A NEW METHOD OF GIVING ADDITIONAL DURABILITY TO CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF LEATHER
Year: 1814

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MARC
ISAMBARD BRUNEL, of Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twelfth day of March, in the fifty-fourth year of
His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Marc Isambard Brunel, my
exors, admors, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Marc Isambard Brunel, my exors, adiñors, and
assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and .vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF GIVING ADDITIONAL
DURABILITY TO CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF LEATHER;" in which. said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said Marc Isambard Brunel,
shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under.my hand and seal, and cause the same to be 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
should be void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Marc Isambard Brunel, do. hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-

page_text: tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained as follows (that is to say):-
The method I propose for giving additional durability to certain description
of leather, is chiefly applicable to the leather used for making the soles of shoes
and boots. The method consists of studding the leather with small nails or pins,
after it has been previously saturated or impregnated with a composition of neats'
feet oil mixed with tar in the proportion of nine or ten to one. The studding
is independent, however, of the application of the composition above mentioned,
but it is material that the leather should be studded with nails or pins before it
is used, as the points may then be clinched with ease; therefore the operation
of studding may be performed either by hand or machinery. If the nails or
pins are to be let in by the aid of machinery, the instrument intended to
drive them into the leather consists of a small drift similar to a punching
press, by means of which the nails or pins are forced into the leather. The nail
or pin is to be dropt into a socket, wherein it is kept in a proper direction
to receive the blow or pressure from the press or hammer. As nails or pins
might be made and let into the leather at one operation and more expeditiously
than by a previous one, I give the preferènce to such mode. These nails or
pins are to be cut by the aid of a machine, on the principle of those already
known for cutting brails or nails; but instead of allowing the nail to fall
indiscriminately into a receiver, I propose to make it drop into a small funnel
or proper pipe, and to have it conveyed into a socket, wherein, by means of
a drift or hammer or any other fit instrument; it is to be forced into the
leather held fast under the socket. It is desirable that, the nails or pins
should be let in rather óbliquely, in order that they may not be affected by
the perpendicular pressure. Heels and soles thus studded, when intended for the
particular purpose of repairing shoes or boots of any description, I propose
to have one row of longer nails or pins along and near the edges, and ex-
ceeding the inner surface to a sufficient degree, for the purpose of being
applied and fastened at once and with ease to the parts already existing. A
sort of studding may be formed solid like a curvéd, comb, which may be let
in at one single operation, imitating thereby the horseshoe-like fence used
for heels and toés of shoes, or, by breaking the. connection between every
point, one or more rows might be let in at one single blow.
In witness whereof, I, the said Marc Isambard Brunel, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twelfth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fourteen.
MC. JD BRUNEL... (L.S.).

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fourteen, the aforesaid
Marc Isambard Brunel came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowleged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification
aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made for that
purpose.
Inrolled the Twelfth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fourteen.