AN IMPROVED METHOD OF TANNING
Year: 1801

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANCIS
BREWIN, of Bermondsey, in the County of Surry, Tanner, send greeting..
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Third day of November
now last past, upon the Petition of me, the said Francis Brewin, did give and
grant unto me, the said Francis Brewin, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Francis Brewin, my executors, administrators, or assigns, and every
of them, by myself and themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies,
servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Francis Brewin, 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, within
that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF TANNING," in such manner as to ine, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should in my or their discretions
seem meet, and that I, the said Francis Brewin, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit,.

page_text: commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing, accruing, and
arising by the said Invention, for and during the term of years therein
mentioned; and it is by the said in part recited Letters Patent (amongst
other provisoes therein) provided; that if I; the said Francis Brewin, 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 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
ccase, determine, and become void, as in and by the said Letters Patent,
relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Francis Brewin, in compliance with
the condition in the said provisoe expressed and contained, do hereby declare
that the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to
be performed, are as follows, viz:-
My improved process of tanning consists principally in consolidating floaters
and taps, that is, by drawing the oozes for: the vats. and handlers from the
floaters, and working the oozes through the floaters in every respect as though
they were a set of taps, and using them at the same time in the nature of
floaters by handling the greenest packs in them. These vats I call floating
taps. My process I describe more particularly, as follows:-Twenty or
twenty-five vats I consider as constituting one complete tan-yard, and my vats
being nearly of one size, I take two or three of the centre vats, which I use as
spenders, four or six immediately next to these I make my floating taps, each
containing an eye and a false bottom. The remainder are vats and händlers
in which I use all my fresh bark. One floating tap I keep empty that it may
contain the whole of the ooze and bark in a vat or handler, into which
floating vat I draw the ooze and bark from that vat or handler which I
conceive most necessary to be drawn. I draw off by a pump 'from this
floating tap, now the best, my oozes into the vat or handler from which it last
came, making up the deficiency from the second floating tap, late the best, but
working it first through the one now made. I put the goods down in the drawn
oozes with about three times the quantity of bark that is generally used with
one pack. I continue to work the whole of the floating taps as though they
were one set of taps, but first I throw up each pack of goods, and after the
floating taps are worked through I shift the Boating packs as in a-sét of
handlers. The bark in the late worst floating tap being, after the whole-has
been worked through, thrown into the spender, causes such 'floating tap to

page_text: become the empty floating tap, ready to receive the ooze and bark from the
vat or handler next to be drawn, Experience, perhaps, may prove it to be
most advantageous, particularly where the number of floating taps exceed
six, to draw the oozes from one of the more backward floating taps instead of
the best. In this case those floating taps only that follow the one drawn from
must be considered as floating taps, and the others worked merely as floaters
by shifting the packs only. In this case some labour in pumping would be
saved and the goods before they go into fresh bark would be more tanned.
The precise number of floating taps in a yard is not very material, but more
than ten, I conceive, will seldom be found most advantageous or less than four.
By disposing of the spenders, floating taps, vats, and handlers, as before
described, barrows or long shoots will seldom if ever be required to convey the
bark or ooze from the vats and handlers to the floating taps, or from the
floating taps to the spenders, as such vats or handlers may be drawn as lie next
to the empty floating tap; and such floating tap is so disposed as to lie next to
the spender that has received its bark, as may be seen by a plan of two of my
yards in the margin. I draw so many vats or handlers into each floating tap
as that when the goods and oozes are out of them the bark will about half fill
them; but as I generally put as much bark into a vat or handler as will be
sufficient for this purpose, I do not often draw more than one vat or handler
into one floating tap. One spender will contain two floating taps, from which,
if the spenders are just half the number of the floating taps, which I consider
as a proper proportion, the whole will both be worked round or emptied in the
same time; of course the floating tap that is to be cast will always continue to

page_text: be near the spender that is to receive the bark. Three or four times
handling the goods after they have been regularly through the floating taps
beside when drawn for, I find sufficient. I seldom handle the floating taps but
when the ooze is drawn, excepting the greenest pack, which I generally handle
once in two or three days at least. The size of the vats, handlers, floating
taps, and spenders is not very material, but I consider that the floating taps
and spenders should be at least equal in size with the handlers and vats. This
general rule should be observed, not to draw so often or more vats or handlers
into a floating tap as that the floating tap will not contain goods sufficient to
spend the bark to your satisfaction. By the above process the oozes in the
vats and handlers may always be kept about twice as strong as such oozes in
general are, as so much more bark is used at one time with each pack of
goods, and as each pack of goods may be drawn for while the ooze continues
to be very strong, and of course will cause the drawn oozes to be very strong
also, and yet by the process the bark goes through in the floating taps it will
be before thrown away more completely spent than by any other process,
'from the water being made to go through the bark, after it has been used in
the vats or handlers, so many more times than is done by the usual process
before it becomes to be used with the fresh bark, but above all from the green
goods after the oozes are drawn from it, spending the bark at the same that
it is spending by the water being worked through it. The great advantages
derived from this process are:-The leather is made of a superior quality,
being more solid and weighty than other leather, and is manufactured in less
time from the oozes in the vats and handlers containing double the quantity of
the tanning quality than is contained in common oozes. The leather when
curried will be much more waterproof than common leather, as it will tako in
more oil in the process of currying, provided the oozes in the handlers and
vats are not kept stronger tlian oozes in general are. The leather will be
much tougher than other leather, as by this process it is not put into any old
acid oozes while green, by which the texture of leather in general is much
injured. The leather in manufacturing requires less labour than by any other
process, as the labour of drawing oozes, from the large quantity of bark used
in each ooze, is considerably abridged, and their is a saving of bark from its
being more completely spent than by any other process, and as the quantity of
bark permitted to stand without goods is much less than usual, elm bark or
weaker barks than oak may by this process be used with particular advantages,
since the bark is thereby so completely spent and the labour so much abridged,
and inasmuch as it enables the keeping the oozes in the vats and handlers
much stronger than by any other process, by which means the leather tanned

page_text: by elm or other weak barks becomes as solid and weighty as common leather
tanned by oak bark.
In witness whereof, the said Francis Brewin hath hereunto set his
hand and seal, the Third day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and one.
Same place.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of December, in
the year of our Lord 1801, the aforesaid Francis Brewin came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.