A NEW OR. IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF VEGETABLE LEATHER, AND IN THE APPLICATION THEREOF TO VARIOUS POSES USEFUL PUR
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Garrett Tongue, of the Firm of Tongue
& Birkbeck, Patent Agents & Engineers, of 34, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, for the
Invention of "A NEW OR. IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF VEGETABLE
LEATHER, AND IN THE APPLICATION THEREOF TO VARIOUS
POSES."
-
USEFUL PUR-
-A communication from abroad by Alexandre Gérôme
Jolissaint Vonèche and la Société Comte and Mabut of Paris,
France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Garrett Tongue
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 20th September 1875.
I, JOHN GARRETT TONGUE, of the Firm of Tongue & Birkbeck,
Patent Agents and Engineers, of 34, Southampton Buildings, Chancery_
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF VEGETABLE.

page_text: LEATHER, AND IN THE APPLICATION THEREOF TO VARIOUS useful Purposes," a com-
munication to me from abroad by Alexandre Gérôme Jolissaint Vonèche
and la Société Comte and Mabut of Paris, France, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a new process of manufacturing imitation or
_artificial leather entitled "French Vegetable Leather." The base or |
body of the composition constituting-this-new-manufacture is composed
of vegetable textile materials.
Sheets of carded wadding are manufactured with cotton waste or
cotton itself, according to the quality required to be produced, uniform
in thickness, length, and width, which sheets are placed on polished
zinc plates, then the wadding is coated with a concentrated decoction of
"fucus crispus" or pearl moss, or other fucus or mucilaginous lichen
(rock moss), or any other similar mucilaginous substance may be
employed.
The zinc plates require to be kept hot, in order to allow the muci-
laginous decoction to penetrate thoroughly into the filaments of the
cotton. The same is then to be dried quickly, thus giving to the surface
applied to the zinc a glazed or polished appearance resembling the gloss
of ordinary leather. The sheet thus prepared is then passed between
two heated cylinders or rollers perfectly polished, having a space between
them of the exact thickness required to be given to the product. Great
pressure is required in order to press and felt all the filaments of cotton
thoroughly together, and thereby render the thickness of the sheet
uniform. The sheet is then coated with boiled linseed oil, and dried in
the open air, or by means of artificial heat. When the sheet is dry a
coating of thin vegetable wax is applied, according to the use it is
required for, and it is softened by passing it through heated fluted
rollers, by which means it is softened in an uniform way; it is then
passed through other polished rollers, according to the quality of the
=leather required, either plain, morocco, embossed, or glazed, and then
bronzed, silvered, gilded, or varnished in like manner-to-ordinary leather.
French vegetable leather thus prepared is waterproof, and casily
stamped.
--Elasticity is given to vegetable leather thus produced by placing the
sheets impregnated with the decoction of fucus-or-other_mucilaginous
substance between two plates perfectly adjusted, having the design
embossed and hollowed out.. Great pressure is then applied to the plates,
and the dried sheet is then passed through rollers, which by flattening.

page_text: the embossed parts forms a smooth surface, which is then treated as
above stated, and becomes elastic after the oil is dry. This product can
be obtained perfectly white by selecting very white fucus, and by
bleaching the oil to be used, and various colors from the lightest to the
darkest may be obtained by the same process as ordinary leather. If
the said leather is required to be inodorous it is only necessary to wash
the oil in a weak solution of chloride of lime..
Another method of preparing the same kind of leather for the use of
cheap sole leather consists in thickening the decoction of fucus or
mucilaginous lichen with cotton dust until it becomes a thick paste;
the paste is then placed on zinc plates, then covered on both sides with
a thin sheet of cotton waste, and when dry coated with boiled linseed
oil, and then pressed between two zinc plates by means of hydraulic
pressure.
This new or improved French vegetable loather can be used in place
of natural leather, and may be employed in particular for covering
tables, chairs, sofas, travelling bags, lining of hats, caskets, carriages,
harness, military equipment, slippers, bookbinding, and many other uses
to which it may be applicable.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Garrett Tongue in the Great Seal Patent
⚫ Office on the 18th March 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GARRETT TONGUE, of the Firm of Tongue & Birkbeck, Patent Agents
and Engineers, of 34, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Garrett Tongue,.
Her special license that I, the said John Garrett Tongue, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said

page_text: Jolin Garrett Tongue, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time 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 Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF VEGETABLE
LEATHER, AND IN THE APPLICATION THEREOF TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES,” (a
communication to me from abroad by Alexander Gérôme Jolissaint
Vonèche and la Société Comte and Mabut of Paris, France,) upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Garrett Tongue, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and scals, should particularly describe and.
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, 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 John Garrett Tongue, 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 :—
This Invention relates to a new process of manufacturing imitation
or artificial leather entitled "French Vegetable Leather." The base or
body of the composition constituting this new manufacture is composed
of vegetable textile materials. .
Sheets of carded wadding are manufactured with cotton waste or
-cotton itself; according to the quality required to be produced, uniform
in thickness, length, and width, which sheets are placed on polished zinc
_or_other_metal_plates, then the wadding is coated with a concentrated
_decoction of "fucus crispus" or pearl moss, or other fucus or mucila-
ginous lichen (rock moss), or any other similar mucilaginous vegetable
substance may be employed.
The metal plates require to be kept hot, in order to allow the mucila-
ginous decoction to penetrate thoroughly into the filaments of the
cotton. The same is then to be dried quickly, thus giving to the surface
applied to the metal plate a glazed or polished annearance resembling

page_text: •
space between them the exact thickness required to be given to the sheet
to be produced. Great pressure is required in order to press and felt all
the filaments of cotton thoroughly together, and thereby render_the
thickness of the sheet uniform. The sheet is then coated with boiled
linseed oil, and dried in the open air, or by means of artificial heat.
When the sheet is a dry a. coating of thin vegetable wax is applied,
according to the use to which it is to be applied, and the sheet is
softened by passing it through heated fluted rollers, by which means it
is softened in an uniform manner; it is then passed through other
polished rollers, according to the quality of the leather required, either
plain, morocco, embossed, glazed, or otherwise, and it is then bronzed,
silvered, gilded, or varnished, and finished in like manner to ordinary
leather. French, vegetable, or similar leather thus prepared is water-
proof, and easily stamped.
+
Elasticity is given to vegetable leather thus produced by placing the
sheets. impregnated with the decoction of fucus or other mucilaginous
substance between two plates perfectly adjusted, having the design
embossed or in intaglio. Great pressure is then applied to the plates, and
the dried sheet is then passed through rollers, which by flattening the
embossed parts forms a smooth surface, which is then treated as above
stated, and becomes elastic after the oil is dry. Pressure may also be
successfully applied befor the leather is impregnated with siccative oil.
This material can be made perfectly white in the manner previously
described by selecting very white fucus, and by bleaching the oil to be
used, and various colors from the lightest to the darkest may be
obtained by the same process as ordinary leather. If the leather thus .
produced is required to be inodorous it is only necessary to wash the oil
in a weak solution of chloride of lime.
Another method of preparing vegetable leather of this character for
use as cheap sole leather consists in thickening the decoction of fucus
or mucilaginous lichen with cotton waste or dust until it becomes a
thick paste. The paste is then run into moulds or blocks, and pressed
by means of an hydraulic press, in order to form solid blocks of-any
suitable thickness, which are then dried and cut by saws or otherwise
into plates or sheets of the ordinary thickness of sole leather. These
plates or sheets are then soaked in boiled linseed oil, and when dry are
pressed again between polished metal plates.

page_text: Besides the use of cotton waste and dust all kinds of vegetable textile
materials and their waste, especially cocoa-nut fibre waste and dust
may be employed according to this Invention for the manufacture of
vegetable leather suitable for carpets or floorcloth of novel and superior
"
This new or improved "French vegetable leather or similar leather
or material can be used in place of natural leather, and may be
employed in particular for covering tables, chairs, sofas, travelling bags,
lining or bodies of hats, caskets, carriages, harness, military equip-
ments, slippers, bookbinding, and various other uses to which it may be
applicable.
This new or improved manufacture of French vegetable leather or
material will compete with and resemble ordinary leather in appearance,
strength, suppleness, and cheapness.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention and the manner
of performing or carrying the same into practice, what I claim under
the above in part recited Letters Patent is, the manufacture of vegetable
leather or similar material resembling ordinary leather, substantially by
the means and in the manner herein-before described, and in the appli-
cation thereof to various useful purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Garrett Tongue, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of March, in
the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
six.