CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN A MACHINE OR MACHINERY FOR THE PURPOSE OF CLEANSING, BEASONING, AND DRESSING OF FEATHERS AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1806

page_text: PEARSON'S SPECIFICATION...
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
PEARSON, of Haberdasher's Place, in the Parish of Saint Leonard, Shoreditch,
and County of Middlesex, Wholesale Upholsterer, 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 Thirtieth day of
August, in the forty-sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Pearson, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said Thomas Pearson, my
exors, admors, 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
A MACHINE OR MACHINERY FOR THE PURPOSE OF CLEANSING, BEASONING, AND
DRESSING OF FEATHERS AND OTHER ARTICLES;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Thomas Pearson, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months 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
Thomas Pearson, do hereby declare that my said Invention, and the manner

page_text: in which the same is to be carried into effect and practice, are described in
manner following, that is to say:-
With any first mover derived from wind, water, steam, or the strength of
animals, I connect, by means of fit and appropriate millwork, or other well-
known apparatus, certain hollow cylinders or other vessels, boxes, or recep-
tacles, formed of wood or other fit materials (and covered, if thought fit, with
thin sheets of tin or metal, either perforated or entire, or with cloth of any
description,) suitable for the purpose, in such a manner that by means of the
said connection the said hollow cylinders or other vessels, boxes, or receptacles
may each be turned upon an horizontal axis or arbour, or upon pivots; and
within the said hollow cylinders, vessels, boxes, or receptacles I do place the
feathers intended to be dried or prepared by means of heat; and in order that
the said feathers may be raised and kept to and at a proper heat during such
preparation I do heat the surrounding air by means of flues from stoves, or by
other well-known methods, and I do take care that the surrounding chambers
shall be constructed sufficiently air-tight and secure from accidents, and also
that fit and proper apertures of communication shall be allowed for the heated
air to have access to the feathers, and for moisture, vapours, and other exhala-
tions to escape therefrom. And I do, in the operations hereby described, apply
the heat at a higher or lower temperature, and for a longer or shorter time,
according to the effect intended to be produced and the nature and state of the
goods themselves. And moreover I do separate, sort, cleanse, and dress the
various descriptions of feathers (whether in the raw state, or prepared as afore-
said, or by any other method,) by disposing the same upon an endless web or
cloth, resembling a jack towel, which being made to circulate slowly upon
rollers, doth carry the said feathers into contact between two other fluted or
plain rollers, from which they pass to a cylinder faced or set with pins, or very
coarse teeth externally, which move by the rotation of the said cylinder, so as
to pass between other pins fixed in the concave curved surface of a semi-
cylindrical cap or cover; and I do cause or permit the said feathers, after having
been separated, opened, or dressed by passing between the said cylinder and its
cover, to pass also between another like cylinder and its cover, or between a
greater number of such cylinders and their respective covers if need be, until
the same be rendered extremely light, open, and separate from each other.
And after this last-described process I do permit them to fall into a place,
which constitutes the commencement of a long horizontal, or nearly horizontal,
channel or passage, closed on all sides except at the two ends. And within
the said channel, or the bottom thereof, I do form certain successive com-
partiments which constitute the said bottom. And lastly I do, by means

page_text: of a winnowing fan or bellows, or a wind sail, or by other fit apparatus,
or by exposure to the natural current of the open air, cause or admit into the
said channel a stream of air, which, by its action against the said feathers
during their fall or afterwards, doth drive them along the said channel to
distances which depend upon the looseness or closeness of their respective
structure; that is to say, the loosest or lightest feathers will fly farthest
and drop into the remotest compartments, and the closest, heaviest, or most
impure portions will fall soonest and into the nearest compartments, and the
other parts of intermediate quality will fall into the intermediate compart-
ments. And lastly, I do declare that my sald improvements in machinery
hereby described are applicable to the cleansing, seasoning, and dressing of
flocks and other articles which may require exposure to heat, or the separation
of the lighter and looser parts from those which may be closer or more dense.
. In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Pearson, have hereunto set
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of February, in the year.
my
of our Lord Oue thousand eight hundred and seven.
THOS PEARSON. (L.B.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of February,
in the year of our Lord 1807, the aforesaid Thomas Pearson 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 Twenty-seventh day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seven.