A METHOD OF DYING WOOLLEN CLOTHS, STUFFS, AND OTHER MATERIALS IN VARIOUS COLOURS, AND OF ANY FIGURE, PATTERN, OR DESIGN REQUIRED, BY MEANS ENTIRELY NEW
Year: 1791

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
JEFFREYS, of the Parish of Saint Luke, Old Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Scarlet Dyer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing late at West-
minster, the Eighteenth day of March, in the thirty-first year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said George Jeffreys, His especial licence that I,
the said George Jeffreys, during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon Tweed, my Invention of "A METHOD OF DYING
WOOLLEN CLOTHS, STUFFS, AND OTHER MATERIALS IN VARIOUS COLOURS, AND OF
ANY FIGURE, PATTERN, OR DESIGN REQUIRED, BY MEANS ENTIRELY NEW;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
George Jeffreys, 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 per-
formed, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Jeffreys, do hereby declare that of my said Invention of a method of

page_text: dying woollen cloths, stuffs, and other materials in various colours, and of
any figure, pattern, or design required, by means entirely new, is described
in the several Drawings hereunto annexed, and in manner following, that is
to say:-
•
Let well-dried tobacco-pipe clay he finely powdered, and gradually added,
with incessant agitation, to an equal weight of tallow of the best kind, heated
previously to its boiling heat; continue the heat for two or three hours, or until
the mixture acquires such consistence that it will grow solid by cooling, and
that when the whole charge is suffered to. cool in the boiler, no part of the
tallow shall appear distinct and unmixed near the surface. If any tallow
should thus appear, the whole must be boiled and agitated again for two or
three hours, or more, if the quantity be great. If the composition be duly
prepared, it will have the following properties, and serve for the following
purposes: When heated so much as to acquire the fluidity of thick cream,
it will run freely thro' the perforated plates, hereafter described, and sink
deeply into woollen stuff's placed under the plates, without spreading laterally
beyond the limit of the perforations in the plates; and any traces made with
the melted and liquid composition on woollen stuffs will become hard and dry
as quickly as they are suffered to cool; and woollen stufl's striped, or traced, or
figured with the composition, will not smear each other by contact after they
become cold. The composition duly applied in the manner hereafter described
to woollen stuffs, so as to sink into thein and cover the nap in form of stripes
or in figures, will prevent the parts of the woollen stuff which are charged
with it from receiving a dye or colour, in any usual dying process that is
competent for the dying of all the other parts of such stuff, and thus it enables
the artist to preserve the native colour of the woollen stuff in the form of
stripes or figures, or any dyed colour of the woollen stuff, in stripes or figures,
whilst all the other parts of the woollen stuff may be made to receive any
chosen dye, and thus a great variety of stripes, figures, and colours, may be
made in woollen stuffs. The composition has also this property, that it may
be easily extracted from the woollen stuff's by means of fullers' earth in the
fulling inill or stocks, and the extraction requires only twice as much fullers'
earth as is commonly used for extracting the grease out of cloths.
The mechanical part of the art of making stripes across the breadth of a
piece of woollen stuff is as follows:-Let tlie Figure A, B, C. D, (Plate 1.)
represent a plate of brass of 1/20 of an inch in thickness; let the black
parts of this Figure represent the substance of the plate of brass, and let.
the white spaces or lines represent the long paralel apertures, made by cutting

page_text: thro' the substance of the plate, so as to make it into a kind of grate, whoso
aperture shall be long enough to extend quite noross the breadth of the
woollen stuff which is to bo striped, and whose apertures shall have the
width of the intended stripes; let E, F, G, H, represent the horizontal
plane of a long table; and let I, K, L, M, N, O, represent a piece of woollen
stuff lying smooth upon the table; when the brass grato is to be applied
to this piece of stuff the edge A, B, must be paralel with I, K, and.beyond
the edge of the woollen stuff at I, K, and tho edge D, C, must be paralel
with the line O, N, so that the whole breadth of the woollen stuff may be
seen through the brass grate; let 1, 2, 3, 4, represent a brass frame or box
whose four sides are paralel, and inclose a space of the length and breadth
represented, and of the depth of one inch and a half or two inches; anil let
this frame, when it is placed on a true plane, touch and fit the plane
so accurately that the brass frame may be filled with the melted com-
position without suffering any of it to pass away between the frame and
the plane; now let this brass frame 1, 2, 3, 4, be placed on the brass grato
at D, C, so that the side at 4, 3, shall stand within D, C, and shall be paralel
with D, C; and that the side 1, 2, shall be at some distance from the apertures of
the brass grate, and so that the unperforated part of the brass grate near D, C,
shall serve as a bottom to the brass frame, and that thus a trough be formed
capable of holding the liquid composition; now let the frame 1, 2, 3, 4, so
placed and charged. with the melted composition, be briskly slided along the
brass grato to the end A, B, the composition will sink upon the woollen stuffs,
forming stripes upon it in the order and direction of the apertures of the brass
grate, whose thickness determines the quantity of composition thus to be
lodged on the woollen stuff. When the brass frame is thus slided beyond the
elge A, B, of the brass grate, whatever part of the charge of the composition
is superfluous runs off into a trough placed under the edge of the table
between E and K, and is therein saved for future use. In order that tho
frame 1, 2, 3, 4, may slide regularly on the brass grate from the end D, C, to
the end A, B, the brass grate is provided with a ledge or rising at the edge
A, D, and the edgo B, C, within which ledger the brass frame may slide freely.
always maintaining its first paralelism. 5, 6, represents the horizontal plane
and the prominent ledger of the brass grate A, B, C, D. When the composi-
tion is thus deposited in stripes, the brass grate is to be taken off the cloth, by
raising it perpendicularly, and rather in the direction of the stripes than across
them; and this brass grate, or another of the like apertures, is to be cleared for
further use, by beating it on a hot iron plate, and rubbing it clean with coarse

page_text: woollen cloths; and on the next application of the brass grate, in order to con-
tinue the process of striping with the composition, care must be taken that tho
edge A, D, of the brass plate shall be paralel with the former stripes made on
the woollen stuff, and at such distanco from the contiguous stripe that all the
stripes successively made shall have the required distances and paralelism.
As the brass frame when charged with the melted composition is too hot to
be griped by the naked hand, a wooden cover with a ledge is put on each end
of the brass frame, by the intervention of which the workman can catch and
slide the frame without touching the hot parts. Any person who will con-
struct these instruments, and arrange tliem to use in the manner above
described, will readily perceive that the brass grato A, B, C, D, may be stayed
in required position on the woolleni stuff, either by an assistant, or by pins
so placed that they shall not.obstruct the motion of the brass sliding franc
and will also perceive, that if the apertures in the brass grate are spiral lines,
or represent figures of various kinds, the composition will be deposited on the
woollen stuff in spiral lines or figures corresponding, with such apertures, so as
to produce a great variety of patterns of different stripes or figures, and of
different colours, as may more fully apper under the description of dying stuff's
so striped or figured with the composition. With the aforesaid composition,
work may be executed in the manner of the wax calico printers or dyers, par-
ticularly on thin woollen stuff's; and it is to be observed, that when the com-
position is applied to cloth or thick stuff, care must be taken that it shall
penetrate and also compleatly cover the nap. To make the composition run
in stripes along the whole longth of the stuff or cloth, the mechanism is as
follows A brass plate A, B, C, D, (Plate 2,) is cut from the edge D, C, to
the extent between D, E, and C, F, so as to form apertures of the breadth of
the intended stripes of the composition. On the unperforated part of this brass
plate, and within A, B, F, E, a brass frame or box, similar to that abovo
described, but much larger and deeper, in order that it may hold a much
greater charge of the melted composition, is to be placed, 'preparatory to
the intended operation, when a piece of stuff or cloth is drawn over a smooth
table, and between it and the brass plate, nid advances, under the brass plato
to meet the line a: b; then the brass frame charged with the composition is
made to slide quickly from the unperforated part of the brass plate to the
perforated part thereof between E, F, and a, b; the stuff or cloth is at the
same time drawn with uniform and brisk motion in the direction A, D, B, C,
and thus receives the composition in the form of paralel stripes thro' its
whole length, the brass frame being all the while supplied with the compo

page_text: sition as fast as it is expended. At the line a, b, a ledge of brass is screwed.
on the brass plate, and serves two purposes: the first is to stop the charged
brass frame, and to determine the position of it when it rests over the aper-
tures; the second is to determine the depth or quantity of the composition'
which forms the stripes; and in order to produco this later effect, the brass
ledge a, b, sinks into the apertures, across which it lies, to such depth as is.
found convenient for different kinds of woollen stuff. If a thin stratum or
stripe of the composition be required, the brass ledge is made to sink into the
apertures deeply; if a thick stratum or stripe of the composition be required,
the brass ledge is made not to sink so deeply; in general the facets of the brass
ledge which sink into the apertures ought not. to be above 1/30 of an inch
from the under surface of the plate A, B, C, D. In order that the stuff or
cloth may run freely, steadily, and smoothly under the perforated brass plate,!
it is previously rolled smoothly on a cylinder of wood, whose axis is paralel
with A, B, and the beds in which the extremities of this axis move round
are made in the feet or frame of the.table on which the work is executed. In
order that the cylinder may deliver the cloth with a steady uniform motion,
the axis of the cylinder is made to project half a foot beyond the bed, so that
a rope which is fastened to the ceiling may pass round the projecting axis and'
then upwards, and then turning over a pully may have a weight suspended to
it; according to the quantity of weight thus applied, the axis of the cylinder will
be pressed more or less forcibly to one side of the box in which it turns round,
by which means a tremelous motion is prevented, at the same time that the
friction of the rope on the axis makes the cylinder to deliver the stuff or cloth
more steadily. It is to be observed that the plate A, B, C, D, must be
fastened on the table by bolts or pins placed near the edges C, D. It is also
to be observed that the brass frame or box, in order to be kept steady and
close when charged, and made to deliver the composition, is required to be
loaded with leaden weights, and when this brass frame or box is large, its
opposite sides required to be stayed or supported by several pieces of thick
brass, standing at right angles with them, and soldered or rivetted to them.
In order that the stuff or cloth in passing under the brass plate may be pressed
equally at all parts within the space E, F, a, b; a pad is fastened to the table
under E, F, a, b, which pad rises 1/8 of an inch, or less, above the plane of
the table, and consists of near two folds of woollen cloth, covered with parch-
ment, in order to lessen the friction of the cloth against the pad. When
many pieces of cloth are to be-thus treated, they are to be neatly darned end
to end, and being duly placed on the cylinder, above described, they may be

page_text: striped with the composition as fast as they can be conveniently drawn thro', the
frame or box containing the composition being kept constantly supplied whilst
the stuff or cloth is passing. When woollen stuff or cloth thus placed on the
cylinder is to be drawn thro' and striped with the composition, the end on
which the operation is to commence is to bo hooked to a piece of wood of a
yard or more in length, having tenter hooks on the upper surface thereof for
that purpose, and to this piece of wood a rope is to be fastened exactly at tho
middle of the breadth of the stuff'; the other end of the rope being passed over
a pulley at any required distance, and in the proper direction, is then fastened
to a windlass; as fast a workman turns the windlass round the piece of wood
is drawn towards the windlass, and the cloth is drawn thro' and striped with
the composition, which sets and dries by cooling as fast as it is necessary,
inso-
much that in a few seconds the stuff or cloth may be thrown into folds or other-
wise without smutting. If the table or plane along which the woollen stuff
is to be drawn be made to slope a little downwards towards tho windlass, the
operation will be the more easily performed. Plate 3 is the machine supposed to
bo at work. In dying woollen cloth or stuff that has been charged with the
stripes or figures of the composition, care must be taken that the surfaces of
the cloth shall not touch each other. The contact is prevented by means of a
frame, Plate 4, fitted to the top of the kettle. to the several bars of which frame
one of the lists of. the cloth is hooked, whilst leaden weights are hung to the
other list; the middle or longest bars of this frame extend beyond the circum-
ference of the kettle, resting upon the top of it, and serve as handles, by which
the frame is raised and lowered from, and into towards the dying liquor, so as to
produce an even dye, without causing the surfaces of the cloth to touch ench
other. Divers compositions may be made with earthly powders and unctuous
bodies, which may be used as substitutes to the composition, provided they
possoss the general bodies above described. And the composition may bo
delivered on stuffs or cloths by various mechanism, and in ways different from
those described, all which will naturally occur to an artist after he has prac-
tised in the manner above described, and thus learns the general principle and
purpose of this art.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Jeffreys, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and ninety-one.
GEO. JEFFREYS. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the said Eighteenth day of April, in
the year above written, the aforesaid George Jeffreys came before our Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also the
Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.