CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE PROCESS OF TANNING
Year: 1837

page_text: HERAPATH AND COX'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
HERAPATH, of the City of Bristol, Philosophical Chemist, and JAMES FITCHEW
Cox, of the same place, Tanner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixteenth day of November, in the first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
William Herapath and James Fitchew Cox, Her especial license, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that we, the said William Herapath and James
Fitchew Cox, our exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
William Herapath and James Fitchew Cox, our exors, adiñors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE PROCESS OF TANNING;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso that we, the said William Herapath and James Fitchew Cox, or one
of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, wo, the said
William Herapath and James Fitchew Cox, do hereby declare that the
nature of our said invented improvement or improvements in the tanning of
hides and skins consists in causing a more frequent absorption of fresh tanning
liquor by them, and a more frequent expression of partially exhausted liquor
from them within a given time than can be effected by any process hitherto in
use. And we declare that the following is a particular description of the
manner in which the said improvement or improvements is or are to be
performed, reference being had to the illustrative Drawing hereunto annexed
(that is to say) :-
We propose to shew in the following description the mode and manner in
which we tan the form of hides called butts or bucks, the same mode or
manner being applicable to the tanning of all sorts of hides and skins after the
butts have undergone the usual preparatory processes, such as unhairing,
rounding, fleshing, and graining. We take as many as a pit will conveniently
hold, the number varying according to the size of the pit, and attach them to
one another by means of ligatures of strong twine, or by some other convenient
method, either endwise, as shewn in Figure 1 of the Drawing hereunto
annexed, or sidewise, as shewn at Figure 2 of said Drawing, taking care in
the former case to join the hides butt to butt and shoulder to shoulder, and in
the latter, to join the butt side of each hide to the shoulder side of that next to
it, so that the band formed may be as nearly straight and even as the form of
the butts will allow; we then connect the said band of butts with the system of
rollers represented in Figures 2 and 3 of the said Drawing hereunto annexed,
and next herein-after described; Figure 2 being a front view thereof, with
the side of the tan pit removed for the sake of greater clearness; and Figure 3,
a transverse section of the same through the line A, B, of Figure 2. D, D, is
a roller of wood or other suitable material supported by the standards F, F,
which roller stretches across the top of the pit containing the tanning liquor.
To one end of the axis of this roller there is affixed a cog wheel G, into which
the pinion H on the shaft of the speed I is geared, which pinion is connected
by a drum and strap in the usual way with a steam engine or other moving
power. The standards F, F, support also at top two weighted levers L, L,
from which there is suspended a second roller E of smaller dimensions than D,
by adjusting the weights on which levers according to the degree of pressuro
required, the roller E is made to press with more or less force on the under
We make the roller D of
roller D, and to derive a rotary motion therefrom.
larger diameter than the roller E, in the proportion of ten to six, but we do not

page_text: confine ourselves to that or any other rate of proportion. One end of the band
of butts being brought over the under roller D, is fastened to the last of the
butts at the other end of the series by ligatures, in like manner as before
directed, or by some other convenient method, so as to form of the whole one
endless band or belt. A rotary motion being now communicated to the under
roller D from the cog wheel and pinion G and H, the endless band of butts
is raised at the rate of about six feet per minute from the pit, and as each butt
passes between the rollers Dand E, the partially exhausted liquor is pressed or
squeezed out of it by the weighted roller, so that it descends again into the pit
with its pores open for the reception of the fresh supply of tanning liquor. A boy
attends to the endless band as it emerges from the pit (as shewn in Figure 3)
to lay each butt smooth and even upon the under roller D, and we find in
practice that one boy can readily attend to two adjoining pits and pairs of
rollers at a time. By subjecting the butts to this frequently repeated alternate
submersion and expression, the quantity of tannin necessary to be combined
with the gelatine and gelatinous fibrin in order to convert the hide into leather
is taken up in a much shorter space of time and with less waste of substance
than by any process known to us to be heretofore in use, while the leather
produced is longer waterproof than the best sole leathers known in the market.
The pits we have hitherto used are of the ordinary size and form, but we
recommend that they should be made at bottom of a semi-cylindrical form,
which we think will allow of the endless band of butts turning round with
greater ease; and though we have herein-before directed the band or series of
butts to be formed into an endless band, and though that is the form which we
consider to be the best, we declare that we do not limit ourselves to that form
of connection, but that by giving an alternating or reciprocating action to the
machinery employed, a band of butts, such band being free and unconnected at
both ends, may be subjected to a sufficiently continuous and alternate submer-
sion and expression for the purpose herein-before described.
And we further declare that it is not essential that the rollers should be
placed above the surface of the liquor, as in the arrangement before described,
but that our improved process of tanning may be equally well performed if
the rollers are placed wholly or partially beneath the surface of the liquor.
And we declare further, that though we have herein-before directed two
rollers to be employed, finding the process of expression to be thereby most
effectually accomplished in the generality of cases, yet that we occasionally
employ one roller only, by turning which the belt is carried round continuously,
as-before described, the weight of the belt of hides causing, by its pressure on

page_text: the roller, a considerable expression of the exhausted liquor to take place,
though not so complete an expression as when two rollers are employed.
And having now fully described the nature of our said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is performed, we declare that we do not claim any
parts of the machinery herein-before described as being in themselves now
or newly combined; but what we claim as new and of our Invention is the
tanning of hides and skins by connecting or fastening them together, as herein-
before directed, and subjecting them to a quick and repeated alternation of
absorption and expression, (absorption of fresh tanning liquor and expression of
the liquor when exhausted of its tannin, or partially so,) by means of a con-
tinuous adplication of one, two, or more rollers placed, adjusted, moved, regu-
Jnted, and fed or supplied in the manner herein-before directed and described, or
placed, adjusted, moved, regulated, and fed or supplied in any other manner by
which the like effects shall be produced, and the frequently repeated absorption
by the hides and skins of fresh tanning liquor, and expression from them of
exhausted liquor, which is the essence of our said Invention, can be accomplished.
And such our Invention being to the best of our knowledge and belief entirely
new and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said Dominion of
Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be our
Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this our said Speci-
fication doth comply in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise with
the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained;
wherefore we do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to our
said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Fitchew Cox, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of May, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-eight
JAMES FITCHEW (L.s.) COX.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the within-
named James Fitchew Cox, in the pre-
sence of

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1888, the aforesaid James Fitchew Cox came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.