US741554A - Pyroxylin compound. - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES fatented. October 13, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

PYROXYLIN COMPOUND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 741,554, dated October 13, 1903.

Application filed June 2, 1896. Serial No. 594.006. (No sp I To ail whom it may concern:

'Be it known that LROBERT O. SoHiiPPHAUs, of Brooklyn, New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture 'of Pyroxylin Compounds and in the Pyroxylin Compounds Resulting Therefrom, of which the followingis a specification.

While the invention relates generically to pyroxylin compounds and processes of manufacturing them, it more'particularly relates to new liquids for breaking down the fibrous structure of pyroxylin and converting it into a homogeneous substance of any desired plasticity ranging from 'a flowing solution into a stifijelly-like mass, according to the purposes for which the pyroxylin compound is to be used. I I

I have discovered that there are a number of closely related chemical substances which combine the desirable solvent or converting powers of the ordinary etherin its well-known ether alcohol mixture with a greatlydecreased volatility and which are far less miscible with water.

It is the purpose of the present invention to utilize this discovery in the manufacture of pyroxylin compounds and to produce pyroxylin compounds thereby which contain these substances or which result from the admixture of pyroxylin and these substances. As a class these substances consist of the lower mixed alkyl oxids, or, in other words, the mixed ethers of the lower alcohols. These substances in conjunction with a suitable adjuvante. g. ,ethyl alcohol-are of great value in the manufacture of pyroxylin compounds.

v By the lower alcohols I mean particularly the aliphatic alcohols of thefirst five seriesto wit, methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, and amyl.

All these are, with the exception of methyl or Wood alcohol, produced commercially by fer mentation processes. Methyl alcohol is more commonly obtained by the destructive distillation of w0od,although this, too, may be made from certain sugar solutions by peculiar fermentation. The mixed alkyl oxide or mixed ethers which Iparticularly prefer are methylisobutyl oxid, which boils at about centigrade, ethylisobutyl oxid, which boils at 78 to 80 centigrade, methylisoainyl oxid, which boils at 92 centigrade, and ethylisoamyl oxid, whichboils at 112 centigrade.

It is knownthat any one of the loweralco hols may, to some extent, replace ethyl alcohol in the mixture of ether and alcohol, which is very commonly employed as a solvent for pyroxylin; but while the great volatility of these combinations is of advantage in many applications in others this very volatility is a serious drawback.

One object of the present invention is to produce pyroxylin compounds by the use of substances which have far less volatility than the ordinary ether-alcohol mixture and which are far less miscible with water. The mixed a1- kyl oxide which I have enumerated possess when used instead of simple other both these characteristics and at the same time exert the powerful solvent action desired. Any oneof these alkyl oxide is mixed with a suitable quantity of an alcohol-as, for instance, ethyl or propyl alcoholand the liquid solvent for the pyroxylin thereby prepared. By combining soluble pyroxylin of the'varieties used for the preparation of collodion and varnishes with these liquids pyroxylin solutions are obtained which are suitable, among other purposes, for varnishes and for the preparation I have also found these mixed al- -kyl oxids of great utility in the manufacture of solid compounds, especially in the preparation of explosive pyroxylin compounds containing a mixture of soluble and insoluble guncotton where it is desired to gelatinate the soluble variety only.

I am aware that Letters Patent of the United States have been granted to Leonard Paget,

the subject-matter of this application according to XVilliamsons classical method by treating a sodium alkylate (RONa)with a halogen alkyl (RBr)as, for instance:

(sodium ethylate) (amyl bromid) (ethylamyl ether) (sodium bromid) This method, as will be well understood by chemists, (to whom particularly this specification is addressed,) is merely a laboratory method of preparation, and I give it in order to distinguish clearly the constitutional formula of the mixed alkyl oxids which I employ in carrying out this invention. These substances may be prepared on a large scale by other and less costly methods-such, for in stance, as that described in United States Patent No. 516,766, dated March 20, 1894, to Kratft and Roos. The method of manufacture, provided it results in substances having a constitutional formula similar to that described, is immaterial to my invention.

What I claim, and desire to secure by these Letters Patent, is-

l. The improvement in the art of manufacturing pyroxylin compounds, which consists in dissolving or converting pyroxylin with the aid of the solvent action of a mixed ether, substantially as set forth.

2. As an improvement in the art of manufacturing pyroxylin compounds, the treating of pyroxylin by the aid of one or more members of the following group of substances: methylisobutyl oxid, ethylisobutyl oxid, methylisoamyl oxid, and ethylisoamyl oxid, substantially as set forth.

3. The process of gelatinating soluble pyroxylin, which consists in treating the soluble pyroxylin with a solvent that contains one or more of the mixed alkyl oxids, substantially as described.

4. The process of gelatinating soluble pyroxylin, which consists in treating the soluble pyroxylin with a solvent mixture of one or more of the mixed alkyl oxids and an adjnvant, in contradistinction to a solvent mixture in which the ether present is predominantly simple ether.

facturing pyroxylin compounds, the treating of pyroxylin by the aid of ethylisoamyl ether and an adjuvant.

9. As an improvement in the art of manufacturing pyroxylin compounds, the treating of pyroxylin by the aid of a mixed alkyl oxid containing an alkyl radical of less than four carbon atoms and an alkyl radical of more than three carbon atoms, with a suitable adjuvant.

10. A pyroxylin composition containing pyroxylin and ethylisoamyl ether with a suitable adj uvant, substantially as set forth.

11. A pyroxylin composition containing pyroxylin and a mixed alkyl oxid containing an alkyl radical of less than four carbon atoms and an alkyl radical of more than three carbon atoms with a suitable adjuvant, substantially as set forth.

12. The process of manufacturing pyroxylin compounds which consists in mixing pyroxylin with one or more members of the group of mixed ethers consisting of ethylisobutyl oxid, ethylisoamyl oxid, ethylisopropyl oxid, propylamyl oxid, but-ylamyl oxid, and propylbutyl oxid.

13. Apyroxylin composition eontainingpyroxylin and one or more members of the group of mixed ethers consisting of ethylisobutyl oxid, ethylisoamyl oxid, ethylisopropyl oxid, propylamyl oxid, butylamyl oxid and propylbutyl oxid.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 1st day of June, A. D. 1896.

ROBERT C. SCHUPPI-IAUS.

In presence of J. 0. Ross, HAROLD BINNEY.