A CERTAIN METHOD OF MANUFACTURING HATS, BONNETS, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF THE LIKE DESCRIPTION
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANTHONY
THOMAS, of Duke Street, in the Parish of Saint James, in the City of West-
minster, and County of Middlesex, Feather Manufacturer, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of March,
in the forty-eighth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said
Anthony Thomas, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Anthony
Thomas, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, excrcise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "A CERTAIN METHOD OF MANUFACTURING HATS, BONNETS, AND OTHER ARTICLES
OF THE LIKE DESCRIPTION;" in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Anthony Thomas, under my hand and seal, to cause a
particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately after the date of
the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being there-
unto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Anthony Thomas, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained as follows, that is to say :-
In the Drawings or Designs hereunto annexed, Fig. 1 represents the
perspective view, and Fig. 2 represents the section and correspondent plan,
and Fig. 3 represents the elevation and correspondent plan of a loom or
machine, of which in all and every the said Drawings or Designs the same
letters of the alphabet are applied and used to designate the same parts.
G, G, G, represents a frame or stand, into which an hollow pillar F, F, is
securely fixed. E, E, E, E, is an hollow cylindrical piece, fixed upright upon the
said pillar, and having a circular piece M, M, M, at the top thereof, projecting
in the manner of a flange, and having a number of holes regularly perforated
near the outer edge thereof. A, a, a, represents a block, formed of pieces
capable of being put together or taken asunder, as usual, and fixed, when in
use, upon a stem or upright pole B, C, which, by means of a rack and
pinion D working therein, or by any other similar well-known means, can be
raised or lowered within the hollow pillar F, F, so as to enable the operator
to set or place the said block at any height which shall or may at any time be
required. K, K, and L, L, are two rings or peices, so fitted as to move casily
up and down upon the hollow cylinder E, E, E, E, and so connected or slung
together by strings passing respectively over the pullies N, N, N, (or otherwise),
that whenever one of the said rings or pieces K, K, shall be made to descend,
the other ring or piece L, L, shall ascend, and vice versa the contrary. His
a treadle, connected with one of the rings or peices K, K, by means of wires, or
of any other suitable parts I, I, I, I, and serving to raise or lower the said rings
or pieces alternately in the process of weaving. K, k, K, k, represent upright
or nearly upright wires, or pieces of the like nature, each severally connected
with the ring or piece K, K, by a kind of joint, and each severally terminating
at the same height above in a kind of loop, so as to afford an horizontal
aperture or slit, through which the pieces of chip or willow, or other material
forming the warp of the hat, bonnet, or other article, can be severally passed
and disposed. L, 1, L, l, are wires or pieces of the same kind or description
(as K, k, K, k,) which proceed from the ring or piece L, L, for the like use
and purpose. And the said wires or pieces K, k, L, l, are so numerous as to
occupy the circumferences of the rings or picces K, K, L, 1, and thence are
passed upwards through the series of holes near the outer edge of and in the
piece M, M, M, so that all and every the said wires K, k, and L, l, shall and
do pass through the said last-mentioned holes alternately, that is to say, that

page_text: no two immediately adjacent wires from K, k, shall or do pass through holes
in M, M, M, immediately adjacent to each other, but that a wire from L, L,
shall in every part of M, M, M, be interpon'd between every two such imine-
diately adjacent wires from K, K.
And in the use and practice of my said Invention of a Method of Manu-
facturing Hats, Bonnets, and other Articles of the like Description, I do place
or dispose the pieces of chip or willow, or other material intended to form the
warp thereof, in radical situations from the centre of the block, as represented
in Figs. 2 and 3, when the said pieces are passed respectively through the
loops in the wires, and the ends thereof hang down, and are kept in a proper
state of tension by small weights O, O, and P, P, affixed to each. And hence
it will be easily understood that the said rings or pieces K, K, and L, L,
together with the wires belonging to each, do by the alternate action of the
treadle H, approach to and recede from each other, and perform the same
office with regard to the warp herein described as is usually performed by the
healds, which are worked by the treadles in common looms. And I do
accordingly so use the same parts; and I do, by means of one or more shuttles,
or by other means, according to the nature of the material, or the number and
variety of colours intended to be put in, pass the circular weft between the
layers, pieces, or threads of the said warp, and do draw the same home between
each alternation of the treadle. And I do begin my work with the block
depressed, as in Fig. 2 and 3, without the rim, in order that the lines of
direction from the block to the moveable loops of the wires K and 1 may be
such as shall be found most convenient for working the top. And I do raise
the said block very considerably when the sides are to be worked or woven;
and afterwards, when the brim is to be worked or woven, I do affix the
piece a, a, and place the block at the convenient elevation for compleating the
article.
And, lastly, I do declare that the dimensions, structure, and component parts
of my said loom or machine, herein described, are susceptible of considerable
variations, according to the nature of the work or the choice of the maker,
but that the same may and can be adopted, made, and used with such varia-
tions by any competent workman from the particulars herein-before specified
and declared.
In witness whereof, I, the said Anthony Thomas, have hereunto set my
band and seal, the Twenty-second day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eight.
1
A. THOMAS. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-second day of April,
in the year abovo mentioned, the aforesaid Anthony Thomas 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.
Inrolled the Twenty-third day of April, in the year above written.