AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR IMITATING THE SKINS OF ANIMALS UPON FULLED CLOTH
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Murdoch, of Staple Inn, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR
IMITATING THE SKINS OF ANIMALS UPON FULLED CLOTH," a communication
from Jules Picque and Charles Piot, of Paris, France.
Sealed the 8th May 1857, and dated the 18th March 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Murdoch at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th March 1857.
J, JAMES MURDOCH, of Staple Inn, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
-PROCESS FOR IMITATING THE SKINS OF ANIMALS UPON FULLED CLOTHS," to be as
follows:
This improved process consists, firstly, in printing upon cloth composed of
wool or other hair, and in the state in which it leaves the fulling mill, that is
to say, before it is teasled, the spots, stripes, or other marks of the skins of any
kind of animals; it is next submitted to the operation of teasling or raising the
nap, after which it is moistened or wetted, and in that state is beaten with
rods to raise the nap to a vertical position; and, finally, the nap is cropped or
shorn to the required height, and more or less laid, according to the kind
of skin to be imitated. By the employment of these means is obtained a
much more perfect imitation of the skins of animals with longer or shorter

page_text: hair, and more or less laid according to the length, and with varieties of
colour according to the printing. The printing taking place previously to
the teasling, the colors at the outlines of the marks, whether stripes, spots, or
clouded, &c., become softened, and the cloth thus printed presents a great
difference from that in which the printing has been performed after the cloth
has been teazled.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Murdoch in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
MURDOCH, of Staple Inn, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Murdoch, Her special licence that I, the said James Murdoch, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Murdoch, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS
FOR IMITATING THE SKINS OF ANIMALS UPON FULLED CLOTH," a communication
from Jules Picque and Charles Piot, of Paris, France, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said James Murdoch, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Murdoch, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: The object of this invention is to imitate the skins or fur of animals upon
fulled cloth by combining together sundry known processes which have
hitherto been only separately employed, a combination which produces new
results as regards the appearance of these imitations of the skins of animals,
and very different from the coarse and unsuccessful imitations which have been
hitherto attempted by inefficacious processes, and which also differ from the
combination constituting this Invention. This Invention consists principally
in printing fulled fabrics before they are dressed or carded, or after a slight
carding, for the purpose of smoothing the surface of the stuff as it leaves the
fulling mill, then in beating, by means of rods, the printed stuff in a moist or
damp state to raise the nap, which is then shorn in this state, either slightly,
which produces a nap slightly inclined on account of its length, or more
deeply, according to the nature of the skin to be imitated. It results from this
process, firstly, that the print of the spots, stripes, or other marks imitating
the skins of animals has not the strongly defined outline which appears when
the printing takes place upon stuff's entirely carded; secondly, that the regu-
larity of the design is preserved by the beating, contrary to what takes place
when, after printing upon carded surfaces, it is attempted to raise by a supple-
mentary or partial carding the hairs which have been flattened or gummed by
the printing, which produces the inconvenience of a mixture of the unprinted
hairs with those which have been printed.
As the processes taken separately of weaving, fulling, dressing, printing;
beating the moist stuff, and of shearing, are well known processes, and as
the Invention consists only in the combination before described, it is not
thought necessary to describe these several processes; I shall only say that
for weaving, besides wool properly so called, may be employed alpaca,
cashmere, vigonia, gingerline, and other analogous hair, and sometimes in
their natural colours, and therefore with their natural gloss, which is only.
affected in the printed parts. Furthermore, the employment of one or other
of these materials, the style of weaving and of printing as regards the
designs, the shearing more or less close of the nap, vary, according as the stuffs
made by this process are intended for various parts of dress, or for coverings,
as blankets, or even as carpets.
The process may sometimes be varied as follows:-Instead of printing the
stuff as it comes from the fulling mill, or slightly dressed to give it a smooth
surface, the stuff is completely carded and then beaten with rods while in a
moist state, which gives an upright nap; it is then left in this state to dry,
and is afterwards slightly shorn to obtain a smooth surface with an upright nap,
and then the printing takes place, imitating the spots, stripes, or zebra mark-

page_text: ings of the animal. The fixing of the impressions is effected in the ordinary
manner; and the stuff is then passed through a suitable bath to unglue or
separate those parts of the nap which have undergone the effect of the
printing, and to dissolve the gum. The stuff is then submitted to a second
but very slight dressing, which not only completes the separation of the hairs,
but also removes the remainder of the gum. This operation is followed by a
second beating of the stuff in a moist state, the result of which is to raise the
nap upright, which is then shorn a second time to a greater or less depth,
according to the nature of the skin to be imitated. This shearing, should it
cut the hairs to half their height, will still show the hairs colored by the
printing thus done upon the surface of an upright nap, which surface printed,
and therefore flattened by printing, recovers its upright aspect by means of a
second beating of the stuff in a humid state. This modified method just
described gives the same results as the first, for the color of the printing made
upon an upright nap penetrates into the mass of the hairs, which are
straightened in a vertical position, and the second beating restores them to the
state in which they were before the printing.
Another modification of the Invention which may be applied in certain
cases, that is to say, when it is required to imitate the skins of animals having
wavy or frizzled hair, such as those known under the name of otter's or astracan
fur, is as follows; but in this case I would observe, it is preferable to use,
instead of wool properly so called, in the manufacture of these fulled stuffs,
alpaca, cashmere, gingerline, or other similar wools which have naturally
wavy hairs, contrary to wool which is smoother. Thus referring to the mode
of proceeding here above described, after the beating of the stuff in a humid
state, an additional operation is performed, known by the name of "the in-
destructible dressing, and which consists in subjecting the stuff to a strong
pressure by means of an hydraulic press, whilst steam is admitted into the
pressing table. The object of this process is to crush or flatten the upright
hairs, but as these hairs do not all take the same direction as wool, and have
naturally a tendency to spread in all directions, the result of the application
of the indestructible dressing upon upright hairs obtained by beating the
moistened stuff is a surface resembling curling, still-born, astracan fur, pro-
duced by this irrigularity in the respective disposition of the hairs among
themselves, which the carding or dressing has not been able to overcome,
contrary to what takes place with wool.
Further, instead of applying the indestructible dressing after the wet beating,
it may be applied in the beginning, which lays the hairs, but after wetting the
stuff again it is beaten; this beating, it is true, does not raise up the hairs

page_text: which have been laid by the indestructible dressing, but it acts upon the
interior of the stuff and raises the mass of the hair, so that besides great soft-
ness of texture, a surface is obtained resembling otter's skin.
Lastly, when employing hair of a fine natural color, the dyeing of these
hairs may in some cases be omitted, and even the printing, as, for instance,
when it is required to imitate otter's skin, or curling, still-born, astracan fur by
the process herein-above described.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, with or without the modifications herein-above
described, I declare that I do not claim either or any of the processes taken
separately, since they are all well known; but what I claim is the combination
of them, herein-above described, to obtain as a result the imitation of the skins
or fur of animals upon fulled cloth, which imitation has hitherto been very
badly or imperfectly effected. This improvement in these imitations is owing
to what I claim, viz., the employment of what is termed "wet beating" upon
fulled stuffs, printed or dressed with what is termed "the indestructible
dressing," and then more or less deeply shorn according to their nature, as is
before explained in this Specification.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Murdoch, have hereunto set my
hand and seal this Fifteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
II. H. MURDOCHI.
JAMES MURDOCH. (L.S.)