CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OR METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SHAG TOBACCO, WHEREBY THE STALKS TAKEN OUT OF THE LEAF TOBACCO MAY BE CUT UP INTO SHAG TOBACCO WITHOUT INJURING THE QUALITY THEREOF
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
STOCKWELL, of the City and County of Bristol, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the fifty-first year of
His reign, give and grant unto me, the said John Stockwell, my exors,.
admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge and autho-
rity, that I, the said John Stockwell, my exors, admors, and assigns, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OR METHOD OF
MANUFACTURING SHAG TOBACCO, WHEREBY THE STALKS TAKEN OUT OF THE LEAF
TOBACCO MAY BE CUT UP INTO SHAG TOBACCO WITHOUT INJURING THE QUALITY
THEREOF; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I,
the said John Stockwell, shall 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 two calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,
that then the said Letters Patent; and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Stockwell, do hereby declare that my mode or method is to tie up about

page_text: two or three pounds of tobacco stalks into a bundle, and, if long stalks, to cut
the thin end off about six inches, so as to leave about two thirds of the
thickest part of the stalk only. I then soak them for twenty-four hours in a
liquor or dye made for that purpose, so as to bring them as near as possible to
the color of shag tobacco. I then pass the stalks through a pair of rollers to
. make them flat, taking care that the rollers are each provided with a scraper
to take off the stalks as they pass through, so as to prevent their passing a
second time between the rollers. I then have them laid as straight as possible,
and fil'd up with the tobacco into the cutting boxes, taking care to mix the
stalks so flattened very regular in with the leaf in the middle of the box, and
laid so that the knife shall cut them the long way of the stalk. The quantity
of stalk used may be from one pound of stalk so flattened to four or five
pounds of leaf when strip'd, or in any other proportion at the manufacturer's
own option. The liquor I make by boiling thirty pounds of Campeachy log-
wood, and seven pounds of blue galls bruis'd, in ninety gallons of soft water
for one hour and an half. I then add seven pounds of green copperas, and
four pounds of allum to it, and boil for twenty minutes more. If the tobacco
is bad flavored, the smell of it may be improved by infusing any aromatic in
this liquor.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Stockwell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and cleven.