A NEW METHOD OF DRESSING AND PREPARING LEATHER WITH TURNED FEET FOR BOOTS, HALF BOOTS, AND SPATTER- DASHES OR GAITERS, AND MAKING BOOTS, HALF BOOTS, AND SPATTERDASHES OR GAITERS FOR MEN AND WOMEN WITHOUT ANY SEAM IN THE INSTEP, BY WHICH MEANS THE FOOT WILL SLIDE MORE EASILY IN, AND THEY WILL FIT AND TURN WATER BETTER THAN THOSE NOW IN USE; AND ALSO OF PREPARING LEATHER FOR SHOES, AND MAKING SHOES WITHOUT ANY HEELSEAM OR SIDESEAM, WHICH WILL LIKEWISE WEAR
Year: 1785

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOSEPH
WILLIS, of Cary Street, London, Shoemaker, and WILLIAM SAUNDERS, of the
City of Gloucester, Currier, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Third
day of November, in the twenty-sixth year of His reign, did give and grant
unto us, the said Joseph Willis and William Saunders, our exors, adñors, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
we, the said Joseph Willis and William Saunders, our exors, adñors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might, for the term of fourteen years therein
expressed, make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of His Kingdom
of Great Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF DRESSING AND
PREPARING LEATHER WITH TURNED FEET FOR BOOTS, HALF BOOTS, AND SPATTER-
DASHES OR GAITERS, AND MAKING BOOTS, HALF BOOTS, AND SPATTERDASHES OR
GAITERS FOR MEN AND WOMEN WITHOUT ANY SEAM IN THE INSTEP, BY WHICH MEANS
THE FOOT WILL SLIDE MORE EASILY IN, AND THEY WILL FIT AND TURN WATER
BETTER THAN THOSE NOW IN USE; AND ALSO OF PREPARING LEATHER FOR SHOES, AND
MAKING SHOES WITHOUT ANY HEELSEAM OR SIDESEAM, WHICH WILL LIKEWISE WEAR

page_text: BETTER AND SIT NEATER THAN THOSE NOW USED;" in which said recited
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging us, the said Joseph Willis and
William Saunders, by an instrument under our hands and scals, to cause a
particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majestie's High
Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the late of the said Letters
Patent, as by the said recited Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had,
may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Joseph Willis and William Saunders, do hereby declare that the nature of
our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
is herein-after particularly delineated, described, and ascertained; that is
to say :-
The method of preparing leather, and making boots and half boots.-
Take a skin of tanned leatler, either cow skin, calves' skin, or any other sort.
of tanned leather now in use or which hereafter may be in use, and cut out of
it a piece from eighteen to thirty inches in length, and from twelve to twenty
in breadth, more or less, as the size of the legs may require; put it into cold
water, and soak it well till proper for shaving; then shave it with a currier's
knife upon a lignum vitæ board, commonly called a beam board, which is
commonly used by a currier. When properly shaved, lay it flat upon a stone
table, commonly called a scouring table, and lay upon it a tool called a scouring
stone, with a squarish edge, which stone is fixed in a small frame of wood,
and then worked to strike the leather plain, and at the same time using
a brush and cold water to wash the bloom and such like dirt from the
leather; then wash it well with a brush and cold water, and afterwards take
an iron tool called a sleeker, commonly used by curriers, and sleek the water
from it till it is as dry as it is usually made by that tool. If it is grained
leather, then black it with copperas water, and immediately afterwards brush it
off with a brush and cold water, and then it is sleeked; but no copperas water
is made use of if it is a waxed leg. Then it is taken off the said table, and put
upon a board commonly called a cutting board, and cut round with a shoe-
maker's knife, in the outlines of the leather, to the size of the leg and foot of
a man or a woman, and then make figures upon the legs according to the
different sizes of legs; then soften the smaller part of the leg with cold water,
and lay it upon a table, and with an instrument called a graining board bruize
it till it is soft, and with a sleeker work the leather till it is reduced in breadth
to eight, nine, ten, or eleven inches in the small of the leg, more or less,
according to the quality of the leather, in order to give it a proper draught;

page_text: and then lay it upon a frame, where an iron is fixed at each side, one of which
s moved by a screw, to receive a leg of any size, in order to sleek it well, to
keep the draught in. You then proceed to the manner of turning the foot.
The leg is taken from the frame, and laid on an instrument of wood in the
form and shape of a man's leg and foot, and the small part bound with a
bandage of leather, with buckles and straps, as tight as possible, in order to
keep the draught in the small part of the leg as tight as possible to the block
till the foot is turned. If a strong leg, it is made very wet with warm water
in the instep before it is turned, but if a soft leg cold water will do. Turn the
bottom part into the shape of a foot, drawing it with a pair of pinchers, and at
the same time using warm or cold water, according to the quality of the
leather, till it is brought tight to the block; then nail it down, and pull the
corners back with pinchers till no foul leather remains at the ancles; then put
it into a box, and place it at a small distance from the fire, out of which box
the space of about three inches must be cut where the instep lies, in order that
the heat of the fire may not affect any other part of the leg. The reason of
the application of heat to the instep is, because it will stiffen the leather, so
that it will not give way when it is taken from the said instrument; and then
it is taken off, and put into the said frame with an iron at each side as afore-
said, and there reduced into one inch and a half less than it was before. To
make it more elastic, afterwards laid upon a table called a stuffing table, there
stuffed with spent oil and tallow, which are conımonly used for all sorts of
tanned leather which are curried. It is afterwards hung up in a drying shed
by the heel, to keep the foot in a proper position, that the draught shall not
come out of the instep in the shed by any winds or movements whatsoever till
it is dry, and then it is taken down and laid upon a table of wood, and made
soft with an instrument called a graining board. If it is a waxed leg, it is
afterwards whitened with a currier's knife against the said board till it is
brought to a proper flesh fit to be waxed; then it is waxed with a brush,
commonly called a waxing brush or a colour brush, with oil, lamp black, and
tanner's oze, and properly sized to keep in the colour, and oiled in the inside
with train oil, and then proper for the shoemaker. But if it is a grained leg
it is properly seasoned with a brush dipped in copperas water and gall, in order
to make it of a good black; it is then laid upon a table and sleeked with a
tool commonly called a sleeking stone, in order to make it fine in the grain ;
then grain it well, and make it soft, and whiten it with a currier's knife in the
inside, and board it properly with a graining board, and oil it with train oil,
and it is then proper for the shoemaker. The method of preparing leather for
spatterdashes or gaiters is executed in the same manner, except that they are

page_text: neither taken in nor framed. After the above come into the hands of the
shoemaker, they are then shaped according to the different sizes of legs.
The manner of preparing leather for shoes, and making shoes without any
heelscam or sideseam.-Take a piece of leather tanned as before, soaked well
in water, from ten to fourteen inches long, and ten broad. Doubling the
leather, cut before the straps, and then leaving breadth for the straps, and
cutting the straps down from the instep to the heel, then turning it properly
up to cover the instep, and puting the upper leather upon a last, nail the heel
part down, and also pull it over the last, and nail every part well down, and,
by stretching it, bring the straps into their proper places, and put the quarter
over the beel of the last, and last it to sit tight. If it is made of undressed
leather, then, after it is taken off the last, it must be stuffed with spent oil and
tallow, and properly blacked and finished.
In witness whereof, we, the said Joseph Willis and William Saunders,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-fifth day of
November, in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and
eighty-five.
WILLIAM GRAHAM,
Lincoln's Inn.
JAMES NICHOLSON,
Carey Street.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1785, the aforesaid Joseph Willis and William
Saunders came before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained
and specified in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid
was stampt according to the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord One