USRE3629E - Improved fibre from cake for paper aito for other purposes - Google Patents

Description

BEST AVAILABLE COPY firiniterl gurus flaunt chitin.

KATE LOWE AND WILLIAM MCTEER, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNEES, BY )IESNE ASSIGNMENTS, OF BENJAMIN A. LAVENDER AND HENRY LOWE.

Letters Patent N 10,722, dated April 4, 1854; extended seven years; reissue -'o. 2,983, dated June 9, 1868; reissue No. 3,629, dated August 31, 1869.

IIIPROVED mm: PROM CANE IOR PAPER AND I'OR OTHER PURPOSES.

The Schedule referred to in than Letters Patent and making part of the name.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that, Berusms A. Lsvmrnnn and HENRY Lows, late of Baltimore city, and State of Maryland, invented what may be termed an Improved Method of Making Hemp or Cane'Ootton, and invented a new article of commerce and manufacture, which is useful for cordage, rope, bagging, matting, also in.the manufacture of paper and other textile fabrics. It also serves as a most excellent substitute for other fibre, in the various branches of art, where hemp, cotton, or other equivalents are now generally used; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

It is well known that the ordinary reed orcane known by botanists as the Arsndinaria macrorpsma of Michaux, and which grows in the greatest wild luxnrlance in portions of the Qarolinaa, as well as most of the Gulf States, has never as yet, to any extent, been made valuable as an article of commerce or manul'actnre.

The object of our present invention is to obtain and use the fibre of the reed as the chief ingredient in the manufacture of paper, rope, and other articles.

Practical experience has fully attested the fact that owing to the great strength and flexibility of the hemp obtained from the broken reed, it will be most valuable, and can be advantageously introduced for the purposes stated.

When it is remembered that the reed requires no cultivation, and any quantity of the raw material can be obtained at a most trifling expense, the value of the present invention will readily be appreciated by all skilled in the art to which the same is applicable.

It will readily occur to any one skilled in the arts to which this invention applies, that the reed or cane may be crushed or broken in various ways, and by different kinds of machinery.

This all, however, interferes not in the slightest degree with the broad principle of the invention, which is the obtaining, for the various purposes mentioned, the fibre of the cane or reed to be used like hemp or cotton.

One of the methods by which a fine and bleached article can be obtained is as follows:

The reed or cone is first passed through rollers, so as to crush it fiat, and crrt it into convenient lengths, of three or four feet, and then laid compactly in a suitble vessel. We preier a tub or vat, of yellow pine plank, because it is a wood not easily afl'ected by acid. Mnriatic or mlplwric acid. of a strength of about eighteen (18") degrees'flaunr, diluted with an equal quantity, in weight, of water, is then poured upon the cane,-enough to cover it.

Suifer the cane to remain in this position until fully disintegrated, which is ascertained, on trial, by the fibres easily separating; and being very tender. The time required for-maceration is two or three days. Then draw the acid of! for future use. Then add or ii iii any carbonated or caustic alkali, in quantity sufircient to neutralize the ago} absorbed by the cane, with water suflicient to cover it, and let it remain in this alkaline solution ten or twelve hours. Let the solution then be drawn oil, and take the cane out carefully, as it is tender, and dry it in the most convenient nrode. Then thoroughly dry the fibres, though they separate from each other easily, yet they retain their original strength and tenacity.

Pass the cane then through a break, similar to that used for breaking flax and hemp, and cleanse it, and it becomes ill: for use, and should be put up with the fibres laid out straight and regular, as Kentucky hemp 'is prepared for market, unless it is put up expressly for paper-making, in which case it is unnecessary to use snclr care in putting it up straight.

The invention is not limited to the process described, as other equivalent. means may be used for separating the hemp of the cane, or for obtaining the cane-cotton.

Having thus fully described our invention,

What we claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. Obtaining'the fibre from the cane or reed Armrdinarr'n macrosperma of Miclraux, for the purpose specified.

2. Cane-cotton or hemp, as a new article of commerce and maunfircture, for the purpose specified.

3. Breaking down woody fibre of cane and other like plants, and dissolving the gummy and other foreign matters therefrom, by means of rnurirrtic or sulplrnric acid, of the strength of 10 Bauur, or thereabout, preparatory to making hemp or cotton for bagging, rope, papcr-pul p, &:c.,in the manner substantially as set forth.

In testimony 'wlrcrcot', we have signed our names to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

KATE LOWE. WM. MCTEER.

Witnesses:

Eon. F. Bnows', Dasmr. Basso.