Mulch and process of making same
OwnerJohn C. Thomasinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mulch having finely divided fibers of paper coated with a wetting agent and preferably dyed a pleasing color such as green. To produce the mulch, finely divided fibers of paper are coated with a mixture of a solvent or carrier such as water, a wetting agent, and a dye. The finely divided fibers of paper are contacted with the mixture such as by tumbling the fibers of paper while spraying the mixture into the drum.
Claims14
A process of making soil mulch comprising, reducing essentially dry sheet like used paper consisting essentially of wastepaper and used newsprint which is unsaturated with moisture to essentially dry fibers of used paper unsaturated with moisture and with at least 90 percent by weight of the dry fibers having a maximum fiber length not greater than one inch, said reducing of the used paper to dry fibers occurring without contacting the used paper with any aqueous mixture, contacting the dry fibers of used paper with a quantity of a liquid mixture which is not greater than 65 percent by weight of the dry fibers of the use paper and the liquid mixture, said liquid mixture containing a wetting agent which will enhance the ability of the fibers of used paper to be mixed with, suspended in, and absorb water, and said contacting of the liquid mixture and the dry fibers of used paper occurring while the fibers of used paper are suspended in air such that the fibers of used paper take up the liquid mixture and retain the wetting agent without saturating the fibers of used paper with moisture and without agglomerating the fibers of used paper such that the fibers of used paper contacted with the liquid mixture and retaining the wetting agent can be packaged and used as a mulch without any further processing to remove moisture from the fibers of paper and to break up the mass of fibers of used paper contacted with the liquid mixture and retaining the wetting agent.
As an article of manufacture a soil mulch comprising, a plurality of essentially dry finely divided fibers of used paper consisting essentially of used newsprint and wastepaper with at least 90 percent by weight of the dry fibers of used paper having a maximum fiber length not greater than one inch, a wetting agent retained by the fibers of used paper and enhancing the ability of the fibers of used paper to mix with, be suspended in and absorb water, and wherein the dry fibers were produced by reducing dry sheet like used paper without contacting the used paper with any aqueous mixture, the dry fibers of used paper were contacted with a quantity of liquid carrying said wetting agent which was not greater than 65 percent by weight of the dry fibers of used paper and the liquid, and the contacting of the dry fibers with the liquid carrying the wetting agent comprised the step of suspending the dry fibers of used paper in air during contacting of the dry fibers with the liquid such that the dry fibers of used paper took up the liquid and retained the wetting agent without becoming saturated with moisture and without becoming agglomerated to thereby provide a soil mulch which could be packaged and used without any further processing to remove moisture from the fibers of used paper contacted with the liquid and to break up the mass of fibers of used paper contacted with the liquid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.