IMPROVEMENTS In the Manufacture of LeaTHER AND IN APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE."
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Pitt, of Bath, Engineer, and Stephen
Fitchew Cox, of Bristol, Tanner, for the Invention of “IMPROVEMENTS
In the Manufacture of LeaTHER AND IN APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Pitt and
Stephen Fitchew Cox at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 23rd January 1873.
WC, ROBERT PITT, of Bath, Engineer, and STEPHEN FITCHEW Cox,
of Bristol, Tanner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER AND IN APPARATUS FOR
THAT PURPOSE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
leather, and in apparatus for that purpose.
In the manufacture of leather the hides are usually submitted to a
treatment known as "striking." The operation is frequently performed
by means of a roller with spiral ribs right and left handed passing
around it. The hide is supported upon a bed beneath the roller. The
ribs bear upon it with a regulated pressure, and as the roller revolves the

page_text: ribs rub with friction over the entire width of the hide. The bed which
is usually a drum mounted upon an axis has a slow motion imparted to
it, and carries the hide forward so that cach part is operated upon in
turn.
According to this Invention we cover the bed or bed roller with an
clastic covering of india-rubber. We prefer to use a bed roller, and to
cover it loosely with a cylinder of india-rubber. We apply water
between the bed roller and the clastic cover to prevent the cover chaſing
and we make the bed roller of galvanised iron in place of wood as is
now usual in order that it may not be liable to swell and get out of
truth.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Pit and Stephen Fitchew Cox in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 22nd July 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
PITT, of Bath, Engineer, and. STEPHEN FITCHEW Cox, of Bristol, Tanner,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her licirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Robert Pitt and Stephen Fitchew
Cox, Her special license that we, the said Robert Pitt and Stephien
Fitchew Cox, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said Robert Pitt and Stephen Fitchew Cox, our 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 “IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER AND IN APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Robert Pitt and
Stephen Fitchew Cox, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our or their hands and scals, or under the hand and

page_text: seal of one of us or them, 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 Scal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Pitt, on behalf of myself
and the said Stephen Fitchew Cox, 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 :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
leather, and in apparatus for that purpose..
In the manufacture of leather the hides are usually submitted to a
treatment known as "striking." The operation is frequently performed
by means of a roller with spiral ribs right and left handed passing
around it. The hide is supported upon a bed beneath the roller, the ribs
bear upon it with a regulated pressure and as the roller revolves the ribs
rub with friction over the entire width of the hide. The bed which is
usually a drum mounted upon an axis has a slow motion imparted to it,
and carries the hide forward so that each part is operated upon in turn.
According to this Invention we cover the bed or bed roller with an
clastic covering of india-rubber. We prefer to use a bed roller and to
cover it loosely with a cylinder of india-rubber. We apply water
between the bed roller and the elastic cover to prevent the cover chafing,
and we make the bed roller of galvanized iron in place of wood as is now
usual in order that it may not be liable to swell and get out of truth.
The machine which we prefer to employ is with these exceptions
similar to that described in the Specification of the Patent granted to
one of us, and dated the 6th day of March 1860, No. 617. The clastic
covering for the metal bed roller is a large tube or cylinder of vulcanized
india-rubber say about ths of an inch thick, it is without seam and is
an inch or so larger in diameter than the metal roller. Beneath the
roller a small perforated pipe is inserted horizontally into the space
between the roller and the elastic covering, and a little water is supplied
through this pipe sufficient to keep the inside of the covering which
comes in contact with the metal roller constantly wet.

page_text: What we claim is the use of an elastic bed of india-rubber in tho
process of striking leather substantially in the manner described, and
also the construction of machines for striking leather with bed rollers
covered with india-rubber, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, the said Robert Pitt, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Nineteenth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-threc.