CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER INTENDED TO BE APPLIED IN THE COVERING OF WALLS OR THE HANGING OF ROOMS, AND IN THE APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING THE SAME
Year: 1829

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
COBB, of Calthorpe House, near Banbury, in the County of Oxford, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster, the
Fifteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-nine, and the tenth year of His reign, did, for Himself,
His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Cobb,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, and no others, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Cobb, my
executors, admors, and assigns, during the term of fourteen years as therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER INTENDED TO BE
APPLIED IN THE COVERING OF WALLS OR THE HANGING OF ROOMS, AND IN THE
APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING THE SAME;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said Thomas Cobb, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and make known
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
and the above in part recited Letters Patent, and in default of which all
liberties, privileges, and advantages whatsoever therein granted should utterly
cease, determine, and become void, as by reference thereto will more fully and
at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Cobb, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly set forth
and explained by the following description, reference being made to the
Drawing hereto annexed, that is to say :-
My Improvements in the Manufacture of Paper intended to be applied to the
Covering of Walls or Hanging of Rooms, and in the Apparatus for Effecting
the same, consists, first, in manufacturing tinted or colored paper intended to
be applied to the covering walls or hanging rooms, by impressing them with
patterns during the operation of making.
Secondly, imbossing paper with patterns for the same purpose after the
paper is made, and which, by the pressure it receives during this operation, is
made to resemble plain, damask, or figured silks.
Thirdly, in uniting two or more thicknesses of paper together for the same
purpose previously to their receiving the embossing, one of which may be
coloured paper and the other white.
Fourthly, uniting for the same purpose paper with silks, velvets, and other
fabrics, so that if plain they may receive an impression or pattern by imboss-
ing, and may also be struck on walls with the same facility as paper only is
commonly done.
And, fifthly, in the apparatus for uniting the papers, or paper and other
fabrics, as above mentioned.
First, in some cases I make a coloured or tinted paper, and in doing this I
dye or stain the rag or pulp by any of the known methods of dying or staining
them, and make it into paper in the usual way, and during the process
of manufacture, and before it is dry, I cause it to pass between rollers and
receive an impression therefrom, one or both of which rollers are engraved,
stamped, or impressed, or covered with something that will give the pattern
or figure required, by which operation it is impressed and receives a pattern
or figure; or the same thing or effect may be obtained by using plates or
other flat substances in or on which the required pattern or figure is formed
by laying them on the paper in its way to the pressing rollers, so that in
passing through them it receives the figure or impression.
Secondly, in other instances, and particularly where I want a shining article
to resemble silk, I make my paper, as before described, by any of the known
methods, and when dry I pass it through rollers one or both of which are
engraved with the pattern required, and at least one of them heated, so that
the impression obtained may be stronger and more shining; and it is not
necessary
the paper
for this purpose should be always colored or tinted in the

page_text: rag or pulp during the process of manufacture; but either colored paper so
made, or paper which has been made white and afterwards coloured by any
of the known methods, will do equally well for this purpose. Neither is it
necessary the paper should be made in long lengths, although I prefer it so ;
and it may either be made so by machinery, or a number of sheets
may be
joined together, or sheets may be impressed by either the heated rollers or
plates passed through heated rollers, and united in putting them on the walls,
so as to form the pattern intended when combined. In some cases I give
part of the impression during the operation of making the paper; by which it
is twilled or lined, ribbed or striped, by passing it through rollers prepared
according to the purpose intended, which causes it to appear thicker than if
pressed flat and smooth, and prepares it to receive a stronger impression; and
I afterwards, when nearly or quite dry, pass it through other rollers, one or
both of which are heated, and on which are other patterns, so that part may
be shining and other parts not so. And whenever it is particularly desirable
that the paper should retain its shining quality in a greater degree, I size it
strongly with animal or vegetable substances, and sometimes use guins or
wax therein.
Thirdly I contrive to unite two or more thicknesses of paper together,
either during the process of making or afterwards, by introducing between
them any of the glutinous substances or articles calculated for the purpose;"
and one of these papers may be of any color required for the outside, and the
other may be colored or white for the back, and may also be of a coarser
and stronger description than that which is intended for the outside; and when
these papers are so united they are passed through the pattern and heated
rollers, or pressed with the plates as before described, to give the pattern
required; and in general I prefer these double or compound papers to those
which are of one sheet or thickness only, as they take the impression and
preserve the patterns better, and are less injured by the operation of pasting
in putting them upon the walls.
Fourthly, instead of the double paper before described, I take plain or
figured silks, sattins, velvets, cottons, linens, or other fabrics for the one side,
and unite these with paper by introducing any of the glutinous substances or
articles calculated for the purpose between them in the way before described,
when two or more thicknesses of paper are used; and when so united, if the
article is plain and wanted to be figured, I emboss it with any pattern
required in the manner before described, and by ribbing or twilling it, by
passing it through rollers prepared to give it this appearance after it is united
with the paper, 1 give an inferior silk the appearance of a much more

page_text: valuable one, and allow of the paper thus united being pasted and stuck on
walls in the same manner and with as great facility as though it were paper
only. In either of the cases before mentioned I produce the embossing effect
by means of a "swing press where the figure or pattern occurs but seldom;
to the screw of which press a plate with the intended pattern is attached,
having a chamber above it to receive a heater for the purpose of making the
impression stronger and more lasting. With this and the other modes of
embossing I sometimes use leaf gold or other metallic substances, so that the
whole or part of the impression may be covered thereby (as in the binding
of books; and in some cases I take paper which is already covered with gold,
silver, or other metallic substances, and emboss and cut out the figure intended,
so as to fit the impression made in embossing. In other cases, and par-
ticularly when plain silk are united with paper, I produce a pattern or effect
called watering, by pressing two thicknesses or pieces together between heated
rollers, or in a press face to face, so that during the operation of pressing one
may braise the other and produce the effect described.
Fifthly, the apparatus for uniting the different thicknesses of paper or
uniting the paper with any other articles may be constructed in the manner
represented in the Drawing annexed. a shews the roller on which the paper
is wound for the back of the united article, and which is weighted to prevent
its running too fast and to keep the paper smooth; b, a large drum or cylinder
covered with woollen cloth; c, a cylindrical brush or roller covered with woollen
cloth or plush, which, with the roller & attached to it, works at a greater speed
than the drum in a box e containing the paste or other glutinous mixture. The
brush and the drum are connected together by spur wheels, and to the shaft of
one of them a winch and handle is attached, so that when turned by the work-
men the revolving motion of the large drum draws the paper from the roller a,
which is pasted in its progress upwards by the revolving brush roller c; f is
another roller on which the silk, paper, or other material intended to form the
face or outside of the united article, is wound in the same way as the paper
for the back, and this roller f is also weighted to keep the material tight in
its progress over the guide rollers 9 and h, one of which is a screw roller
reversed in the centre to keep the article stretched in width on its arrival at
the pressing roller i, and this being weighted also according to circumstances
gives the necessary pressure to the two materials about to be united, and
causes them to stick together. When this operation has been effected, the
united materials are rolled upon the roller k, which, as well as the pressing
roller i, is moved by their peripheries bearing on the large drum, which,
being moved, as before stated, by the workmen turning the handle or winch,
g

page_text: the whole is put in motion, and the process of pasting and uniting proceeds;
and whenever the articles united are of a description so as not to bear rolling
up on the roller h, they are suffered to fall on the basket l; or without the last
described apparatus. the pasting may be effected by any other convenient
means. The patterns intended to be employed for the above purpose admit
of all the varieties of engraving and impressing which can be used for
embossing in the manner before described, and they may be made to appear
as. though they were woven in the material or embroidered or imbossed
thereon according to the article which it is intended to resemble, the intention
being to make paper appear like silks, cloths, et cetera, of greater value than
itself, and to have a similar effect in improving the appearance of silks or
whatever articles are united or combined with the paper; and the novelty of
my. Invention consists in giving the improved appearance, in the manner
herein described, to papers intended to be applied to the purposes of covering
walls or hanging rooms, as above stated.
I do not claim anything new in the process of making paper further than
what is described under the first head, videlicet, the method in which the
figure or impression is given during the manufacture of the paper for this
particular purpose; and though embossing has been used for various other
purposes, yet I claim it as new when applied to papers prepared in the manner
described, or when united with other fabrics for the purpose of covering. walls
or hanging of rooms, as above said.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Cobb, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of March. One thousand eight
THOMAS (L.B.). COBB.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of March, in
the eleventh year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth, the
said Thomas Cobb came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.