IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHUTTLE PICKERS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bland Wood, of Broughton, near Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, Doctor of Medicine, for the Invention of
MAN SHUME DIARDS"
Sealed the 14th January 1862, and dated the 22nd July 1861
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bland Wood at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd July 1861.
I, JOHN BLAND WOOD, of Broughton, near Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHUTTLE PICKERS," to be as
follows:-
Heretofore in the manufacture of shuttle pickers it has been the practice to
form them of strips of buffalo or other untanned hides previously softened with
water, and then folded on each other, and pressed into the shape required, the
individual parts of which are strongly bound together with iron wire.
Now, my improvements consist in making from buffalo or other hides, parts
of hides, or other fibrous material, the picker in one solid piece or block. This
I accomplish by tearing or cutting up the hides, or parts of hides, reducing
the shreds thus formed into a more or less perfect mass or pulp by suitable
mechanical or other means, and subsequently moulding into the shape required
by pressure or otherwise; or I make the said mass or pulp into cakes or blocks
by pressure or otherwise, from which the pickers are afterwards formed,
adding, when desired, to either of these processes any other fibrous material,
earthy salt or other matter.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Bland Wood in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st January 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BLAND WOOD, of Broughton, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Doctor of Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Bland Wood, Her special licence that I, the said John
Bland Wood, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said John Bland Wood, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHUTTLE PICKERS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Bland Wood, 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 I, the said John Bland Wood, 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:―
Heretofore in the manufacture of shuttle pickers it has been the practice to
form them of strips of buffalo or other untanned hides previously softened with
water, and then folded on each other, and pressed into the shape-required, the
individual parts of which are strongly bound together with iron wire.
Now, my improvements consist in making from buffalo or other hides, parts
of hides, or other fibrous material, the picker in one solid piece or block, thus
doing away with the necessity and inconvenience of folding the hide upon
itself, and the use of iron or other wires to hold the parts in connection.
I take buffalo or other untanned hides or parts of hides, previously macerated

page_text: in water, the temperature of which should not exceed eighty degrees of
Fabreubeit, for one or two days, or until the texture of the hides is sufficiently
softened. The bides are then removed from the bath or vat in which they
were immersed and allowed to drain, exposed to the atmosphere for at least
twenty-four hours; they are then, by means of a suitable machine, cut into
fine strips or shreds, which are then passed first through fluted, and secondly
through plain iron rollers, until the whole is thoroughly converted into a
uniform pulp or mass. This mass should then be removed into a room, the
temperature of which does not exceed ninety degrees of Fahrenheit, nor fall
below seventy, and kept there for at least two days, during which period the
whole mass should be turned over several times, until it is so acted upon by
the atmosphere, and the chemical changes thus produced in its constituents as
to become uniformly softened and plastic throughout. The material thus
produced, either alone or with the admixture of a certain proportion of cotton,
flax, or other fibrous matter (preferring, however, to employ in the latter case
about ninety parts of the material to ten of other fibrous matter), is then again
passed between heavy iron rollers, so as intimately to amalgamate the whole.
It is now in a state to be formed either into flat cakes or slabs of the thickness
required, from which, when sufficiently dry, the pickers are stamped or cut out
with a suitable punch or die; or, what I prefer is, to take a given weight of
the material so prepared and place it in an iron or other mould suitable in
shape to form a picker, and then subject it gradually to bydraulic or other
pressure until sufficiently condensed. The pickers are then removed from the
moulds and placed on shelves in a moderately cool room until thoroughly
dried and hardened.
I do not confine myself to the details herein described; but what I claim is
the manufacture of shuttle pickers in a solid and homogeneous form from
buffalo or other untanned hides, scraps, or portions of hides.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bland Wood, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
JNO. B. WOOD. (L.S.)