IMPROVE- MENTS IN REDUCING VEGETABLE FIBRE TO PULP AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Wharton Burdon, of the Town and County.
of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Coal Owner, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN REDUCING VEGETABLE FIBRE TO PULP AND IN MACHINERY
EMPLOYED THEREIN."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Wharton Burdon
at the Office of the Commissioners of. Patents, with his Petition, on
the 2nd August 1865.
I, WILLIAM WHARTON BURDON, of the Town and County of Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, Coal Owner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REDUCING VEGETABLE FIBRE TO PULP AND IN MACHINERY
EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in treating vegetable fibre in the manner hereafter
described. I take rope, or jute, or any other vegetable fibie and reduce it by
cutting or otherwise into small pieces, and then subject it to the action of
discs of wood, stone, or irou, iiffed, channelled, or furnished with blades, and
made to revolve in a vessel containing alkaline or saline solutions and water
To prevent the fibres from becoming entangled and from balling I insert pins
in the lower disc or in some convenient part of the vessel. After the fibre

page_text: is sufficiently reduced I run it out from the vessel through outlets provided for
the purpose. If the fibre be colored I treat it to weak solutions of chlorine
after running off the first-named solutions, and thus prepare the fibre for
subsequent bleaching.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Wharton Burdon in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 2nd February 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WHARTON BURDON, of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Coal
Owner, 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 sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Wharton Burdon, Her special licence that I, the said William
Wharton Burdon, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Wharton Burdon, 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, excicise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REDUCING VEGETABLE FIBRE TO PULP AND IN
MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Wharton Burdon, my executors of administrators, by an
instrument in waiting under my, or then, on one of then hands and seals,
should particularly 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 Wharton Burdon, 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 thereof, reference being had to the Drawings here-
unto annexed, that is to say :--

page_text: My Invention consists in treating vegetable fibre in the manner hereafter
described. I take rope, or jute, or any other vegetable fibre and reduce it by
cutting or otherwise into small pieces, and then subject it to the action of discs
of wood, stone, or iron, rifled, channelled, or furnished with blades and made
to revolve in a vessel containing alkaline or saline solutions, and water
confined by an outer rim. To prevent the fibics from becoming entangled and
from balling, I insert pins in the lower disc or in some convenient part of the
vessel. After the fibie is sufficiently reduced I run it out from the vessel
through outlets provided for the purpose. If the fibro be colored I treat
it to weak solutions of chlorine after running off the first-named solutions, and
thus
prepare the fibre for subsequently bleaching.
By my Invention I obtain pulp for any purposes required.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is an elevation partly in section;
and Figure 2 a plan, with the top of the vessel hereafter referred to, and the
upper stone removed of a machine for reducing vegetable fibres, constructed
as before described.
A is a frame, the upper part of which carries a fixed stone B; C is an
upper revolving stone formed with recesses D, D, to receive the ends of a cross
bar E on the top of a vertical shaft F. This shaft rests at bottom in a
step G, and carries a bevil wheel H which is geared into and duiven by
another bevil wheel I, on a horizontal shaft J; K is a vessel in which the
stones B and C are fitted; this vessel and the stones have an opening through
the centre as shewn, but the opening in the stone B is divided from that in the
stone C by a division L. The upper side of the stone B and the lower sido
of the stone C are rifled or channelled, or they may be furnished with blades as
before mentioned The upper stone is undercut at M to allow the fibre
operated upon to enter between the stones more easily. The vessel K. Is
supplied with an alkaline or a saline solution and water, and the fibre to be
operated on is fed into the vessel though the opening in the top thereof. As
the stone C is caused to revolve by the gearing II, I, the fibie is gradually drawn
In between the stones, and after being reduced falls into the space between
then peripheries and the side of the vessel K, N is an outlet or door by
which the reduced fibre may be run out of the vessel; O, O, are pins to
prevent the fibre becoming entangled or balling.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,―
First, treating vegetable fibre substantially in the manner herein-before
described in order to reduce it to pulp.

page_text: Second, constructing machinery for reducing vegetable fibre to pulp, sub-
stantially as herein-before described and represented in the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Wharton Burdon, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of February, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness to signature,
GEO. ARMSTRONG.
W. W. BURDON. (L.S.).