CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HATS
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
PARRY, of High Street, Deptford, in the County of Kent, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of August, in the
tenth year of Her reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Henry Parry,
my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Henry Parry, my exors, admors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Henry Parry, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney,
Sark and Man, and in all Her Colonies and Plantations abroad, my In-
vention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HATS;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, requiring that I, the said
Henry Parry, shall 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 enrolled in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at largo appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Parry, 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 in and by this present Specification or instrument in writing,
reference being had to the several Drawings hereunto annexed (that is to
say):-
My said Invention consists of manufacturing or preparing hats, so that the
same shall be partly covered with nap, and partly uncovered or without nap, in
order that the same may assume the appearance of hats partially covered with
crape, cloth, or other material, as worn by persons in mourning; and if a hat
made according to my said Invention be white, or of any colour except black,
the portion of it not covered with nap may be printed or coloured black, in
order that the same may assume such appearance as aforesaid. Hats made
according to my said Invention may be made of felted stuff bodies, or of any
other description of hat bodies usually employed in the manufacture of hats,
and the covering of nap, or of material to form nap, which I put upon portions
of my hats, may be put upon the hats at any of the stages of the process of hat
making at which hat bodies are usually covered with the material intended to
form the nap thereof; so also any material usually employed for the purpose
of forming the nap of bats may be used for covering hats, or such portions of
hats, made according to my Invention as aforesaid. And if it should be
deemed to be more convenient or economical, the whole of the outer surface of
the body of a hat to be made according to my Invention may in the first
instance be covered with the material of which its nap is to be formed, and
such material, or the nap formed thereof, afterwards cut, burnt, or otherwise
taken from such part or parts of the hat body as may be intended to be bare
or not covered with nap; so also if the whole of the outer surface of the body
of a hat be covered with such material as aforesaid, the nap may be raised
upon those portions only of the hat which are intended to possess a nap.
The mode of making bats partly covered and partly uncovered with nap,
according to my said Invention, which I deem to be most advantageous, is as
follows: If the hat is to be made of an ordinary felted stuff body, water-
proofed in the usual way, such as shewn in Figure 1 in the Drawings
hereunto annexed, I cover so much of the apex or tip a, Figure 1, of the body
with the material for forming a nap as will enable me to make the hat with
a nap upon the crown, and so much of the side or side crown (if any) as may
be desired to possess a nap. In like manner I cover with such material
that part of the body which is intended to form the brim, as shewn at b,
Figuro 1, and also the inside of the same portion of the body, so that the

page_text: brim may possess a nap on both sides in the usual way. There will thus
be an uncovered space, as shewn at c, Figure 1, which is intended to
form the side or side crown, or part of the side or side crown of the
hat. The hat body having been thus prepared, is to be blocked, its nap
raised, and (if desired) shorn, and the whole dyed in the usual manner;
after which it is also to be finished, trimmed, and shaped in the usual
way. If the edges of the napped portions of the outside of the hat should
be irregular, the superfluous portions of the nap may be burnt off by
the flame of a lamp, the edges of those portions of the nap which are not
intended to be removed being kept moist or otherwise protected from the
action of the flame. A hat made in this way may have only a portion of its
side uncovered with nap, as shewn in Figure 2, or the whole or nearly the
whole side of the hat may be made so as to be uncovered, as shewn in
Figure 3. The appearance of that portion of a felted hat body which is not
covered with nap will be much improved by putting a thin cover or band of
finer material, such as beaver, neutria, musquash, or hare's wool, upon that
part of the hat body towards the close of the felting, or process of making the
hat body, and before it undergoes the process of being waterproofed; and the
appearance of the uncovered portion of a hat will be still further improved
by rubbing it with glass paper before it is dyed, so as to smooth it and
remove superfluous hairs and particles as much as practicable. If a hat
is to be covered with silk, I cover the crown and the brim, and so much (if
any) of the side as may be intended to be covered, with plush, or material of
which the nap is to be formed, the other portion of the hat side or side crown
being covered with black cloth or other material without nap. The edges
of the pieces of plush and cloth where they are to meet together all round the
hat must be even and straight, so as to fit close together, and produce no ridge
or unevenness, and in practice I believe it will generally be found best to sew or
otherwise fasten them together all round the hat where they join; the plush
and cloth are to be put and fastened upon the hat, and the hat finished in the
usual way. These hats may be covered with silk or other suitable material,
formed partly with plush or nap, as shewn at Figure 4; c being the plush or
nap part; and d, the portion without nap or plush; and the hat finished in the
usual way, as shewn at Figure 5. If a felted hat made according to my said
Invention be white, the whole, or that portion of the side or side crown which
is not covered with nap, may be made black by printing, the block used for
that purpose being pressed upon successive portions of the side until the whole
is printed or made black, in the same way as a black surface is usually
produced by printing. The sides of a felted or stuff hat may also, if desired,