CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HAT TIPS
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
RIDER, of Redcross Street, Southwark, in the County of Surry, Hat Tip
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Seventeenth day of July, in the ninth year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Benjamin
Rider, His especial licence, that I, the said Benjamin Rider, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Benjamin Rider, my
executors, administrators, and 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
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HAT TIPS;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Benjamin
Rider, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-

page_text: diately after the date of the said 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
Benjamin Rider, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and
ascertained as follows, that is to say :-
My Invention of Certain Improvements in the Manufacture of Hat Tips
consist in the constructing or making of a new material or substance composed
of some of the articles from which brown paper is commonly made, combined
with cork in a pulverized or granulated state, which material, when manu-
factured into sheets or boards something resembling mill-board, is particularly
calculated for hat tips, and may be also applied to a variety of other useful
purposes.
In preparing this new material I take of the pulp or felted fibrous vege-
table matters of which brown paper or whitey-brown paper is commonly made,
about seventy-five pounds, when in a dry state, and having worked this in the
mill or vat, as paper makers usually do, I then add about thirty-five pounds
of pulverized or granulated cork, which is to be so perfectly mixed or blended
with the pulp in the mill or vat as to form one compound substance. These
proportion of quantity may, however, be slightly varied without materially
altering the article intended to be produced. This substance is then to
be moulded either by hand or machinery, in the same way that sheets of
brown paper or mill-board are commonly made, carrying it through the usual
operation of couching, pressing, and drying. This material when thus made
and finished. a sort of compound of cork and paper, the sheets of, which are
to be cut into circular pieces for the tips of hats. But I do not propose to sell
it at all times in that form but in sheets to be cut at pleasure to the dimensions
required by hat makers. In some cases I render the material waterproof by
coating its. surface on one or both sides with varnish, of the kind commonly
employed by hat makers for stiffening the shells or foundation of hats. This
material may be applied to making the entire body of the hat, either by
moulding it from the vat to the proper shape, or by cutting the sheets and
joining their edges together with cement. It may also be applied to various
other purposes, such as hat boxes, muff boxes, and other boxes, and envelopes
or preserving packed goods from damp; and in some cases whero it may be
desirable to prevent the ravages of moths, I mix with the above materials
in the vat a small quantity of pulverized cedar wood. It may be necesary.to
add that the cork or the cedar wood must be reduced by grinding in a ginger
mill, or between stones in a flour mill. But I do not confine myself to any