IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND PRESERVATION OF SKINS, AND ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
AUGUSTUS PRELLER, of Abchurch Lane, in the City of London, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters Pa-
tent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of March, in the fifteenth year of
Her reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Charles Augustus Preller, my
exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Charles Augustus Preller, my exors, admors, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Charles Augustus Preller, my exors,
adñiors, or 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 expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend the Invention com-
municated to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad, of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PREPARATION AND PRESERVATION OF SKINS, AND ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE
SUBSTANCES," within that part of Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, in Her Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad;
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso requiring that I;
the said Charles Augustus Preller, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in Her said 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, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and
at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Augustus Preller, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
described and ascertained in and by this present Specification or instrument in
writing, that is to say :-
My Improvements in the Preparation and Preservation of Skins, and
Animal and. Vegetable Substances, consist in impregnating them with com-
positions or compounds of certain animal, vegetable, and saline substances
by means of mechanical agitation, or by means of heat or warmth and
mechanical agitation combined. The vegetable substances which I use are
such as contain a large proportion of starch and little or no gluten, such
as flour of barley, rice, potatoes, &c. or starch itself. The animal matters I
prefer to use are ox brains, milk, butter, oil, tallow, fat, or other grease.
And the saline matters I prefer to use are salt or saltpetre, which I find best
adapted for preventing the putrefaction of the butter and the brains. The
composition I have found to answer best, is produced from the following ingre-
dients in the following proportions: For every one hundred pounds of compo
'sition I use of barley flour twenty-six pounds, brains of oxen twenty-three
pounds, salt or saltpetre four pounds, unsalted butter six and a half pounds,
milk twelve and a half pounds, and animal oil, such as neatsfoot, oil or horse-
grease, twenty-eight pounds. To form these ingredients into, the said compo-
sition, which should be of a pasty character, the brains, and butter are first to
be mixed together in any suitable vessel; and the. barley flour is, then to
be added gradually in small quantities by stirring or kneading it in, until, it and
the brains and butter form a well-incorporated stiff dough. To this dough
the milk is to be added gradually in small quantities so as to reduce it to a
somewhat slack dough or stiff paste, and to this, paste the animal oil is, to be
added gradually, taking care to mix it thoroughly during the operation. The
salt, or saltpetre being intended principally. to preserve the butter and the
brains from putrefaction, may be added to either of them before being mixed
up as above described; or if salted butter be employed, a, less, quantity of salt
or saltpetre, may be used. The foregoing composition may be varied as
follows: For every one. hundred pounds of composition I use of barley, flour
twenty-three pounds, brains forty-six pounds, salt or saltpetre three and three

page_text: quarter pounds, animal oil twenty-seven and a quarter poutids; or for every
one hundred pounds of composition I use of barley flour twenty-eight and a
half pounds; unsalted butter thirteen and a quarter pounds; salt or saltpetre
four and a half pounds; milk twenty-five and a quarter pounds, animal oil
twenty-eight and a half pounds, according to the nature and quality of the
ánimal oil that can be procured; the quantity of this ingredient will sometimes
vary. If barley flour be dispensed with, flour of rice or other liguminous
matérial may be used:
Having thus set forth the nature of the said Invention, I will nów proceed
to describe the manner in which the same may best be carried into effect.
The process of impregnating the skins or other animal substances with my
composition by means of heat and mechanical agitation is carried on as
follows: The skins, after being unhaired and steeped in water, and then
partially dried, are to be placed in a cylinder or apparatus which is kept
slowly revolving, so as to continually agitate them, the effect of which is to
distribute the moisture equally; they are then in a fit state to receive my
composition or compound herein-before described, and for this purpose are to
be laid out flát, and smeared or covered over upon the flesh side with the said
coniposition, and are then to be placed in the cylinder or apparatus; which
is again kept slowly revolving, so as to continually agitate them, a current of
heated air being passed through it for carrying off the moisture, and assist in
causing the composition to act upon the skins. The temperature of the air for
drying the skins before being rubbed over with my composition should be
about seventy-five degrees of Fahrenheit, and two or three hours will generally
suffice, as the object is merely to distribute equally the moisture contained in
the skins, which have become drier in some parts than in others. When the
skins have had the composition once applied the temperature is to be raised to
from eighty-five to about one hundred degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer,
and after a second or third or further application to from one hundred to one
hundred and twenty degrees. After each application of the composition and
agitation of the skins in the revolving apparatus for about six or eight hours,
they are taken out and hung up to dry partially, care being taken not to allow
them to get too dry or hard between each operation. After a second applica-
tion of the composition, and a third treatment in the revolving apparatus, thin
skins, such as lamb, sheep; &c. will be found sufficiently impregnated or con-
verted, but stouter skins, such as calf; seal, &c. will require to be treated a few
hours more in the apparatus, and still stouter, such as horse, cow, ox, &c. are
to be agitated a fourth time after being smeared over entirely, or only over
their stouter portions, with the said composition, or with warm grease, con-

page_text: sisting of tallow and animal oil mixed together, or either alone, the tallow
making the finished articles stiffer, the oil more pliable. This warm grease
may also be usefully applied to any skins previously to the last time of
agitating them in the cylinder. The skins are then washed with lukewarm
soap and water on the flesh and grain side, and to make them waterproof they
are rubbed over with a solution of alum, which forms a caustic clay earth with
the soap in the ordinary manner. Every time the skins are taken out of the
apparatus they are stretched on a large table, and worked with the usual tools.
The cylinder or apparatus should be furnished in the interior with studs, pro-
jections, or shelves for producing an increased action on the skins, and should
have several openings for regulating the current of heated air through it and
for allowing the moisture to be carried off. The natural colour of the skins
being white (after having been unhaired and cleaned), they may be dyed by
applying any desirable mordant and colour with a hard brush, and then hung
up to dry for a short time before the composition is smeared on.
If preferred
the dyeing may be effected to some extent by mixing colouring or tanning
material with the composition. The further treatment is similar to that of the
usual finishing by curriers, leather dressers, japanners, enamellers, &c., the
skins being suitable for any of these processes. But the greater part of the
'currier's business has been much facilitated during the process of impregnating
or converting into leather. Split skins, bladders, guts, and other animal
substances may be treated in the same manner, but the application of the
composition and the periods of remaining in the revolving apparatus must be
regulated according to each particular substance. To other animal or vege-
table materials (in particular such as are fibrous in their raw or manufactured
and made up state) I apply gelatinous matter, which I prepare from the
cuttings of skins; and when containing a suitable quantity of moisture I treat
these substances in the same manner as the skins of animals. When a
cylinder or revolving apparatus is employed for mechanical agitation without
combining heat therewith, the current of air is dispensed with, or, if employed,
it is used cold. Instead of a revolving cylinder or apparatus, rollers, not
pressing too closely, or beaters, stampers, or any other suitable mechanical
action, may be employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Augustus Preller, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
C. A. PRELLER. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1852, the aforesaid Charles Augustus Preller came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her 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.
Enrolled the Eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord One thou-