IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER-PROOFING SKINS, HIDES, AND LEATHER
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Harton, of Kentish Town, in the County of
Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER-PROOFING SKINS,
HIDES, AND LEATHER."
Sealed the 6th July 1865, and dated the 14th February 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Harton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
February 1865.
I, GEORGE HARTON, of Kentish Town, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATERPROOF-
ING SKINS, HIDES, AND LEATHER," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to render waterproof skins, hides, and leather,
more particularly when applied to boots, shoes, harness, bands for steam
engines, and other ordinary articles usually exposed to wet or damp.
The nature and description of my Invention consists in placing skins, hides,
and leather in a vessel or chamber made perfectly close, and in exhausting the
air therefrom, and forcing into the vessel a solution of india-rubber or gutta"
percha mixed with bitumen, shell lac, copal, or other known and suitable
resinous gums insoluble in water. I prefer india-rubber mixed with a small
quantity of shell lac, and made by any of the ordinary and suitable solvents to
a consistence capable of being injected by means of a pump into the vessel, and
forced into the skins, hides, or leather contained therein. The said skins, hides,
or leather having been previously preserved or tanned.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Harton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th
August 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HARTON, of Kentish Town, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of February, 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 George Harton, Her special licence that I, the said George Harton,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
George Harton, 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 WATER-
PROOFING SKINS, HIDES, AND LEATHER," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said George Harton, or 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 George Harton, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The object of my Invention is to render waterproof and pliable skins, hides,
and leather boots, shoes, harness, bands for steam engines, and other ordinary
articles made of leather, and usually exposed to wet or damp.
The nature and description of my Invention consists in placing skins, hides,
and leather that have been previously tanned or preserved in a vessel or
chamber made perfectly close, and in exhausting the air therefrom, and forcing
into the vessel a solution of india-rubber, or a solution of gutta percha, with the
addition to either solution of a small quantity of copal, gum cowrie, or other
known and suitable resinous gum insoluble in water, or of a small quantity of
wax or spermaceti.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of per

page_text: forming the same,.
the same, I declare that what. I claim is the mode or manner of
rendering skins, hides, and leather waterproof, in the manner herein-befere
described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Harton, have hereunty set my.
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of August, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-five.
GEORGE HARTON. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the said
George Harton in the presence of
HENRY LAXTON,
Patent Agent,
84, Arundel Street, Strand.