NEW METHOD OF MANUFACTURING ALL KINDS OF BOOTS, SHOES, AND OTHER ARTICLES, BY MEANS OF A SUBSTITUTE FOR THREAD MADE OF HEMP, FLAX, OR OTHER YARNS
Year: 1809

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DAVID
MEADE RANDOLPH, a Citizen of Virginia, in the United States of America, but
at present residing near Golden Square, in the County of Middlesex, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of February,
in the forty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said David
Meado Randolph, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said David Meade Randolph,
my exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of fourteen years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an Invention com-
municated to me from a friend and correspondent residing within the said
United States, of a "NEW METHOD OF MANUFACTURING ALL KINDS OF BOOTS,
SHOES, AND OTHER ARTICLES, BY MEANS OF A SUBSTITUTE FOR THREAD MADE OF HEMP,
FLAX, OR OTHER YARNS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso, obliging me, the said David Meade Randolph, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His Majesty'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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
David Meade Randolph, do hereby declare the manner in which the said
Invention is to be carried into effect and practice is, as hereafter described.
And, first, it is to be understood that the substitute is applicable only to the soles
and heels of boots and shoes, as all the other parts of the work is performed
in the usual way and manner. The last used for this purpose, and so essential
a part of it, claims a prior and particular description. The common shaped
wooden one being first taken, after proper adjustment in the ordinary method,
is to be sheathed or covered at the lower part or bottom with a plate or sole
of iron or any other fit metal of about the thickness of a stout leather sole, as,
in the usual way, and after being suitably prepared and formed for the purpose
it is to be attached to the bottom of the said wooden last, and there properly
secured and fastened. As the substitute here alluded to is little nails, brads,
sprigs, or tacks, formed or made of copper, iron, steel, or other proper metals,
of such length as will allow them to reach and perforate the inner sole, with
which the metal solo is in close contact, and where, having been driven, they
must, from the resistance, be clinched or rivetted through the leather, and serve
instead of sewing or stitching now in use. This, in like manner, is to be sub-
stituted and employed in all cases where the other has been found necessary.
At the same time, it should be observed, that in its application, this new
method is not limited to the edge or margin of the sole, to which the former
method was necessarily confined, but can as easily and advantageously be
performed at any intermediate space or part where strength and durability
may be deemed requisite, as must appear obviously from the nature of the
last. The only difference of which, with the common one, and the additional
sole already described (being in form and shape precisely alike) is, that in
this solo there are three round holes formed, of nearly an inch in diameter,
which perforate it, and are placed equidistant from one another in the center
of the last, one near the toe, another about half way between the toe and the
heel, and the third in the heel. These holes are filled up with wooden plugs,
and are made for the purpose of fastening to them the shoe or boot while
making, or in the hands of the workman, as it must appear evident that
without this contrivance of the circular holes, it would be totally impossible to
secure or nail the leather to the last, in order to make the boot or shoe; but
when thus adjusted, there is no further difficulty, and the process or work goes
on, as herein described with the new materials instead of the old, and proper
instruments calculated for the purpose. In the above description it was
deemed unnecessary to enter into a detail of every instrument composing the
well-known apparatus for boot and shoe making, as it has been already shewn

page_text: that they are here so indispensably requisite as in the process or operation
heretofore pursued. I also apply as a substitute for thread made of hemp,
flax, or other yarns, in the fabrication of braces, traces, or any other articles to
which the same can usefully be applied, and in lieu of stitching or sewing,
wires made of iron, brass, or copper, or wires made of any other fit metal.
These wires I use lengthways by stretching them the whole length of the
trace or brace, and are fastened at each end round small metal cylinders
inclosed between plates of leather, connected by means of the first mentioned
substitute, and in manner aforesaid.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Meade Randolph, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and nine.
D. M. KANDOLPH.
(L.S)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1809, the aforesaid David Meade Randolph came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, 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 Statuto made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand night hundred on