IMPROVEMENTS IN ARTIFICIAL STONES AND OTHER MOULDED ARTICLES MADE FROM CORK SHAVINGS
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frank Wirth of the firm of Wirth and Company Patent
Solicitors at Frankfort on the Main, in the Empire of Germany for an
Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN ARTIFICIAL STONES AND OTHER MOULDED
ARTICLES MADE FROM CORK SHAVINGS a communication from Karl Grünzweig,
Doctor of Philosophy, and Paul Hartmann trading under the firm of Grünzweig
and Hartmann, persons resident at Ludwigshafen, Germany
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frank Wirth at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th February 1883.
FRANK WIRTH, of the firm of Wirth and Company, Patent Solicitors at
Frankfort on the Main, in the Empire of Germany "IMPROVEMENTS IN
"
ARTIFICIAL STONES AND OTHER MOULDED ARTICLES MADE FROM CORK SHAVINGS
a communication to me from Karl Grünzweig Doctor of Philosophy, and Paul
Hartmann, trading under the firm of Grünzweig and Hartmann, persons resident
at Ludwigshafen, Germany, .
The said invention relates to the manufacture of artificial stones, briquettes, or
other articles, which can be moulded from a prepared paste or mixed material of
cork, pulverized, or in shavings, and a suitable adhesive material, such as starch
paste.
The preparation and manufacture is carried out in the following manner :-
The cork, either pulverized in small grains, or in fine shavings, is mixed in
about the proportion of 6.3 kilograms to about 3 kilograms of starch-flour, and
25 kilograms of boiling water, and are kneaded together when in a hot state. Or
the starch-flour, and the pulverized cork, may be first mixed, and then kneaded
together whilst the boiling water is being added.
The cohesive paste, thus made, is moulded in any suitable manner.
The moulded articles must be at once placed in a drying room of high tempe-
rature, preferably about 100° C, and must there be completely dried, which process
may last many days.
t
3
If the moulded articles be exposed to the atmosphere before they are brought
into the drying rooms of high temperature, they begin to burst (particularly at.

page_text: those parts on which they are resting), and are deformed by swelling, when
brought into the drying room. The reason for this probably is, that the skin first
formed on the surface is thinner at the resting place than elsewhere, and thus,
offering less resistance to the further escape of internal vapour, is pushed out and
burst, when the articles are brought into the drying room.
Other cohesive starch materials may be used for the binding paste.
When it is desirable that the articles should offer greater resistance to water,
some linseed oil, or tar, is mixed with the paste before moulding.
The articles thus made have many properties of material cork, and may in many
cases be used for it.
This artificial cork has also the advantage of being of less specific weight than
the material cork, and that it can be formed in any desired shape and size in one
solid piece of uniform composition.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Frank Wirth in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 4th August
1883.
FRANK WIRTH, of the firm of Wirth and Company, Patent Solicitors, at
Frankfort on the Main, in the Empire of Germany, "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ARTIFICIAL STONES AND OTHER MOULDED ARTICLES MADE FROM CORK SHAVINGS."
"
A communication to me from Karl Grünzweig, Doctor of Philosophy, and Paul
Hartmann, trading under the firm of Grünzweig and Hartmann, persons resident
at Ludwigshafen, Germany
The said invention relates to the manufacture of artificial stones, briquettes, or
other articles, which can be moulded from a prepared paste or mixed material of
cork, pulverized, or in shavings, and a suitable adhesive material, such as starch
paste.
The preparation and manufacture is carried out in the following manner.
The cork, either pulverized in small grains of from two to four millimetres, or
in fine shavings, is mixed in about the proportion of 6,3 Kilograms with a boiling
paste, consisting of about three Kilograms of starch-flour, and 25 Kilograms of
boiling water, and they are kneaded together when in a hot state. Or the starch-
flour, and the pulverized cork, may be first mixed, and then kneaded together
whilst the boiling water is being added.
The cohesive paste, thus made, is moulded in any suitable manner, by filling
into moulds or pressing through dies.
The moulded articles must be at once placed in a drying room of high tempe-
rature, preferably about 100° Centigrade, and must there be completely dried,
which process may last many days. The drying process proceeds very slowly,
articles not thicker than. 20 millimetres requiring about two days.

page_text: If the moulded articles be exposed to the atmosphere before they are brought
into the drying rooms of high temperature, they begin to burst (particularly at
those parts on which they are resting), and are deformed by swelling, when
brought into the drying room. The reason for this probably is, that the skin first
formed on the surface is thinner at the resting place than elsewhere, and thus
offering less resistance to the further escape of internal vapor, is pushed out and
burst, when the articles are brought into the drying room.
Other cohesive starch materials may be used for the binding paste.
When it is desirable that the articles should offer greater resistance to water,
some linseed oil, or tar, is mixed with the paste before moulding.
The articles thus made have many properties of natural cork, and may, in many
cases, be used for it. This artificial cork has also the advantage of being of less
specific weight than the natural cork, and that it can be formed in any desired
shape and size in one solid piece of uniform composition.
And having now described and ascertained the nature of the said invention, and
the manner of carrying the same into effect, be it known that what is claimed and
desired to be protected by Letters Patent is :-
First. The manufacture of artificial cork by the admixture of the pulverised
grains or shavings of cork with a hot paste, drying being effected immediately
thereafter at a high temperature, substantially as described.
Second. Articles made by the above claimed process, substantially as described.
In witness whereof I, the said Frank Wirth, have hereunto set my hand and
seal this thirty-first day of July in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and eighty-three.
4443ME