IMPROVEMENTS IN TANNING HIDES AND SKINS, AND ALSO IN DYEING FABRICS AND SUBSTANCES
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANDREW
CROSSE, of Gloucester Place, New Road, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of
May (One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine), in the twelfth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Andrew Crosse, my exors, admňors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Andrew Crosse, my
exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Andrew Crosse,
my exors, adñors, 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, in the Islands
of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TANNING
HIDES AND SKINS, AND ALSO IN DYEING FABRICS AND SUBSTANCES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Andrew Crosse, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of

page_text: Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Andrew Crosse, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists,―
First, of improvements in unhairing bides and skins; and,
Secondly, my Invention consists of improvements in the process of tanning
hides and skins.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily carried
into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
The first part of my Invention consists of applying hydrosulphuret of lime
in the process of unhairing hides and skins; and for this purpose I cause the
hides or skins to be well moistened with or soaked in hydrosulphuret of lime
(which is obtained, as is well known, by passing sulphuretted hydrogen through
a mixture of lime and water), whereby the hair on the hides or skins will be
quickly loosened, and may then be removed in the ordinary way.
I will now proceed to describe the second part of my Invention.-On
one side of the pit or vessel in which the process of tanning is to be conducted,
I place a plate of lead, and on the other side of the pit or vessel. I. place a plate
of zinc, the plates covering the sides of the pit or vessel, and I connect the two
plates at the upper parts above the liquid by a strap of either of those metals,
the object being to produce electric or galvanic effects on the matters in the
pit or vessel, and to obtain advantages in the process of tanning hides or skins
which are by preference to be suspended in the pit or vessel. The skins or
hides having been unhaired either by the means above described, or by those
heretofore practised, and having been introduced into the pit or vessel, with
means of obtaining electric or galvanic effects on the matters therein, I cause
the pit to be filled with water, and to allow all to remain for three or four
days, and then either remove the water or convert it into ooze 'or. tanning
liquor by adding bark or other suitable matter; or, having removed the water,
I replace it with ooze or tanning liquor of a strength of about fifteen degrees
of a saccharometer, and continue to keep up that strength for some..time, say
for a week, and increase it at the rate of about five degroes each week 'till the
strength indicated is about forty-five degrees, at which strength the process of
tanning may be completed.
I would remark that I do not confine myself to the strengths of tanning

page_text: liquor above mentioned, nor the progressive increase of the strengths as men-
tioned, but only state them as being those which I have employed and
found to produce very beneficial results; and I would also state that the
means of obtaining the requisite electric or galvanic effect in the pit or vessel
in which the process is being conducted may be varied; but what I have
above stated I believe to be the best.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that what I
claim as my improvements in tanning hides and skins is,-
First, the subjecting hides or skins to the action of hydrosulphuret of
lime. And,
Secondly, the employment of means to obtain electric or galvanic effects in
the pits or vessels in which hides or skins are under process of tanning.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Crosse, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Twenty-second day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.

page_text: DISCLAIMER proposed to be entered by the said Andrew Crosse with the
Clerk of the Patents of England, pursuant to an Act passed in the fifth
and sixth years of the reign of His late Majesty King William the
Fourth, intituled "An Act to amend the Law touching Letters Patents
for Inventions."
I, the said Andrew Crosse, do declare that since I obtained the said Letters
Patent I have not had time to mature that part of the Invention which was
intended to have been described under that part of the title which is contained
in the following words "and also in dyeing fabrics and substances," for which
reason I am desirous to and do hereby disclaim all that part of the title which
is contained in the following words, "and also in dyeing fabrics and
substances.".
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Crosso, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
To the Clerk of the Patents of England.
ANDREW (L.S.) CROSSE.
This is to certify that the above-named Andrew Crosse, of Gloucester Place,
New Road, in the County of Middx, Esquire, has applied to me for leave to
enter with you the above-written Disclaimer of part of the title of a certain
Invention for which Letters Patent were granted to him under the Great Seal
of Great Britain, and dated at Westminster the 24th day of May, 1849. And
having considered of the said application, and no objection having been made
to the same, I hereby grant leave to the said Andrew Crosse to file his said
Disclaimer pursuant to the Statute passed in the fifth & sixth years of the

page_text: reign of His late Majesty King William the Fourth, entitled "An Act to
amend the Law touching Letters Patent for Inventions.",
JOHN ROMILLY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of No-
vember, in the year of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid Andrew Crosse came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and speci-
fied, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.