A NEW AND PECULIAR ART OR METHOD OF CLARIFYING OR SEPARATING THE OIL, GAUL, OR DIRT, FROM THE LEES OF POTTASH, PEARLASH, BARILLA, KELP, OR ANY OTHER VEGITABLE, CAUSTIC, OR FOSSIL ALKALI, WHETHER FIXED OR VOLATILE, AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN USED IN BLEACHING, BUCKING, OR BOILING OF CLOTH, YARN, OR GOODS, MANUFACTURED OR UNMANUFACTURED, SO AS TO RENDER THE SAME AGAIN USEFULL FOR BLEACHING OR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1784

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PAUL
HIGTON,, of Shrewsbury, in the County of Salop, and Kingdom of England,
Flax Dresser, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Kingdom of Great Britain, bearing
date the Twenty-first day of April, in the twenty-fourth year of His reign, give
and grant unto me, the said Paul Higton, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, to practice
and exercise, within that part of the said Kingdom called England, His
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A NEW AND PECULIAR ART OR METHOD OF CLARIFYING OR SEPARATING THE OIL,
GAUL, OR DIRT, FROM THE LEES OF POTTASH, PEARLASH, BARILLA, KELP, OR ANY
OTHER VEGITABLE, CAUSTIC, OR FOSSIL ALKALI, WHETHER FIXED OR VOLATILE, AFTER
THEY HAVE BEEN USED IN BLEACHING, BUCKING, OR BOILING OF CLOTH, YARN, OR
GOODS, MANUFACTURED OR UNMANUFACTURED, SO AS TO RENDER THE SAME AGAIN
USEFULL FOR BLEACHING OR OTHER PURPOSES," for the term of fourteen years;
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said Paul Higton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said art or method,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar months
next immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the

page_text: said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Paul Higton, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be perforined or donc, is particularly
described and ascertained in manner following, that is to say :-
I take a quantity of lees that have been used in bucking, boiling, or bleach-
ing cloth, yarn, flax, hemp, other matter, or goods, to which I add a quantity
of bleachers' or soap boilers' waste ashes sufficient to break or curdle such
lees, when well stirred together. I let it stand in this state to settle and clear; I
then draw off, decant, or pour such lees into another vessel, and to compleat
the precipitation I add a small quantity of fresh lees, chalk, or whiting, I
stir them well together, and then fitters them in the following manner, that is
to say I take a tub, vat, recepticle, or other vessel, with a hole or holes in
or near the bottom, in which I place a frame or other matter, made of wood or
other materials, at a small distance from the bottom, over which I put a
quantity of straw, hay, or other loose substance of any kind that will admit the
lees to pass freely through it, over which I put a quantity of spent or unspent
fern, wood, or other ashes, sand, gravel, or chalk, on which I pour the lees,
which filter themselves through the ashes, sand, straw, hay, or other loose
substance in the tub, vat, or other vessel, and descend through the hole or
holes in or near the bottom into another vessel; and if the lees are not per-
fectly clear, I repeat the operation until they are perfectly clarified and again
fit for use.
I can also break, curdle, precipitate, and clarify the spent lees by
the above operations, not only with bleachers' and soap boilers' spent and waste
ashes, but by all kinds of fixed, volatile, or caustic alkali or alkaline substances
by the above operations, not only with bleachers' and soap boilers' spent and waste
ashes, but by all kinds of fixed, volatile, or caustic alkali or alkaline substances,
by calearious earths or stones, either crude or burnt, be the samne produced
from animal, vegetable, mineral, or aqueous substances, be they slacked,
washed, spent, or unspent, or by any other thing or things appertaining to or
of the nature of any of the aforesaid substances. The lees may not only be
filtered through sand, ashes, straw, or hay, but through stout cloth, or any other
loose substance that will admit the lees to pass freely through it.
In witness whereof, I, the said Paul Higton, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-four.
PAUL HIGTON. (L.B.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-sixth day of July, in
the year above mentioned, the said Paul Higton came before our said Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above mentioned.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the
Statute made in the Sixth year of the reign of their late Majestics King
William and Queen Mary of England, and so forth.