IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF ORNAMENTING SKIN AND LEATHER
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Firmin Joseph Coulon and Simon Godefroid Giraud,
of 2, Rue Sainte Appoline, Paris, (Empire of France,) and of 45, Essex
Street, Strand, London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PROCESS OF ORNAMENTING SKIN AND LEATHER."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Firmin Joseph Coulon and
Simon Godefroid Giraud at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 16th October 1858.
We, FIRMIN JOSEPH COULON and SIMON GODEFROID GIRAUD, of 2, Rue
Sainte Appoline, Paris, (Empire of France,) and of 45, Essex Street, Strand,
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE PROCESS OF ORNAMENTING SKIN AND LEATHER," to be as follows, and
consists in making use of an engraved cylinder and applying a calender for
impressing designs of any kind producing the grain or imitating the appear-
ance of any kind of skin or leather. To effect this we take two calendering
cylinders, formed as usual of discs of paper mounted upon an iron axis.
Those discs of paper are held together by means of two rundles, placed at
the ends of the cylinder formed by the said discs. The engraved cylinder is
pressed against the two calendering cylinders and against a fourth cylinder
made of wood, upon which the skin is rolled. Levers and counterpoises serve
to give the required pressure.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Firmin Joseph Coulon and Simon Godefroid Giraud in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th April 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, FIRMIN
JOSEPH COULON and SIMON GODEFROID GIRAUD, of 2, Rue Sainte Appoline,
Paris, (Empire of France,) and of 45, Essex Street, Strand, London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Firmin Joseph Coulon and Simon Godefroid Giraud, IIer special
licence that we, the said Firmin Joseph Coulon and Simon Godefroid
Giraud, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said Firmin Joseph Coulon and Simon Godefroid Giraud, our execu-
tors, 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 PROCESS OF ORNAMENTING
SKIN AND LEATHER," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Firmin Joseph Coulon and Simon Godefroid Giraud, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our 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 we, the said Firmin Joseph Coulon and Simon
Godefroid Giraud, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
When the skins of animals destined to the manufacture of morocco leather
have passed through the several operations necessary to prepare them to
receive the grain, this last work is done by band by tracing the lines one by
one and crossing them in a suitable direction. To obtain a more regular
result, a large wooden cylinder is sometimes employed, upon which the skin
is stretched; the air is excluded from under the skin, and the atmospheric
pressure makes it adhere to the surface of the said cylinder. A blade with a

page_text: blunt edge is pressed upon the skin by means of a spring, and a screw gives
a very slow lateral movement to this blade. When the first range of lines is
produced, the skin is turned, so as to trace other lines in a contrary direction,
and this forms the squares or lozenges required. It will be understood that
these several operations for giving the grain to the skins occupy some consider-
able time. For quickening this work we have devised the use of an engraved
cylinder and the application of a calender suitably disposed for giving the
desired grain, that is to say, for producing the squares or lozenges, shagreening
or impressing designs upon any kind of skin or leather.
The accompanying Drawing represents our apparatus, of which Fig. 1 is a
side view, and Fig. 2 a section taken through the line 1 & 2, Fig. 1. It
will be seen that this calender has a great analogy with those already known;
it is composed of two supports a, kept at their basis by means of bolts fixed
in the ground and by the tie bars b. Each of these supports have a groove
in their center in which slide the chairs for the pivots of the three cylinders
c, d, e. c and d are two pressure cylinders, composed of a center of iron and
covered with sheets of paper; the cylinder d is made of copper, its outside
surface is engraved according to the design desired to be produced. The
two upper cylinders may be more or less apart from the lower one; the
pressure is communicated to these two cylinders by means of the rods f which
press at their lower part upon the chairs of the cylinder e, and the upper part
of these rods is articulated with the levers g, the center of movement of which
is at h, and which at their other end are articulated with the connecting rods j
also articulated at their basis with the long levers & having their center at 1,
which are charged with a suitable weight at their opposite end m. A wheel
n is mounted upon a prolongation of the cylinder d which is hollow, and may
be heated either by the introduction of steam inside or by means of a hot iron
bar placed inside. The wheel n gears with a pinion o, upon the shaft of
which is a little wheel p gearing with the pinion g, the shaft of which bears
the fly wheel r furnished with a crank s. When a motive power is made use of,
the shaft of the pinion g is furnished with two pullies, one of which is fixed upon
the shaft for working the machine by means of an endless band, and the other
loose for stopping the machine without stopping the motive power. Another
cylinder t made of wood is kept on each side of the machine by the cheeks u;
this cylinder has a groove, in which the end of the skin is introduced and
where it is kept by means of a wooden rod; the skin is rolled upon this
cylinder t, and as it projects outside the frame a rope is rolled upon this part
to which the weights are attached, which form a break upon this cylinder.
The skin is introduced between the cylinders c and d, then the motion is

page_text: transmitted to the machine by turning the crank. The motion of the cylinder
d drags the skin, which impresses itself with the design engraved upon the
circumference of the cylinder d.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and how the same
is or may be carried into effect, we wish it to be understood that what we
claim as our Invention, and desire to secure by the present in part recited
Letters Patent are the improvements which we have made and described in
preparing the skins of animals, leather, or imitation of both, principally
destined to the manufacture of morocco for impressing the grain or design
required, the main point of this Invention being the application of the
calender disposed and combined as above described, and represented in the
accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, we, the said Firmin Joseph Coulon and Simon
Godefroid Giraud, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fifteenth
day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-nine.
COULON.
(L.S.)
GIRAUD, PÉRE. (L.S.)
COULON.
(L.S.)
GIRAUD, PÉRE. (L.S.)