CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TRAVELLING CASES, WRAPPERS, AND CERTAIN ARTICLES OF DRESS HITHERTO MANU- FACTURED OF LEATHER
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph James Welch and John Stewart
Margetson, of Cheapside, in the City of London, for the Invention
of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TRAVELLING
CASES, WRAPPERS, AND CERTAIN ARTICLES OF DRESS HITHERTO MANU-
FACTURED OF LEATHER."
Sealed the 4th July 1853, and dated the 4th January 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph James
Welch and John Stewart Margetson at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 4th January
1858.
We, JOSEPHI JAMES WELCH and JOHN STEWART MARGETSON, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TRAVELLING CASES, WRAPPERS,
CERTAIN ARTICLES OF DRESS HITHERTO MANUFACTURED OF LEATHER," to be
as follows:-
The Invention consists in the use and application of a new material
as a substitute for leather in the manufacture of travelling cases or
portmanteaus, also gaiters, slippers, leggings, spatterdashes or overalls,
children's belts, railway or travelling wrappers, and such like articles.
The said material is composed of woven fabric, one side whereof is
covered or coated with a composition which presents an appearance in
every respect resembling leather.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph James Welch and John Stewart Mar-
getson in the Great Seal Patent Office, on the 4th July 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
JOSEPH JAMES WELCH and JonN STEWART MARGETSON, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Joseph James Welch and John
Stewart Margetson, Her special licence that we, the said Joseph
James Welch and John Stewart Margetson, our executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Joseph James Welch
and John Stewart Margetson, our executors, administrators, and as-
signs, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF TRAVELLING CASES, WRAPPERS, AND CERTAIN ARTICLES OF
DRESS HITHERTO MANUFACTURED OF LEATHER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Joseph James Welch and John Stewart
Margetson, or one of us, by an instrument in writing under our hands
and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph James Welch, on behalf
of myself and the said John Stewart Margetson, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:
Our Invention consists in the use and application of woven fibrous
materials in and for the manufacture of the following articles, namely:

page_text: travelling cases or portmanteaus, gaiters, slippers, leggings, splatter-
dashes or overalls, children's belts, railway or travelling wrappers, and
such like articles. Hitherto some of these articles have been made of
leather, and have therefore been found cumbersome and expensive.
And the object and intention of our Invention is therefore to make
such of the articles as have hitherto been made of leather of a material
lighter and cheaper than leather; for example, we employ flax, cotton,
or other fibrous material, woven in the ordinary manner, and after-
wards coated or covered with any elastic varnish or composition in
known and common use, which will not readily crack, and presenting
all the appearance of leather; and having cut out of this the shape of
the article required, the parts are connected together by sewing, in a
similar manner to that practised in manufacturing articles from leather.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be and may be performed, we claim as of our
Invention of "Certain Improvements in the Manufacture of Travelling
Cases, Wrappers, and certain Articles of Dress hitherto manufactured of
Leather," the use and application of woven fibrous materials coated or
covered with varnish or composition, so as to resemble leather, in and
for the manufacture of the above articles, as herein-before particularly
described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph James Welch, one of the
parties hereunto, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
ALEX PRINCE,
Patent Agent,
JOSEPH JAMES WELCH. (L.S.)
4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross.