A. MODE OF PREPARING FLAX FOR THE PURPOSE OF BEING SPUN ON THE LIKE MACHINERY AS COTTON
Year: 1814

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
KERSHAW, of Glossop Dale, in the County of Derby, Cotton Spinner, and
JOHN WOOD, of the same Place, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Tenth day of February,
in the fifty-fourth year of His reign, give and grant unto us, the said John
Kershaw and John Wood, our executors, administrators, and assigns, His
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said
John Kershaw and John Wood, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
and every of them, by ourselves, or by our deputy or deputies, servants or
agents, or such others as we, the said John Kershaw and John Wood, our
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 of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our
Invention of "A. MODE OF PREPARING FLAX FOR THE PURPOSE OF BEING SPUN
ON THE LIKE MACHINERY AS COTTON;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a, proviso, obliging us, the said John Kershaw and John Wood, or.
one of us, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of our said Inven-

page_text: tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us,
and to cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John Kershaw and John Wood, do hereby declare that the nature of our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is as here-
after mentioned.
Our said Invention, in preparing flax for the purpose of being spun on the
like machinery as cotton, consists in seperating the fibres of flax from each
other by bleaching the flax, and by afterwards either passing it between
rollers pressed together with force sufficient to seperate such of the fibres of
the flax as have not been sufficiently seperated by the process of bleaching,
or beating it with hammers or beetles, or by other modes of percussion suffi-
cient to effect the same purpose. The mere process of bleaching flax (which
we disclaim as our Invention) is well known, and it is unnecessary here to
specify it. Although the flax may, for the purpose of our Invention, be bleached
in its raw state, or in any other state prior to its being finally carded, we prefer
the following mode:-We form it with the heckle into strickles, and then
rove it on a common flax rover into soft cord, containing about ten ounces in
weight for every one hundred and twenty yards in length; and after forming
such rovings into hanks, we bleach it, and pass it when bleached through the
rollers, above described, as often as may be necessary to seperate the fibres.
We then card it, draw it, and rove it like cotton, and afterwards spin it. The
rollers to be used in seperating the fibres of the flax from each other may be
made of any convenient diameter and length, and of any materials hard enough
to effect the above purpose. But we usually make one of such rollers of close-
grained well-seasoned wood, and the other of iron, of about seven inches each
in diameter and about three inches each in length, and press them together with
a weight of fifty-six pounds at each end of the upper roller, and we usually
pass the flax twice or oftener through six successive sets of rollers until the
fibres are sufficiently seperated. But if the bleaching be imperfect, or if the
fibres of the flax from any other circumstance have an unusual degree of
adherence, we continue the process until the febres are sufficiently seperated.
The seperation may be ascertained by inspection. Although we have described
other parts of the process of preparing flax for the purpose of being spun on
the like machinery as cotton, we disclaim as our Invention every part of the

page_text: process except that of seperating the fibres of the flax from each other by
bleaching it, and by afterwards either passing it between rollers pressed
together with force sufficient to seperate such of the fibres of the flax as have
not been sufficiently seperated by the process of bleaching, or beating it with
hammers, beetles, or by other modes of percussion sufficient to effect the
same purpose.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Kershaw and John Wood, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, the Second day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fourteen.
Inrolled the Fourth day of April, in the year above written.