A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HATS, CAPS, AND BONNETS
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
Scorr, Junior, and ROBERT STEPHEN OLIVER, Hatters, both of the City of
Edinburgh, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirteenth day of October, in the seventh year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Henry Scott, Junior, and Robert Stephen Oliver, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Henry
Scott, Junior, and Robert Stephen Oliver, our exors, adñññors, and assigns, or
such others as we, the said Henry Scott, Junior, and Robert Stephen Oliver,
our exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of fourteen years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within that
part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an
Invention communicated to us from abroad, of "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HATS, CAPS, AND BONNETS;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging us, the said Henry Scott,
Junior, and Robert Stephen Oliver, by an instrument in writing under our

page_text: hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, particularly to
describe the nature of our said Invention, and in what mannèr the same is
to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancellary in England within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Henry Scott, Junior, and Robert Stephen Oliver, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, are fully set forth in the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon, and in which the same letters of reference are used to denote
similar parts in the respective Figures (that is to say):
The improvement or improvements in the manufacture of hats, caps, and
bonnets, communicated to us as aforesaid, consist in the formation of a con-
tracting and expanding frame or apparatus formed of steel, iron, brass, wire,
whalebone, wood, or other suitable material, which frame is to-be attached-to-
the inside of that part of the hat which is to receive the head of the wearer,
and is so constructed as to permit the crown or upper part of the hat to be
compressed or folded towards the brim and of being again expanded to the
original hat shape when required.
Figure 1 of the annexed Drawing represents a frame in its upright or
expanded state, and also shews the external form of the hat around the
frame, as indicated by the dotted lines. A is the ring or circle, which is
fastened to the crown of the hat; B, the ring or circle, which is fastened
to the brim; C, C, C, C, the uprights or supports; D, the ring or moveable
crown; E, E, E, E, the centre joints or hinges. Figure 2 shews the frame
and hat in its compressed or folded state. In Figure 3, F shews a side view
of the centre joint of Fig. 1 in its bent or compressed state, with its notch
attached; and G, a front view of the same. H, a side view of the centre
joint of Fig. 4, to be the next described, and I, an edge view of the same.
Figure 4 shews a frame made with wire uprights or supports.
Having thus described the leading objects of the said Invention, and the
Drawings illustrative of the same, we shall now proceed to describe the
manner of constructing the improved hats, caps, and bonnets, as follows,
videlicet:The expanding and contracting frames consist of two rings or
circles A and B, to which four or more uprights C are affixed by joints or
hinges at each end of the said uprights, and having also joints or hinges E,

page_text: near the middle, which permit the uprights to fold inside the said rings or
circles; of these rings or circles A is screwed or otherwise fastened to the
crown or tip of the hat by means of an internal tip or crown, and the
other of the said rings or circles B, which is of an oval or other suitable form,
adapted to the head of the wearer, in like manner screwed or otherwise
fastened to the lower part of the hat body or brim. A ring or circle of
metal or other suitable material, having slight curvatures in it corresponding
with the uprights, is sewed into the lining of the hat, forming a moveable
crown, by means of which the hat is retained in the proper shape or compressed
at pleasure. When the hat is to be used, the ring or moveable crown must
be pressed or pushed in the direction towards the inside or top of the hat by
the thumb and fingers, and thus it will slide along the uprights or supports,
and thereby force them to separate and extend (and at the same time the
stuff by which they are covered) somewhat in the manner of an umbrella, and,
by passing the notches fixed upon the uprights or supports near to the middle
joints or hinges, will keep them in an upright position, or nearly so. In order
to compress or fold the hat, the ring or moveable crown must be drawn
towards the rim, by pressing one or more of the uprights or supports with
the thumb and finger, which will disengage the ring or crown from the notches,
and thereby allow the uprights or supports to bend and fold flat upon them-
selves, as seen in Figure 2. The brim of the hat to which the said improve-
ment or improvements are applied may be made of felt, woollen or cotton
cloth, or other material of a flexible nature, and the hat or outer covering of
the frame and brim may be made of beaver, silk, velvet, linen, cotton, or any
other suitable material usually employed in the formation of hats, that part
of the hat between the crown and the brim being always left in a soft or
unstiffened state, to permit of the free movement of the uprights or supports.
We would also observe, that we prefer turning up the inner edge of the brim
in a slight degree, the better to prevent the necessary fixture of the ring B from
imparting any unpleasant feeling to the head of the wearer, and also to ensure a
better mode of fixing it to the brim; and we hereby declare that, in the
manufacture of our improved hats, caps, and bonnets, we make no claim to
the exclusive use of any of the materials of which such articles are generally
manufactured, such as beaver, silk, or other substances; but we do claim the
constructing or making a frame or frames, or other apparatus, as herein-before
described, for folding, compressing, or allowing hats, caps, and bonnets, to be
compressed or folded into a flat or portable form, and to resume their upright
or extended shape when required.

page_text: We may, in conclusion, remark that we have laid down no figures in the
Drawing suited to caps and bonnets, or varieties of these, as it is obvious that
these can be easily constructed according to the Invention to suit every case.
that can be required. And we hereby declare this to be our Specification of
the same, and that it doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or
disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; and we hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and
privilege to the said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Stephen Oliver, for myself and
on behalf of the said Henry Scott, Junior, have affixed my seal to and
subscribed these Presents, written on the face of this skin of stamped
parchment by George Home, Writer in Edinburgh, at Edinburgh,
this Eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-seven, before these witnesses, George Brown,
Assistant to Messrs. Grieve & Oliver, Hatters in Edinburgh, and
the said George Home.
Alexander Craig, of Edinburgh, Esquire, maketh oath that Robert Stephen &
Oliver, whose signature is attached to the accompanying Specification, came
before me at Edinburgh, on the 8th day of April 1837, and on behalf of
himself and Henry Scott, Junior, his joint Patentee, duly acknowledged the
said Specification, which he wished to have enrolled in the High Court of
Chancery in England. And this Deponent further saith, that he was at the a

page_text: time of receiving such acknowledgment a Justice of the Peace for Kirkud-
bright, and fully authorized to administer such acknowledgment.
ALEX. CRAIG.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the oath of Alexander Craig, the
Specification aforesaid was inrolled, word for word, as above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-seven.