IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDING
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Barker, of 1, Westminster Chambers,
Victoria Street, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Barker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th March 1866.
I, ALFRED BARKER, of 1, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDING," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
wadding. For these purposes in place of or in combination with the fibres
of cotton heretofore employed fibres of silk are used, by which wadding of
a very superior character is produced. The silk fibres for these purposes
are obtained by tearing up and carding waste silk rags or cuttings and
other silk waste, and by such means fleeces are produced which are sized
or cemented as when using cotton fibres, and usually the cement is applied
on one side only of each fleece. The fibres of silk may be combined with
cotton or other fibre or be used alone. In consequence
of the com-
parative lightness and elasticity of the fibres of silk the manufacture of
wadding is greatly improved

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Barker in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 6th September 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
BARKER, of 1, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Alfred Barker, Her special licence that I, the said
Alfred Barker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alfred Barker, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDING," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Barker, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said Alfred Barker, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
wadding. For these purposes in place of or in combination with the fibres
of cotton heretofore employed fibres of silk are used, by which wadding of
a very superior character is produced. The silk fibres for these purposes
are obtained by tearing up and carding waste silk rags or cuttings, and
other silk waste and by such means fleeces are produced which are sized or
cemented as when using cotton fibres, and usually the cement is applied on
one side only of each fleece. The fibres of silk may be combined with

page_text: cotton or other fibre or be used alone.
In
consequence of the comparative
lightness and elasticity of the fibres of silk the manufacture of wadding is
greatly improved. In order to tear up the silk rags and reduce them to
fibre suitable for making wadding, I prefer to employ the process and
apparatus described in the Specification of a Patent granted to Sidney
Collins and Charles Collins, and dated the 28th of December 1865,
No. 3356. The fibre so obtained I pass through an ordinary blowing
machine to free it from dust, I then card the fibre and proceed with the
manufacture of wadding in the same way as when cotton is employed. In
this manner I produce from silk rags, which are now valueless, or nearly so,
a new and valuable manufacture, that is to say, a wadding which is superior
to cotton wadding both in warmth and lightness. Cotton may be used in
combination with the silk, the two fibres being fed together into the
carding machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Barker, have hereunto set
my hand, this Fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
ALFRED BARKER. (L.S.)