An Improved Carbon Product.
Year: 1892

page_text: An Improved Carbon Product.
1, Louis SIEGFRIED LANGVILLE of 186 First Street in the City of Troy and
State of New York, United States of America, Manufacturer, 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 :-
$6
My invention relates to a form of carbon as a new article of manufacture, and as
produced from the residuum of wood pulp manufacture where such residuum has
been treated for the recarbonization and reclaiming of the alkali by which the wood
cellulose has been treated to remove the silica and resins. This new form of carbon
differs from that prepared from wood known as charcoal in which the silica
remains, and it differs from that form of carbon made from resins known as "lamp-
black" or that form of the latter produced from the burning of gaseous hydro-
carbon substances by its having greater density, and is thus better fitted to be
condensed by pressure for electric-light carbons or other uses.
The residuum from which my new form of carbon is produced and heretofore
treated as a waste product of wood pulp manufacture (where an alkaline process
is employed) results from the following procedure: Soda in the form of a carbonate
in solution is treated with lime, the resulting action being that the lime is converted
into and is precipitated as an insoluble carbonate of lime, and the soda made caustic
as a hydrate. Wood cut up into chips is placed in a digesting vessel, and heat and
steain pressure applied thereto, which has the effect of converting the silica which
the wood contains into a silicate of soda, and to saponify the resins and gum-resins
which the wood contains, which treatinent is continued long enough to effect these
results, when the liquor is drawn off from the wood-cellulose, and the treatment of
the latter continued to complete its conversion into wood pulp. The liquor so
drawn from off the wood cellulose contains some of the latter, the silicate of soda
obtained from the action of the caustic soda upon the silica contained in the wood,
and this liquid also contains the resinous substances that have been saponified by
the caustic alkali, and which were in the wood. The liquor is then condensed
by evaporation and transferred to a carbonizing furnace, wherein by the aid of heat,
fire and the carbonic-acid gas produced by the latter the soda is converted into a
carbonate of soda, or as termed in the art "recarbonized." After this treatment
the carbonate and silicate of soda are removed by leaching the residuum with
water, the remaining material consisting of the carbonized wood cellulose, and
carbonized resinous matter, and a trace of the soda alkali. It is from this residuum
that I prepare my new form of carbon by treating it with a weak solution of hydro-
chloric or sulphuric acid which dissolves off the remaining traces of soda, after
which the material is dried and powdered, the resulting product containing less than
two per cent. of impurity.
While I have described my new form of carbon as made from the refuse matter
of pulp manufacture, where wood is used, it can also be applied to the treatment of
the refuse material resulting from pulp manufacture, when esparto grass or other
vegetable cellulose is treated in like manner to produce paper pulp.
The form of carbon thus produced from an ordinary refuse material can be used
for all purposes for which lamp-black or light forms of carbon are employed. Thus
it may be used as a pigment, or for making electric-light carbons, or in the
manufacture of gunpowder, or any other purpose where a carbon containing so
little foreign matter is applicable.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
As a new article of manufacture, a carbon product made from wood-cellulose,
and the resinoid residuum of wood-pulp manufacture, and in which the bulk of the
silica of the wood-cellulose has been removed, and the lighter carbon produced
from the resinoids combined with the denser carbon of the wood-cellulose, as and
for the purposes set forth.
Dated this 5th do of Tal.. 1000
LOUIS SIEGFRIED LANGVILLE.
Haseltine, Lake & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.