AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRUNKS AND PORTMANTEAUS OF VARIOUS DESCRIPTIONS, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF MATERIALS HITHERTO UNUSED IN THE CONSTRUCTION THEREOF
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
DIXON, of High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Trunk Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eleventh day of
August, in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Dixon, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, His special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Dixon, my exors,
admors, and assigns, should and lawfully night, during the term of years
therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRUNKS AND PORTMANTEAUS OF VARIOUS
DESCRIPTIONS, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF MATERIALS HITHERTO UNUSED IN THE
CONSTRUCTION THEREOF;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso that if I, the said Richard Dixon, 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
six calendar months 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, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,
as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Dixon, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained as follows, that is to say:
Instead of body, heads, and crowns of paste board or mill board, as hereto-
fore used, I do apply slips of whalebone or whalefin of sufficient thickness and
convenient width for the purpose (thin slips of about a quarter of an inch wide
I do prefer), woven in the closest manner together, with threads, tapes, or
other materials (which may be performed in a common loom, such as used for
cotton work), and cover the same with pasted paper, cloth, or leather, for the
purpose of rendering it firm. Of this I construct the body, heads, and crowns
of my trunks or portmanteaus, and cover the whole externally with leather,
skins, painted cloth, or any other article suitable for that purpose. After
which, I attach the iron frames to the same in the usual way, and line the
interior with tickin or other suitable material; and further, for the
convenience of carrying linen and other articles smooth and separate from the
cloathing, &c., contained in the trunk or portmanteau, I construct and apply
as an improved fitting to my said and other trunks or portmanteaus, an
expansible folio, formed with two or more sheets of mill board, or other
applicable materials made to fit the interior of the trunk or portmanteau; and
by placing a gusset or gussets between the sheets of mill board, and which is
or may be fixed by paste or other method, I form a folio that expands at
pleasure, covered with linen or such materials as may or not correspond with
the interior fitting of the trunk or portmanteau.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Tenth
day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of February, in
the year of our Lord 1816, the aforesaid Richard Dixon came before our
said 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 Statute made for that purpose.