A NEW METHOD OF MANUFACTURING BUTTONS OF DYED MATERIALS NOT BEFORE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE, WHICH WILL BE MUCH MORE USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL THAN ANY NOW IN USE
Year: 1786

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
CLAY, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Japanner, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Ninth day of November, in the twenty-seventh year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said Henry Clay, His especial licence that I, the said
Henry Clay, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF MANUFACTURING
BUTTONS OF DYED MATERIALS NOT BEFORE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE, WHICH WILL
BE MUCH MORE USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL THAN ANY NOW IN USE;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Henry Clay,
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my
said Invention, and how the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majestie's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date
of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Clay, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in manner
herein-after set forth :-
.I, Henry Clay, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Japanner, do
hereby declare that my Invention of Manufacturing Buttons of Dyed Materials,
not before Used for that Purpose, is by dying of silk, cotton, flax, hemp, wool,
and felts in their raw state, and oakum, ropes, sail cloth, and all kinds and sorts
of raggs and stuffs which are made of silk, cotton, linnen, woollen, or any such

page_text: other materials commonly used for making of paper, by first dying them of various.
colours, as black, red, blue, yellow, or any other colour or broken tint what-
ever that may suit or match the various cloths now or hereafter to be manu-
factured in Great Britain, or by using the above materials ready dyed. The
materials are afterwards to be ground or beaten to a pulp in a common paper
engine, or these materials may be dyed after they are so ground, or beat, or
reduced into a pulp by the paper engine or by any other means, by first
squeesing or drying the water away, and then dying them by the same method
that any other dye is produced. These materials so reduced to a pulp are
afterwards to be mixed up with a paste made with glue and wheat flour, or
isinglass, gum arabic, or any other strong gum or paste that will tye, bind,
or stick the parts together, adding at the same time a small portion of lintseed
oil or any other drying oil which, by its compact with the other ingredients,
will render the composition very hard and durable. These dyed materials
are afterwards made into flat plates on a board with a small ledge on each
side, which may be of any convenient size, and by laying and crushing them
between two pieces of flannel or other cloth, at the same time rubbing it over
with a roller or any other tool that will work out the superfluous part of the
dyed pulp. The plates, being thus formed, are to be taken out of the mould
and put into a stove or any other place to dry, and when they are sufficiently
dry they are to be cut into round or other formed bits or pieces by a common
cutting-out button press, and then a shank of metal is to be put therein, and
afterwards put into a steel or other common die and pressed into buttons in
the same manner as the common horn buttons are made, which is by first
heating them on a plate of cast iron, and in that state put into a press and
forced into the button by the power of the screw and lever. If the button
should not then be of the colour wanted, they may in that state be put into
the liquor of the dye afterwards to be perfected. And as the heat required
to fix in the shank fast is very considerable, some of the finer colours may be
injured, and in that case the button must be first pressed sufficiently to make
the shank fast, and then a thin piece of the dyed material is to be glued,
pasted, or otherwise stuck to it, and is afterwards to be pressed in a less
degree of heat than before. The button, after then fringing off the superfluous
part, is compleat and fit for sale.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Clay, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirtieth day of November, One thousand seven hundred
and night air
HENRY CLAY. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirtieth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1786, the aforesaid Henry Clay came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, 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.
Imrolled the First day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-six.