IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF TREATING VARIOUS KINDS OF FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF WRITING, PRINTING, AND OTHER PAPER.
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Noble, of Thurlby House, Woodford
Bridge, in the County of Essex, Gentleman, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF TREATING VARIOUS KINDS OF FIBROUS
MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF WRITING, PRINTING, AND OTHER
PAPER.'
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Noble at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd July 1872.
I, GEORGE NOBLE, of Thurlby House, Woodford Bridge, in the
5 County of Essex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF TREATING VARIOUS KINDS
OF FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF WRITING, PRINTING, AND OTHER
PAPER," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the preparing and treating fibrous materials

page_text: including vegetable plants in their ripe or unripe state, such as rye, diss,
and esparto. When preparing the fibrous material I cut the same into
suitable lengths, and then it is put into a copper, pan, boiler, or other
vessel containing water, the material is then boiled for one hour or more
according to the strength of the fibre. I then wash the fibrous material
clean and place it in a solution of cold water and caustic lime, the
proportion being one hundred pounds weight of the caustic lime to forty
gallons of water. The fibrous material is then boiled for the space of
two hours. When treating the fibrous material I shall use ten pounds
weight of sulphuric acid to every forty gallons of water. The fibrous
material I then put into a copper, pan, boiler, or other vessel containing
the sulphuric acid and water, and there it passes under the process
of boiling four hours. I shall also in treating the fibrous material cause
it to undergo the operation of steaming by means of superheated or
high-pressure steam at fifty pounds pressure to the square inch. The
fibrous material I shall put into a vessel of sufficient size and strength,
and shall steam the fibrous material for two hours, when the fibre will
be in good condition for the purposes required.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Noble in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th December 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
NOBLE, of Thurlby House, Woodford Bridge, in the County of Essex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of July, in the year of our
.Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-sixth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said George Noble, Her special licence that
I, the said George Noble, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said George Noble, 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

page_text: 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD
OF TREATING VARIOUS KINDS OF FIBROUS MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURE
OF WRITING, PRINTING, AND OTHER PAPER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said George Noble, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 George Noble, 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 consists in preparing and treating fibrous materials,
including vegetable plants in their ripe or unripe state, such as rye,
diss, and esparto, in order to obtain therefrom a fibre suitable for
making pulp for the manufacture of paper.
To carry out my Invention I operate by preference in the manner
herein-after described :-I first steep or soak the fibrous materials,
videlicet, the stems or straw of oats, barley, wheat, maize, rye, diss,
alfa, urtica, sedge, juncaceæ, cyperuces, hybiscus, papyrus, chamærops,
5 bromeliaceæ, crotalaria, corchorus, musaces, bast, jute, phormium
tenax, rice straw, flax, Italian, New Zealand, and esparto grass, either
in the green or unripe state, and also in the ripe, brown, or dry state,
or at any other period of growth between the ripe and unripe state, and
also rags, cotton, and other fibrous materials, such as bamboo and sugar
> cane, willow, spruce, and American white wood and pine, in a solution
of cold water and caustic soda, the proportions being about two hundred
and eighty pounds by weight of caustic soda to one ton of fibrous
material pressed close. I then remove the material which has been
steeped and also one half of the liquor, and replace them by another
5 ton of fresh material and an equal quantity of fresh liquor, together,
J

page_text: with from one hundred and forty to one hundred and eighty pounds of
caustic soda for the next steeping operation.
I employ a vessel for the steeping bath of the required size, made
preferably of slate, stone, or brick cemented, or it may be made of
This vessel
wood, cast, or wrought iron, or other suitable material.
is provided inside with a heavy lid or cover so as to press by its own
specific gravity the material together as close as possible.
The fibrous material which has been steeped or soaked in this cold
alkaline solution is transferred along with one-half the liquor removed
from the steeping pan to another pan, boiler, or suitable vessel, and
boiled for the space of about four hours, the boiling temperature being
obtained by the introduction of steam therein. Or the boiling may take
place in the steeping pan itself (after the steeping operation), from
which one-half the liquor has been removed. I wash the material clean
after boiling.
When treating woods, chamærops, and other fibrous materials of a
close and hard texture, I submit them as a preliminary to the last
herein-before described separate boiling to boiling in a solution of water,
sulphuric, muriatic, or other mineral or vegetable acid, in the pro-
portions of twenty to eighty pounds by weight of acid, according to its
strength, to one ton of the fibrous material. By this means I obtain
from the said fibrous materials "but more especially from the fibrous
plants in the green or unripe condition," a stronger fibre, and as a result
a cheaper pulp for the manufacture of paper.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the best
means I am acquainted with for carrying the same into effect, what I
claim is,―-
First. The method of preparing and treating fibrous materials,
including vegetable plants in the green or unripe condition, as also
in their brown or ripe state, to obtain therefrom a fibre suitable for
making pulp for the manufacture of paper, as herein-before described.
Secondly. The steeping in a cold alkaline solution, and subsequent
boiling of the herein enumerated fibrous plants in the green or unripe
condition, or at any period of their growth between the time of the ripe

page_text: and unripe state, as also in their brown or ripe state, substantially as
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Noble, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
1
Witness,
WILLIAM SUDLOW PENSON,
Langbourne House,
Lombard Street.
GEORGE NOBLE. (L.S.)