AN ECONOMICAL MODE OF IMPROVING DYED SILK
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
JAMES HENDRIE, of Blossom Street, Shoreditch, in the County of Middlesex,
Dyer, send greeting.
T
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Third day of May, in the second year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert James Hendrie, His especial licence that I, the said Robert James
Hendrie, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
James Hendrie, my exors, adiñors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN
ECONOMICAL MODE OF IMPROVING DYED SILK;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said Robert James Hendrie, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascer-
tain 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 said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert James Hendrie, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion consists in submitting skein silk which has been dyed, and commonly

page_text: known by the name of imperial or blue-black dounce, to the action of machinery
similar to that known by the term of fulling stocks in the manufacture of
woollen cloth while the silk is undergoing the process of washing and clean-
ing; and in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Robert
James Hendrie, do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention
is to be performed by the following description thereof, that is to say :-
When the silk is blacked in the usual way, and ready to be washed and
cleansed, which operation is now performed by hand, I roll up each washing
handfull of the silk in the usual manner, and inclose any required number so
rolled up in bags twenty-four inches square of the canvas called twenty-four-
inch safe canvas, which are made large enough to hold so much silk as would,
previously to its being dyed, have weighed about six pounds; but this will
slightly vary according to the quality of the silk, and then wash and cleanse
it by the use of stocks, such as are used for the purpose of washing and
cleansing, or what is usually called fulling woollen goods, and which I work by
steam power. I put about twenty-five bags of the blacked skein silk into the
cup or pit of the stocks, through which a stream of fresh water is kept running
during the whole process; and the feet of the stocks constantly beat the silk,
and turn it over until it is sufficiently cleansed. This will be in about three
hours if the stocks are kept regularly at work and there is a plentiful supply
of water. The silk is then taken out of the bags, and the process of dying
completed; after which it is again rolled up, and put into the bags, and washed
and cleansed in the stocks, in the same manner as before. Silk is by the above
process greatly improved, while it is washed and cleansed in a shorter period
and at a less expence than by the common mode of washing by hand now in
use, and will be found much cleaner and rendered much softer than by the
ordinary washing and cleansing process.
Now whereas I claim as my Invention the application of the stocks herein-
before mentioned or other the like machinery acting upon bags containing the
silk, in manner aforesaid, in the process of washing and cleansing, for the pur-
pose of improving in an economical manner dyed silk; and although I have
only heretofore used the stocks now used for washing and cleansing or fulling
woollen goods, yet other mechanical modes may be found to produce the same
result, it being only essential that there should be a sufficient power to beat and
turn over the bags of silk in the pit, cup, or trench, through which the stream
of water is kept running. And such my Invention being, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used within that part of
His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, His said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I

page_text: do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same; and that I do
verily believe this my said Specification doth comply, in all respects, fully and
without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain
exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert James Hendrie, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Third day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.
Inrolled the Third day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.