IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER FABRICS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Harcourt Brown, of No. 1, Chancery Chambers,
Quality Court, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER
FABRICS."
Sealed the 24th July 1866, and dated the 27th January 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left. by the said John Harcourt Brown;
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition, on the
27th January 1866.
I, JOHN HARCOURT BROWN, of No. 1, Chancery Chambers, Quality Court,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare.
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF LEATHER FABRICS," to be as follows:-
I employ skins or parts of skins of calves, sheep, goats, kids, or other
suitable skins or parts of skins which have undergone the process of tanning,
by preference those which have been tanned by means of sumac, alum; and
salt, and reduce them by suitable machinery into fine filaments. I then take
woven, reticulated, felted, or other suitable fabrics; and having coated them
with flexible adhesive matter I surface them with the filaments of leather, and
by means of rolls and pressure produce an even surface. They are then
dressed by the same means as are employed by leather dressers in the pre-
paration of such like skins of leather, and colored as may be required. The
grain of the skins or leather they are to represent is imparted to them by
rollers prepared for that purpose.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Harcourt Brown in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th July 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HARCOURT BROWN, of No. 22, Essex Street, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Harcourt Brown, Her special licence that I, the said John Harcourt
Brown, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Harcourt Brown, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
ány 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
THE MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER. FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said John Harcourt Brown, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their bands 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 Harcourt Brown, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
My improvements consist in reducing into fine filaments by grinding
between stones or other suitable means the skins or parts of skins of calves,
sheep, goats, kids, or other suitable skins which bave undergone the process
of tanning, by preference those which have been tanned by means of sumac,
alum, and salt, and similar, materials, until they are fit to pass through a fine
wire seive. The fine filaments of leather may be dyed of such colors as are
required, and dried before being used, in order to give a brightness to the
finished grained surfaces of the leather fabric, or the filaments may be made
into sheets of any required thickness, as paper is made by the ordinary paper-
makers' machinery, and dyed of the color required and applied to the woven

page_text: fabric by the adhesive compositions herein-after described on one or both
surfaces, and faced or dressed in the same manner as when surfaced with the
ordinary filaments. The filaments employed to represent the flesh side of the
fabric should remain in their natural state. I then take woven, reticulated;
felted, or other suitable fabric, by preference hard spun fine cotton cloth, upon
one or both sides of which I spread the adhesive composition herein-after
described as evenly as possible by means of machinery employed for such
purposes in the manufacture of American. leather cloth; and in order to
prevent the adhesive composition from. sticking to the spreading rollers it is
desirable to keep these wet with water from a trough on the top part of the
roller with a felt or sponge through which it penetrates on to the spreading
roller, and when partially dry I surface it over with the leather filaments by
means of a drum, seive, or otherwise, of such a thickness as may be required to
represent the particular leather it is intended to imitate, or with the filaments
made into sheets as before described. The fabric is then passed between a
pair of smooth highly polished rollers with a light pressure, and when
sufficiently dried in a hot-air room of a temperature from 95 degrees
Fahrenheit up to 120 degrees, the superfluous filaments are then brushed off;
and if the grain side should require more filaments they must be applied as
before described. The surface thus obtained may either be dressed by the
same process as leather dressers employ in the production of Morocco, Russia,
kid, roan, and similar skins, or a dressing of varnish prepared by varnish makers
and known in the trade and called "leather finish.". This is applied by a
brush or other suitable means, and when dry is pumicestoned and coated again:
until the required surface is obtained, At this stage. when quite dry the
fabric is passed under the graining roller to receive the. 'grain of the skin
required, or it may be plain or enamelled by the same means as leather is
and remain ungrained. It may may then receive a coat of sprit varnish such
as is used for finishing leather; the plain and embossing rollers may bei
applied hot or cold. The following adhesive composition I prefer, although
other similar materials may be employed:-Take 14 lb. of refined asphaltum,
3 lb. of white resin, 5 lb. of fluid glue size, 90 lb. of fat boiled linseed oil;
melt the glue size in the steam-heated vessel, then add by degrees the linseed
oil, stirring them until well mixed, add the resin and asphaltum, let them be
well incorporated. Take 15 lb. .white lead or zinc, 7 lb. olive, almond, or
purified fish oil, 10 lb. dissolved india-rubber, 7 lb. fine ground lithrage,
3 lb. lampblack or sufficient weight of any other suitable pigment or coloring
matter. In a proper heated suitable mill grind together the olive or other
suitable oil with the white lead or zinc, the fine litbridge, dissolved india-

page_text: rubber, and lampblack or other coloring matter until they are well mixed
and free from lumps; add these to the other materials, and let them remain
in the steam-beated vessel until they are perfectly incorporated and of the
required consistency. The addition of spirits of turpentine, mineral naphtha,
or other suitable solvent may be employed to regulate the consistency.
.
For the production of covering for floors and such like articles I employ a
woollen, felt, or thick linen or cotton cloth as the base for receiving the
leather filaments, which are applied as before described, or the filaments of
leather may be combined with other fibrous materials, as as woollen, flock,
or cotton waste reduced to filaments. These may be finished and ornamented
by colors imprinted in various devices in the same manner as oil floorcloths
are produced, or devices may be impressed upon the fabrics by rollers and
pressure. In the production of floor covers I prefer to apply the filaments
of leather or a combination of leather and other filaments to one side only
of woollen, felt, or other fabric, although both sides may be surfaced with
the leather filaments and its combinations, and in some cases it is not
necessary to apply the leather filaments to both sides or surfaces of the
leather fabrics. I also prefer to dye the woven or felted fabrics of the colors
required before applying the leather filaments or sheets. The filaments of
leather and other fibrous materials may be combined and dyed if desired of
the color required, and incorporated with the adhesive composition in a pug
mill until properly amalgamated, or they may be ground together in a mill
composed of stones as colors are ground, or in any other suitable machinery,
and these spread in the required thickness, as before described, upon the
surfaces of the woven or felted fabric, and dressed to represent leather, also
as before described.
"I claim the use and combinations of the specified materials and ingre-
dients, their proportions being varied as required, for the nianufacture of the
leather fabrics and modifications of the same herein described."
.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Harcourt Brown, have hereunto
set hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
my