IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COMPOUND OR MATERIAL TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH OR AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEATHER AND FOR VARIOUS OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES, AND IN TREATING THE SAME SO AS TO RENDER IT WATER-PROOF AND OIL-PROOF, PART OF SUCH IMPROVEMENTS BEING APPLI- CABLE TO THE TREATMENT OF SOLID LEATHER
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Matthew Bird at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 13th May 1879.
MATTHEW BIRD, of No. 67, Rhodeswell Road, Limehouse, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COMPOUND OR MATERIAL
TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH OR AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEATHER AND FOR
VARIOUS OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES, AND IN TREATING THE SAME SO AS TO RENDER
IT WATER-PROOF AND OIL-PROOF, PART OF SUCH IMPROVEMENTS BEING APPLI-
CABLE TO THE TREATMENT OF SOLID LEATHER."
The object of this Invention is, as set forth in the title, the production of a
compound or material which may be used either in conjunction with or as a sub-
stitute for leather, and for various other useful purposes to which ordinary leather
is not applicable, and in so treating the compound or material produced, and solid
leather, as to render them impervious to both water and oil.
I. My Invention consists in the utilization of scrap or waste leather in connection
with fibrous material, such for example as the fibre of spent tan, and also with
certain chemical matters or substances which shall have a tendency to bind or cause
the other parts of the compound to bind or adhere together; as, for example, I take
a quantity of leather waste or scrap, and firstly immerse it in water until it has
become softened. I next remove the mass from the water, and subject it to the
action of a separating, scutching, or disintegrating machine, by whose action the
leather is converted into a fibrous mass. I then take a quantity of spent tan, and
subject it to the like treatment until it also is reduced into a fibrous mass.
two fibrous substances thus obtained are mixed in certain proportions (such propor-
tions varying according to the purposes for which it is intended the material
resulting shall be applied), with a certain quantity of steatite, or of talc, or of asbestos,
or of fish glue, until the two fibrous and the other material or inaterials are converted
into one intimately mixed mass of uniform consistency.
The
II. In some cases, instead of using the waste leather scrap in the manner herein-
before described, I thoroughly reduce it to powder, or dissolve it, so as to be of a
pasty consistency, and mix it with the other materials, as herein before stated.
III. The mixture in either way made is then run in between cylinders of wood,
metal, or other material, so that by the pressure applied it is formed into sheets, or
it may be pressed in moulds into the form desired. The sheets or moulded articles
are then dried by stove heat or other heat.

page_text: IV. The sheets or moulded articles are then, if it be desired to render them
capable of withstanding or resisting the action of water and of oil, subjected to
treatment with dissolved paraffin and stearic pitch, or other chemicals or minerals
having similar properties, by either coating them or painting them with the said
mixture, or immersing them in a bath thereof. This mixture may also be applied
to the treatment of solid leather. The proportions in about which I make this
mixture are seventy five parts of paraffin to twenty-five parts of stearic pitch.
V. I may use steatite, talc, asbestos, or fish glue separately or in combination, or
I may use only one, two, or three of such substances; and when I use talc or
asbestos I may use them in a triturated or in a dissolved state, as I may find most 1
convenient or suitable.
VI. Although I have described my Invention with reference to the use of tan
fibre, I do not confine myself thereto, but purpose using any fibrous material,
either vegetable or animal, that will give the necessary strength.