IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INDIA- RUBBER AND OTHER LIKE FABRICS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INDIA-
RUBBER AND OTHER LIKE FABRICS."-A communication from abroad by
Jonathan Thompson Trotter, of New York, in the United States of
America.
Sealed the 4th January 1860, and dated the 18th July 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th July 1859.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
INDIA-RUBBER AND OTHER LIKE FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the fixing or finishing of the surfaces of cotton,
silk, wool, or other cloth fabrics having a coating or napping of powdered
flock, ground cork, or other similar or analogous material. The coating of
flock, cork, or other similar or analogous material is fixed by passing the cloth
(the covered surface of which has, prior to receiving the coating of flock or
cork dust, been coated with india-rubber, gutta-percha, or other vulcanizable

page_text: gum or cement) over a roller submerged in a solution or compound of vulcan-
izable gum or in any of the solvents thereof. The dissolving property of this
solution or solvent will together with a rolling pressure to which the cloth is to
be subjected cause the coating of flock, cork, or other substance to combino
with or closely adhere to the india-rubber or other coating.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance
of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th January 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her reign did,
for Ierself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton,
iny executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, 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 "Ix-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF INDIA-RUBBER AND OTHER LIKE FABRICS," being
a communication from abroad by Jonathan Thompson Trotter, of New York,
in the United States of America, upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, 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 calender months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, du 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, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention relates to the fixing or finishing of the surfaces of cotton

page_text: silk, wool, or other cloth fabrics, to which a coating or napping of powdered
flock; ground cork, or other similar or analogous materials has been applied.
In the accompanying Drawing I have shewn a side elevation of the machine
used in carrying out this Invention. A is the frame of the machine and B is
a box or trough arranged transversely thereto. In this trough is mounted a
roller C upon suitable bearings D, in the top side rails of the machine. This
roller may be made of wood or metal, and of any desired diameter suitable for
the work. Above the roller C is mounted a pressure roller E, which runs in
open boxes F, so that it may rise and fall or rest upon the fabric, passing over
the lower or sizing roller and underneath the pressure roller E with an easy
motion to ride over the fabric. G and I are two tightening rollers mounted
near the ends of the frame of the machine in bearing J and K. These
rollers are intended to act as pressure rollers, though they may be made to
answer the purpose of driving and carrying rollers by the application of any
suitable mechanism.
The method of applying the improvements is as follows:-The operator
first takes a piece of cloth, whether composed of wool, cotton, silk, or other
fibrous material, and spreads over its surface a coating of india-rubber, gutta
percba, or other vulcanizable gum, or compound thereof, which gum may be
compounded with coloring materials, and may also, when required, have
incorporated therewith substances essential to the after vulcanization of the
compound; or there may be used, instead of the above, rubber or gutta percha
and other gums, which, having once been vulcanized, have been restored by
any known method to a condition in which they might be used again. When
the fabric is thus prepared, there is sifted over its surface a coating of powdered
flock or ground cork, or other analogous fibrous material, which is then com-
pressed into the surface of the gum by passing the cloth between suitable
pressure rollers.
Having thus prepared the surface of the fabric, the operator next puts
it into the finishing machine by carrying one end of it under the pressure
roller G and over the sizing roller C, and thence out under the opposite
pressure roller H to any suitable drawing roller attached to suitable mechanism.
Power is then applied to the crank or pulley of the drawing roller which
causes the cloth to bind upon the surface of the sizing roller and rotato
it. While thus rotated the roller C carries up from the trough B, which has
been charged with a solution of rubber, gutta percha, or. vulcanizable gum or
with one of their solvents (as camphine, naphtha, bisulphide of carbon or
equivalents thereof) a thin film of the solution or solvent for the purpose of
saturating and penetrating the coating of flock, cork, or other fibrous material

page_text: that may
be used to cause it to combine and adhere permanently and evenly
with the gum overlaying the surface of the fabric to give it a cloth like
appearance. The thickness of the dissolved or partially dissolved gum will,
together with the pressure imparted by the rollers to the coating, serve
effectually to secure the coating of flock or other material to the base of the
fabric, and thus a firm and durable fabric will be produced.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improvements in the
Manufacture of India-rubber and other like Fabrics," as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, and explained the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited
Letters Patent I claim the method of finishing or fixing a coating of flock,
cork, or other similar or analogous material to the cloth or fabric forming the
base therefor, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)