IMPROVEMENTS IN NUMNAHS OR SADDLE PADS AND IN NUMNAH BLANKETS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Heywood Whitehead, of Royal George
Mills, in Saddleworth, in the West Riding of the County of York,
Woollen Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
NUMNAHS OR SADDLE PADS AND IN NUMNAH BLANKETS."
Sealed the 5th January 1869, and dated the 6th July 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Heywood
Whitehead at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 6th July 1868.
I, JAMES HEYWOOD WHITEHEAD, of Royal George Mills, in Saddle-
worth, in the West Riding of the County of York, Woollen Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN NUMNAHS OR SADDLE PADS AND IN NUMNAH BLANKETS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in numnahs or saddle
pads and in numnah blankets.

page_text: I construct numnahs or saddle pads of wool or other felting fibre
The
felted upon an open fabric or net made of linen or other material.
felt then gives to the numnah or saddle pad that softness which is
required to prevent the saddle chafing the back of the animal, whilst the
net gives to the numnah or saddle pad the strength requisite to render
it durable. Numnah and saddle pads may very advantageously be made
from a fabric which I produce by felting wool or other felting fibre
on to a coarse fabric of woven horsehair; and I also make numnah
blankets by thus forming a felt on the surface of a woven horschair
fabric.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Heywood Whitehead in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 5th January 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
HEYWOOD WHITEHEAD, of Royal George Mills, in Saddleworth, in the
West Riding of the County of York, Woollen Manufacturer, send
.greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-second
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said James Heywood Whitehead, Her special licence
that I, the said James Heywood Whitehead, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Heywood
Whitehead, my executors, administrators, and 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN NUMNAHS OR SADDLE PADS AND IN NUMNAH BLANKETS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Heywood
Whitehead, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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

page_text: 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 James Heywood Whitehead, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:―
This Invention has for its object improvements in numnahs or saddle
pads and in numnah blankets.
I construct numnahs or saddle pads of wool or other felting fibre
felted upon an open fabric or net made of linen or other material. The
felt then gives to the numnah or saddle pad that softness which is
required to prevent the saddle chafing the back of the animal, whilst
the net gives to the numnah or saddle pad the strength requisite to
render it durable. Numnahs and saddle pads may very advantageously
be made from a fabric which I produce by felting wool or other felting
fibre on to a coarse fabric of woven horsehair; and I also make numnah
blankets by thus forming a felt on the surface of a woven horsehair
fabric.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood
and readily carried into effect I will proceed to describe more fully
the manner in which I prefer to manufacture numnahs and numnah
blankets.
I use by preference machinery such as is described in the Specification
of a Patent granted to me, and dated the 5th day of January 1864,
No. 29, and by means of such machinery I accumulate on an endless
apron a batt of carded wool until a sufficient thickness is obtained to
form when hardened and fulled a felt of a thickness of about of an
inch. The wool employed may conveniently be coarse yellow or grey
wool from the East Indies, or it may be noils from the combing of long
wool. The endless apron carries the batt accumulated on it into a roller
hardener, as is described in the said Specification, and as is well under-
stood. As it passes into the hardener there is laid on the surface of the
accumulated batt a strong openwork fabric, the whole passes together
through the hardener and so the fibres of the batt become locked
through the meshes of the fabric; thus the batt and the fabric become
sufficiently combined to be fulled together. The fulling operation is con-
ducted in the usual manner, and so the felting of the batt is completed
and the openwork fabric at the same time becomes so firmly held that

page_text: it cannot be separated. The openwork fabric may be made of any strong
fibre; flax, hemp, and cotton are suitable, as is also wool and horsehair.
The fabric may be plain or twilled, the former is preferred; it is very
coarsely or loosely woven with say four meshes to the linear inch. The
warp and the weft of the fabric is also coarse and strong. After the
fulling the combined fabric is cut into pieces to form the numnahs, each
of the form and size of a cavalry saddle, and these pieces, whilst still wet
are stretched upon blocks corresponding in form with the back of a
horse, the felt side being against the block; they are dried on these
blocks, and when dry they are finished and they retain the form given
to them.
In making numnah blankets I proceed in a similar manner, using an
open fabric of horsehair; the horsehair fabric should be of a weight of
about three pounds per yard of sixty inches wide, and the weight of wool
felted on to it should be about two pounds per yard. The blankets are
conveniently made five feet square, and when in use under the saddle
are folded into four. By using an openwork fabric of horsehair a very
strong and durable blanket is obtained, and such a blanket when it has
become wet is easily dried.
What I claim is the numnah or saddle pad produced by felting wool
or other felting fibre upon an open fabric or net, as herein described.
I also claim the numnah or saddle blanket produced by felting wool
or other felting fibre upon an open fabric or net of horsehair, as herein
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Heywood Whitehead, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.