IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND MANUFACTURE OF WOVEN FABRICS OR TISSUES, APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BERKELEY COTTER, of the City of Dublin, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her, most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of September, One thousand eight hun-
dred and forty-four, in the eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her
heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Berkeley Cotter,
my exors, adiiors, and assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said John Berkeley Cotter, my exors, adñors, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said John Berkeley Cotter, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter, during the continuance of the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within that part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England. Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also
in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND MANUFACTURE OF WOVEN FABRICS
OR TISSUES, APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Berkeley Cotter,
to particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in

page_text: writing under my hand and seal, and to cause the same to be inrolled in
Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as
in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Berkeley Cotter, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement and Specification
thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention has for its object the production of woven tissues or fabrics
possessing the property of being impervious to or repellent of water, having also
great tenuity as regards their construction or substance, while at the same
time they are very durable, or possess great strength for resisting the constant
effects of rubbing and abrasion, and the general deterioration in the ordinary
action of wear and use; and being also of great tensile strength, both in the
individual and component parts of the materials from which the fabric is
formed, and in the fabric itself, or the resulting compound of the manufacture,
and further possessing the power to resist such high degrees of temperature,
or such low degrees of temperature, of the atmosphere as the fabrics may
be exposed to in the ordinary circumstances of their application to use, with-
out deterioration of the properties already mentioned; and farther, having
the property of being less inflammable in the case of their direct exposure to
ardent fire.
The practical character of the said Invention, or the method by which I
carry the same into practice, consists in making a full and complete saturation
of the component parts of such tissues or fabrics with certain chemical
solutions, mixtures, or compounds herein-after described and set forth; and this
I perform on such component parts in their separate state, before they undergo
the process of manufacture into the ultimate tissue or fabric. And I also
subject the tissue or fabric, after it is completed in its form and texture, to a
farther treatment with the same or similar solutions, mixtures, and compounds,
or some of them, as the particular nature and intention of the manufactured
object may render necessary. The practical efficiency and perfection of any
woven tissue or other fabric of similar nature to resist the action of moisture,
and to be impervious to and repellent of water, to possess a greater tenuity as
regard its construction and substance, and thence to be of more durable
character and to have greater tensile strength, depends, according to the prin-
ciples of my Invention, altogether on the fibrous substance of the component

page_text: parts of which it is intended to form such tissue or fabric being fully saturated
with a fluid matter or composition insoluble in water, such saturation being
made under bigh degrees of temperature, and which last-mentioned saturation
so effected shall not impair the flexibility and suppleness of texture and condi-
tion which is also necessary, in a greater or lesser degree, to the practical
character of the fabric or manufacture. The composition with which I effect
the saturation of the materials of which such tissues or fabrics are intended to
be formed, is produced by a mixture of the matters and substances as they are
hereunder stated, and the treatment of the materials so to be saturated is con-
ducted in manner following, that is to say :-
To produce the composition I take the following ingredients and quantities,
that is to say :-
First, boiled linseed oil, one imperial gallon.
Second, white lead, raw, one pound avoirdupois.
Third, charcoal in powder, twenty-six ounces.
Fourth, litharge, two and a half ounces.
Fifth, chloride of sodium, or the culinary salt of domestic use, two and a
half ounces.
Of these ingredients respectively I take the proportions or quantities herein-
above stated, and, having heated the boiled linseed oil to the temperature of from
eighty-five to ninety-five degrees of Fahrenheit, I add the several other ingre-
dients gradually and separately to the oil, and mix them intimately together
by continued grinding or stirring. These proportions for the ingredients of the
composition I find best suited to the practical purposes of my Invention, and I
adopt them in all general cases of its application; but the extreme precision of
adherence to the above-mentioned proportions is not needful, the quantities
of the solid ingredients being made to vary the relative proportions thereof as
regards the quantities of the boiled oil, according to the circumstances of the
case, and the purposes to which the manufacture is to be applied, the finer
fabrics requiring the composition to be of greater fluidity.
The process of the manufacture is thus: - First, I provide weaving ma-
chinery of the ordinary description, taking care that its working parts, are of
strength and of material properly suited to the heavier and more substantial-
character of the materials to be wrought in it under this Invention. I form
the chain or warp of hemp or flax and the weft of wool, or I form a warp of
hemp or flax and the weft of cotton, or I form a warp of hemp or flax and
a weft of silk, or I form both warp and weft of hemp or flax, or I form the
warp and weft, or either of them, of any material or materials which usually is
or may be used in the manufacture of textile fabrics. I prepare the fibres

page_text: or threads of the material intended to form both the warp and the weft, or either
of them, for the subsequent manufacture, by saturating them thoroughly with
the composition herein-before described, and I work them in such saturated
state and whilst the portion of composition they contain is yet in an undried
state, such working being in all other and general respects the same as in the
ordinary process of weaving. And I also apply the same composition and
process of saturation to yarns, threads, or strands of such aforesaid material or
materials, whether to be used as aforesaid in the manufacture of a textile
fabric, or twisted and interlaid among themselves for any other purpose; and
I prepare by saturation with the aforesaid composition any textile fabric
already manufactured in the usual manner. I conduct the working of the
process under a uniform and moderately high temperature of from sixty to
eighty degrees of Fahrenheit, and when the tissue or fabric is completed in the
weaving machinery it is withdrawn; it is then submitted to the action of coni-
pressing cylinders or rollers, for the purposes of hardening and rendering the
surface flat and uniform, and it is then dried in the open air at a medium
temperature of the atmosphere, as from fifty to sixty degrees of Fahrenheit.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as of my Invention the
composition herein-before particularly described, and the application of the
same to the manufacture of fabrics by the processes herein described for
the purposes and with the objects herein-before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Berkeley Cotter, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five