New MODE OR METHOD OF DRESSING OR PREPARING OF SKINS FOR THE PURPOSE OF CON- VERTING THEM INTO LEATHER
Year: 1799

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
KNOWLES, of the Parish of Saint Mary, Lambeth, in the County of Surry,
Leather Dresser, 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
at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the thirty-ninth year
of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said James Knowles, His especial
licence that I, the said James Knowles, during the term of years therein men-
tioned, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A New
MODE OR METHOD OF DRESSING OR PREPARING OF SKINS FOR THE PURPOSE OF CON-
VERTING THEM INTO LEATHER;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said James Knowles, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of
my 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,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Knowles, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following, that is to say:-.
When the wool or hair is pulled or taken off the skin, the skin or pelt
(a name usually given to the skin in that state) is simply dipped into water,

page_text: and then undergoes the operation of fleshing. The skin or pelt is then dipped
again into water and undergoes the operation of skudding or striking, after
which it is in a state fit to be tanned, tawed, or dressed. Fleshing, skudding,
or striking are operations so well known in the trade that I think it needless
to describe them. This method occupies much less time than those here-
tofore practiced, which consisted of first immerging the skins in lime pitts,
where they were deposited for a considerable time, and were afterwards neces-
sarily obliged to be drenched or cleared of the lime. The essence of this
Invention consists in omitting the processes used in the old method of liming
and drenching, which not only retard the progress of the skins towards leather,
but injure its quality; yet when the skins or pelts are in a stale state and
workmen not at hand, or from any other cause they cannot be immediately
worked, they may, merely for the temporary preservation of them, be thrown
into water in which a small quantity of lime is infused, and worked from that
water by my operations above described, but line is not necessary in any
other case.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Knowles, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of May, in the thirty-ninth year of
the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of
God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the
Faith, and so forth, and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven
hundred and ninety-nine.
Signed and sealed in the presence of
R. BAILEY.
JAS (L.S:) KNOWLES.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1799, the aforesaid. James Knowles came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification 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 Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine.