IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INDIA-RUBBER TISSUES FOR CLOTHES AND SIMILAR ARTICLES OF A WATERPROOF NATURE."
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Jules Mercier, Doctor of Medicine, of
No. 82, Boulevard Sébastopol, Paris, France, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INDIA-RUBBER TISSUES FOR CLOTHES
AND SIMILAR ARTICLES OF A WATERPROOF NATURE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Jules Mercier
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 8th June 1872.
I, CHARLES JULES MERCIER, Doctor of Medicine, of No. 82, Boulevard
Sébastopol, Paris, France, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INDIA-RUBBER TISSUES
FOR CLOTHES AND SIMILAR ARTICLES OF A WATERPROOF NATURE," to be as
follows:-
The object of the improvements in the manufacture of waterproof
material, forming the subject of the present Invention, is to render such
articles more healthy to the wearer by a system of ventilation. This is

page_text: effected in the following manner, that is to say, in manufacturing india-
rubber and other waterproof clothing, a number of apertures are made
in the tissue of any suitable or desired form, and tastefully arranged so
as not to be unsightly; these openings, when the substance employed is
of a light texture and incapable of sustaining them for the circulation of
air, are furnished with small steel springs or other elastic medium, and
over each aperture a conical, square, or other shaped cap is fixed, whose
diameter at the base exceeds that of the orifice in the material for
admitting, and at the same time excluding wet.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Jules Mercier in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 19th November 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
JULES MERCIER, Doctor of Medicine, of No. 82, Boulevard Sébastopol,
Paris, France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Charles Jules Mercier, Her special
licence that I, the said Charles Jules Mercier, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Jules
Mercier, 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 Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INDIA-RUBBER TISSUES FOR CLOTHES
AND SIMILAR ARTICLES OF A WATERPROOF NATURE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Charles Jules Mercier, 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

page_text: Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Jules Mercier, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
The protection afforded by waterproof materials, although incontestable
in one point of view, has an equally weighty disadvantage considering
the subject in a hygienic sense on account of deficient and in most cases
total want of ventilation. This drawback which has been the main cause
of its disuse, it is the object of this Invention to obviate, by rendering
such material, especially that manufactured in the form of clothing,
free to the circulation of air, and by so doing making it healthy to the
wearer.
The process employed is simple and inexpensive, and is effected in the
following manner, that is to say:-In the course of the manufacture of
the tissue or substance, a number of apertures are made therein; these are
tastefully arranged in any fanciful design and of any desired or suitable
form, and placed so as not to interfere with or mar the uniformity of the
garment. These openings are covered with caps of the same material
and tubular in construction, and whose diameter at the base exceeds
that of the apertures, the object being to cover the holes whilst at the
same time a space or communication is left between the material and
the cap to facilitate free ventilation and effectually exclude wet.
The caps are furnished with or bordered by light steel springs or other
elastic medium for keeping the openings in proper form for the intro-
duction and circulation of air to the exclusion of wet.
Instead of the whole of the material being covered with the openings
and caps, parts of the garments only may be supplied with them, those
parts being selected where ventilation is most essential.
Having thus described my Invention and the mode of carrying the
same into effect, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,
the application to waterproof materials (such for instance as india-rubber,
gutta percha, silk, tarpauling, and so on), of the apertures covered by
caps whose diameter at the base exceeds that of the orifices in the
material, and connected thereto by light steel springs or other medium

page_text: of an elastic nature, and whose object is to keep the apertures in proper
form whilst at the same time a space is left between the two sufficient
for the circulation of air and the exclusion of wet, in the manner and
for the purposes precisely as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Jules Mercier, have here- 5
unto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two.
CHARLES JULES MERCIER. (L.S.)
Docteur en Medecine.