AN IMPROVED METHOD OF WATERFROOFING TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Josiah Griswold, of the Hop and Malt
Exchange, Southwark Street, in the County of Surrey, Merchant
and Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF
WATERFROOFING TEXTILE FABRICS."-A communication from abroad
by Henry A. Clark, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of
America.
Sealed the 29th May 1874, and dated the 17th December 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Josiah Griswold
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 17th December 1873.
I, HENRY JOSIAH GRISWOLD, of the Hop and Malt Exchange, South-
wark Street, in the County of Surrey, Merchant and Manufacturer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF WATERPROOFING TEXTILE FABRICS," a communication, to be as
follows:-
The said Invention relates to a method of treating carpets and other
woven fabrics to make them impervious to water, thereby greatly

page_text: times
110CK the back of the labric to give it the appearance of the
under side of split leather.
The waterproof solution may consist of shellac dissolved in spirit, or I
may use a solution of india-rubber, asphaltum, and resin, or any other
suitable composition or substance, which when applied to the carpet or
other materials as above specified will render them impervious to
water.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Josiah Griswold in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 17th June 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
JOSIAH GRISWOLD, of the Hop and Malt Exchange, Southwark Street,
in the County of Surrey, Merchant and Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in
the thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Josiah Griswold,
Her special licence that I, the said Henry Josiah Griswold, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henry Josiah Griswold, 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF WATERPROOFING TEXTILE FABRICS,"
a communication to me from abroad by Henry A. Clark, of Boston,
Massachusetts, United States of America, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Henry Josiah Griswold, my exccutors or admini-
strators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and scals, 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,

page_text: *
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 :—
The said Invention relates to a method of treating carpets and other
woven fabrics to make them impervious to water, thereby greatly
enhancing the value of such materials, and rendering them applicable
for a great number of purposes for which they are unfit in their ordinary
condition.
The most common carpet treated by my Invention will be perfectly
waterproof, and will moreover be greatly improved with regard to its
durability and appearance; and when such carpet is used for the manu-
facture of bags, instead of ordinary carpet, leather, or American cloth, it
will be found greatly superior to these materials.
Ordinary linen, cotton, and other like textile fabrics treated by my
process will be rendered as strong as if not stronger than "American
cloth" or similar materials, and when used for making travelling and other
bags, purses, and the like, will keep their contents perfectly dry in any
weather, and will moreover be strong and durable, and will have an
appearance greatly superior to American cloth or other materials hereto-
fore used as substitutes for leather.
My improved fabrics may be of any desired colour, and embossed or
stamped with any design or pattern, or finished in any other appropriate
manner.
In waterproofing a carpet or other similar woven fabric according to
my Invention I apply a waterproof solution to the back of the carpet,
and then place over the same sheets of paper or other substance of
suitable thickness, or I apply the solution on the paper, and then place
the carpet on the same. The solution may be put on this fabric or
material with a brush or in any other convenient manner.
The required pressure for properly uniting the woven fabric and paper
and making them uniformly smooth and even may be advantageously
obtained by passing the compound fabric or material between rolls.
I produce a cheap carpet of good appearance by uniting a sheet of
paper and a sheet of burlap by a suitable cement, preferably a water

page_text: .
repellent cement, and afterwards ornamenting the exposed surface of the
burlap by printing it with a pattern or design in colours.
I not only adapt ordinary paper or cloth, or paper and cloth combined,
for use in many cases as a substitute for leather, more particularly where
leather is employed as a covering or lining for various materials, as for
instance real leather, wood, pasteboard, and the like, in the manufacture
of various articles of trade, but also give to the same the colour and
appearance of the leather for which it is to be substituted, and render it
under all practical circumstances thoroughly proof against injury from
water, perspiration, or other moisture. I sometimes flock" the back
of the fabric to give it the appearance of the under side of split leather.
66
The sheet material is coated or covered upon either one or both of its
surfaces with lithographic ink or varnish, whose colour must correspond
with the colour of the leather which it is intended to imitate.
The lithographic ink is applied to the sheet material as follows:-
First, in the ordinary manner of lithographic printing, I apply the
lithographic ink to the surface of the stone; I then lay the sheet.
material to be prepared upon the said prepared ink surface of the stone,
and subject it to the ordinary transfer operation of a lithographic press,
thereby transferring the ink from the stone to the sheet material; I
then remove the sheet material from the stone, and when its lithographic
ink surface is dry apply with a brush a coating of shellac, varnish, or
other suitable waterproof to both of its sides or surfaces. I may apply
the ink in one coat or a number of coats one after the other.
It is preferable to use a grained or pebbled cloth or paper, as a more
perfect resemblance to leather is thus obtained.
When the sheet material is to be flocked the lithographic ink is
applied to one side, as above described, and then I apply the flock of
cotton, silk, or other material to the remaining unprepared surface of the
paper or other material as follows:-Having coated the said surface with
shellac, varnish, or other suitable waterproof material, when it is dry I
apply a coating of any suitable adhesive material or cement; for instance,
that commonly used for flocking purposes, and before the said cement
dries I sprinkle a sufficient quantity of the flock on the cemented surface
to thoroughly cover it, the cement as it dries securing the flock to the
surface of the sheet material.

page_text: To apply the cement for the flock it is preferable to use a lithographic
press, first disposing the cement upon the stone, and then transferring it
to the sheet material, as in ordinary lithographic printing. By this
mode the cement is evenly disposed upon the sheet material, thus pro-
ducing a very even flocking.
The sheet material prepared in accordance with this Invention, as
before stated, is intended as a substitute for leather, and is to be
cemented to the article which it is to cover or line.
As both sides of the sheet material are waterproofed the moisture
either from the cement used or from the atmosphere or otherwise will
not injure its prepared surfaces.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to
my by my foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the
same, I wish it understood that I claim,-
1
First. The waterproofing of carpet and similar fabrics, as hercin set
forth.
Second. The manufacture of waterproof carpet consisting of paper
and burlap or other similar textile fabric united by cement, as herein
set forth.
Third. The manufacture of waterproof fabrics with surfaces resembling
leather, or other like materials, as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Josiah Griswold, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of June, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
Witness,
H. J. NOONE,
8, Southampton Buildings,
London.
H. J. GRISWOLD. (L.S.)