tubular boiler, which is most exposed
to the heat of the furnace, the solution in this boiler rises up through tubes froin
its upper part, and is conducted by them into the upper part of the boiler
containing the fibrous materials; here it falls on to the trucks in which the fibrous
materials are contained, and passes back from the bottom of the boiler by other
pipes into the lower part of the tubular boiler to be reheated, and again passed
into the upper boiler. The materials are boiled for the time required, the pressure
in the boilers being brought to from, say, 4 to 12 atmospheres, according to the
nature of the material that is being acted on.
When the materials have been boiled for the time required, a cock is opened in a
pipe leading from the bottom of the tubular boiler to the tank, and by the pressure
in the boilers the solution is forced into a tank which is covered with a moveable
hood, the steam escaping from the solution is led off by a pipe in the top of the
hood. The steam thus led off may be utilized for heating purposes, especially for
heating the fresh solution which is being prepared in the tank above the boilers for
the next operation. Afterwards the end cover of the upper boiler is removed, and
the trucks are drawn out from it by the chain attached to the furthest truck, the chain
being for this purpose connected to a small winding barrel and wound up upon it.
As each truck is partly withdrawn from the end of the boiler, rings at the end
of chains hanging from the lever are passed over the two front wheels, and by the
lever the truck is held up to allow a carriage to be passed below it. When the
truck has been drawn out on to the carriage, the lever is lowered and the rings
disengaged from its wheels, the truck is then conveyed away on the carriage to the
place where it is to be emptied, and here it is taken by a crane from the carriage
and emptied.
To again fill fibrous materials into the trucks, the trucks are placed on ond below
a horizontal frame or wheel carried at the bottom of a vertical shaft, which can be
quickly raised or lowered, and also caused to rotate. The frame or wheel carries
horizontal radial axes, upon which are mounted conical fluted rollers, the smaller
ends of the rollers being inward towards the centre of the wheel. A quantity of
fibrous material is thrown into the truck, and the vertical shaft is lowered until.
the conical rollers come down on to the material; the shaft is then caused to turn so
that the rollers press down the materials into the truck, mainly towards its centre,
so as not to burst the exterior casing of wire cloth. The shaft is then raised, a
further quantity of fibrous material is thrown into the truck, the shaft is lowered
to press down this material, and the operation is repeated until the truck has been
filled.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Sydney Pitt in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th
December 1878.
SYDNEY PITT, of Sutton, in the County of Surrey. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR WASHING AND PREPARING FIDROUS MATERIALS FOR THE MANU-
FACTURE OF PAPER PULP." A communication from abroad by Auguste Pochez,
junior, of St. Amand-les-eaux, France.
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for washing and
proparing fibrous materials for the manufacture of paper pulp.
The Invention embraces a series of consecutive machines or apparatus employed
to wash and prepare economically all kinds of vegetable fibrous matters suitable for
the manufacture of paper pulp.
The Drawing annexed will enable the Invention to be fully understood.
1. The principal machine consists of a boiler A, see the longitudinal section,
Figure 1, and the transverse section, Figure 2, communicating by different pipes
a, a, a, with a tubular boiler B. The apparatus is supported by cast-iron columns
C, C; on four of these columns is placed a tank D, see Figure 5, in which the
alkaline solutions are prepared. In this tank is arranged a stirrer, revolved by the
gear wheels d, d'; from the bar G of this stirrer are suspended chains 9,9,9,
carrying balls which serve to stir up the solution and render it homogeneous. In
the boiler A are two rails ff, upon which run small wagons F, Figures 3 and 4,
containing the material to be acted on.
2. Figure 6 shows a machine for filling or charging the wagons. It consists of
a rod H having a screw thread on a portion of its length. I is a sleeve on which
is fixed a toothed wheel E, which gears with a pinion E; the pinion can be driven.
in either direction by the pulleys J, J'. Through the interior of the sleeve I passes
the screw thread of the screw H. At the lower extremity of the screw H is fixed
a frame K, carrying four small conical corrugated rollers m, m. The upper edge of
the collar M which forms the upper part of the frame is indented, so that it may
interlock with a similarly indented collar M' connected with a toothed rack N,
which gears with a pinion n, and which can be raised or lowered by turning the
hand wheel o.
3. Figure 7 shows a small windlass for drawing the wagons back from the boiler;
this windlass is composed of a support b, which can be screwed to the flange at the
end of the boiler, and of a small barrel e, held at one end on the support b, and at
the other on a frame h fixed on the columns; the barrel of the windlass can be
revolved by a system of toothed wheel gear, put in motion by a crank handle j.
At P, Figure 8, is an axis, with an arm L extending from it, and also another longer
arm L. To the arm L is secured a chain with two branches, at the end of which
are rings which serve by means of the lever L' to hold up and raise the wagons:
by their wheels as they are drawn out from the boiler in order to be able to pass
below them a truck to carry them away easily.
4. Figure 9 shows a vat S with a moveable hood 8, which can be raised or lowered
at pleasure by balance weights t, t. At the top of the hood is a chimney T, by.
which steam can escape.
The following is the manner in which the several apparatus are used:-The
small wagons, Figures 3 and 4, are set on end one by one in the position shown at.
Figure 6, to allow of their being filled. Straw, wood, or other fibrous matter to be
treated is placed into the wagon. The frame K being up, the toothed rack is.
moved by turning the hand wheel O, so that the two collars M, M³, are caused to
interlock. The pulley J is driven by a straight hand, and the pulley J' by a
crossed band, so that they are driven in opposite directions. Supposing it to be
the pulley J that causes the descent of the frame K, the clutch piece w is, by.

page_text: bearing against the lever U, caused to engage with this pulley; it then communi-
cates its movement to the pulley E' which drives the toothed wheel E, and
consequently the frame descends until the corrugated radial rollers carried by it
come into contact with the material which has been filled into the wagon. As soon
as the frame presses upon these materials, the collar M¹ is raised by turning the
hand wheel O, and so raising the toothed rack.
When the pulley J is again put into action, the frame K will turn, and the
conical rollers will press down the material, squeezing it more especially towards
the, middle, in order that the pressure may not burst the wagon, which, as before
stated, is formed of wire cloth. The operation is repeated until the wagon is filled.
When filled, the wagons are placed one after the other on to a truck, and are run
into the boiler A along the rails ff, taking care to attach to the wagon which
first enters a chain which passes back over the others, and which subsequently
serves to withdraw them. The end of the boiler, which is suspended from a
swinging frame arm, is then bolted on.
When the fire has been lighted in the furnace Q, the tubular boiler B gets first
under pressure, and the heated solution contained in it rises by the pipes a, a, a,
into the upper part of the boiler A, falls continuously on to the wagons, and returns
into the tubular boiler B by the pipes a¹, a², to be reheated. At the end of some
hours, the apparatus having arrived at a pressure of, say, 4, 8, 10, 12 atmospheres,
according to the material being treated, the solution is drawn off by a tap placed at
the bottom of the boiler, and by the pressure it rises through a pipe into the vat S.
The steam escapes by the pipe T, and the scouring material remains in the vat
ready to be conveyed to the recovery furnaces.
The steam which escapes may serve for heating purposes, moro especially for
heating the fresh scouring solution which is being prepared in the vat D.
The cover to the end of the boiler is subsequently unfastened, and the windlass,
Figure 7, is placed in front of the open end in the manner before described. The
end of the chain which passes back from the first wagon is then hooked on to the
barrel of the windlass, and by turning the crank handle j¹, the chain is wound up
on to the barrel, and the wagons are drawn back from the boiler. As each in
succession is partly withdrawn from the end of the boiler, the lever L¹ is lifted, and
the rings,, are passed on to its two front wheels. By depressing the lever L'
the wagon rises up, and is put on to a truck. The lever L is lowered, and the
rings, are unhooked, and the wagon is carried off to the heaps, where it is dis-
charged by means of a crane.
The employment of the system above described has the following advantages:-
Economy of alkali produced by the constant rising of the scouring solution,
which returns to be reheated in the tubular boiler, and showers down on to and
scours the material with the greater energy as the pressure is high.
Facility of transport of the boiled material, as it is enclosed in small wagons.
Economy of hand labour in scouring the material, and withdrawing it without
risk of accident or loss of pulp.
No loss of steam, as it serves to heat the scouring solutions.
Economy of fuel by reason of the large heating surface of the tubular boiler,
and by reason of the scouring solution being already hot when it is put into the
boiler.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim the combined
arrangement of mechanism for washing and preparing fibrous materials for the
manufacture of paper pulp, substantially as herein-before described, and especially
I claim,―
First. The apparatus for heating and scouring the paper materials, this apparatus
being composed of a boiler containing the materials, and put into communication,
substantially as herein-before described, with a boiler in which the scouring solution 5

page_text: Second. The combination therewith of the vat. for preparing the scouring
solutions.
Third. The combination of mechanism for filling the wagons, and also for with-
drawing them from the boiler.
Fourth. The construction of the wagons of wire cloth.
Fifth. The employment of a vat with moveable hood for receiving the spent
solutions.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sydney Pitt, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
OTZATAY
SYDNEY PITT
'TINCTI
(IAN.)