INVENTED LUTHERN, OR INDIA SUMMER HAT,
Year: 1791

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
LYDE, of Newman Street, in the Parish of Saint Marylebone, in the County of
Middlesex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of November, in the thirty-second year of
His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said George Lyde, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge and
authority, that I, the said George Lyde, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, by myself and themselves, or by muy or their deputy or deputies,
servants or agents, or such others as I, the said George Lyde, my 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 my
INVENTED LUTHERN, OR INDIA SUMMER HAT," within that part of His said
Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also the Colonies and Plantations
abroad, in such manner as to me, the said George Lyde, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or any of us, should in our discretions seem meet; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said George
Lyde, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed. by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His

page_text: Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
should utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything therein-before con-
tained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding, as in and by the said
Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Lyde, in pursuance of and in
compliance with the said proviso, do hereby describe and ascertain the naturo
of my said Invention, and declare that the same is-to be performed in manner
following (that is to say):-
The design of tho Invention of the Luthern, or India Summer Hat, is to
keep the forehead cooler, and to prevent that headach which intense heat
gives with the common hat in hot weather and in hot climates. The improve-
ment upon hats to answer this desirable end is thus made:-A mould, called
the Patent Mould for Hat Blocks, see Fig. 1, Letter A. in the margin, is made
of wood or metal, as may be most convenient, nearly about the following
dimensions, viz.: The patent mould to be so cast, carved, or shaped as to sit
close to the common hat block. Sco Fig. 2, where D. is the cominon hat
block; and E. the profile of the mould screwed to it, which is made to put on and
to take off at pleasure, by means of screws, or a string or any other fastening.
Seo Fig. 3, where F is the bottom of the block; G, the brass, plate screwed
thereto; and H, that part of the plate to which the mould is screwed. This is
necessary in order to take the new-formed. hat off the block with the greater
facility; and to prevent the more troublesome way of having the mould fixed to
tho. block, and the block made to take to pieces. . This mould is intended; to,
give the designed form or effect to the front part of the bowl of the hat, or that
part which is intended to come immediately on the, forehead, as- may be seen
in Fig. 4; the Letter I shewing the inside of, the hat; K, the luthern or,
ventilating part; L, the aperture; and M. M, the corners of the aperture. . N,
in Figure 5, gives the outside view of the hat; and O, the external appearanco.
of the improvement after it comes off the mould, in order to form the aperturo.
at the band or lower odge of the bowl of tho hat. (front), see L in Fig. 4
Let; the mould at, that part C, Fig. 1, be about two inches and threo eighths,
of an inch long, and about one inch thick, to go up. slantways to the luthern
or ventilating part, which should be formed about two inches above, the
aperture at the band. The mould at the said luthern or ventilating part may.
be made about three inches long and about half an inch thick in, the center;
to round off till it comes to a quarter of an inch at the corners, sec Letter B
in Fig. 1, and gradually slant away above the luthern part until it comes to

page_text: and edge or is lost.
After the hat has received the usual form on the
common block, it is taken off, and the mould is screwed to the plate which
fastens it and the block together, see Figures 1 and 8. The hat is then made
wet with hot water, and again forced on the block with the mould to it; sec
Fig. 2. It is tied down, and then is pressed with the fingers or a clasp into
the corners, sides, and edges of the mould until it has received its proper
shape or form from the mould, see O, Fig. 5. A greater proportion of
stiffening is given to that part of the hat which covers the mould in order to
make it keep its form, when the hat is untied and the mould unscrewed; the
hat and mould draw off the block together. The upper part, called the
luthern or ventilating part K, Fig. 4, is then cut open and smoothed down
with a hot iron. Each corner of the aperture at the band or lower edge of
the hat M, M, Fig. 4, must necessarily press against the forehead; it is proper,
therefore, to stuff in that part under the leather lining so much cotton as will
render those corners soft and pleasant to the wearer.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Lyde, have hereunto set my hand
and scal, this Twenty-seventh day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-one.
O Sealed and delivered by the above-
named George Lyde (being first
duly stampt) in the presence of
THO. BAINBRIDGE.
WILL GROOM.
G. LYDE. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of December
in the thirty-second year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third,
the said George Lyde came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the several Statutes made in
the sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary of
England, and so forth, and in the seventeenth and twenty-third years of the
reign of His present Majesty King George the Third.