AN IMPROVED STUPPING FOR MATTRESSES, CHAIR SEATS, AND OTHER LIKE PURPOSES."
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in
the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
STUPPING FOR MATTRESSES, CHAIR SEATS, AND OTHER LIKE PURPOSES."A"
communication from abroad by Henry Almanzor Alden, of Matteawan,"
Dutchess County, New York, in the United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
August 1866.
i
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this Invention for "AN,
IMPROVED STUFFING FOR MATTRESSES, CHAIR SEATS, AND OTHER LIKE, PURPOSES,",
a communication to me from abroad by Henry Almanzor Alden, of Matteawan,
Dutchess County, New York, in the United States of America,..to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to produce a substitute for horsehair which
while possessing the desirable qualities as a stuffing material with respect to

page_text: elasticity, softness, and durability, shall have the additional advantages of
being cheap, more easily worked, capable of being cleansed or washed with
the utmost facility. This Invention consists in the production as new article
of manufacture of mattresses, chair seatings, and other articles of furniture,
bedding, &c. in which the stuffing is composed of sponge prepared in the
manner herein-after described. This Invention may be carried into effect as
follows: I take sponge in its raw state and thoroughly cleanse it from
calcareous impurities which it may contain; this is done by repeated
washings or by some chemical or mechanical process, or by a chemical and
mechanical process combined. I prefer first to cut up and wash the sponge for
the purpose of removing the calcareous impurities in a stuff engine or picker;
I then submit it to the action of muriatic acid in the stuff engine, such as are
used in paper mills for reducing rags to a pulpy mass. If a stuff engine be
used I adjust the revolving cutters relatively to the stationary cutter so as to
cut up the sponge in very small particles. I have found the smaller the
particles of sponge the better the stuffing. When the sponge is thus reduced
it is dried in the shade, or in the sun, or hot rollers in a suitable oven, care
being taken not to burn or singe it; the sponge is then in a condition fit to
be used as a stuffing. This stuffing has many advantages over those now in
use; it is capable of being washed and dried, and when dry possesses softness
combined with elasticity so highly valued in horsehair stuffing; it is very
useful for hospital purposes, as the beds may be washed and dried as often as
required without injury. In order to increase the elasticity, suppleness, and
softness of the sponge to such an extent as may enable it to be used in lieu
of cotton or woollen, batting, down, or feathers, and the finest class of horse-
hair in use, I proceed in the following manner:-After depriving the sponge
of all foreign matter by means of acid or an acidulated bath I subject it to a
bath composed of equal parts of glycerine and water; after the sponge is
thoroughly soaked it is removed from the bath and pressed with moderate
power so as to retain in its cells a small amount of the liquor, thereby pro-
viding it with enough moisture to retain the soft elastic nature peculiar to it
when in its moist state. Prepared in this way the sponge will furnish a
clean, durable, soft, and agreeable stuffing, suitable for mattresses, pillows,
cusbions, as well as for padding and stuffing of articles of dress as herein-
before stated, other equivalent substances may be used in lieu of or in con-
nection with the glycerine with like effects.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed.
by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th February 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN HENRY
JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant, unto me, the
said John Henry Johnson, Her special license that I, the said John Henry
Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise; and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN
IMPROVED STUFFING FOR MATTRESSES, CHAIR SEATS, AND OTHER LIKE PURPOSES," a
communication to me from abroad by Henry Almanzor Alden, of Matteawan,
Duchess County, New York, in the United States of America, upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in
the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in, what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:
The object of this Invention is to produce a substitute for horsehair which
while possessing the desirable qualities as a stuffing material with respect to
elasticity, softness, and durability shall have the additional advantages of being
cheap, more easily worked, and capable of being cleansed or washed with the
utmost facility. This Invention consists in the production' as new articles of
manufacture of mattresses, chair seatings, and other articles of furniture and
bedding in which the stuffing is composed of sponge prepared in the manner
herein-after described. This Invention may be carried into effect as follows:-

page_text: I take sponge in its raw state and thoroughly cleanse it from any calcareous
impurities which it may contain; this is done by repeated washings or by
some chemical or mechanical process, or by a chemical and mechanical process
combined. I prefer first to cut up and wash the sponge for the purpose of
removing the calcareous impurities in a stuff engine or picker; I then submit
.it to the action of muriatic acid in the stuff engine, such as are used in paper
mills for reducing rags to a pulpy mass. If a stuff engine be. used I adjust
the revolving cutters relatively to the stationary cutter so as to cut up the
sponge in very small particles. I have found the smaller the particles of
sponge the better the stuffing.. When the sponge is thus reduced it is dried
in the shade, or in the sun, or by means of hot rollers in a suitable oven, care
being taken not to burn or singe it; the sponge is then in a condition fit to
'be used as a stuffing. This stuffing has many advantages over those now in
use; it is capable of being washed and dried, and when dry possesses softness
combined with elasticity so bighly valued in horsehair stuffing; it is very
useful for hospital purposes, as the beds may be washed and dried as often as
required without injury. In order to increase the elasticity, suppleness, and
softness of the sponge to such an extent as may enable it to be used in lieu of
cotton or woollen, batting, down, or feathers, and the finest class of horsehair
in use, I proceed in the following manner:-After depriving the sponge of
all foreign matter by means of acid or an acidulated bath I subject it to a
bath composed of equal parts of glycerine and water; after the sponge is
thoroughly soaked it is removed from the bath and pressed with moderate
power so as to retain in its cells a small amount of the liquor, thereby pro-
viding it with enough moisture to retain the soft elastic nature peculiar to it
when in its moist state. Prepared in this way the sponge will furnish a 'clean,
durable, soft, and agreeable stuffing suitable for mattresses, pillows, cushions,
'as well as for padding and stuffing of articles of dress as herein-before stated.
Other equivalent substances may be used in lieu of or in connection with the
'glycerine with like effects.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,-.
1st, the herein-before described mode of preparing sponge with a view to
its application as a stuffing for mattresses, chair seats, and other like
purposes.
2nd, the application and use of sponge prepared in the manner herein set

page_text: ப
to be stuffed or padded.
matnesses, can seatings, and
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, the Fourteenth day of February,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.s.)