IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING HIDES AND SKINS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF LEATHER
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
NISBETT, of Elim Street, Long Lane, Bermondsey, in the County of Surrey,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day of May, in the sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Nisbett, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said John Nisbett, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said John Nisbett, my exors, adñors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING HIDES AND SKINS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF LEATHER;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said John Nisbett, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said 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 Nisbett, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the-Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
My Invention relates in part to the manufacture of that description of
leather called "losh leather," or other leathers made from hides and skins
which are dressed with oil; and it is well known that in preparing hides
and skins in the manufacture of such descriptions of leather, that the same,
after having had the oil washed out and the hides and skins dried, they
are submitted to a process of stretching and scraping with knives by hand,
and also to a process of rubbing with pummice stone. Such process of
preparation of the hides and skins into the descriptions of leather above
mentioned are called by the name of grounding, and such processes, as
before mentioned; are now commonly performed by hand, and are very
Jaborious work, and require considerable strength and skill of the workman
in preparing hides and skins in the manufacture of the said descriptions of
leather. And my Invention also relates to the manufacture of other descrip-
tions of leathers when such leathers require to be subjected to the operation
of grounding, whether such leathers are to be operated upon in the hides or
skins, or when the bides or skins have been cut up for any of the
purposes
for which they may be required.. Now, the object of my Invention is to
accomplish such processes of grounding by knives on revolving axes, and by
using pummice stone or other suitable rubbing surfaces on revolving axes, com-
bined with suitable beds or surfaces, on which the hides or skins or parts of
skins are placed when being operated on.
And in order that the Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto an-
nexed, in the various Figures of which the same letters indicate similar parts
wherever they occur.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
. Figure 1 represents an end view, and Figure 2 is a longitudinal section, of a
machine constructed according to my Invention, suitable for grounding hides or
skins or parts of skins; so far as that process consists of scraping and stretching
by means of knives or scraping edges. a, a, is the framing of the machine;
b is an axis turning in suitable bearings at c, c; this axis b receives motion
from a steam engine or other power by means of a strap or band acting on the
pulley.d; affixed on such axis; 'e, e, are a series of arms, each having a knife
ór scraping edge faffixed thereto, which, by their revolution with their axis 6,

page_text: scrape and stretch the hides or skins or parts of skins placed on the bed g,
such bed being stuffed with hay or other suitable material for rendering the
same sufficiently elastic, the bed being covered with losh leather or other
suitable covering. The bed g is formed on and carried by a framing, as is shewn,
mounted on four wheels h, h, such wheels h, h, running on and are guided by the
rails i, i, by the wheels having flanches thereon. The knives or edges f, f, are
caused to revolve with considerable speed; those employed by me move about
one thousand two hundred feet per minute, but I do not confine myself thereto.
The workman places a hide or skin, or hides or skins, or parts of hides or skins,
on the bed g, and causes the bed to move towards the knives, and the knives or
edges f in their revolution will cause the bed to be drawn through the machine,
and the workman will retain it back and retard its passing under the knives or
edges f, according as he judges of the process; and when one side of the hide
has been thus operated on one or more times, according to the judgment of
the operator, the bed is to be drawn back, the strap having been thrown off
the fixed drum or pulley, and then the other side of the hide is to be operated
on in like manner. By this means this part of the process of grounding will be
found to be accomplished very quickly and more uniformly than by hand. In
operating on sheeps' skins and deer skins or parts of skins, or when reducing
the thickness of other hides or skins or parts of skins, the knives or edges
have the spaces filled up with wood, thus producing circular bosses (rounded
off at the edges) on the axis, the edges or knives protruding slightly beyond the
bosses. Figure 3 shews a plan, and Figure 4 side view, of a machine
having this description of knives or edges ff; and Figures 5, 6, 7, and 8
shew different views of the knives f and filling pieces fon a larger scale, by
which their construction will readily be traced. In Figures 3 and 4, are also
shewn the rubbing surfaces k, of pummice stone or other suitable material, for
performing that part of the process of grounding, such rubbing surfaces k being
fixed on two axes m, which receive motion from a steam engine or other power
by a strap acting on the pullies fixed thereon; in other respects the machine
is similarly constructed to that above described, and the parts are marked with
the same letters of reference. The hides or skins or parts of hides or skins in
passing through this machine are first acted on by the two sets of knives or
edges f, which in this case are on two axes, and then the skins are operated
on by the two sets of revolving rubbers, the rubbers being so set as to act on
all parts of the skins on one side thereof as they pass through. Figures 9, 10,
and 11 shew various views of the rubbers separately on a larger scale; and
Figures 12 and 13 shew the rubbing machine in a suitable condition when for

page_text: operating on hides and skins, or parts of hides or skins, which have been
operated on by the machine shewn at Figures 1 and 2.
-Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would remark that I do not confine myself to the precise
details herein shewn, provided the peculiar character of the mode of performing
either of the processes of grounding, as herein described, be retained, and I
make no claim to any of the parts of the machinery separately; but what I
claim is,
First, the mode of operating by means of knives on axes when performing
the process of grounding hides or skins or parts of hides or skins in preparing
the same in the manufacture of losh leather or other descriptions of leather.
And, secondly, I claim the mode of operating by means of rubbing surfaces
on axes when performing the process of grounding hides or skins or parts of
hides or skins in preparing the same in the manufacture of losh leather or other
descriptions of leather.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Nisbett, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of October, One thousand eight hundred
and forty-three.