IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZING OR DRESSING YARNS OR THREADS FOR WEAVING
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Wellington Welch, of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Warp Sizer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZING
OR DRESSING YARNS OR THREADS FOR WEAVING."
Sealed the 27th October 1859, and dated the 29th April 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Wellington Welch
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th April 1859.
I, JOHN WELLINGTON WELCH, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Warp Sizer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SIZING OR DRESSING YARNS OR THREADS FOR WEAVING," to be: as
follows:-
My Invention consists in sizing or dressing yarns or threads for weaving
with a combination of substances not heretofore used for that purpose. To
this end I employ gelatine derived from animal substances, combined with
sulphate of magnesia.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Wellington Welch in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th October 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
WELLINGTON WELCH, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Warp Sizer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said John Wellington Welch, Her special license that I,
the said John Wellington Welch, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said John Wellington Welch, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN SIZING OR DRESSING YARNS OR
THREADS FOR WEAVING," upon the condition, amongst other things, that I, the
said John Wellington Welch, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, 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 Wellington Welch, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say) :-
My Invention consists in sizing or dressing yarns or threads for weaving,
with a combination of substances not heretofore used for that purpose. To
this end I employ gelatine derived from animal substances, combined with
sulphate of magnesia. The relative proportions in which these substances are
used may be varied to a considerable extent, and will depend in great measure
upon the weight which it is desired to put into the material. I will, however,
by way of example, mention such quantities as I have found to answer,
together with the method of using the combined substances.
I take one hundred pounds of buffalo hide pairings, such as arise from the
manufacture of "pickers," and place them in a boiler with one hundred

page_text: gallons of water, this I boil by fire or steam heat until the whole is dissolved,
from five to ten hours will be required, and the produce is a fine gelatine.
Then I take four thousand pounds of sulphate of magnesia and dissolve it in
its own weight of water, in order to assist which, heat may be applied, and
when completely dissolved, it is run into the trough or sizing machine, as in
the ordinary way of sizing, after which the gelatine is added. The mixture is
then heated to about 210° F., and the yarns or threads passed through in the
ordinary manner. The experience of the workman will enable him to make
the requisite change to insure any increase of weight desired, and I would
observe, that the hydrometer may be used with advantage; for the workman
having once ascertained the effect produced by a given mixture of the sizing
materials, may be guided by that experience in future operations. I find from
experience that the yarns or threads take up a larger quantity of the gelatino
than of the sulphate of magnesia. In order therefore to preserve an uniform
effect, I add from time to time a small quantity of gelatine; the amount required
will readily be arrived at by competent persons. The yarns or threads having
been sized or dressed as above, may be dried by any of the ordinary methods.
I have above alluded to an animal size made from buffalo hide, but I do
not confine myself thereto, as any animal gelatine may be used in place thereof.
I have also mentioned certain proportions of the materials, the combination
whereof constitutes my Invention, but I do not limit my claim to them, they
being given merely as a general example, and being necessarily varied accord-
ing to the quality of the yarns or threads; their intended purpose in weaving,
and the weight to be added to them; that which I claim as secured to me
under the above in part recited Letters Patent, being the use of animal
gelatine and sulphate of magnesia combined for the purpose above set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Wellington Welch, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
JNO. W. WELCH. (L.S.)