AY IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OR IN THE PROCESS OF MAKING OR MANUFACTURING OF ROPES OR CORDAGE AND OTHER ARTICLES FROM HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
HANCOCK, of Goswell Mews, in the Parish of Saint Luke, Old Street, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Cork Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of March, now last
past, did give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Hancock, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that J, the said Thomas
Hancock, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said Thomas Hancock, iny executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AY IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PREPARATION OR IN THE PROCESS OF MAKING OR MANUFACTURING OF ROPES OR
CORDAGE AND OTHER ARTICLES FROM HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Thomas Hancock, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same
to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited

page_text: Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will morc
fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Hancock, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
as follows, that is to say :-
The nature of my said Improvement or Improvements in the Preparation or
in the Process of Making or Manufacturing of Ropes or Cordage and other
Articles from Hemp, Flax, and other Fibrous Substances, consists in the mixing
or covering the said fibrous substances, when they are formed into yarns,
strands, ropes, or cordage, or woollen, cotton, or silk threads, with a liquid
which I shall herein-after more particularly describe, so as to render the said
substances, when formed into ropes, cordage, or other articles, less liable to
injury from air or mcisture, and thereby increasing their durability. The
liquid I use for the urpose herein-before mentioned is brought into this
country, and is said to be the juice obtained from certain trees which grow in
several parts of South America, the East Indies, and other places abroad.
It is stated in Mr. William Nicholson's translation of Foureroys General
System of Chemical Knowledge, that this juice is obtained in South America
from a tree called the Hevaa. The juice or liquid I have made use of was
obtained from South America; and from my own experience I find that the
said juice or liquid, when exposed to the open air in the sun, or in a warm
room, becomes inspissated or dried, and then forms a substance exactly
resembling, and which I believe to be identically of the same nature and to
possess the same properties with the substance manufactured into bottles and
other articles, and well known by the names of caoutchouc or indian rubber or
elastic gum. In colour and consistence the said juice very much resembles
cream. The application of the said liquid to the aforesaid fibrous substances
when formed into yarns, strands, ropes, cordage, or woollen, or cotton, or silk
threads, is easily effected; and to this end I employ a process (as being a
convenient one) exactly similar to that employed by rope makers in making
tarred ropes or in saturating the strands of the rope with tar, and which
process is well known to persons employed in rope making, with this difference
only, that I employ the said liquid instead of the tar, but the said liquid is not
heated, and the strands, yarns, or threads must be separated whilst in their
wet state, or they will become more or less united. If it is wished to increase
the quantity of the liquid on the yarns, threads, or ropes, I effect this by
repeated coatings until the required thickness is obtained, laying it on always
just before the previous coating is quite dry, and keeping them separated. The

page_text: substances having been thus saturated or coated with the liquid, I then place
them in a warm room, or in the open air, until the evaporable part of the
liquid has been completely dissipated.
I lastly declare that my Invention consists in the application of the liquid
herein-before described to ropes cr cordage and other articles, such as woollen,
yarn, silk, and cotton thread, or to ropes, cordage, strands, yarns, or threads
made from other fibrous substances, so as to render the ropes, cordage, strands,
yarns, or threads less liable to injury from exposure to air or moisture.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Hancock, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.