IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OP FELT HATS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for
Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OP FELT HATS."-A communication from abroad by William Berry
Lodge and Hiram Platuer, both of Danbury, in the State of
tion nited States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward
Newton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 14th May 1868.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF FELT HATS," to be as follows:-
In the manufacture of fur hats or other fur goods, or in preparing
fur for the same, there is always a large amount of extremely short
waste or refuse which is known as "fur dust" and is usually regarded

page_text: as worthless except as manure. This Invention utilizes such material
and any short fur by incorporating it with wool felt in the manufacture
of hats in a manner whereby at little additional expense a hat greatly
superior to one made of wool felt only is obtained.
The Invention consists in applying the fur dust or other short fur E
to the bat or body of wool and incorporating it therewith after the bat
or body has been formed upon or after it comes off the cone or "former
and has been slightly felted.
"
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 6th November 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Edward Newton, Her special
licence that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Edward
Newton, my executors, administrators, 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF FELT HATS," being a communi-
cation from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Edward Newton, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thercon (that
is to say) :-
In the manufacture of fur hats, or other fur goods or in preparing fur
for the same, there is always a large amount of extremely short waste
or refuse which is known as "fur dust" and is usually regarded as
worthless except as manure.
This Invention utilizes such material
and any short fur by incorporating it with wool felt in the manufacture
of hats in a manner whereby at little additional expense a hat greatly
superior to one made of wool felt only is obtained.
The Invention consists in applying the fur dust or other short fur
to the bat or body of wool and incorporating it therewith after the
bat or body has been formed upon or after it comes off the cone or
"former" and has been slightly felted. This may be done in various
ways, as for instance when the bat or body is in the fulling stocks by
throwing, sprinkling, or otherwise feeding in a certain amount of the
dust or short fur; or the bats or bodies during the process of their
being felted may be enclosed with a suitable quantity of fur dust or
short fur in a revolving cylinder, so as to incorporate the dust with
the bodies, which operation may be repeated at different and progressive
stages during the process of felting, but so far as the Invention has
been applied it seems preferable to introduce the fur dust or short
fur in the fulling stocks. By this application of fur dust or short
fur while all the advantages and peculiarities of wool felt are retained
for the hat a great improvement is made at little or no additional
expense in the quality or gloss and smoothness or finish and also in
the weight of the article, forming in fact a new and superior description
of hat. The fur dust also has the property of preventing matting or
felting of the opposite or contiguous surfaces of the body in the felting
process, thereby economizing labor by reducing the necessity of so
frequently crozing and likewise lessening the labor of pouncing or
surfacing as usual in the manufacture of wool felt hats.
Having thus described the Invention which has been communicated to
me as aforesaid, I claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent,
making hats of wool felt in combination with fur dust or short fur

page_text: which is incorporated with the felt after the bat or body is formed or
during the process of felting as hercin set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton; have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Sixth day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
cight
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)