IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING ALL KINDS OF PIG SKINS IN THE PROCESSES OF PREPARATION, TANNING, CURRYING, ENAMELLING, AND JAPANNING, AND IN UTILIZING THE PRODUCTS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hodgson Liddell, residing 141, West
Port, Edinburgh, Tanner, Currier, and Japanner, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING ALL KINDS OF PIG SKINS IN THE PROCESSES
OF PREPARATION, TANNING, CURRYING, ENAMELLING, AND JAPANNING, AND IN
UTILIZING THE PRODUCTS."
Scaled the 9th April 1869, and dated the 29th October 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hodgson
Liddell at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 29th October 1868.
I, WILLIAM HODGSON LIDDELL, residing 141, West Port, Edinburgh,
Tanner, Currier, and Japanner, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING ALL KINDS OF PIG SKINS IN
THE PROCESSES OF PREPARATION, TANNING, CURRYING, ENAMELLING, AND JAPANNING,
AND IN UTILIZING THE PRODUCTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the treating of pig skins by such processes as
removes from them the natural hair and fatty matters they contain, and
of artificially substituting instead such elastic bodies as shall not only fill
up the pores before occupied by the bristles or hair and fat, but from their

page_text: true, clastic, flexible, and chemical character so prepare the skins to fit
and finish as shall make them rank with other skins, and like them
capable of being manufactured into various kinds of leather, taking on
all kinds of colors, enamelling, and japanning, consequently capable of
being manufactured into all the kinds and varieties of leggings, bags,
bandages, splints, vencers, ornaments, harness, straps, and generally
into all articles made of leather, whether by itself as solid leather in
the portmanteau, or in combination with india-rubber as in fastenings
of leggings, in fact in any form where any other leather can be used as
well as articles specially suited to pig skins.
In carrying out my Invention I first select the pig skins according to
the purposes for which their size, strength, thickness, thinness, or general
quality render them most suitable. I now cut and extend them in a
contrary way to anything hitherto practised. This gives me the very
great advantage of treating every class according to the purposes
intended; for instance, for long straps the skins would be cut the
longest way out of the nearest proper thickness of the skin; then the
other parts of the skin can be economically used in making leggings,
bags, and bandages.
If I wish any particular part of a skin to be finished in black I employ
a new and improved system of buffing adapted to closing and filling up
the pores of the skin, so that the black body used for filling up shall
not run through to the other side, but remain on either side I desire to
coat. The black body I employ is a mixture of dissolved india-rubber
with about a fourth part of sugar of lead, made into a paste by gum
dissolved in oil, or spirit, or both, in place of water as hitherto.
In enamelling and japanning I use, in addition to my plan of buffing,
a peculiar system of rolling, consisting of laying the pig skin on a plate
or platform large enough to contain it, heated in any convenient way by
gas, oil lamp, or hot water to temperatures varying from 100° to 180° of
Fahrenheit; over this platform plate is made to pass a roller heated to
the same temperature by containing within it a moveable metal heater
pressed downwards on the skin by means of springs, weights, or other
means of pressure. This pressure is applied at each end of the roller on
the handles; whilst the roller and heater within together revolve while
passing over the pig skin.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Hodgson Liddell in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th April 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HODGSON LIDDELL, residing at 141, West Port, Edinburgh, Tanner,
Currier, and Japanner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give.and grant unto me, the said William Hodgson Liddell, Her special
licence that I, the said William Hodgson Liddell, my executors, : dminis-.
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Hodgson
Liddell, 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 "IMPROVE-.
MENTS IN TREATING ALL KINDS OF PIG SKINS IN THE PROCESSES OF PREPARATION,
TANNING, CUERYING, ENAMELLING, AND JAPANNING, AND IN UTILIZING THE
PRODUCTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Hodgson Liddell, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in;
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 William Hodgson Liddell, do.
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner-
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This Invention relates to the treating of pig skins by such processes
as will remove from them the natural hair and fatty matter they
contain, and artificially substituting instead such elastic bodies as shall
not only fill up the pores before occupied by the bristles, or hair and fat,
but from their truc, elastic, flexible, and chemical character so prepare

page_text: the skins to fit and finish as shall make them rank with other skins, and
like them capable of being manufactured into various kinds of leather,
taking on all the kinds of colors, enamelling, and japanning, consequently
capable of being manufactured into all the kinds and varieties of
leggins, bags, bandages, splints, veneers, ornaments, harness, straps, and
generally into all articles made of leather, whether by itself as solid
leather in the portmanteau, or in combination with india-rubber as in
fastening of leggins, in fact in any form where any other leather can
be used, as well as articles specially suited to pig skins.
In carrying out my Invention I first select the pig skins according to
the purposes for which their size, strength, thickness, thinness, or
general quality render them most suitable. I now cut and extend them
in a contrary way to anything hitherto practised. This gives me the
very great advantage of treating every class according to the purposes
intended; for instance, for long straps the skins would be cut the longest
way out of the nearest proper thickness of the skin; then the other parts
of the skin can be economically used in making leggins, bags, and
bandages. In connection with bandages this method of treating pig
skins for such purposes is found to be very valuable from its naturally
perforated condition, combined with great strength and firmness. The
bandages hitherto generally used are made of hard and impervious
leather, while the pig skin bandage according to this method of treating
will be found not only combining the advantages of being firm, but from
its porous nature admits of free perspiration.
If I wish any particular part of a skin to be finished in black, I
employ a new and improved system of buffing adapted to closing and
filling up the pores of the skin, so that the black body used for filling
up shall not run through to the other side but remain on either side I
desire to coat. The black body I employ is a mixture of dissolved
india-rubber, with about a fourth part of sugar of lead made into a
paste by gum dissolved in oil, or spirit, or both, in place of water as
hitherto.
In enamelling and japanning I use in addition to my plan of buffing
a peculiar system of rolling, which consists in laying the pig skin on a
plate or platform large enough to contain it heated in any convenient
way by gas, oil lamp, or hot water to temperatures varying from
100° to 180° Fahrenheit; over this platform plate is made to pass a
roller heated to the same temperature by containing within it a moveable

page_text: metal heater pressed downwards on the skin by means of springs,
weights, or other means of pressure. This pressure is applied at each
end of the roller on the handles, whilst the roller and heat within
together revolves while passing over the pig skin. By this process a
more beautiful finish is imparted to the surface of the skin, and the
body of the skin rendered more solid throughout, imparting to it a
greatly improved firmness combined with flexibility. This Invention is
applicable for the treatment of all kinds of pig skins, and my system
of cutting and extending them greatly utilizes them for all suitable
purposes.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is carried into effect, I declare that what I claim
as my Invention, and to be secured to me by Letters Patent is, the
improvements in treating all kinds of pig skins in the process of pre-
paration, tanning, currying, enamelling, and japanning, and in utilizing
the products, as substantially set forth and described in the foregoing
Specification, or any mere modification thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hodgson Liddell, have
hercunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of April,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
pine.