A NEW METHOD OF PREPARING THE VARIOUS SORTS OF ISINGLASS, SUCH AS BOOK LEAF, LONG STAPLE, AND SHORT STAPLE, AND ALSO CAKE ISINGLASS, FROM RIVER AND MARINE FISH
Year: 1812

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
LAURENCE DRAKE, of Baldwin Court, Cloak Lane, in the City of London,.
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third
did, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Eighth day of April, in the fifty-second year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said James Laurence Drake, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,.
that I, the said James Laurence Drake, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF PREPARING
THE VARIOUS SORTS OF ISINGLASS, SUCH AS BOOK LEAF, LONG STAPLE, AND SHORT
STAPLE, AND ALSO CAKE ISINGLASS, FROM RIVER AND MARINE FISH," within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the Colonies,
Plantations, and Dominions abroad, in such manner as to me, the said James
Laurence Drake, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should in our
discretion seem meet; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that if I, the said James Laurence Drake, should not particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the

page_text: same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within two calendar months next immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine,
and become void, as in and by the said recited Letters Patent, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Laurence Drake, do hereby declare that the nature of niy said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in manner following (that is to say):
.
The fish must be cut or slit right down the middle, the intestines and sounds
taken out, and well washed and cleansed from all their impurities; the head is
then to be cut or slit open, and all the white skin of the palate, as well as the
white skin on each side of the head, cut and stripped off, scraped, and intirely
cleansed of all the fleshy parts." The sounds must be cleansed of all fat and
animal substance, and cut through the middle after the inside skin has been
taken off. The mare is then to be cut or slit open and all the fleshy parts
well scraped off, that nothing but a pure skin may remain. With the ovarium
or womb the same process is to be observed after having been well cleansed of
the roc.
All the white skin from the gills down to the navel on each side of
the belly part is to be cut or stripped off and well cleansed and scraped. The
lower membranes of the flat fish are to undergo the same operation. After
all these parts are well washed and cleansed in cold water, they are then to
be hung up to dry a little, and while they remain-moist they are to be.dipped in
warm water, but not boiling hot, in order to draw out the fishy smell and
taste. They are to be immediately taken out and may then be formed into
long staple or short staple and book isinglass; the thin skins will require less
dipping than those of a thicker substance. After this process: they must be
dried either in a stove or in the sun, and when dry are fit for use. The staples
are merely fanciful, although an artful idea hitlierto used to avoid detection of
the original consistency. To make the cake isinglass the cuttings arising in
forming the staples are warmed in a pan over a slow fire until they combine,
but great care must be taken that they do not burn. :
In witness whereof, I, the said James Laurence Drake, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twelve.
JAMES LAURENCE DRAKE. (L.s.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of June, in the
fifty-second year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the said
James Laurence Drake came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
forty-eighth year of His said Majesty's reign.
Inrolled the Eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and twelve