CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IMITATION LEATHER
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Heiman Kohnstamm, of 7, Union Court, Old
Broad Street, (City,) London, for the Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IMITATION LEATHER."
Sealed the 26th May 1854, and dated the 21st December 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Heiman Kohnstamm
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 21st December 1858.
I, HEIMAN KOHNSTAMM, of 7, Union Court, Old Broad Street (City,)
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CER-
TAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IMITATION LEATHER." to be
as follows, viz. :-
On linen, woollen, and worsted fabrics I lay on coats of the following
ingredients (after they have been mixed together):-Linseed oil, spirits
of turpentine, and lamp-black; by boiling they become a thick paste,
which I spread smoothly on the fabric; I give three coats, allowing,
between each coat the time necessary for drying, and likewise for
rubbing each coat with pumice-stone; after which I lay a coat of varnish
mixed with Prussian blue, and press the fabric thus on an engraved
cylinder, to give to it the appearance of the grain. By mixing colour.
in the varnish or the above described composition, my imitation may be
made of any colour.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Heiman Kohnstamm in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 6th June 1854.
TO. ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
HEIMAN KOHNSTAMM, of 7, Union Court, Old Broad Street, in the
City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said Heiman Kohnstamm, Her
special licence that I, the said Heiman Kohnstamm, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Heiman
Kohnstamm, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IMITATION
LEATHER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Heiman
Kohnstamm, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, aud in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office, within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent."
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Heiman Kohnstamm, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement (that is to say):-
My Invention relates to a certain method for obtaining an improved
kind of imitation leather. This method is as follows:-
First, I boil some linseed oil, in which I mix a quantity of lamp-
black suflicient to form a thick paste, taking care to stir the mixture in
such manner that the lamp-black may be thoroughly incorporated with

page_text: the linseed oil; this being accomplished, I spread on a linen, woollen,
half-woollen, or woolly cloth, which is to form the body of the imita-
tion leather, a coat of this paste. I effect this spreading preferably
with what is commonly known by the name of a coating or daub
machine. I then leave the coat to dry, in a room suitably heated;
when the coat is dry I rub it smooth with pumice-stone, after which I
lay, on a second coat of paste in a similar manner, then a third coat,
with less lamp-black; the same process of drying and rubbing with
pumice-stone, as previously described, is then gone through, after which
a fourth coat is laid on, but taking care to put still less lamp-black in
the mixture I uso; the drying and rubbing to be made as before. These
operations being gone through, I spread on a coat of varnish, which
must be dried and rubbed the same as the coats given before; after
which another coat of varnish is laid on, dried, and well rubbed, the
material is then in a fit state to be enamelled. When it be desired to
give another colour than black to the imitation leather, instead of
the fourth coat of the mixture of linseed oil and lamp-black being laid
on, a coat or two of the desired color is given.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself
to the exact details herein described; but I claim the treatment of
linen, woollen, half-woollen, and woolly fabrics, as herein described, for
the production of a material in imitation of leather.
In witness whereof, I, the said Heiman Kohnstamm, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the First day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
HEIMAN KOHNSTAMM