AN IMPROVED IMPERMEABLE CLOTH OR FABRIC FOR SHELTERING, COVERING, AND PRESERVING IN VARIOUS PURPOSES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Emile Constantin Fritz Sautelet, Manufacturer, of
Paris, in the French Empire, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
IMPERMEABLE CLOTH OR FABRIC FOR SHELTERING, COVERING, AND PRESERVING
IN VARIOUS PURPOSES."
Sealed the 8th February 1856, and dated the 27th August 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Emile Constantin Fritz
Sautelet at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 27th August 1855.
I, EMILE CONSTANTIN FRITZ SAUTELET, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVED IMPERMEABLE CLOTH OR FABRIC FOR SHELTERING,
COVERING, AND PRESERVING IN VARIOUS PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
The object of the Invention is to produce a waterproof or impermeable
cloth or fabric, adapted for being employed as a tarpaulin or covering for wag-
gons and carriages, for tents, for packing goods, straps, sheathing of ships, and
various purposes for which impermeable fabrics are applicable or requisite.
The improved fabric is characterized by the employment of flock or hair, which
I obtain from tanneries and similar places where the hair is removed from the
skins of animals, and which is now comparatively of little value. This flock or
hair is cemented together by a glutinous and impermeable substance, such as
caoutchouc, gutta percha, or other similar material. Thus a portion of caout-
chouc is reduced to a paste by imbibing it with a solvent, such as oil of turpen-
tine, coal oil, sulphuret of carbon, or mixtures of the same, and kneading or

page_text: squeezing it between rollers or otherwise; there is then added a portion of
lime, white lead, white zinc, or sulphur, and colouring matters, if it is required
to obtain any particular appearance in the finished article. This paste is
spread upon and very intimately mixed with the aforesaid flock or hair by
means of rollers with grooves, or points, or blades, or otherwise, and it is
repeatedly mixed or masticated, so as to obtain a uniform and homogeneous
compound. The mixture is then spread upon an endless cloth, which conveys
it under or among a series of cylinders heated by steam, on leaving which it is
placed in a stove to complete the evaporation of the solvent and to effect the
vulcanization. The distribution of the compound upon the endless cloth may
be effected by forcing it out of a hopper or vessel having a double casing
heated by steam. To obtain pieces of fabric of a greater width than that of
the cylinders, two or more pieces (previously to placing them in the stove) may
be cemented together at their edges by caoutchouc, with a strip of the same
fabric on each side, and the joint is compressed by a roller or cylinder on a
moveable carriage or otherwise. Other fibrous substances may be employed
with the hair, such as hemp, flax, tow, grass, phormium tenax, palm fibre,
coco fibre, jute, &c.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Emile Constantin Fritz Sautelet in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 22nd February 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EMILE
CONSTANTIN FRITZ SAUTELET, Manufacturer, of Paris, in the French Empire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the.
said Emile Constantin Fritz Sautelet, Her special licence that I, the said Emile
Constantin Fritz Sautelet, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Emile Constantin Fritz Sautelet, ny executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any tinie 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 Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVED IMPERMEABLE CLOTH OR FABRIC FOR SHELTERING, COVERING,

page_text: AND PRESERVING IN VARIOUS PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Emile Constantin Fritz Sautelet, my executors or administra-
tors, 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 Inven-
tion, 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 I, the said Emile Constantin Fritz Sautelet, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
-
The object of the Invention is to produce a waterproof or impermeable cloth
or fabric, adapted for being employed as a tarpaulin or covering for waggons
and carriages, for tents, for packing goods, for straps and sheathing of ships,
and various purposes for which impermeable fabrics are applicable or requisite.
For this purpose I employ flock or the refuse wool or hair of animals, which I
obtain: from tanneries and-similar places where the hair or wool is removed
from the skins of animals, and which is now of comparatively little value."
This wool or hair is cemented together by a glutinous and impermeable sub-
stance, such as caoutchouc, or gutta-percha, or other similar flexible 'or elastic
and impermeable gum.
A portion of caoutchouc is soaked with oil of turpentine, coal oil, sulphuret of
carbon, or other suitable solvent or mixture of: solvents; and it is then ground
or triturated between cylinders or otherwise, so as to bring it into the state of
a paste. A portion of lime, white lead, zinc white, sulphur, or colouring
ingredients may then be added and mixed with the paste, if desired.::This
paste is then spread upon and well mixed with the wool or hair, in the pro-
portion of one part by weight of paste to five or six parts of the wool.or hair.
The mixture is well incorporated by means of rollers, grooved, or armed
with blades or points, and it is afterwards worked eight or ten times in a mas-
ticating machine (such as is. used in. the manufacture of caoutchouc), to render
it as homogeneous as possible. It is then spread upon an endless cloth, which
conveys it to a series of rollers or cylinders heated by steam, by which it is
rolled out into sheets of impermeable cloth or fabric. The fabric is then placed
in a stove or heated chamber, for the purpose of evaporating the solvent and
for effecting the vulcanization, when sulphur or compounds of sulphur have
been introduced into the paste. The distribution of the mixture upon the
endless cloth may be effected by forcing it out of a hopper or vessel having a
double casing heated by steam.

page_text: To obtain pieces of fabric of a greater width than that of the cylinders, two
or more pieces (previously to placing them in the stove) may be cemented toge-
ther at their edges by caoutchouc solution or paste, with a strip of the same
fabric cemented on each side by the same solution or paste. The joint is then
compressed by means of a roller or cylinder, under which passes a moveable
carriage on which the fabric is fixed.
The fabric may be manufactured in a similar manner by substituting gutta
percha for the caoutchouc, or the wool or hair may be mixed with gutta percha
with the aid of heat without employing a solvent. Other fibrous materials
may be mixed with the wool or hair, such as hemp,jflax, tow, couch grass,
phormium tenax, palm fibre, coco fibre, jute, and similar fibrous substances.
The process and apparatus and the proportions of the materials may be
varied, but in all cases the fabric is to consist of loose or unwoven wool or hair
mixed and combined with caoutchouc, or gutta percha, or other similar elastic
or flexible impermeable gum.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that what I claim is, the
manufacture of an impermeable cloth or fabric by the combination of loose or
unwoven wool or hair with caoutchouc, or gutta percha, or other similar elastic
or flexible gum, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Emile Constantin Fritz Sautelet, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of February, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
E. C. F. SAUTELET. (L.S.)
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD, Ing" Civil,
Rue des Filles du Calvaire, No. 6.