A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF APPLYING CERTAIN TEXTILE AND EXOTIC PLANTS AS SUBSTITUTES IN VARIOUS CASES FOR FLAX, HEMP, COTTON, AND SILK
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MILES
BERRY, of the Office for Patents, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent and Mechanical Draftsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of May, in the first year of Her reign, and in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight, did, for Her-
self, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Miles Berry,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Milės Berry, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said Miles Berry, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, an Invention of "A NEW
OR IMPROVED METHOD OF APPLYING CERTAIN TEXTILE AND EXOTIC PLANTS AS
SUBSTITUTES IN VARIOUS CASES FOR FLAX, HEMP, COTTON, AND SILK," being a
communication from a Foreigner residing abroad; in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Miles Berry, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in which the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately

page_text: after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Miles Berry, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that is to say):-
The textile and exotic plants, from which are to be extracted the fibres
to be employed as substitutes for flax, hemp, cotton, and silk, are the
following:-Firstly, the musa or the plantain or banana plant of every kind or
variety; secondly, the cannacorus plants of every sort or kind; thirdly, the
ficus or fig trees; fourthly, the agave or aloes of every sort; fifthly, the karatos
plants; sixthly, the ananas or pine-apple plant; seventhly, the cocos or cocoa
tree plants; eighthly, the palmæ or palm tree; ninthly, the macaw tree
or plant; tenthly, the phornium tenax or New Zealand flax; and eleventhly,
the saccharum officinarum or sugar canes; and in general all the textile
plants which grow between the tropics, and where 'the following pro-
cesses of preparation are to be performed, so as to render them fit and
proper for exportation to this country, and prepared. ready for use, thereby
obviating the necessity of transporting or bringing them over in the rough or
natural state, with all the useless, unnecessary, or extraneous matters which
are not wanted with the fibres, as hitherto has been the case, and which
extraneous matters are much easier and better extracted or separated from
the fibres when in the green state, or when fresh gathered in the country
where they grow, than when dried and exported in the ordinary manner.
The fibres of the above textile or exotic plants are to be extracted either by
steeping them in water and making them ferment, or by passing or crushing
them between fluted cylinders or rollers, by pounding, fulling, pressing, or
grinding them, which operations disengage the fibres from the gluten, resinous,
or other vegetable matters which bind the fibres together. When the fibres
are thus extracted, they are to be bleached by boiling them in water, or
alkaline, chloride, or other chemical bleaching solutions heated by a naked fire,
or by a steam bath, and then washed in clean water. These substances being
thus washed and bleached, are to be well dried and packed up in bags or
barrels for exportation from the places where they grow. The fibres thus
prepared are to be combed, heckled, and dressed in the way usually employed
for hemp and flax, and are to be used either separately, that is to say, each
sort by itself, or mixed together, to make ropes and cables, which are to be
manufactured by the ordinary processes, and are to be coated with tar, or aro
to be employed without any coating, according to the use they are intended

page_text: The
for; such ropes may be used as substitutes for hemp ropes in the erection of
buildings, in mines, in agriculture, in machinery, and other purposes.
fibres which are most brilliant in appearance, or those that are the softest and
the most glossy, are to be used for making plain or raised tissues, which may be
died in any colour; and also for making ornamental ropes for looping up
curtains, bell pulls, cords, tassells, and trimmings, shooting bags, girths, and a
great number of fancy articles imitating silk or cotton. The refuse or coarsest
fibres may be employed either for making coarse ropes, cables, strings, and the
like, or may be reduced into pulp for making paper, and are thereby a further
substitute for flax, hemp, and cotton. If the fibres of the above plants are to
be extracted merely for making paper, the said plants may be cut up into
pieces by the machinery generally used for chopping carrots, turnips, beet
root, &c., or they may be treated whole or unbroken in the manner above
stated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Miles Berry, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fourteenth day of November, in the year of cur Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.
MILES (L.s.) BERRY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of November,
in the second year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said
Miles Berry came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument afore-
said was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth
year of the reign of Ilis late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of November, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-eight.