OP SPLITTING AND DIVIDING SHEEP'S PELTS, LAMB PELTS, AND OTHER SKINS, SO AS TO RENDER THE GRAIN OR UPPER PART THEREOF MORE USEFUL FOR BINDING OP BOOKS, AND OTHER PURPOSES OF TRADE, AND AT THE SAME TIME PRESERVING THE UNDER PART OF THE SAID PELTS AND SKINS IN FULL GOODNESS TO BE WROUGHT INTO LEATHER, WHEREBY THE PUBLICK REVENUE WOULD BE GREATLY INCREASED, A CONSIDERABLE DUTY PAID WHICH NEVER WAS PAID BEFORE, AND MUCH BENEFIT RESULT TO THE KINGDOM
Year: 1768

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
POWERS, of the City of Coventry, Journeyman Leather Dresser, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said William Powers did, by my humble Petition,
represent to His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third that
I had, by great diligence, care, and pains, invented a method never known in
this Kingdom, "OP SPLITTING AND DIVIDING SHEEP'S PELTS, LAMB PELTS, AND
OTHER SKINS, SO AS TO RENDER THE GRAIN OR UPPER PART THEREOF MORE USEFUL
FOR BINDING OP BOOKS, AND OTHER PURPOSES OF TRADE, AND AT THE SAME TIME
PRESERVING THE UNDER PART OF THE SAID PELTS AND SKINS IN FULL GOODNESS TO BE
WROUGHT INTO LEATHER, WHEREBY THE PUBLICK REVENUE WOULD BE GREATLY
INCREASED, A CONSIDERABLE DUTY PAID WHICH NEVER WAS PAID BEFORE, AND MUCH
BENEFIT RESULT TO THE KINGDOM;" I therefore most humbly prayed His said
Majesty to grant to me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His Royal
Letters Patent for the sole use and benefit of my said Invention within that
part of His said Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of four-
teen years, according to the Statute in that case made and provided; His said
Majesty, being willing to give encouragement to all arts and inventions which
might be for the publick good, was graciously pleased to condescend to my
request, and therefore, by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at West-
minster, the Sixteenth day of April, in the eighth year of His reign, of His
especial grace, certain knowledge, and meer motion, for Himself. His heirs

page_text: and successors, did give and grant unto me, the said William Powers, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
priviledge and authority, that I, the said William Powers, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, and every of us, by myself and themselves, or by
mine and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the
said William Powers, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thenafter
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend my said Invention within that part of His said
Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said William Powers,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of us, should in our dis-
cretions seem meet, and that I, the said William Powers, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the
whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time coming,
growing, accrewing, and arising by reason of my said Invention, for and
during the term of years therein mentioned, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy
the said licence, powers, priviledges, and advantages therein-before granted or
mentioned to be granted unto me, the said William Powers, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of
fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent, next and immediately
ensuing, and fully to be compleat and ended, according to the Statute in that
case made and provided; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that if I, the said William Powers, should not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
four calendar months next and 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,
anything therein-before contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwith-
standing, as in and by the said Letters Patent (relation being thereunto had)
may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Powers, in compliance with the
said proviso, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of the aforesaid
Invention, and declare that the same is to be performed in manner following
(that is to say):
The skins most suitable for the operation are those kind of sheep and lamb
skins which are large, and of an hollow texture, having been limed according

page_text: to the method usually practised for frizing, and brought in the same condition.
They must then be soaked in warm water, whereby the grain may more easily
be separated from the under part of the skin. A beam must then be provided,
made of a round piece of deal, or any other soft wood, something like a frizing-
beam, but longer, and with this difference, that the upper part thereof must be
planed to a flat smooth surface, seven or eight inches wide, according to the
size of the skins. The skin, having been prepared as above mentioned, is to
be laid upon the beam, so that one half of it may lie upon the flat surface or
face, and then stretched, to fix it close to the beam, and, where it is necessary.
it must be fastened with iron skewers or nails. It must then be rubed over
with a round staff, to prevent the air or liquor from remaining underneath.
The part which covers the face must be rubed over with a little bran. A
sharp knife must then be provided, something like a frizing knife, but made
straight, and with this the operator must begin at the upper end of his beam,
as it stands sloping, and cut through the grain, and, pressing hard upon the
surface with a steady hand and short transverse strokes, continue to cut as
low as he can reach from the end of this beam, after which he may stand by
the side of it, and continue cutting to the extremity of the skin. The use of
the bran is to make the skin a little rough, so as the grain may roll before the
knife. Thus, the part of the skin lying upon the surface is split, a piece of
grain taken off half the skin as large as the face of the beam, and the under
part left full as good as in common frizing. One half of the skin being thus
finished, the other is done the same way, and thus two large pieces of grain
are taken off every skin that will admit of it; and that part of the grain left
upon the shanks or bellies, which cannot be taken off this way, is done by
common frizing; and the large pieces are principally tanned for the purpose
of binding books.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Powers, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight, and in the eighth
year of the reign of His said Majesty King George the Third, by
the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender
of the Faith, and so forth.
WILLIAM (L.S.) POWERS.
Sealed and delivered (being first duly
stampt) in the presence of us,
JOHN CASH,
MART IOLBECHE,
Both of the City of Coventry

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the Seventeenth day of May, in
the year last above written, the aforesaid William Powers came before the
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the above Instru-
ment, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Instrument aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King
and Queen William and Mary and so forth.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year last above said.