A NEW APPLICATION OF A VEGETABLE FIBRE TO PURPOSES FOR PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION PURPOSES FOR WHICH FEATHERS OR FEATHER DOWN HAVE HERETOFORE BEEN USED
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Olerenshaw Rigby and George Cussons,
junior, both of Stockport, in the County of Chester, for the Inven-
tion of "A NEW APPLICATION OF A VEGETABLE FIBRE TO PURPOSES FOR
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Olerenshaw
Rigby and George Oussons at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 12th December 1870.
We, JAMES OLERENSHAW RIGBY and GEORGE Cussons, junior, both
of Stockport, in the County of Ohester, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "A NEW APPLICATION OF A VEGETABLE FIBRE TO
PURPOSES FOR WHICH FEATHERS OR FEATHER DOWN HAVE HERETOFORE BEEN USED,'
to be as follows:-
"3
Our Invention consists in the application of the vegetable fibre
commercially or commonly known as "barracuta" or "thistle down" to
the purposes for which feathers or feather down have heretofore been

page_text: "
used. The "barracuta" or "thistle down fibres after having been
cleaned and opened by suitable machinery may be used for filling bed
quilts, and for other purposes where warmth and lightness are required,
by this means a comparatively cheap vegetable fibre may be used as a
substitute for the most expensive eider down. The machinery which by
experiments has been found suitable for opening and cleaning the
"barracuta" or "thistle down" is the ordinary opener or blower used in
preparing cotton.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Olerenshaw Rigby and George Cussons in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 10th June 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
OLERENSHAW RIGBY and GEORGE CUSSONS, junior, both of Stockport,
in the County of Chester, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said James Olerenshaw Rigby and George Cussons,
junior, Her special licence that we, the said James Olerenshaw Rigby
and George Cussons, junior, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said James Olerenshaw Rigby and George
Cussons, junior, 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 "c
A NEW APPLICATION OF A VEGETABLE FIBRE TO PURPOSES FOR WHICH
FEATHERS OR FEATHER DOWN HAVE HERETOFORE BEEN USED," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said James Olerenshaw Rigby and George
Cussons, junior, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our, or their, or one of our or their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
vention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and

page_text: cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Olerenshaw Rigby and
George Cussons, junior, do hereby declare the nature of our said In-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
(that is to say) :
Our Invention consists in the application of the vegetable fibre
commercially or commonly know as "barracuta" or "thistle down" to
the purposes for which feathers or feather down have heretofore been
used. The "barracuta" or "thistle down” fibres after having been
cleaned and opened by suitable machinery may be used for filling bed
quilts, and for other purposes where warmth and lightness are required,
by this means a comparitively cheap vegetable fibre may be used as a
substitute for the most expensive eider down. The machinery which by
experiments has been found suitable for opening and cleaning the
"barracuta" or "thistle down" is the ordinary opener or blower used
in preparing cotton.
66
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect we will proceed to describe a convenient mode of
operation, which we have found to give good results. The vegetable
fibre commonly called "barracuta" or "thistle down" is the produce
of the class of vegetables known to botanists as bombax" of which
there are many varieties. The fibres are spread by hand on an endless.
creeper which is carried through a chest heated by steam pipes or other-
wise to evaporate the moisture, this creeper delivers the dry fibres to a
spiked drum similar to that of an ordinary opener or blower for cleaning
cotton, this drum revolves rapidly and separates the fibres from the seeds
or other impurities, the fibres are propelled by centrifugal force into a
receiving chamber, and the seeds and other impurities fall to the floor.
The fibres thus prepared are then in a fit state to be used for filling bed
quilts, and for other purposes in which it has heretofore been customary
to use eider down or other down or feathers.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and described a
convenient mode of performing the same, we declare that we claim the

page_text: application of the vegetable fibre commercially known as " barracuta"
or "thistle down" for the purposes described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Cussons, junior, for myself
and on behalf of the within named James Olerenshaw Rigby,
have hereto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of June One &
thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.