CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN HATS
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
RICHARD JOHNSON, of the Firms of Messrs. Johnson and Company, Regent
Street, and Messrs. Griffiths and Johnson, Old Bond Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Hatters, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of March, in the seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alfred Richard Johnson, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Alfred
Richard Johnson, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said
Alfred Richard Johnson, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter, during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of Her Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN HATS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said

page_text: Alfred Richard Johnson, shall cause a particular description of the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, under
my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her 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 there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Alfred Richard Johnson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the present Specification thereof, that is to say :-
The nature of my said Invention consists in rendering more pliable, elastic,
and easy of wear such hats as are now wholly or partly made of silk or hair,
or hair stuff or wool, or cotton, or linen, or hemp, or any other material either
feltable in itself, or capable of being worked up with feltable materials, by
adding to or introducing into the body of the same a layer of caoutchouc or
india rubber in the sheet state. And the manner in which I effect this
improvement is as follows:-
After the foundation of the hat has been formed as usual I add a covering
of linen or cotton cloth, then a layer of sheet caoutchouc or india rubber, and
over that a second covering of linen or cotton. The body thus completed is
then roughed or plated, and finished in the usual way.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim as my Inven-
tion is, the making of hats of the various sorts before described, with a layer of
caoutchouc or india rubber added to or introduced into the body of the same,
in manner before described.
And such my said Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be
my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said
Specification doth comply fully and in all respects, without reserve or disguise,
with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
contained; wherefore I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege
to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Twenty-seventh day of September, One thousand eight hundred and
forty-four
ALFRED RICHARD (L.S.) JOHNSON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1844, the aforesaid Alfred Richard Johnson came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her 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 stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.