A THREAD MADE FROM A SUBSTANCE NOT HITHERTO APPLIED TO THAT PURPOSE, AND ALSO THE APPLICATION OF IT TO THE MANUFACTURE OF PIECE GOODS, RIBBONS, PAPER, AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of Fleet Street, in the City of London, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-seventh day of March, in the eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my 'exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as 1, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an Invention, communicated to me by a
foreigner residing abroad, of "A THREAD MADE FROM A SUBSTANCE NOT HITHERTO
APPLIED TO THAT PURPOSE, AND ALSO THE APPLICATION OF IT TO THE MANUFACTURE
OF PIECE GOODS, RIBBONS, PAPER, AND OTHER ARTICLES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, that I, the said Richard Archibald
Brooman, shall cause a particular description of the nature of the said
Invention, and in what mauner the same is to be performed, under my hand
and seal, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within

page_text: 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 thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, hereby declare that the nature of the 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, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
The nature of the said Invention consists in the manufacture of a thread of
great strength and durability, and perfectly waterproof, from the resinous or
resin-like substance called gutta percha, recently introduced from the East
Indies, and the application thereof to the manufacture of piece goods, ribbons,
paper, and other articles; and the manner in which the same is performed is
as follows: I take a lump or roll of the gutta percha, after it has been
cleansed, kneaded, and reduced to a plastic state by the means described in
the Specification of certain other Letters Patent for England, granted to me,
of date the Eleventh March, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, for
"Certain Improvements in the Preparation and Application of Artificial Fuels,
Mastics, and Cements," and either coloured or not coloured, sulphurised or not
sulphurised, and mauufacture it into threads of any required shape and degree
of fineness, by subjecting it to the operation of a machine, such as that of
which a sectional elevation and plan are given in Figures 1 and 2 of the
Drawings hereunto annexed.
A, A, is a tank, filled with cold water to about the height indicated by
the dotted line a, a; B is a hollow cylinder, which surmounts and is firmly
secured to a die box C, (a plan of which is given separately in Figure 3,) by
bolts, which at the same time serve to make both cylinder and box fast to the
top of the tank a; D is a piston which fits into the cylinder B; E, E, are a
series of pipes in the middle of the die box, which are here represented as
circular, but may be of any form desired to be given to the thread, as square
or triangular or hexagonal; F, F, are hollow chambers, leading to and from
and surrounding the pipes E, E, into which steam of a high temperature, say
from two hundred and forty to three hundred degrees Fahrenheit, is introduced
from the pipe S, in order to keep the die box hot; Tis an eduction pipe for
carrying off the condensed steam.
The mode of operating with the machine is as follows:-The piston D
is withdrawn from the cylinder, and a roll of the prepared gutta percha intro-
duced into the cylinder immediately above the die box. The piston is then
replaced and forced steadily downwards by hand or other suitable power upon

page_text: tank.
the gutta percha, which, becoming softened at the lower end by contact with
the hot die box, escapes from the pressure through the orifices E, E, in a series
of threads, which, as they drop into and are cooled by the water in the tank, are
carried round a roller W, whence they are conducted to and wound upon a set
of revolving reels G, G, mounted in suitable bearings at the opposite end of the
Care is taken that the pressure on the piston shall be uniform, and
kept up uninterruptedly until the whole of the roll of gutta percha is exhausted.
The threads, in being wound on the reels G, G, are only slightly stretched, but
from these reels they are afterwards transferred to a second set of reels, and in
the act of reeling are stretched out by hand after the manner of hand spin-
ning,(that is, by working the thread between the fingers and thumb,) to about
four times their original length; the threads are then wound off on bobbins
ready for use. Or, instead of adopting the preceding process of manufacturing
gutta percha into thread, I take the gutta percha in the sheet state, as prepared
according to the directions given in the Specification of my before-mentioned
Letters Patent, dated the Eleventh March, One thousand eight hundred and
forty-five, and either coloured or uncoloured, sulphurised or not sulphurised,
and cut it into strips and threads by means of revolving circular knives,
according to any of the well-known modes followed in the cutting of bottle or
sheet caoutchouc into threads.
But as by this last-mentioned process flat orsquare threads only can be pro-
duced, if it be desired to give a round form to these flat or square threads I
attach each thread by one end to a whirl, such as is used in rope making, and
making the other end fast to a hook fixed in any convenient situation, cause
the thread to revolve at a rapid rate on its own axis, whereby after a short
time it becomes sufficiently rounded; or I twist and spin two or more such flat
threads together into one round thread by means of a bobbin and fly frame
such as is used in the cotton manufacture. Besides giving to the gutta percha
threads the desired roundness, these whirling and twisting processes have the
effect of greatly improving them in point of elasticity.
In directing the gutta percha to be used, as prepared according to the
directions given in the Specification of my former Patent, of date the Eleventh
of March, One thousand eight hundred and forty-five, reference has been had
to the state in which it has been hitherto commonly imported into this country;
but I desire it to be understood that should it be hereafter gathered in a state
of such purity as to require no further cleansing, and be imported in thatstate,
or should it be found when imported to have been already cleansed or coloured
or sulphurised, then and in such case or cases it may be manufactured into
thread by the processes aforesaid without any further preparation. The thread

page_text: of any of the varieties aforesaid may be applied to the manufacture of piece
goods (meaning thereby all such as are made in broad and long continuous
pieces, whether by weaving, framework knitting, or netting, either by itself or
in combination with threads of silk, cotton, flax, wool, or any other fibrous
material or materials; and such combination may be either by covering or
sheathing the gutta percha thread with silk, cotton, flax, wool, or other
fibrous material, as is done in the manufacture of caoutchouc elastic bands
by means of braiding machines, and then weaving or otherwise forming it
into piece goods, or by interweaving it in the naked state with other threads.
When the gutta percha thread is used by itself it will be found more
particularly applicable to textures which it is desirable to render proof against
wet and damp. A strong and perfectly waterproof fabric is formed by simply
laying a number of gutta percha threads side by side upon a foundation of
cotton or linen, or other textile fabric, and passing the two materials between
heated rollers, which has the effect of cementing the threads firmly to the
cloth and to one another; and such fabrics may, by using threads of different
sizes and colours, have every variety of striped appearance given to them. An
article resembling diaper or mosaic work is made of gutta percha threads of
different colours or shades very rapidlyand economically in manner following:
The gutta percha threads are laid in rows one above the other in the order
of juxtaposition and superposition required by the pattern determined on, and
each row cemented to that beneath it by a solution of gutta percha or any
other suitable cement. When a mass or block of sufficient magnitude has
been thus built up, it is cut transversely into sheets of any required thickness
by means of a vibratory cutting machine similar to that commonly used in the
cutting of caoutchouc blocks into sheets.
In the manufacture of ribbons and other narrow goods, gutta percha will
be found valuable, both in the naked and sheathed states before described, asa
substitute or partial substitute for the organzine silk usually employed for the
warp of such articles, especially galloons, doubles, and ferrets used for bindings,
bands, straps, &c.
A paper very difficult to rend, and which will therefore be found extremely
suitable for documents exposed to much tear and wear, as bills of exchange,
share certificates, &c., and also for wrappers and envelopes of all sorts, is
formed by interposing between two sheets of paper pulp threads of gutta
pércha laid crosswise like network, at distances of an inch or two (more or
less) apart, and combining the two sheets of pulp by means of the machine
for which Mr. John Dickenson, of Nash Mill, obtained Letters Patent, of date
the Seventeenth of October, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, or

page_text: of any other suitable machinery. The gutta percha thread may be also plaited,
either in the naked or sheathed state, into hats, caps, and bonnets, or into
bags, baskets, and basket work, or into coverings for chairs, (as a substitute
for cane,) or into whips, bridles, and reins, or into any other similar articles.
And, finally, cordage of great strength may be made by twining together
threads of gutta percha with threads of flax or other suitable fibrous material,
by the same processes as are ordinarily followed in the manufacture of the
different sorts of cordage.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is, the
manufacture of a thread from the resinous or resin-like substance called gutta
percha, and the application thereof to the manufacture of piece goods, ribbons,
paper, and other articles, as before described and exemplified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of September,
One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
R. A. (L.S.) BROOMAN.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of Sep-
tember, in the year of our Lord 1845, the aforesaid Richard Archibald
Brooman 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
Enrolled the Twenty-seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.