CLEANING AND PREPARING PORK'S WOOL, SO AS TO GIVE IT THE ELASTICITY OF HORSEHAIR AND THE FLEXIBILITY OF WOOL, FOR BEDDING, SOFAS, CHAIRS, ETC., ETC.
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jean Hubert Marie Van Hins-
bergh, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 3rd November 1860.
I, JEAN HUBERT MARIE VAN HINSBERGH, of Breda, Holland, Manufacturer
of Horsehair, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CLEANING
AND PREPARING PORK'S WOOL, SO AS TO GIVE IT THE ELASTICITY OF HORSEHAIR
AND THE FLEXIBILITY OF WOOL, FOR BEDDING, SOFAS, CHAIRS, ETC., ETC.," to be
as follows:
Up to the present day the pork's wool was used only in the manufacture of
mats, the filling of saddles, etc., its commercial value was very trifling, because
nature supplies it mixed with a quantity of bristle, which, by their inflexibility,
pierce all stuffs except leather, thereby rendering its use nearly impossible; by
the subjoined process I have succeeded in giving it the elasticity of horsehair,
thereby greatly increasing its commercial value. After having been subjected
to the following preparations it supersedes horsehair with advantage in all
stuffings, and wool in bedding and other furniture.
To obtain those advantages I prepare the wool in the following manner :-
1ly, I wash it well, and scour it if necessary; 2ly, I dry it; 3ly, I beat by
the process now in use, or I card it; 4ly, I spin it just as the curled horse-
hair; 5ly, I turn it till it obtains a tortuous shape similar to a corkscrew, or
the same as the curled horsehair; 6ly, I boil it for an hour or two either in

page_text: pure or slightly alumed water; 7ly, I dry it either in the air or by the appa-
ratus, according to season.
The pork's wool is then ready, and can be sold cheaper than either horse-
hair or wool. There is being employed actually a quality of bristle known in
the trade as waste of bristle, to be mixed with curled horsehair, but never has
any one been able to mix pork's wool with the said horsehair. With the
preparations above mentioned I have succeeded in mixing it with horsehair,
wool, etc., if necessary. This pork's wool, for the preparation of which I claim
this Patent, has never been prepared by this process and never could be mixed
before with horsehair, or wool with horsehair, as are the waste of bristle for
the manufacture of curled horsehair which contains no wool, and with wool to
supersede horsehair for bedding furniture. This pork's wool can be dyed
every shade by the process now in use.
My Invention consists therefore in giving, by the preparations before named,
to the pork's wool, I mean by pork's wool the down that certain porks of the
northern countries possesses, an elasticity equal to that of the horsehair, and
a flat surface more elastic than the wool, and not so stiff as the horsehair. I
do not claim as being of my Invention the means used to obtain this result, as
they belong to the public demesne; but what I claim as being totally of my
Invention is, the application of those means employed for the preparation of
other substances to the preparation of pork's wool, so as to render it as elastic
as horsehair for all sorts of stuffings, etc., etc., and more elastic than wool for
bedding, for which I beg the whole and full property during all the time of the
Patent of which I make demand.