IMPROVE- MENTS IN PREPARING OR FINISHING SILK, COTTON, FLAX, HEMP, OR OTHER THREADS USED FOR SEWING PURPOSES."
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Forster, of the India-rubber Works,
Streatham, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PREPARING OR FINISHING SILK, COTTON, FLAX, HEMP, OR OTHER
THREADS USED FOR SEWING PURPOSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Forster at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th May 1875.
I, THOMAS FORSTER, of the India-rubber Works, Streatham, in the
County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING OR FINISHING SILE, COTTON, FLAX, HEMP, OR
OTHER THREADS USED FOR SEWING PURPOSES," to be as follows:—
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing or
finishing silk, cotton, flax, hemp, or other threads used for sewing
purposes.
The improvement consists in treating the threads with paraffin,
stearine, spermacetti, wax, tar, or bitumen dissolved in any of the

page_text: unoxidizable solvents of such matters, by preference benzole, coal oil,
bisulphide of carbon or ammonia. The threads, after being saturated
in such mixtures and dried, may be finished by friction in the ordinary
manner, and as is well understood.
:
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said Thomas Forstor in the Great Scal Patent Office
on the 25th November 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
FORSTER, of the India-rubber Works, Streatham, in the County of
Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Forster, Her special
license, that I, the said Thomas Forster, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Forster,
my exccutors, 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 Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING OR FINISHING SILK, COTTON, FLAX, HEMP, OR
OTHER THREADS USED FOR SEWING PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst ·|
others) that I, the said Thomas Forster, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and scals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and 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 dato
of the said Lotters Patent.

page_text: with good effect, but I have given the formula that is in my opinion the
best.
Turpentine and camphine might be also used as solvents with soap or
any fatty matters, as spermacetti, stearine, or the like, but all those
have the disadvantage of absorbing oxygen and thus destroying the 5
threads, whereas the compounds of which I have given the formulæ
tend to preserve the threads, as they will not become oxidized.
What I claim is, preparing or finishing silk, cotton, flax, hemp, or
other threads for sewing purposes, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Forster, have hereunto set 1
my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
THOMAS FORSTER. (L.S.)