A METHOD OF RENDERING WATER- PROOF BEAVER AND OTHER HATS
Year: 1806

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, WILLIAM
HANCE, of Tooley Street, in the Parish of Saint Olave, Southwark, and County
of Surroy, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
5 His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of
January, in the forty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
William Hance, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial license, full power,'
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Hance, my exors, adñors,
and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A METHOD OF RENDERING WATER-
PROOF BEAVER AND OTHER HATS;" in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Hance, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, to 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 His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Hance, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following, that is to say:-
Take a thin shell, made of wool, hair, and fine beaver, to form the crown of
the hat; likewise a shell or plate of the same materials to form the brim.
When these two parts are made, they must be dyed black and finished without

page_text: any glue or stiffening of any sort, care only being taken to bring it to a good
jet black; as no glue or stiffening is used, no rain can injure the nap, which in
all other beaver hats, after being exposed to a heavy shower of rain, draws
out the glue, which sticks down the nap and makes it appear old and greasy;
but these hats after a heavy shower of rain require to be only wiped round
with a hankerchief, soft brush, or any other proper thing, and when dry, brush
them over again, and the nap will flow the same as before. There may be a
thin shell made of wool, hair, or fine beaver, as before, in the shape of a hat,
blocked deep enough to admit of the brim being cut from the crown, or a shell
made of the same materials in the shape of a hat will answer the same purpose,
though I give the preference to the outside shell to be in two parts; the
underneath side of the shell and the inside of the crown must then be made
waterproof by first laying on a coat of size or thin pasto or any other proper
substance that will be sufficiently strong to bear a coat of copal varnish, and
when thoroughly dry, another coat of boiled linseed oil, very strong; when
'sufficiently dry and hardened, the crown must be put on a block, and a willow
or cotton body or shape wove on purpose, put into the inside of the crown and
'cemented in; it must then stand on the block till dry, then finished off with a
hot iron and the crown is done. The brim must in like manner be cemented
to a substance or body mado with willow wove on purpose, or cotton or other
fit material sufficiently thick to make the inside of the brim. The brim or.shell
of beaver, with the body made of willow or any other fit material, must then be
put in a press and pressed well together; when pressed sufficiently, it must be
hung up to harden; then the underside of the brim may be covered with
another shell of beaver made on purpose, but silk shagg will answer the same
purpose and make the underneath part handsomer, or a willow may be wove
to cover the underneath with, or it may be covered with any other fit material.
The crown and brim, thus made, must be put on a small block to form tho
-brim and crown; it must then be strongly sewed together. The hat is then
formed and put in shapo; the edge of the brim must be oiled and varnished
with copal varnish and boiled linseed oil, very strong, as before, sufficiently to
prevent any rain getting in. The cement used for sticking the parts together
may be made with about one pound of gum senegal, one pound of starch, one
pound of glue, and one ounce of bees' wax, boiled together in about one quart
of water, or any other proper cement may be used.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hanco, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of February, in the year of
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sevon.
WILLIAM HANCE (L.s.) ..

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of February
in the year of our Lord 1807, the aforesaid William Hance 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 written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seven.