CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF UMBRELLAS AND PARASOLS
Year: 1809

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LEGER
DIDOT, of Two Waters, in the County of Hertford, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the First day of March, in
the forty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Leger
Didot, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Leger Didot, my exors, admiors,
and assigns, 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, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF UMBRELLAS AND PARASOLS;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Leger Didot, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one
calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, 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
Leger Didot, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained as follows, that is to say:-
I do improve the construction of umbrellas and parasols, either by certain
additions to the structure thereof, or by certain changes or alterations in the.

page_text: figure thereof, and the object, purpose, and distinguishing character of the said
additions, changes, and alterations are, that the umbrella or parasol, so improved,
shall not admit or allow the water which may fall upon the surface thereof to
run or drop from the edges or circumference of the same, as heretofore, and
that the person wearing or using such improved umbrella or parasol shall not
be incommoded by the said water, which by my said improvements is conveyed
or conducted away in a more convenient manner; and in order to produce the
last-mentioned effect, I do, by means of the additions, changes, or alterations
herein first mentioned, cause the extreme or outer edge or termination of the
said umbrellas or parasols to be less depressed than some other part or parts
of the surface thereof; or otherwise, I do apply, fix, or append unto the said
umbrellas and parasols respectively a gutter or receptacle around and beneath
the same, so that the water shall descend into and be collected at such other
part or parts, or into such gutter or receptacle, and be thence conveyed or
conducted away by means of a pipe, or tube, or aperture, and shall not, as
heretofore, incommode the wearer or user of the said umbrellas or parasols.
And the Drawings No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5 do more par-
ticularly illustrate my said improvements.
In the Drawing No. 1, A, B, C, represents an umbrella of the usual form;
D, D, is an additional edge or rim, elevated above the ordinary edge, so that
the upper border of the said rim doth constitute the extreme or outer edge or
termination of the said umbrella, and is less depressed than the other part next
immediately within the same, and consequently the water doth descend into
and is collected at such other part, instead of running or dropping, as usual,
from the edge. E or c represents a small pipe of oiled silk or other material
through which the said water is led or conducted into a cavity or reservoir,
made at any convenient part F of the stick, out of which the said water may
be drawn or permitted to escape, when occasion requires, by opening the said
'cavity or reservoir, or by reversing the umbrella itself, or otherwise, but not
by preference, the water may be suffered to run down by a pendant tube, or
through an aperture, lip, or gutter shade near the circumfernce for that purpose.
No. 2 represents the construction of No. 1 in some respects more clearly by
means of a vertical section.
No. 3 represents an umbrella so changed or altered in the figure thereof
that the concavity faces upwards instead of downwards, as hitherto made; and
the effect of the said change or alteration is, that the water is collected at the
center, where it is received and conducted by a tube, as before; or by the stick,
which may be hollowed or made tubular for that purpose; or by a metallic
tube employed instead of the stick, out of which it may be occasionally drawn

page_text: or emptied, as aforesaid. D, D, represents a descending edge or rim to
protect the wearer more effectually from the rain by an umbrella of the
construction here described.
No. 4 represents an umbrella having the central part rising or convex,
and the outer rim elevated by an elegant flexure or curvature of the vertical
section of the instrument, or by any other flexure or curvature which
may be preferred, so that the, most depressed part of the surface is placed
between the center and the rim, wherever it may be thought best, and in this
construction the water is conducted from the said depressed part by a tube E,
as herein-before described.
No. 5 represents an umbrella having a gutter or receptacle around and
beneath the same, one edge of the said gutter or receptacle being sewed or
fixed within the umbrella, and the other edge at the external circumference
near or to the outer extremities of the whalebones.
And, lastly, that as to the minute particulars and materials in the con-
struction of umbrellas and parasols, and of my said improvements, and as to
the several variations which may be adopted in carrying my said Invention
into effect, it is altogether unnecessary to enlarge upon the same, because
such particulars and materials are well known, and the said variations are
obviously deducible from what hath been already declared and set forth in
these Presents.
In witness whereof, I, the said Leger Didot, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty-eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and nine.