IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUPAC- TURE OF A COMPOSITION RESEMBLING PAPIER MACHE' AND 'CARTON PIERRE, AND APPLICABLE TO THE SAME PURPOSES TO WHICH 'PAPIER MACHE' AND 'CARTON PIERRE ARE APPLIED, PARTS OF WHICH INVEN- TION MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS AND BOATS AND ROOFING
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Clarke, of No. 20, Great Marl-
borough Street, in the County of Middlesex, Peat and Manure
Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUPAC-
TURE OF A COMPOSITION RESEMBLING PAPIER MACHE' AND 'CARTON
PIERRE, AND APPLICABLE TO THE SAME PURPOSES TO WHICH 'PAPIER
MACHE' AND 'CARTON PIERRE ARE APPLIED, PARTS OF WHICH INVEN-
TION MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS AND BOATS
AND ROOFING_A communication.
Sealed the 2nd February 1854, and dated the 2nd August 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry
Clarke at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 2nd August 1853.
J. WILLIAM HENRY CLARKE, of No. 20, Great Marlborough Street,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF A COMPOSITION
RESEMBLING PAPIER MACHE AND CARTON PIERRE,' AND APPLICABLE TO
THE SAME PURPOSES TO WHICH 'PAPIER MACHE' AND 'CARTON PIERRE'
ARE APPLIED, PARTS OF WHICH INVENTION MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO THE
CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS AND BOATS AND ROOFING," to be as follows:-

page_text: The improvement is the application and manufacture of a composi-
tion to be called "spaguum lignum," and in which peat or turf will be
used instead of the vegetable organic matter which is used in the
manufacture of "papier naché" or "carton pierre," and with such
materials to make the various articles that are made of "papier
maché" or "carton pierre," and also articles of use in the construc-
tion of houses and ships, and for roofing and wainscoting, and making
doors and panels of doors and shutters, &c.
The vegetable organic matter, turf or peat, is well washed and
treated so as to separate all other heterogeneous matter from this vege-
table organic substance.
The way of washing will of course depend upon the state and quality
of the turf or peat, and of those extraneous bodies which it may
happen to hold.; it is then reduced to a pulp, and for some purposes
treated as a composition of which "papier maché" and "carton
pierre" are made, and in addition to certain proportions of organic
and inorganic substances used for that purpose, as the case may require,
and at times for certain uses and particular climates, I put in a small
proportion of oil of shale or schistas, or of coal tar, or of essence of
turpentine, or of any other ingredient that may have the property of
making the composition peculiarly repugnant to insects or vermin of
the various sorts met with in damp situations and warm climates.
What I claim is, the use of peat or turf in the manufacture of a
composition resembling "papier maché" and "carton pierre," either
alone or in mixture with the other substances alluded to. Secondly,
the scenting or odoriscing of the described material by mixture with
it of shale or schistas oil or essence, or of coal tar, naptha, or of
petroleum or mineral naptha.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Henry Clarke in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 2nd February 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM HENRY CLARKE, of 20, Great Marlborough Street, in the
County of Middlesex, Peat and Manure Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto mic, the said William Henry Clarke, Her special
licence that I, the said William Henry Clarke, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Henry
Clarke, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein 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 MANUFACTURE OF A COMPOSITION
RESEMBLING PAPIER MACHE AND CARTON PIERRE, AND APPLICABLE TO THE
SAME PURPOSES TO WHICH PAPIER MACHÉ AND CARTON PIERRE ARE APPLI-
CABLE, PARTS OF WHICH INVENTION MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO THE CONSTRUC-
TION OF SHIPS AND BOATS AND ROOFING," (being a communication,) upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Henry Clarke,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particu-
larly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, 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 William Henry Clarke, 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:
To make the composition which forms the subject matter of the

page_text: invention or contrivance for which I have obtained Letters Patent as
aforesaid I choose a quality of peat or turf which has not undergone
too great a decomposition or decay, and in which the fibrous and
ligneous parts have consequently preserved a certain tenacity of
texture. This I submit to a complete elutriation or trituration after
having pulverized it, if dry, or without any other preparation, if wet
and just cut, my object being to disengage the vegetable organic
matter from the carth or sand and other extraneous bodies which may
happen to be mixed with it. Such careful elutriation is not, however,
necessary where it is desired to make a composition for the gross
objects of manufacture which are made of papier maché or carton
pierre, but only where a fine and more elastic texture, such, for instance,
as would resemble pasteboard or sheet gutta-percha or coarse paper, is
⚫lesired.
The clean vegetable organic matter I then reduce to a pulp or paste
by first mixing and soaking it during a couple of days in a solution of
about six parts by weight of potash and six of fresh slacked lime in
one hundred of water, and after it has digested thus, the potash and
lime are separated from the organic matter by washing, and submitted
to the action of water moderately acidulated with muriatic acid during
another day, and then mechanically reduced to a state of pulp or paste
as other organic matter is reduced for the purpose of making paper or
pasteboard or papier maché.
If it is desired to bleach the turf I now submit it to a bath of
chloride of lime, or it may be subjected to the chlorine process adopted
in bleaching rags for paper making.
Having thus prepared the turf, it may be introduced into the beating
or pulping engine used in paper making, and the whole reduced to
pulp in the ordinary manner. The reduction of the pulp would depend
upon the qualities to be manufactured, reducing and separating the
fibres in a greater degree for the finer sorts. From pulp so prepared
I either form thin tissues by machine or by hand, as well understood
in the manufacture of machine made or hand made papers, or by
hydraulic pressure, and afterwards paste or otherwise unito several-
thicknesses of such tissue when required to make card board, mill

page_text: board, or papier maché of the necessary thickness, or I mould such
pulp in suitable moulds whereby to fabricate panels, boards, sheets,
trays, or other articles in such manner and for such purposes as papier
maché and carton pierre are now moulded and used.
Another part of this Invention consists in rendering for certain
purposes or cases the materials manufactured from this composition
or other pulps obnoxious and repulsive where exposed or subjected to
the attacks of destructive vermin. To effect this I mix with the pulp
or paste a small quantity of shale oil, or coal tar, naptha, maltha, or
turpentine, either separate or combined, but more particularly shale
oil when it is to be procured, as being the substance of all others, as
far as I have observed, to which insects and animals have the greatest
repugnance; and when the article to be made of such composition is
intended for a use which will expose it to continuous damp or wet, as,
for instance, sheets or leaves for light roofing, &c., I mix up with it
about five per cent. of a solution of caoutchouc or gutta-percha and
resin, which has the effect of making it to a great degree waterproof.
I shall also at times when it can be procured mix up with the said
composition of lignum spagnum" a small proportion of peacerine
or parrifine, the wax-like substance obtained from peat by distillation,
to make a useful, light, and pliant waterproof roofing for temporary
buildings, &c.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry Clarke, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second day of February,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
four
W. H. CLARKE. (L.S.)