A COMPOSITION TO PUT ON ALL SORTS OP SKINS, PAPER, OR LINEN, FOR THE USE OF DRAWING OR WRITING ON WITH PEN AND INK OR PENCIL, AND RUBBING CLEAN OPF AGAIN, AND TO FORM IT INTO A MEMORANDUM BOOK, DISTINGUISHED BY PUTTING THE NAME OF EACH DAY OF THE WEEK ON THE TOP OF EACH LEAF OF THE BOOK, AND FOR OTHER USES AND PURPOSES
Year: 1764

page_text: CUMMINGS, of Ludgate Street, in the City of London, Toyman, send greeting.
WHEREAS This most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Thirty-first day of March, in the fourth year of His reign, did give
and grant unto me, the said George Cummings, is especial licence that I,
the said George Cummings, during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A COMPOSITION TO PUT ON ALL SORTS
OP SKINS, PAPER, OR LINEN, FOR THE USE OF DRAWING OR WRITING ON WITH PEN
AND INK OR PENCIL, AND RUBBING CLEAN OPF AGAIN, AND TO FORM IT INTO A
MEMORANDUM BOOK, DISTINGUISHED BY PUTTING THE NAME OF EACH DAY OF THE
WEEK ON THE TOP OF EACH LEAF OF THE BOOK, AND FOR OTHER USES AND PURPOSES;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the
said George Cummings, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of the said Invention, and how the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar
months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent. as in and by the same
(relation being thereunto had), may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, I, the said
George Cummings, do hereby declare that my said Invention of a composition
to put on all sorts of skins, paper, or linen, for the use of drawing or writing
on with pen and ink or pencil, and rubbing clean off again, and to form it into
a memorandum book, distinguished by putting the name of each day of the
week on the top of each leaf of the book, and for other uses and purposes, is to
be performed in the manner following, that is to say):-
Take either vellum, parchment, very fine cloth, or paper, and stretch it in a
frame as tight
as possible; then take twelve pounds of white lead and pound
it very fine; then add one-third part of the best plaister of Paris and one-
fourth part of the best stone lime, well pound them, and mix these well
together, and grind them very fine with water; then take a new glazed vessel
and dissolve six or seven pounds of the best double size over a fire, and mix
the above ingredients in this till it is of such a consistance as to lay on with a
brush; then lay three or four layers on the skin or cloth as smooth as possible,
observing that the skin is dry each time before a second layer is put on; then
take the best nut or linseed oyl, and to every pound of this oyl add four
ounces of the best white varnish, and mix them well together; then put on
three or four layers of this oyl thus prepared, each time exposing it to the air
till it is thorough dry; this is for the white sort. For a brown or yellow, add
to the above three or four ounces to every pound of the best stone oaker, or
orpiment, or Dutch pink, and three or four ounces of litherge; these must be
well ground with very old linseed oyl, and laid on as smooth as possible ten
or twelve times, exposing it each time to the air to be thorough dry before a
second layer is put on; observe you do not put it where any dust or dirt can
fall upon it. It may be by the same process altered to any colour, as, for
instance, to a red, by tincturing it with vermilion or the like; to a blue,
Prussian blue; and for a black, that of pounding slates and grinding it very
fine, and mixing with it ivory black, as much as will turn it of a fine black
colour; and when it is thorough dry you may write on it with a slate pencil or
black or red lead.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Cummings, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of July, One thousand seven
hundred and sixty-four.
GEORGE CUMMINGS
(L.E.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the same Twenty-seventh day of July,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid George Cummings came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification, and
all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the form of the
Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King & Queen William
& Mary of England, & so forth.
Inrolled the Thirtieth day of July, in the year abovesaid.