AN INVENTION OR DISCOVERY BY WHICH CERTAIN TEXTILE OR FIBROUS PLANTS ARE RENDERED APPLICABLE TO MAKING PAPER, AND SPINNING INTO YARNS AND WEAVING INTO CLOTH, IN PLACE OF FLAX, HEMP, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBROUS MATERIALS COMMONLY USED FOR SUCH PURPOSES
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MILES
BERRY, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, 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 Nineteenth day of November, in the third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, 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 Miles 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 also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, "AN INVENTION OR DISCOVERY BY WHICH CERTAIN TEXTILE OR FIBROUS
PLANTS ARE RENDERED APPLICABLE TO MAKING PAPER, AND SPINNING INTO YARNS
AND WEAVING INTO CLOTH, IN PLACE OF FLAX, HEMP, COTTON, AND OTHER FIBROUS
MATERIALS COMMONLY USED FOR SUCH PURPOSES," 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 in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause he
same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part

page_text: 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, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that is to say):-
"
The Invention or discovery intended to be secured under the above in part
recited Letters Pateni is, the application and use of a certain description of
textile or fibrous plant, generally called or known by the name Esparto,
and is of the class of plants named Stipa." genus "Gramina," and is com
monly called Esparto," or "Stipa Terracissima," and grows more particularly
on the southern coast of Spain and the borders of the Mediterranean Sea and
Straits of Gibralter, but is also found in Greece and the northern parts of
Africa. This plant is of a fibrous or textile nature, and is capable of being
applied to many useful purposes. It grows in abundance in many of the parts
above named, and may be easily collected ready for exportation.
And I will now proceed to describe the mode of treating the said fibrous
plant or material, in order to render the same applicable to the above-named
useful purposes, as communicated to me by my correspondent residing
abroad.
First, its textile or fibrous nature enables it to be used in making paper,
either colored or white, of different qualities, and cardboards of all descriptions.
either in place of or in conjunction with rags, old ropes, &c., or other materials,
commonly used in such manufacture.
Second, to be used in the manufacture of ropes or cordage.
Third, to be used in the manufacture of mats, carpets, cart covers, and such
other coarse articles of all descriptions.
Fourth, to be used in place or imitation of wool and hemp, and in the
manufacture of linen, and may be combed, carded, and spun after the manner
of treating and preparing flax or hemp.
The following is the manner or process to be used or employed to render it
for the above purposes.
6
First, to make white paper and cardboards it is necessary to beat or bruise
the material or crush it, then to steep it in lime water of about the strength
of two pounds of lime for one hundred pounds of Esparto, allowing it to
steep until it begins to ferment. It is then to be put into the ordinary pulp
engines used in paper mills, and mixed with one quarter, one third, or one half
of rags or other fibrous material, according to the strength and quality of paper
wanted to be produced; the material being thus reduced, it may be bleached

page_text: in the usual manner, and afterwards sifted or refined, and made into paper.
either by machinery or by hand. When applied or used to make common or
ordinary papers or cardboards for the jacquard loom and other purposes,
it can be used in its natural state after having been left in hot water for about
twelve hours, and then acted upon by the pulp engine, together with one
fourth, one third, or one half of rags, these materials being sufficiently reduced
to make paper and cardboard as usual. In order to make ropes or cordage,
this material can be used in the natural state after being saturated with hot
water or after being beaten and combed, or treated like hemp, flax, or other
fibrous materials. And in order to make mais, carpets, cart covers, or other
coarse articles, it can be used in the natural state; or, after being beaten and
combed, and then dyed in different colours, and woven as usual, with or without
other fibrous materials.
The process required to prepare this plant, so as to imitate wool, hemp, &c.,
and to employ it in place of the same, is as follows:-First, to beat the plant
or separate the fibres, then to comb it or card it when in a moist state, or
when dry; afterwards the required degree of whiteness may be given to it by
means of chloride of lime or other bleaching material.
In witness whereof, I, the said Miles Berry, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty.
third 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 contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of the
reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.