US72873A - Improved mode of separatin g -bark from wood - Google Patents

Description

Sheet 1, 58/1662 0.

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JOSEPH MAITRE, OF CI'IATILLON, FRANCE.

Letters Patent 1V0. 72,873, dated December 31, 1867.

IMPROVED MODE OF SEPARATIN G BARK FROM WOOD.

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The manner in which the barking or decortication of oalc wood is usually performed, is attended with serious inconveniences, for which it is of importance to contrive a remedy. The subjoined quotations from an article in the Encyclopedic Modcrne," (a work of high standing,) will place the subject in a sufficiently clear light. Treating of coppice woods and forests, the author says: As the oak-bark is turned to great advantage in the manufacture of leather, where it is employed under the name of tan or tanner's bark, it becomes, consequently, a subject of vital consideration in the management of coppice woods. Unfortunately, however, it can be stripped otf only when in full sap, so that the operation does necessarily retard the lopping off of the branches, and consequently the sprouting of the new shoots. Owing to the ascertained inconveniences consequent upon the usual mode of executing the barking process, the performance of this operation has been prohibited in the forests of the State," 850., &c., 820.

i Another inconvenience arising from the usual method of decorticating the wood or trees while in sap, is the difliculty in fixing the adjudication of the cuttings, the period allowed for performing the operation being often insufiicicnt. Hence the necessity of pecuniary sacrifices, increasing the price of the tan, and ultimately the price of the leather too.

The process or method which I have invented, and for the protection of which I herewith solicit the grant of Letters Patent, has for its end and purpose to allow the stripping or barking operation to be performed, from the very first day of the cuttings being marked out, in the forests, without impairing in the slightest degree the qualities of the bark.

I obtain this result by supplying the wood with an artificial sap, that is to say, by exposing it to the agency of hot water, hot steam, hot air, or gases. The said fluids inaybe employed either separately or variously combined, as expediency or economical considerations may point out.

This operation may be performed by aid of divers fixed or movable apparatus, such as kettles, boilers, 810.,

-&c., either separate or in combination with other vessels or recipients, in which apparatus the wood or timber is to be submitted to thc igti w saidlluids. The said apparatus being susceptible of a great variety of con.- bina tions, shapes, and dimensions, according to local, pecuniary, and other exigencies, it will suffice for the to subjoin here the special description and drawings of only one of the modifications of my apparatus.

Description of Drawings.

In all figures the same letters invariably refer to the same parts. Figure 1 is a front view of my apparatus. Figure 2, a section of the same in the direction of line 'A B.

Figure 3, a plan of the same. A, a boiler, with interior furnace a, dotted; a, chimney; a, ash-pit. B B B B are four cylinders, which may be increased or diminished in number. "hey are intended to receive the wood to be stripped, and will allow the work or operation to be carried on in a continuous or uninterrupted manner. By plying the cock D of the pipe C, the steam may be carried at will to any of the cylinders, whilst another cylinder is being cleared of its wood E, when the latter is ripe for stripping. By means of the cocl -pipes C, the cylinders are made to intercommunicate with one another, so that, when one of the said cylinders is going to be cleared out, the steam may be made to pass off into another. F F are seats upon which the cylinders are placed, either injuxtaposition or in superposition. Any other description of support or hearing may be employed for the purpose. G G are clutches and bolts fastening the doors H, by'whieh the cylinders are closed.

In conclusion, I remark that, what I claim as my invention, and solicit to be secured to me by Letters Patent, isg The process described in the present memorial, and consisting in the employment of heat in the shape of hot water, hot steam, hot air, or gases, either separately or in combination, in conveniently-arranged apparatus, for thepurpose of decorticating or barking oak and other descriptions of wood, in the manner herein explained, and as illustrated by the annexed sheet of drawings, representing one of the modifications of the said apparatus.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOSEPH MAITRE. lvitncsses:

0. I. Snrrr; S. DE WARZECIII.

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