CERTAIN VEGETABLES AND A WAY OF. PREPARING THE SAME SO AS THEY MAY BE USEFULLY EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFAC- TURING OF HATS, BONNETS, CHAIR, BOTTOMS, AND BASKETS, AND FOR OTHER ARTICLES AND PURPOSES
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, JOHN
FRASER, Collector of Natural History, now of Sloan Square, Chelsea, in the
Parish of Saint Luke, and County of Middlesex, sends greeting.
WHEREAS the King's most Excellent Majesty, by Letters. Patent,
under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
bearing date the Fifteenth day of October, in the fiftieth year of His reign,
gave and granted unto the said John Fraser, his executors, administrators, or
assigns, and every of them, by himself and themselves, or by his or their
deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as he, the said John
Fraser, his executors, administrators, 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 his discovery and finding-out of "CERTAIN VEGETABLES AND A WAY OF.
PREPARING THE SAME SO AS THEY MAY BE USEFULLY EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFAC-
TURING OF HATS, BONNETS, CHAIR, BOTTOMS, AND BASKETS, AND FOR OTHER ARTICLES
AND PURPOSES," within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, in such manner as to him, the said John Fraser, his executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or any of them, should in his or their discretion seem
meet; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if the said
John Fraser should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of his
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under his hand and seal, and cause the same to be:

page_text: inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the
said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby
granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything therein
contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, that the said John Fraser doth by this instrument in
writing, under his hand and seal duly executed, describe and ascertain the
nature of his said Invention, and the methods by which the same may be
performed, that is to say:-
The said John Fraser collects or gathers the leaves (otherwise called
branches) of all or any of the different species of the palm tribe of plants
growing spontaneously on the Continent and Islands of North and South
America and in other parts beyond seas, but more particularly in tropical
climates, and may be there cultivated, and are described in the writings of the
celebrated Linneus and of other authors, before the said leaves are of natural
growth, and he suspends the same in the air in the shade in order that they
may become well bleached and dry; or otherwise he causes the same to be so
collected, bleached, and dried, and in this state he transports them to the place
of manufacture, and farther prepares the same for use by cutting off more
or less the outer extremities where the leaves taper and are thinnest, and from
the inner extremities where the material is most stiff and rigid; and farther, he
divides the various portions of the said leaves into longitudinal slips with a
knife or knives, or other fit cutting tool or tools, used either singly or set in a
frame, so as to afford an equal gage for the said longitudinal slips as to the
breadth thereof, and he afterwards sorts and selects the said longitudinal slips
by separating apart from each other such slips as are best adapted to the
several particular uses in manufacturing as aforesaid; and in some cases he
washes the said leaves (previous to cutting the same, as before mentioned,) with
soap and water, and exposes them after rinsing in a moist state to the fumes of
burning sulphur in a close chamber or place; and where it may be desirable to
dye the said leaves of any particular colour, he performs the same by the usual
processes upon them, either in their first state or in any of the subsequent
states or stages of manufacture. And, further, that among the different species
of the said tribe of plants the genus areca and corypha are the most generally
useful and to be preferred, and that the middle portion of the leaf of the plants
so cut into portions as aforesaid is a better article than that which is produced
or afforded by the extremities so cut off. And, lastly, the said slips are and
may be usefully employed in manufacturing of hats and bonnets, chair bottoms
and baskets, and for other articles and purposes, by platting, weaving, or inter-

page_text: twining the same, with or without the addition or intermixture of silk, wool,
cotton, or other fibrous materials, in various well-known manners; and the
peculiar strength and flexibility of the said vegetables so prepared do render
them capable of being employed in platting or intertextures, which could not be
attempted or made with the articles or materials heretofore in use for those
purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Fraser, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eleven.
Sworn at my Chambers, in Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, London, the 18th day of April,
1811, before me,
JA ROBERTSON.
W ALEXANDER.