AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE ART OF TANNING HIDES AND SKINS, AND BARKING OR COLOURING NETTS, SAILS, AND OTHER ARTICLES BY THE APPLICATION OF CERTAIN MATERIALS HITHERTO UNUSED FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1819

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GOOD, of Bridport Harbour, within the Parish of Symondsbury, in the
County of Dorset, Shipbuilder, 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 Tenth day of July,
in the fifty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said William
Good, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said William Good, my exors, admňors, and
assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE ART OF
TANNING HIDES AND SKINS, AND BARKING OR COLOURING NETTS, SAILS, AND OTHER
ARTICLES BY THE APPLICATION OF CERTAIN MATERIALS HITHERTO UNUSED FOR THAT
PURPOSE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if
I, the said William Good, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to
be inrolled, in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that
then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in the
by the, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
William Good, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in the following description thereof (that is to say): -
The improvement which I have effected in the art of tanning is by render-
ing the process more economical. I have discovered that the trunk, roots,
limbs, branches, and leaves of the oak, whether tree, pollard, coppice, or
underwood, possess tanning properties in a sufficient quantity to be employed
with advantage in that business, which properties may be best extracted there-
from by reducing such of the above articles as are large enough for sawing
to sawdust, or by chopping the same and the articles of less size into small
pieces. And I accordingly claim the exclusive right of using such articles for
the aforesaid purpose.
The mode of extracting such tanning properties and of using the same is as
follows: To tan calf or other thin skins put one hundredweight of the limbs
or branches chopped, as above mentioned, into a copper containing about sixty
gallons of water, and boil till the water be reduced to from thirty-five to forty
gallons. Draw off the decoction so produced, and which is to be used as here-
after stated. Add to the same limbs or branches forty gallons of water, and
again boil the same till the water be reduced to about twenty-five gallons.
The liquor thus produced by the second boiling is used as a weak ooze, and
as the first process in tanning such skins after they come from the beam, and
afterwards the decoction first produced in the manner in which tanners are in
the habit of using oak bark. To tan hides take one hundredweight of the
limbs or branches, three quarters of a hundredweight of oak sawdust (the
sooner the latter is used after being made the better), and one quarter of a
hundredweight of the root, and boil in eighty gallons of water till reduced to
from fifty to sixty gallons. Draw off the decoction, and put aside for use, as
will be mentioned. To the materials left in the copper add sixty gallous of
water, and again boil till reduced to from thirty to thirty-five gallons. The
liquor produced by such second boiling is employed in the first stage of
tanning such hides after they come from the beam, and afterwards the decoc-
tion first produced is employed. The skins and hides having undergone the
before-mentioned process, add as much oak bark or tar liquor, or both, to
the respective decoctions as is necessary to complete the tanning. The quan-
tity of each will vary according to the strength of such decoctions, which
strength will depend on the age and size of the tree and other circumstances
too evident to require their being particularized.
The method I use for barking or colouring of nets, sails, or other articles is

page_text: as follows: I put one hundredweight of oak branches and one hundredweight
of spent bark from any tannery into one hundred gallons of water (and so in
proportion for a greater or less quantity), and after boiling the same till it be
reduced to about eighty gallons, I take the branches and spent bark from the
copper) by means of any convenient instrument, and then I immerge as many
nets, sails, or other articles (as the case may be), into the liquor left in the
copper, as the liquor will admit of (taking care that the said nets, sails, or
other articles be completely covered with the said liquor). I boil the whole
together for about three hours; then I remove the fire, and suffer the whole
to get cool together; after which I remove the nets, sails, or other articles
from the furnace, and hang them up to dry as heretofore customary.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Good, party hereto, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and nineteen.