IMPROVEMENTS IN CURRYING OR MANU- FACTURING LEATHER
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Gregg, of Sheffield, in the County of York,
Currier, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CURRYING OR MANU-
FACTURING LEATHER."
Sealed the 24th June 1859, and dated the 21st March 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Gregg at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st March 1859.
I, GEORGE GREGG, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Currier, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CURRYING OR
MANUFACTURING LEATHER," to be as follows, and consists in considerably
expediting the process of currying and reducing the cost of the production of
leather. My new process is as follows:-The hide or skin is, 1st, soaked or
sponged over with oil instead of water, as now usual; 2nd, put into water and
then shaved; 3rd, set or stretched out with tool, & hung up to dry without
scouring; 4th, softened with tool, and the flesh side rubbed over with emery
cloth or glass paper in opposition to whitening or shaving, as usual; 5, black
over with lampblack, oil, & sizing.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Gregg in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
20th September 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
GREGG, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Currier, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto the
said George Gregg, Her special license that I, the said George Gregg, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George
Gregg, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel-
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CURRYING OR
MANUFACTURING LEATHER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
George Gregg, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that T, the said George Gregg, do hereby declare tho
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My Invention relates to a new system or series of operations for expediting
the process of currying or dressing leather, to effect which I take the leather
from the tanner or currier in its dry shaved or dry unshaved state, or in its dry
split or dry unsplit state, or in its dry unscoured or dry scoured state, and stuff
it with, or apply to it in the said dry state, oil or tallow, or both combined, or
grease of any kind, or with anything baving the nature or properties of grease.
To prepare the leather for skiving, shaving, or splitting, I submit it to the
action of water after stuffing, and I skive, split, shave, or flat the leather after
the stuffing, oiling, or greasing operation. To extract the bloom I apply to
the grain, oil, tallow, or grease, and use a brush, stone, pumicestone, or other
suitable tools, then glass on the flesh, dry, grain up, and wax.
Leather

page_text: stuffed or greased in the dry shaved state may be grained up or softened in
the stuffing process or operation, and then waxed.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the same may be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not claim as
of my Invention, nor the exclusive use of any of the several processes herein-
before described or referred to, except where the same are employed for the
purposes of my said Invention, which I hereby declare to consist in currying
leather in the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Sixteenth
day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-nine.
GEORGE GREGG. (L.S.)