IMPROVEMENTS IN FABRICS ELASTICATED BY GUTTA PERCHA, OR ANY OF THE VARIETIES OF CAOUTCHOUCc
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
HANCOCK, of Marlborough Cottage, Stoke Newington, in the County of
Middlesex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters Patent
under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
bearing date at Westminster, the Second day of November now last past,
did give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Hancock, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Hancock,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Hancock, 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 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 FABRICS ELASTICATED BY GUTTA
PERCHA, OR ANY OF THE VARIETIES OF CAOUTCHOUCc;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, obligiging me, the said Thomas Hancock,
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 Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Hancock, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, that is to say :-
Gutta percha, and all the varieties of caoutchouc, and combinations of
these varieties, are in their natural state more or less affected by differences
of temperature, but means have been discovered by which such variations in
their elasticity are overcome, and the improved substances are thereby better
suited to the manufacture of fabrics elasticated by gutta percha, or any of the
varieties of caoutchouc.
Elastic, braided, woven, or other fabrics, whether of cotton, wool, silk, or
other substances, have hitherto been generally manufactured either white or of
some dyed or undyed ground, or if ornamented, the colours were introduced in
the course of weaving, either in stripes by the common loom, or having patterns
produced by looms of a more complicated character, and at a proportionably
increased cost, which patterns were of necessity formal, and often ill suited to
the articles to which they were applied.
My improvements in these manufactures consists in printing their surfaces,
and thereby enabling the manufacturer to produce at much less cost ornaments
of a superior quality, and of every variety of taste or pattern, color or design.
Sometimes elastic fabrics are formed by cementing to caoutchouc when in
an extended state, silk, cotton, leather, or other covering, the surfaces of which
I ornament also by printing them. Although caoutchouc which has been
rendered permanently elastic is much more suitable for these manufactures than
ordinary caoutchouc, yet articles when elasticated by the latter, I also ornament
by the same means. These fabrics or articles may be printed by any of the
well-known means employed in printing manufactured goods, such as blocks,
cylinders, or any suitable apparatus, and with the colors and processes ordinarily
used in printing the various materials of which the exterior of the combined
fabric may be formed. These fabrics or articles I generally print when in their
contracted state, the effect of which is that the pattern is always the same, when,
after extension, the article is allowed to recover its original dimensions. I do
not, however, always print these fabrics when in a state or contraction, but
extend them more or less, and print them when in the extended state, by
which means I obtain from some designs a novel effect, the articles on being
allowed to contract concentrating parts of the design or pattern, and changing
its figure.
There is another advantage in this mode of proceeding. Elastic articles,
such as garters, bracelets, bands, &c., are, when actually in use, generally.

page_text: somewhat extended; if, therefore, the pattern presents its most perfect phase
when of the dimensions or proportions originally designed, I stretch the article
when printing it to about the same extent it would assume when in use, and
thereby secure the desired result.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Hancock, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of April, One thousand eight
hundred and forty-eight
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Nineteenth day of April,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Thomas Hancock came before
our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Second day of May, in the year above written.