A NEW METHOD OF STRAINING OR STRETCHING (TECHNICALLY CALLED HABITING) ALL KINDS OF WOOLLEN CLOTH FOR CROPPING OR SHEARING, AND FOR STRETCHING OR STRAINING ALL OTHER KINDS OF PIECE GooDs
Year: 1804

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
BUFFINGTON, of the City of Bristol, Gentleman, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirtieth day of October, in the
forty-fifth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Jacob
Buffington, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Jacob Buffington, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A
NEW METHOD OF STRAINING OR STRETCHING (TECHNICALLY CALLED HABITING) ALL
KINDS OF WOOLLEN CLOTH FOR CROPPING OR SHEARING, AND FOR STRETCHING OR
STRAINING ALL OTHER KINDS OF PIECE GooDs;" in which Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said Jacob Buffington, under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular description of the the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said in part 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 proviso, I, the said
Jacob Buffington, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following, that is to say :-
To strain cloth, or any stuffs that require to be strained, I secure the lists of
the cloth to one edge of strong webb, by lacing, hooks, or otherwise. The
other edge of the web is made fast to a small rope or cord that passes through
apertures in frames, so made as to suffer the web to pass freely when moved
forwards, and to prevent the rope or cord from drawing out in the act of
straining. In the margin of these Presents is represented a frame, which
answers this purpose; but the construction may be varied, if thought neces-
sary, so that the principle object of the Invention is adhered to, viz, to strain
the cloth or stuffs from selvige to selvige or list to list. By this means the
operation of cropping, shearing, &c. is much facilitated, and the workman
enabled to produce better work, and in less time, than he could by any former
method.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1. A, A, represents the cloth passing over the shearing board, which
is shewn underneath by the dotted lines, and on which the habit frames are
placed, according to the width of the cloth. B, B, exhibits hooks or lacing,
or any other means that may be found convenient to fasten the cloth to be
sheared to the webs C, C, which should be made of any cloth or webbing, of
little or no elasticity, which webbing is attached to the selvige or lists of the
cloth the whole length, or less than the whole length if thought more con-
venient, previous to its introduction into the frame. On the other side of this
webbing is attached a small rope or cord, either covered with leather or part
of the webbing, or any other suitable material, so as to make it pass freely
through the habiting frames D, D, which frames are made of iron, or any
other proper material. These frames are extended from, or drawn nearer to,
each other, as occasion may require, by means of lines, cords, chains, or rods,
as shewn at E, E, which are connected to a lever, windlass, pullies, racks, and
pinion, or any other power that may be found convenient for tightening and
stretching the cloth at pleasure.
Figure 2 is a section of one of the gripes of the habiting frame D, Figure 1
through which the rope or cord attached to the webbing passes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Buffington, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of November, One thousand
eight hundred and four.
JACOB BUFFINGTON. (L.s.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-first day of
November, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Jacob Buffington came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.