IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING SURFACES ON LEATHER AND FABRICS
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
KEENE, of Sussex Place, Regent's Park, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-third day of March, in the third year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles Keene, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Charles Keene, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Charles Keene, my exors, admors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING SURFACES
ON LEATHER AND FABRICS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that I, the said Charles Keene, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled 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 in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Keene, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say) :-
The object of my Invention is to obtain an outside surface of india rubber
to leather, in order to render the same waterproof, and also to offer an
external surface to be worn in place of the ordinary dressed or obtained
surfaces of leather, which are used for boots, shoes, and other articles, where
it is desirable to have a waterproof external surface to leather. The ordinary
means heretofore used in producing surfaces on leather, either when tanned
or otherwise prepared, has been by dyeing, painting, or gilding it, and after-
wards applying a varnish suitable for the purpose, prepared from albumen,
resin, or gums, which have not rendered them waterproof or impervious to
damp; but there has been waterproof leather made with a polished surface,
by coating it with linseed oil and coloring matter, and afterwards working it
up to a polish or gloss by friction or japanning, or japan may have been used
upon leather in its ordinary state, but these are liable to chip or crack when
curved or bent in or over an angle. Now the object of my Invention is to
produce on leather a surface that shall be waterproof, or partly waterproof,
according to the substance thereof, or thickness of the material applied thereto,
having all the elasticity and more pliancy than leather heretofore in use,
which shall not be liable to chip or crack, and will be considerably
strengthened by the application.
In order that my Invention may be fully understood, I will now proceed
'to describe the method of preparing the materials, and also to explain the
process of using the same.
I take one hundred pounds of indian rubber, and cut it into small pieces, or
bruise it into thin sheets between rollers, or by some other means, and saturate
it in about two hundred pounds of turpentine, or any of the known solvents for
caoutchouc, for twenty-four hours, more or less, but that generally answers the
purpose, for the caoutchouc has then absorbed the oil or solution, and is fully
'decomposed therewith. I then pass it through a pair of crushing rollers,
set nearly close, which I continue several times, and whilst this process is
going on, I sift lamp black or other colouring matter on to it in sufficient
quantity to give it the required hue, and when the whole is worked into one
uniform mass, to the consistency or thereabouts of stout dough or putty, that
is to say, neither in a fluid or solid state, I keep it in this condition in a
reservoir of water, ready for use. I would here remark, that the skins or
leather to which my Invention is best applied is in the form of what are

page_text: called doeskin, buckskin, wash leather, and the like, the skins being prepared
in the ordinary manner. I select such as are of uniform thickness, and
nearly equal in size, and having adjusted a pair of rollers to suit the thickness
of the skins and quantity of pulp required to be laid thereon, the roller which
faces the pulp being supplied with a damper of water, keeping it continually
wetted thereby while the process is going on, which prevents the pulp of
india rubber from adhering to the rollers or being drawn from the skins; the
other rollers should be kept clean and dry, except when desired to put a
surface on both sides, which may be put on at once, or one after the other.
I prefer having both rollers to lay horizontally or on an inclined plane, under
an angle of forty-five, being about eighteen inches diameter. I commence by
placing a skin over the dry or front roller, in a smooth and even direction, the
rollers being turned until they just take an edge of the skin between them;
I then wet my hands and take from the bulk of the pulp of india rubber a
sufficient quantity, or rather more than enough to cover the skin, and I pull
or work the india rubber into a long roll, the width of the skin. I lay it
close down in the hollow between the leather and the wet roller; the rollers
being then turned, the skin passes though them, receiving a smooth coat of
the flexible and waterproof material upon its surface, being thoroughly pressed
into the fibres and pores of the leather, and when dry it may then be
embossed or gilt in the usual manner of gilding or embossing leather, finishing
it with some material to give it a gloss, and remove the adhesive properties.
For this purpose I use shellac dissolved in spirits of wine, with a small
quantity of Venice turpentine, or other materials may be used if required. I
put two or more coats upon each other upon the surface, and in some cases,
after it is dry, I pass it through either smooth or embossed rollers, or I press it
between embossing plates or smooth ones.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the best manner I
am acquainted with for performing the same, I would remark, that I do not
confine myself to the means herein described for spreading the surface of
india rubber (more or less dissolved) on to leather, as other means may be
resorted to, particularly when leather is first made into fabrics, such as shoes,
portmanteaus, and other articles. In such cases I use the india rubber more
fluid, and apply it by hand; but what I claim is,
First, the mode of preparing external surfaces of leather, and fabrics made
therefrom, with india rubber (more or less dissolved) as a finished dressing,"
as described. And,
Secondly, I claim the mode of applying water on the surfaces of rollers