CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF MAKING OR MANUFACTURING AND DYEING HATS
Year: 1826

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARNOLD
BUFFUM, late of Massachusetts, in the United States of America, but now
residing in Bridge Street, in the City of London, Hat Manufacturer (being
one of the people called Quakers), send greeting.
. WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighteenth day of February, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-six, in the seventh year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Arnold Buffum, His especial
licence that I, the said Arnold Buffum, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such
others as. I, the said Arnold Buffum, my exors, adñiors, 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, the Invention of " CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF
MAKING OR MANUFACTURING AND DYEING HATS," partly communicated to me by a
certain Foreigner residing abroad, and partly my own discoveries; in which
said Letters. Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Arnold
Buffum, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in
His 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, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Arnold Buffum, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and
the following description thereof (that is to say) :-
:-
1, to facilitate the process of dyeing hats. 2, to produce a more perfect
colour. 3, to prevent many of the damages to which hats are exposed in
the common method of dyeing, and 4th, by accomplishing the process in a
shorter time than by the usual method, and, consequently, lessening the
diletereous effects of the dyeing materials upon the strength and durability of
the hat itself. To accomplish the above-mentioned very desirable objects,
it is requisite that hats intended to be dyed should without handling be alter-
nately exposed at short intervals to the action of the colouring matter and the
oxygen of the atmospheric air, and at the same time be so arranged that they
can neither come in contact with the dye pan nor each other. And in further
compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Arnold Buffum, do hereby declare
that my said improvements do consist in the constructing, applying, and using
in the process of dyeing hats, a wheel fitted with pins, bolts, screws, or hooks
on one or both of its sides, to hang hats upon, and in placing or suspending
the said wheel partly in and partly above the dye pan, in a perpendicular
position, in such manner that when one or both of its sides are covered or
partly covered with hats, and a gentle revolving motion given to the wheel,
the hats are alternately changed from the dye liquor to the air, see Fig. 1 ;
and 2ndly, in constructing, applying, and using, instead of the above-mentioned
wheel, although for the same purpose, a rack, fitted with pins, bolts, screws,
or hooks, on one or both of its sides, to hang hats upon, and in suspending the
same in a perpendicular position in and over the dye pan, by any of the means
used for raising and lowering heavy bodies, in such manner that when its
sides are covered or partly covered with hats, it may be alternately lowered
into the dye liquor and raised again into the air, where the hats will without
handling be exposed to the action of oxygen, in the same manner as when on
the wheel, see Fig. 2. And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said An old Euffum, do Lereby describe the process which I have found best

page_text: to answer the purposes of this said improvement:-The dye pan is made with
a strait top, two flat sides, and a circular bottom, in the form of half of a
wheel. It is ten feet long on the top, five feet deep in the centre, and two
and a half feet wide in every part, as represented by Fig. 3. The wheel
represented by Fig. 1 is made of cast iron, or other suitable material. It has
three circles or rims. Its diameter is eight and half feet. The space between
the rims, measuring from the centre of each, is thirteen inches. They are
three inches wide and one and a quarter inches thick. Six arms, each three
inches wide at the centre, and two inches wide at the outer ends, extend from
the center across the circles or rims, and hold them in their proper position.
In the centre of the wheel is a nave with a hole for the axle five inches
square. The wheel is suspended by an axle, three feet long, resting crosswise
over the centre of the dye pan, in such position that nearly half the wheel
hangs in the dye pan, and the rest of it is in the air above it. Fifty pins, of
brass or other metal, each one foot long and three fourths of an inch diameter,
are put at equal distance through the rims or circles of the wheel, projecting
five and three eighths inches on each side of the wheel. The dye liquor being
prepared and in the pan, one hundred hats being on their blocks are hung
upon the pins, nearly covering both sides of the wheel. Half of them are in
the dye liquor and the other half are in the air. The wheel is made to revolve
once in twenty minutes, so that each hat is alternately in the dye and in the
air ten minutes at a time. The dimensions of the pan and of the wheel may
be varied, as also the materials of which they are made. The wheel may be
suspended or placed over the dye pan in such manner that a larger or smaller
portion of it may be in the dye, and for want of the means of giving it a
gradual revolving motion, it may be turned half round once in ten minutes,
or in a longer or shorter time, to suit the judgment of its manager. Should
any prefer the rack, the best method of using it is to have two racks of pro-
cisely the same dimensions, allowing a space of about thirteen inches square
for each hat. Let these be hung upon two cranes, one at each end of the
dye pan.
When one is raised out of the dye let it be swung off; let the other
be lowered into the dye; and by thus changing them alternately, once in ten
minutes, the same result will be produced as when the wheel is used.
In witness whereof, I, the said Arnold Buffum, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.
ARNOLD (L.S.) BUFFUM.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1826, the aforesaid Arnold Buffum came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, 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 Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.