AN IMPROVED MODE OF PREPARING WOOLLEN CLOTH FOR THE MARKET
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Selfe Leonard, of the Firm of Marling
& Co., of Stroud, in the County of Gloucester, Woollen Cloth
Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF PREPARING
WOOLLEN CLOTH FOR THE MARKET."
Sealed the 24th October 1871, and dated the 1st May 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Selfe Leonard
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 1st May 1871.
I, ALFRED SELFE LEONARD, of the Firm of Marling & Co., of Stroud,
in the County of Gloucester, Woollen Cloth Manufacturer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF
PREPARING WOOLLEN CLOTH FOR THE MARKET," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved mode of treating the surface of
woollen cloths after dressing and shearing, whereby a fine and even
face may
be obtained, thereby enhancing the market value of the goods
without materially adding to their cost of manufacture.

page_text: I am also enabled by the use of my Invention to finish dressed woollen
cloth with a smooth, soft, non-lustrous surface in contradistinction to
the lustrous surface which such goods at present possess, and thereby to
obtain a cloth of a novel character.
To obtain the non-lustrous finish I take the woollen cloth which has
been dressed, roll boiled, and finished in the usual way, and submit it to
a novel kind of friction or surface grinding or cutting action, using for
that purpose an emery, sand, or other suitable frictional surface. The
operation may be performed by machinery or by hand, but the plan-
which I have found to answer is the following:-I stretch over a padded
table top a given length of the cloth, say one yard more or less, and I
apply to this a friction board slightly rounded on its face, which face
is prepared by covering it evenly with fine grains of emery. This
emery-board being drawn over the face of the fabric again and again,
say in the direction of the "lay" of the nap, will remove the whole
or any desired amount of the lustre from the portion of the cloth
under treatment. The portion of cloth-acted on is then to be shifted-
in order that the operation may be repeated on a fresh portion, and
so on until the whole length of the piece has been similarly treated.
When the piece has by this surface grinding or cutting action been
deprived of its lustre it is to be brushed, and may be pressed or other-
wise finished as desired, after which it will be ready for the market.
When it is not desired to remove the lustre from the cloth I submit the
goods before roll boiling to the surface grinding or cutting action, and
am thus enabled, without the use of high-priced wool, to produce cloths
having a fine and more even face than has hitherto been obtained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Selfe Leonard in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 31st October 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
SELFE LEONARD, of the Firm of Marling and Company, of Stroud, in
the-County of Gloucester, Woollen Cloth Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-fourth

page_text: year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Alfred Selfe Leonard, Her special licence that
I, the said Alfred Selfe Leonard, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred Selfe Leonard, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, 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 "AN IMPROVED
MODE OF PREPARING WOOLLEN CLOTH FOR THE MARKET," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Selfe Leonard, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, 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 Alfred Selfe Leonard, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to an improved mode of treating the surface
of woollen cloths after dressing and shearing, whereby I am enabled to
obtain a smooth, soft, non-lustrous surface in contradistinction to the
lustrous surface which such goods at present possess, and thus produce
a cloth of a novel character.
To obtain this non-lustrous finish I take woollen cloth which has been
dressed, roll boiled, and finished after the ordinary manner of working,
and submit it to a novel kind of friction or surface grinding or cutting
action, for which purpose I use an emery, sand, or other like frictional
surface. The operation may be performed by machinery or by hand,
but the plan which I have found to answer is the following:-I stretch
over a dubbing board slightly rounded (the same being padded with felt)
a given length of the cloth, say one yard more or less, drawn from a
suspended roll, the piece at the commencement of the operation being
held at tension by means of canvas attached to the end of the cloth, and
laid around a drag or tension roller, which may be actuated by a winch
handle or otherwise. To the stretched cloth I apply a hand friction

page_text: board slightly rounded transversely on its face, which is prepared by
covering it with an even coating of emery secured by a solution of
glue or its equivalent. This emery board (which I prefer to make, say,
eighteen inches long by four inches broad) is drawn over the face of the
fabric again and again in the direction of the "lay" of the nap until 5
the gloss or lustre is removed from the portion of the cloth under
treatment. The portion of cloth thus acted on is then to be shifted in
order that the operation may be repeated on a fresh adjacent portion,
and so on until the whole length of the piece has been similarly treated.
When the piece has by this surface grinding or cutting action been 1
deprived of its lustre it is to be brushed, and may be pressed or otherwise
finished as desired, after which it will be ready for the market.
I would remark that instead of roll boiling the goods to be submitted
to the above described-treatment some seven or eight times as usual, and
at a temperature of one hundred and ninety degrees, I prefer to boil-the-1
goods-only-two.or_three times, keeping the temperature at one hundred
and sixty degrees or thereabouts. The object of this change-of-treatment
is to prevent too much impoverishment of the cloth in the finishing
process, as the greater the gloss obtained in the boiling the more severe
is the finishing operation to remove the gloss and get the velvety or 2
non-lustrous surface desired. I would further remark that my improved
process applies to superfine and other cloth and to doeskins and beavers.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved
Mode of Preparing Woollen Cloth for the Market," and explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that 2
under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim, finishing woollen
cloth in the manner and for the purpose above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Selfe Leonard, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the 27th day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
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