An Improved Composition for Preserving Vegetable Fibre.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 16th May, 1893-Accepted, 17th June, 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by WILLIAM A. GAYLE, of Montgomery, in the
County of Montgomery and State of Alabama, United States of America.]
An Improved Composition for Preserving Vegetable Fibre.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained, in and by the following
statement:-
This invention relates to a composition of matter for preserving vegetable-fibre.
In carrying my invention into practice I mix together about equal parts of
common ground ochre, and crude cotton-seed oil, at about the same temperature as
the atmosphere, producing a composition having the consistence of good house
paint. This composition may be advantageously improved by the addition of
about of its weight, of any common resin. The said compound should be gently
heated, being well stirred during the process, the heating serving only to liquefy
the resin. An addition of kerosene or coal oil may be added to cheapen the
composition without materially effecting its preserving qualities. This composition,
or mummia, is best applied to articles made of vegetable fibre by emersing them
in it. Bags and similar articles should first be turned wrong side out and then
emersed. Any excess or surplus mummia should be removed from the bags by
wringing.
The said composition may be employed for the protection of wood submerged
in either fresh or salt water by emersing the wood in the said composition or
applying the same with an ordinary paint brush.
By treating vegetable fibre, with this compound each fibre becomes thoroughly
coated thereby rendering it impervious to the action of water, air, and acid. The
chemical effect in my new compound is produced by the grease in the composition
neutralizing the acid which comes in actual contact with the fibre, coated with the
said composition; the well known affinity of acid for water, inducing the acid to
penetrate any fibre which has absorbed water, either from contact with the damp
ground, or by rain to which the articles may have been exposed. Wood preserved
by this composition, as the wood coated with the same is thoroughly insulated, and
is thereby protected from the action of salt or fresh water, as well as from
the action of the air. The addition of resin gives greater body and adhesiveness
to the composition, further rendering the wood, thus coated, most distasteful to
destructive insects, and preventing them attaching themselves to the wood and
destroying it.
I am aware that it is not new, to incorporate ochre with vegetable oils, including
cotton-seed oil, but this composition without the addition of resin would be unsuitable
for my purpose, as wood, such as piles and the like need this addition to thoroughly
keep it from attack by destructive insects.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :--
A composition of matter for preserving vegetable fibre, consisting of ground

page_text: ochre, cotton-seed oil, and liquefied resin mixed in substantially the proportions
above stated.
Dated this 16th day of May 1893.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.