A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING AND MANUFACTURING DOUBLE CANVASS AND SAIL CLOTH WITH HEMP AND FLAX OR EITHER OF THEM, WITHOUT ANY STARCH WHATEVER
Year: 1813

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
CAMPION, of Whitby, in the County of York, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, on or about the Thirteenth day of April, in the fifty-third year of His
reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Robert Campion, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Robert Campion, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, the Invention therein mentioned,
to wit, "A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING AND MANUFACTURING DOUBLE
CANVASS AND SAIL CLOTH WITH HEMP AND FLAX OR EITHER OF THEM, WITHOUT ANY
STARCH WHATEVER," within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said Robert Campion, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should seem meet, to
have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said powers, privileges, and advantages
therein, granted unto me, the said Robert Campion, my executors, adñiors,
and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years
from the date of the said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and
fully to be complete and ended, according to the Statute in such case made
and provided; in which said Letters Patent there is (amongst other things)
contained a proviso, that if I, the said Robert Campion, should not particularly

page_text: 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 the High Court of Chancery within
two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void,
as in and by the said Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, will more
fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Campion, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, as follows,
that is to say:-
My new and improved method of making and manufacturing double
canvas and sail cloth with hemp and flax, or either of them, without any
starch whatever, consists in first spinning the warp yarn either by hand or
with the sort of machinery generally used for such purposes, without water or
dampness of any kind whatever, afterwards properly cleansing and bleaching
the same in the best manner, and having made it perfectly dry from that
process, placing and working it on a machine similar to those commonly used
in cotton manufactories, round the upper bobbins of which machine the same
is rolled in single threads, so as that when the said machine is put in motion
in the usual manner, the effect thereof is to untwist those threads and take out
of them all the twist that was made therein by the operation of spinning, and
to twist or interweave two of them into one thread on to half the number of
other bobbins in the lower part of the said machine the reverse or contrary
way to that in which the single threads or warp had been before twisted; by
this process the yarn is not so hard twisted as at first, and in the operation of
thus reversing the twist the fibres of the flax are so closely united, and are
laid or arranged so perfectly level and even in every respect, as to render the
warp, yarn, or threads much stronger than any double threads are by the
usual mode of manufacture with starched chains; the double threads or warp
yarn being thus prepared and twisted together into one chain or warp, the
same is thereby preserved from injury whilst passing through the slay walk in
the subsequent operation of weaving, and thus the necessity of using any
starch or substitute for starch whatever, which in the ordinary mode of
manufacture is used only for the purpose of uniting the two threads or warp
and making them smooth, so as to pass through the slay walk with facility
and without injury, is altogether superseded. The canvass thus manufactured
is much more pliant than what is made with starch or in any other manner,

page_text: and is stronger, not only because its being so very regular and even necessarily
makes the stress equal in every part, but because in consequence of their
being no starch used in the manufacture, the weight of that material, which is
considerable in every web or piece, must be supplied by an additional quantity
of warp and woof, and being soft and pliant it will thicken when used, and
become of a closer texture without breaking, or running up, or being liable to
mildew or turn black. Where hemp is used in the manufacture, I hackle the
same with soft soap and a very small proportion of oil, in preference to the
entire use of oil, as generally practised, for this preparation lays the fibres as
even as oil does, and at the same time counteracts the viscous qualities of the
hemp, and with a proper quantity of pearl or pot ash, assist in bleaching the
yarn and obtaining a good colour in that process. The advantages of my
Invention of course extend to canvass made of unbleached yarn, and the only
difference in the manufacture thereof is the process of bleaching being then
dispensed with.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Campion, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirteen.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twelfth day of June, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Robert Campion came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Twelfth day of June, in the year above written.