A NEW METHOD OF DYING IN BOILING LIQUORS WOOLLEN CLOTH OR SUCH ARTICLES AS ARE COMPOSED CHIEFLY OF WOOLLEN IN VARIOUS DEVICES REPRESENTING FOLIAGES, SCROLLS, LINES, AND ANY OTHER ADAPTED FORMS, AND THIS IN PIECES OF SUFFICIENT SIZE FOR THE FORE PARTS OF A WAISTCOAT OR VEST, (VIZ3,) FROM EIGHT TO SIXTEEN NAILS LONG, AND FROM FIVE TO TEN BROAD, WHICH IS EFFECTED BY MEANS OF CERTAIN FRAMES AND MOULDS MADE OF HARD METALS
Year: 1787

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, NATHANIEL
WATTS, of Stroud, in the County of Gloucester, Clothier, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-second day of November, in the twenty-eighth year of
His reign, did grant unto me, the said Nathaniel Watts, His special licence
that I, the said Nathaniel Watts, during the term of fourteen years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
that part of the Kingdom of Great Britain called England, the Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW
METHOD OF DYING IN BOILING LIQUORS WOOLLEN CLOTH OR SUCH ARTICLES AS ARE
COMPOSED CHIEFLY OF WOOLLEN IN VARIOUS DEVICES REPRESENTING FOLIAGES,
SCROLLS, LINES, AND ANY OTHER ADAPTED FORMS, AND THIS IN PIECES OF SUFFICIENT
SIZE FOR THE FORE PARTS OF A WAISTCOAT OR VEST, (VIZ³,) FROM EIGHT TO SIXTEEN
NAILS LONG, AND FROM FIVE TO TEN BROAD, WHICH IS EFFECTED BY MEANS OF
CERTAIN FRAMES AND MOULDS MADE OF HARD METALS;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Nathaniel Watts,

page_text: to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, 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
Nathaniel Watts, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is contained in the Plans
or Drawings hereto annexed and the descriptions thereof after mentioned
(that is to say):-
Figure 1st represents the frame, which is cast of the form delineated in
brass, and afterwards rubbed down on the side which receives the moulds to
an exact level by means of a hard flat stone; the screws (3) are rivetted
on afterwards. Its dimensions are, in length two feet five inches, in breadth
about fifteen inches, and in depth about three inches, being the usual size
of one fore part of a waistcoat. No. 1, the long partitions; 2, the cross
partitions; 3, the screws; 4, the staple.
Figure 2nd represents the end of the frame (d), with the manner of plates
in it (c), and the spring (a) just ready to be screwed down by the nutts and
screws (b). The springs are made of tempered steel tinned on the surface
to prevent their being eaten by the dye; the under edge of them is on a curve,
so as when screwed down they may press as hard in the middle as on the
outside.
Figure 3rd represents part of one of the moulds, which are made by two
plates of brass being rivetted together, the upper one cut out in the form of
the pattern intended, as in the specimen (Figure 3rd, a), the under one drilled
with a sufficient number of holes to let the liquor into the cavities (a).
The process of working is as follows:-The frame (Fig. 1st) is laid down
flatt with the screws uppermost, then upon it a mould of the same length and
width with the frame in the clear, cut, as described in Figure 3, in any desired
pattern, with the figure uppermost, upon it a piece of cloth to be dyed, then a
plain plate of brass, and another piece of cloth; and a mould with the holes
uppermost. Thus being together the springs, which are twelve in number, are
screwed down till the whole is perfectly close, then the frame with its contents
is lifted up by the staple with a crane and let into a copper of boiling liquor of
such colour as intended, and remains there four minutes, well moved and rouzed
the whole time. It is then taken out and unscrewed, and the cloth, which
comes out properly figured, is put into cold water and the frame prepared

page_text: again for the same process with other pieces of cloth. By this method a
piece of cloth of twice or three times the dimensions to what is mentioned
in the process above may be figured by increasing the size of the frame,
moulds, &c.
In witness whereof, I, the said Nathaniel Watts, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.
Signed & sealed by Nat. Watts within
named, the same being first duly
stamped in the presence of
NATHANIEL (L.S.) WATTS.