AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF WATERPROOF FABRIC
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF WATERPROOF FABRIC,"_
A communication from abroad by the American Waterproof Cloth
Company, of the City of New York, in the United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 1st May 1865.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF WATERPROOF
FABRIC," to be as follows:-
In the process of dyeing or printing goods having a flock face it has been
found that a full and rich color, equal in effect to that obtained on goods
made entirely from wool, cannot be produced by reason of the shortness of the
fibre, and of the promiscuous manner in which it is necessarily applied to the
cloth; and, second, for the reason that the fibrous surface is so slightly elevated
above the rubber or gum used to hold it upon the surface of the cloth as to
show the dark heavy shade or color of the gum after being flocked; and, third,
because the coloring matter or the substances evolved from the rubber or
gum while being heated or vulcanized easily penetrate and discolor the fibres
or flocks used. These difficulties are very conspicuous in heavy goods such as
[Price 8d.1

page_text: are manufactured for carpets, car seating, and travelling bags. In order,
however, to remedy these difficulties it is now proposed to prepare a bat of
wool, silk, fur, or other fibrous material of any required thickness, and to
apply the same to cloth coated with india-rubber or other gums in lieu of
facing the same with flock or ground fibres. This new article of manufacture
may be produced in the following manner:-A woven fabric of jute, cotton,
flax, or wool, or other textile material is selected for the base, and covered by
a spreading machine or other means with a coating of india-rubber compound
suitably prepared for undergoing the vulcanized process. While the rubber
compound is in a soft and plastic state the bat or felt of wool, silk, or fur, or
other textile fabric to be used as a face is spread upon and pressed into the
rubber compound, and thoroughly united with that and with the base by
means of the pressure of calender rollers in the same manner that waterproof
goods with a surface of fibrous flocks are now made. The material to be used
as a face may be carded, as in the ordinary manner for felting, and the bats
thus carded may be applied either before or after being felted. It is, however,
preferred to pass the bat through the hardener for such length of time as will
give it the consistency of cloth, and thoroughly interlock the fibres. The
vulcanization of the rubber compound greatly improves the fabric, and will
cause the several parts to adhere more firmly together. The face may be
napped by the ordinary process of teazling or gigging to any extent required
in imitation of velvets or terry fabrics, or may be corrugated with fluted rolls
in imitation of Brussels carpets or rep goods, and is susceptible of almost
any desired finish, while it presents a face of fibrous material sufficiently
dense to give full effect and richness to the colors applied to it. Instead of a
bat, or felt, a woven or knitted fabric may be used for the face of the goods,
the choice of material being determined by the uses to which the fabric is to
be applied. A durable fabric may be thus produced, which will admit of
being dyed, colored, or printed, or stamped, or embossed, and which is
suitable for carpets, rugs, mats, upholstery, or travelling bags.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 1st November 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Edward Newton, Her special. licence that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Edward Newton, 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 aud 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 "AN
IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF WATERPROOF FABRIC," being a communication to me
from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 William Edward Newton, 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 (that is to say):
In the process of dyeing or printing flock-faced waterproof goods, the face
of which is composed of short fibres, it has been found that a full and rich
color equal in effect to that obtained on goods made entirely from wool cannot
be produced by reason of the shortness of the fibre and of the promiscuous
manner in which it is necessarily applied to the cloth; and, second, for the
reason that the fibrous surface is so slightly elevated above the rubber or gum
used to hold it upon the surface of the cloth as to shew the dark heavy shade
or color of the gum after being flocked; and, third, because the coloring
matter or the substances evolved from the rubber or gum while being heated
or vulcanized easily penetrate and discolor the fibres or flocks used. These
difficulties are very conspicuous in heavy goods, such as are manufactured for
carpets, car seating, & travelling bags, &c., where a heavy and substantial
face of wool or other fibrous material is desirable in order to produce full and
rich shades of color which cannot be obtained by flocks or other short fibres
for the reasons above given. These objections it is proposed now to overcome
by the production of a fabric in all respects suitable for and adapted to the

page_text: uses last named, and for other purposes having a surface of wool, silk, fur, or
other fibrous material of any desired length of fibre, and of any required
thickness applied to cloth coated with india-rubber or other gums. This
new article of manufacture may be produced in the following manner :-
A woven fabric of jute, cotton, flax, or wool, or other textile material is
selected for the base, and covered with a coating of india-rubber compound
prepared in such manier that it is capable of vulcanization. This coating
may be spread upon the fabric used as the base when in a state of partial
solution by what is known as the knife machine, or when softened by heat by
means of calendar rollers, or in any of the well-known ways of spreading
rubber and other gums upon textile fabrics. While the rubber compound is
in a soft and plastic state a bat or felt of wool, silk, or fur, or other textile
fabric to be used as a face is spread upon and pressed into the rubber com-
pound, and thoroughly united with that and with the base by means of the
pressure of calender rollers in the same manner that waterproof goods with
a surface of fibrous flocks are now made. The material to be used as a face
may be carded, as in the ordinary manner for felting, and the bats thus carded
may be applied either before or after being felted. It is, however, preferred
to pass the bat through the hardener for such length of time (being guided by
the kind of wool or other material used) as will give it the consistency of cloth,
and will thoroughly interlock the fibres, thus securing a much firmer adherence
of the face to the back of the fibrous material. The vulcanization of the
rubber compound greatly improves the fabric, and will cause the several parts
to adhere the more firmly together. The face may be napped by the
ordinary pr. cess of teazling or gigging to any extent required in imitation
of velvets or terry fabrics, or may be corrugated with fluted rolls in imitation
of Brussels carpets or rep goods, and it is susceptible of almost any desired
finish, while a face of fibrous material is presented sufficiently dense to give
full effect and richness to the colors applied to the fabric. The fluting or
corrugation may be made with better effect before vulcanization. A woven
or knitted fabric may be used for the face of the goods instead of fibrous
material in the bat or felt, the choice of material being determined by the
uses to which the fabric is to be applied. A fabric may be thus produced
which will admit of being dyed, colored, or printed, or stamped, or embossed,
and which is suitable for carpets, rugs, mats, upholstery, travelling bags, &c.,
equal in durability, in richness of coloring, and finish to the finest mosaics,
velvets, or Brussels, and at less cost.
The dyeing and printing may be done by any of the known and approved
processes for printing heavy goods.

page_text: The stamping or embossing may be done by any of the machines used
for these purposes. For goods applicable to certain uses the face of the
bat, felt, or textile material may be colored before it is combined with the
gum coated base.
The new fabric will be composed of the coarse textile material used as
the back or base combined with the finer textile material, or the fibrous
substances in the form of a bat or felt, which form the face united by
means of a coat or sheet of india-rubber or other like gum, or the compounds
thereof, which can be so thoroughly combined and united by means of
pressure and the process of vulcanization that they cannot be separated
without the destruction of the whole. When the compounds of rubber or
other like gum in the fabric have been vulcanized it may be dyed, colored,
or printed, as above set forth.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "An Improved Manu-
facture of Waterproof Fabric," as communicated to me by my foreign corre-
spondent, and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it
to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim
as a new manufacture a fabric formed by the combination of a coarse textile
material for a base with a fibrous material in the form of a bat or felt for a
face, uuited by a coating or sheet of india-rubber or other like gum, or a
compound thereof, in the manner, and with the result, and for the purposes
set forth; I also claim as a new manufacture the fabric having a back or
base of flax, cotton, jute, wool, or other textile material, coated or covered
with a sheet of india-rubber or other vulcanizable gums, or the vulcanizable
compounds thereof, and having a face of fibrous substances in the form of
a bat or felt, or of other textile material, combined and united by pressure,
and by the vulcanization of the gums, and dyed and printed, or dyed or
printed, or colored, or stamped, or embossed, for the purposes aud in the
manner described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)