AN IMPROVED WATERPROOF FABRIC
Year: 1855

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jean Hector Destibeaux at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
September 1855.
I, JEAN HECTOR DESTIBEAUX, Merchant, of Paris, Town of the French
Empire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED WATERPROOF FABRIC" to be as follows:-
My improved waterproof fabric is prepared as follows:-I first apply on the
upper and under surfaces of a cotton or linen fabric, such for instance as that
called moleskin, (and known at Mulhouse by the name of "moleskine,") a
coating composed of boiled linseed oil, rendered siccative by litharge mixed
with calcined umber and lamp black, and liquefied where found necessary by
the addition of a small quantity of essence of turpentine. I do not restrict
myself to any particular proportions, but I find the following answer the
purpose:-100 parts oil, 3 umber, 6 lamp black.
The composition is laid on by means of a spatula or spreader to the fabric in
a distended state; or I employ for the purpose of my Invention an apparatus
in which the fabric is stretched over a drum, and drawn over stretching or
tentering rollers under a vessel or hopper mounted on the framework of the
apparatus, and which contains the coating or composition for discharging on to
the fabric, over the surface of which it is spread evenly by a spatula or spreader

page_text: or other suitable contrivance. The fabric then passes through a drying stove,
or over warm plates or hollow cylinders (such as are used by calenderers),
heated by steam or otherwise, and when dried sufficiently it passes under an
oscillating or vibrating segmental block, cylinder, plate, or other similar con-
trivance, which smoothes the fabric. The surface of the cylinder or segmental
block may be engraved, so as to produce a grain of any pattern required. The
fabric then passes on to the first drum, or it may be stretched over other
tentering rollers, and the operation is repeated as often as may be necessary for
the particular quality of the desired product. A glair is laid upon the pre-
paratory coating just described by a brush. This glair is composed of similar
ingredients to those forming the first coating, with the addition of a considerable
quantity of essence of turpentine. The fabric is then dried in the air or in a
stove, and polished by pumice stone, which may also be employed in the first
operation.
The waterproof fabric produced as aforesaid may be afterwards varnished by
applying thereon a coating of boiled linseed oil, litharge, calcined umber,
powdered prussian blue, and dissolved caoutchouc. I do not restrict myself to
any particular proportions, but I have found the following answer my purpose:-
100 parts oil to 3 litharge, 3 umber, 3 prussian blue, and 2 caoutchouc. The
varnish must be allowed to dry in a stove for from 48 to 60 hours, the heat
being gradually raised from about 85 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, after which
the varnished waterproof fabric is to be exposed to the sun.
Various colors may be produced by substituting suitable colors for lamp black
after laying on the last coating but one. In this case, instead of the varnish
with prussian blue, before described, I use a white varnish, consisting of 100
parts linseed oil mixed with three parts sulphate of zinc, and 3 dissolved copal
resin but these proportions may be varied as thought desirable. I do not
restrict myself to the use of the ingredients mentioned; other substances
possessing the property of rendering the oil siccative may be used for that
purpose; but I intend to claim the new waterproof fabric herein-before
described, together with the means of producing the same.
;