IMPROVE- MENTS IN PAINTING, PRINTING, OR OTHERWISE ORNAMENTING THE SURFACES OF LEATHER, SILK, COTTON, OR LINEN, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE PARTICULARLY APPLI- CABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF GLOVES,STOCKINGS, AND SUCH LIKE ARTICLES
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
WINTER, of Fountain Court, Cheapside, in the City of London, Glover, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by ler
Royal Letters Patent under the Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of June, in the first year of Her reign,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Joseph Winter, Her especial licence, full power, sole priviledge and autho-
rity, that I, the said Joseph Winter, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Joseph Winter, my executors, admi-
nistrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the terni 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PAINTING, PRINTING, OR OTHERWISE ORNAMENTING THE SURFACES OF
LEATHER, SILK, COTTON, OR LINEN, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE PARTICULARLY APPLI-
CABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF GLOVES, STOCKINGS, AND SUCH LIKE ARTICLES;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Joseph
Winter, by an instrument in writing under my hand and scal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part 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 contained in
the said recited Letters Patent, I, the said Joseph Winter, do hereby declare
that the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is
to be performed, are particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following description thereof (that is to say):-
My Improvements in Painting, Printing, or otherwise Ornamenting the
Surface of Leather, Silk, Cotton, or Linen, which Improvements are particu-
larly applicable to the Manufacture of Gloves, Stockings, and such other like
Articles, consist in the following features of novelty as applied to those objects.
Firstly, a mode of preparing skins of leather in order to render their
surfaces more fit to receive and retain printed, stained, or painted ornaments
than the ordinary preparations of leather are capable of.
Secondly, the mixing of colors or coloring matters with elastic gum, for the
purpose of printing or painting upon the surfaces of leather and other elastic
fabrics for the manufacture of gloves, purses, bags, stockings, shoes, and such
like articles.
Thirdly, a means of extracting portions of the ground color from painted or
stained leather, for the production of devices, patterns, or designs of various
forms, particularly in imitation of lace, net, or fretwork.
And, fourthly, a mode of preserving embossed or raised figures or devices on
gloves, shoes, purses, bags, and other articles of those kinds.
With respect to preparing leather for printing, I would first mention that in
the ordinary preparations of kid and other clastic leather suited for the manu-
facture of gloves, purses, bags, ladies' shoes, and some other articles, a solution
of alum and common salt is employed with the yolks of eggs; and that, in
order to extract the common salt from the skin previously to staining, print-
ing, or painting its surface, the skin is required to be washed several times,
which washing tends greatly to harden it, and to disqualify its surface to
receive and retain the staining, printing, or painting color in a perfect state.
In my improved process, therefore, I dispense with the use of common salt,
and employ in its stead Epsom salts, with a small portion of sal ammoniac in
conjunction with the alum and yolks of eggs in the proportions of about three
pounds of alum to one pound of Epsom salts and four ounces of sal-ammoniac

page_text: in twenty yolks of eggs. These are all to be beaten up together in a suitable
vessel, and when perfectly mixed the skins or pelts are to be thrown into the
mixture, and beaten or trodden down by the feet of the workman, or by any
suitable mechanical means. When the pelts immersed in the solution have
absorbed all the liquid they are capable of taking up, they are to be removed
and dried in the usual way, and are then fit to be strained, printed, or painted
upon, being then in a much better condition to receive and retain the color-
ing matters than if they had been treated according to the ordinary operation
in which common salt is used. I I may add, that if leather prepared in the
common way is to be stained or printed upon, I find it very considerably
improved if steeped in a solution of Epsom salts and sal-ammonia with a
small quantity of alum and yolks of eggs in the way above described; but I
never found that any leather received and retained the stain or printing pro-
cess so well if common salt had been used in its preparation. In preparing
coloring matters for printing or painting upon the surfaces of leather, silk,
cotton, or linen, the dry color is first ground up in spirits, and then a small
quantity of caoutchouc (indian rubber) in a fluid state is mixed with the colour
by way of gum. This preparation will cause the colour to take more firm
hold of the material upon which it is laid than any of the ordinary colours or
inks used for printing; and beside, the elasticity of the gum will allow the
goods which have been printed or painted with such prepared colour to expand
without breaking any parts of device, or allowing the colours to peel off.
Leather which has been stained with one colour all over the surface may have
devices or patterns worked.upon it by extracting portions of that colour by
chemical means. This operation will of course depend upon the composition
of the colour with which the surface of the skin is tinted, and a chemist will
perfectly understand how to manage it. The way in which I proceed is this:
After having stained the surface of the skin with a suitable colour, I charge
the face of the block, type, or other article by which the pattern is to be given,
with a material containing acid. This acid, when applied to the stained
ground of the leather, will partially discharge or change those parts of the
ground tint so acted upon, and thereby produce of contrast of colour between
the forms thus stamped upon it and the original or ground tint. One mode
which I adopt is, by dipping a sheet of lace net in a solution of acid, and, after
spreading out flat whilst wet with the acid, pressing by means of a roller or
other apparatus the sheet lace upon the face of the tinted skin, when the
acid which exudes from the threads of the lace net under pressure will act
upon the tinted surface of the skin, and discharge or change its colour in the
form of the meshes of the net spread over the skin. It is not necessary that

page_text: I should state what are proper materials for producing the stained tints of
the skins intended to be so operated upon, as that must depend upon the
required colors, and is a matter well known to chemical printers, so also is
the kinds of acids or acidulous compounds to be used; and the strength of the
acids can only be so far defined as to say, that they must not be used of such
strengths as will injure the material upon which they are to act, or be applied
in such profusion as to spread beyond the limits or edges of the pattern or
figure intended to be produced upon the skin. For the backs of gloves, the
upper leathers of ladies' shoes, the ontsides of purses and bags, and some other
articles which may be ornamented with embossed devices, in order to preserve
the embossed ornaments I introduce into the hollow parts of the devices at the
back of the material a thick solution of caoutchouc (indian rubber) just sufficient
to fill up the hollows of the embossed device, and then scrape or spread the
clastic gum smooth and even at the back; and before the gum is completely
set I cover the back part with a piece of thin silk or other thin non-elastic
substance, which, by adhering to the gum, keeps the indian rubber as a pad
distending and supporting the embossed device, and preserving it in relief
when the article is distended on the hand or foot of the wearer, or is subjected
to stretching or pressure by any other cause.
Lastly, I desire it to be understood that I do not intend, under the above-
recited Letters Patent, to claim as my Invention the painting, printing, or
ornamenting of leather or any other fabric for the manufacture of gloves and
other articles; but I do claim the improvements set out under the four heads
above stated (that is to say), I claim,-
First, the improved method of preparing skins or pelts for straining, print-
ing, or painting upon by the means and materials above set out.
Secondly, the employment of caoutchouc (indian rubber) as an elastic gum
mixed with colouring matters for printing or painting leather and other elastic
articles.
Thirdly, the mode of produeing patterns or devices on leather, by extracting
parts or portions of the ground tint by acids.
And, fourthly, the mode of protecting or preserving embossed devices by
filling the backs of such embossed parts of the goods with paddings of
caoutchouc.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Winter, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.
JOSEPH WINTER. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of December, in
the second year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Joseph
Winter came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged 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 fifty-fifth year
of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of December, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-eight