IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RODERT
WILSON, of Sowerby Bridge, in the Parish of Halifax, in the West Riding of
the County of York, Currior and Tanner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Second day of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-one, in the fifth year of Her reign, did give and
grant unto me, the said Robert Wilson, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Robert Wilson, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said Robert Wilson, my exors, adiñors, and 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 mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years, pursuant to the Statute
in that case made and provided, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso that I, the said Robert Wilson, should 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, to be
enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: 1
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, as, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
arge appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Wilson, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following instrument in writing (reference being had to the
letters therein contained, and the Drawings in the margin):
My Invention consists, first, in a new mode of preparing hides or skins, or
parts of hides or skins, for covering rollers used in the manufacture of yarn
and thread, at a cheaper cost and more expeditiously than the leather heretofore
applied for such purpose was produced, which is effected by me thus:-
After the hides or skins have passed the common and well-known process
of immersion and working in a lixivium of pigeons' dung, I pass them through
a solution of alum, terra japonica, and quercitron bark, in which solution I
allow them to remain about four days, frequently handling them, and stirring
up such solution during that period, and after that they are in a proper state
to be taken out of the solution, and then dried, polished, and cut, so as to be
ready to be applied to the intended purpose.
Second, in a new mode of splitting hides or skins, after which both or either
of the parts so divided may be prepared in the above mode for covering rollers,
or may be manufactured into leather in any of the modes now usually pursued
for that purpose, which new mode is effected by me thus:-After the hide has
passed through the usual processes up to the immersion in bark liquor, and
after having been immersed in bark liquor for the space of four days, and
frequently handled during that period, I take it out of the bark liquor
and fasten one end of it to a cylinder, and then cause the cylinder to revolve
so as to bring that part of the cylinder to which the hide is attached imme-
diately opposite to a fixed bar. I then take the opposite or loose end of the
hide, and pass and draw it over such bar until a sufficient part of the hide has
been so drawn over as to make that part of the hide which will remain between
the cylinder and the bar quite tight, and drawn out to a firm tension. I then
place two rollers upon the surface of the hide upon the fixed bar, so as to keep
the bide upon the bar, and between it and the cylinder, straight and tight as it
is drawn over the bar. I then screw up a knife to as near the surface of the
bar as I may deem requisite, to split the hide into two parts, according to the
thickness of each part required. I then cause the cylinder to revolve so as to
draw the hide downwards over the bar, and the knife having an eccentric
.

page_text: motion given to it, cuts or splits the hides into two portions throughout the
entire length. This apparatus is shewn at Figure 1, which represents a side
view thereof and of the rest of the machine; Figure 2, a front view; and
Figure 3, a top view. In these Figures, A represents the cylinder to which
the hide is fixed; B, the O-G bar, over which the hide is regulated in passing
to the blade; C, the blade holder, which runs in the groves D, D; D, D, the
groves in which the slide moves, and to which the blade holder is fixed; E,
the bed upon which the frame of the slide is adjusted by the screw F to the
O-G bar B; F, F, the wheel and screw which adjust the frame with its
blade towards the O-G bar B; G, G, the worm and wheel which give motion
to the cylinder; HI, II, the axle and wheel receiving their motion from the
pulley and pinion wheel I, I; I, I, the pulley and pinion wheel, which receive
their movement from the pulley L by the belt marked by dotted lines and *;
J, the strap to the pullies K, K, communicating motion to the whole machine;
K, K, the pullics by which motion is communicated from the strap J to the
whole machine on the axle O, O; L, the pulley communicating with the
pulley and pinion wheel I, I, and giving motion to the wheel and axle H, H,
and also to the worm and wheel G, G; M, the fly wheel on the axle O, O;
N, the eccentric on the axle O, O, which gives motion to the slide 6; 0, 0, the
axle on which the pullies K, K, and L, the fly wheel M, and the eccentric N,
are fixed; P, P, the frame; Q, Q, the axle (of the cylinder A) on which the
wheel G connected with the worm G is fixed; R, R, the lever and grove, by
means of which the wheel G is moved in and out of the worm G, whereby
motion is either given to or taken away from the cylinder A; S, S, the
brackets which bear up the bed E; T, T, the pulley, which turns the grind-
stone u fixed to the bed E; u, the grindstone, which can be adjusted to the
blade or knife by the screw V; V, the screw operating on the grindstone; W,
the wedge, which fastens the leather or hide to the cylinder; a, the roller
pressed down by the levers and weights d, d, against the hide, which passes
between it and the O-G bar B; a*, a metallic roller, which assists in
straightening the hide before passing between the roller a and the O-G bar B;
b, b, the two rollers over which the hide (in passing from the knife or blade)
is prevented from being contracted while it is stretched for the operation
of the knife; c, c, the eccentric rod fixed to the slide e; d, d, the levers and
weights pressing down the roller a (as mentioned above); e, the slide; f, the
blade or knife; g, the frame; h, the super-adjusting nuts.
But I do hereby lay no claim to any part of the machine, or any part of the
process or mode secondly above described, except, and I do hereby confine

page_text: my claim of Invention of the above new mode secondly above described, to
O-G bar, and the splitting hides in an untanned or green state as well as
tanned leather.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Wilson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-two.