AN IMPROVED METHOD OF IMPARTING ELASTICITY TO LEATHER, SKINS, COTTON, CLOTH, AND OTHER SIMILAR OR LIKE ARTICLES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Griffits at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th November
1870.
.I, JOHN GRIPFITS, of Aylesbury, in the County of Buckingham, High
Bailiff, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED METHOD OF IMPARTING ELASTICITY TO LEATHER, SKINS, COTTON, CLOTH,
AND OTHER SIMILAR OR LIKE ARTICLES," to be as follows:-
--
The object of my Invention is to produce a new elastic material or
fabric which may be employed for the manufacture of various useful
articles. To this end I take leather, either dressed or undressed skins,
cotton, cloth, woollen cloth, velvet, velveteen, or other fabric, and I com-
bine any of them with an elastic web or fabric made of india-rubber
strands in combination with wool, silk, cotton, or other fibrous substances
in the well-known manner of making elastic fabrics.
In carrying out my Invention I take the elastic fabric and I stretch
it to its utmost extent, I then coat either one or both pieces of the
fabric with a solution of india-rubber and on it I place the piece of
leather, skin, cotton, or woollen cloth, or other material or fabric which
is to form the face of my improved clastic fabric. The two fabrics or

page_text: materials are then pressed together so as to cause them to adhere,
and when dry the fabric may be released and allowed to resume its
normal state of construction, thereby producing an elastic corrugated
fabric. The elastic fabric thus produced (if made of leather or skin)
will be found particularly applicable for the side springs or gussets of
boots and shoes. It may also be used in some cases for the upper
leathers of these articles and from its great strength and elasticity the
side springs and gussets may then be dispensed with. As a modification
of the above (instead of forming the base of my improved fabric of a
piece of elastic webbing composed of rubber strands with cotton or
other non-elastic yarns) I sometimes takė a number of rubber strands
arranged parallel to each other like a warp, and having stretched them
to the desired extent and coated them with a solution of rubber, I cover
them on both sides with leather or skin and by moderate pressure I
cause the solution of rubber to enter the pores of the leather so that
when dry it will be impossible by fair means to remove or separate the
two pieces of leather. Instead of india-rubber solution the materials or
fabrics may be connected together by gutta percha, shellac, rosin, or
other gum dissolved in turpentine, naptha, or other suitable solvent.
The gumming solution (whatever it may be) should be made sufficiently
thin by the addition of the solvent to admit of being applied to the
fabric by means of a brush or other suitable instrument, and as the only
use of this gumming solution is to cement the materials or fabrics
together, care should be taken not to lay on too great a body of it. If
an elastic web such as those now made and used for gussets be employed
as the foundation of my improved elastic fabric it will not be absolutely
necessary to cover both sides of the web with leather, but if an open
work elastic web (in which the rubber strands will be visible) be used
for the purpose then I should cover one side of the web with leather,
and the back or other side with cotton, silk, or other fabric according to
the purpose for which the fabric is intended to be employed.