A CERTAIN METHOD OF PREPARING, FORMING, UNITING, COMBINING, OR PUTTING TOGETHER A CERTAIN MATERIAL, SUBSTANCE, OR THING, OR CERTAIN MATERIALS, SUBSTANCES, OR THINGS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF BEING MADE INTO HATS, CAPS, BONNETS, CLOAKS, COATS, TROWSERS, AND FOR WEARING APPAREL IN GENERAL, AND VARIOUS OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1826

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
ROWBOTHAM of Great Surrey Street, Blackfriars Road, in the County of Surrey,
Hat Manufacturer, and ROBERT LLOYD, of No. 71, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Hat Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighteenth
day of April, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, give and grant unto
ús, the said James Rowbotham and Robert Lloyd, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, His special licence, full power, and sole privilege and
authority, that we, the said James Rowbotham and Robert Lloyd, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our invented or found out "A CERTAIN
METHOD OF PREPARING, FORMING, UNITING, COMBINING, OR PUTTING TOGETHER A
CERTAIN MATERIAL, SUBSTANCE, OR THING, OR CERTAIN MATERIALS, SUBSTANCES, OR
THINGS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF BEING MADE INTO HATS, CAPS, BONNETS, CLOAKS,
COATS, TROWSERS, AND FOR WEARING APPAREL IN GENERAL, AND VARIOUS OTHER
PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging
us, the said James Rowbotham and Robert Lloyd, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, to causo
a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed; to be inrolled in His Majesty's Fligh
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
James Rowbotham and Robert Lloyd, do licreby declare that the nature of
our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, arc
particularly described and ascertained as follows, that is to say :-
The certain material, substance, or thing which wo. employ.-is cork, and
which, when duly prepared, combined, or put together with other materials,
substances, or things, in the different methods hereafter described, we can form
into hats, caps, and bonnets, either wholly or in part, and wearing apparel in
general,, or use for various other purposes; and, first, we coment or fasten, the
pieces of cork upon wood, or metal slabs or plates, and reduce the cork into
sheets or slices, more or less thick, as the same may be required, and either with
the knife by hand, or by machines adapted to the purpose, similar to those
employed in splitting skins or hides, excepting that the pieces of cork are,
carried towards the knives in a straight instead of a circular direction; but
which said machines, as they do not form any part of our Invention, need not
be more particularly described herein. We however generally prefer to have
the sheets or slices of cork, intended to form the different articles, as nearly-of
an equal thickness as may be; however, their widths may vary. We can
either use the said sheets or slices of cork so prepared, or we can unite.or
combine a number of them into a fabric or fabrics of cloth by means of
weaving, forming the warp of hemp, flax, silk, cotton, or other fibrous materials
made into threads and the woof of the said sliced cork, and of such dimen-
sions as may be suitable to the different purposes for which they are to be
employed. We then form this prepared cork, either woven or not, into hats in
the following manner:-Having steamed and blocked a felted hat to the
shape or model required, taking care that it be well ironed and all its parts
closely fitted to the block or model, we let it dry thoroughly; we then take it
off the block and cut it open, and if necessary subdivide it into such portions or
parts as may be required to form true and convenient patterns, by which the
sheets of prepared cork or woven cork are to be cut. The pieces thus cut or
shaped are then to be placed round or upon the block or model on which the
pattern hat was formed or steamed, carefully observing that each piece or pieces
occupy its or their relative situation or situations on the said block or model, as
the pattern or patterns did from which it or they was or were shaped; the pieces
are then to be sewed, glued, or cemented firmly together, by which means
the crown, body, brim, or tip are completed. In the same manner we also
form caps and bonnets, and the said hats, caps, and bonnets, or any part or
parts thereof, for men, women, and children, so formed, may be either made
wholly or in part of the sheets of cork or woven cork, as above described, and

page_text: may or may not be covered externally or internally with any of the materials
felted, woven, or otherwise formed, which are usually employed in the manufac-
ture of hats, caps, or bonnets; we can also plat the said slices or strips of cork
together, and form the same into men's, women's, and children's hats, caps,
and bonnets, after the manner of straw hats. It is usual also to put pieces of
scaleboard, pasteboard, thick paper, or other materials inside and against tho
tops of the crowns of hats, caps, and bonnets, for the purpose of preventing them
from sinking or rising, but which have hitherto been found very inadequate
for those purposes; and therefore to remedy such defects we use cork either cut
out of thin sheets or of the same woven fabric. These pieces are termed tips,
and are formed to the shapes wanted, and fastened inside the hats, caps, and
bonnets in the usual manner. In order to prepare and combine cork as a woven,
light, and pliable cloth fabric, fit to be applied to the various uses herein stated,
we fit up a loom similar to those employed in weaving linen, cotton, &c. The
warp is made of thread spun or twisted from hemp, flax, cotton, wool, hair,
silk, or any other fit and proper fibrous material; the width of the warp, the:
number of the threads in it, &c., we regulate as wanted, either as to strength,
quality, or size. Having cut the cork into slices, pieces, or strips, varying from
one inch or less to twenty or more inches long, and from one-sixteenth of an inch
or less to one quarter of an inch or more in thickness, and from one-sixteenth of
an inch or less to one inch or more in width, and which said slices, pieces, or
strips wo call woof, this woof is then woven as such into or between the said
threads forming the warp, and is struck or knocked up, as is usual in weaving.
Of this cork cloth or fabric so woven we make hats, caps, bonnets, bodies
crowns, or tips for men, women, and children, and also cloaks, coats, jackets,
waistcoats, trowsers, and other wearing apparel, either wholly or in part
covering one or both sides with wool, cotton, linen, silk, hair, fur, or any other
proper material or thing, either felted, woven, or otherwise, which is usually
made into wearing apparel. We also intend to employ this cork cloth or
fabric, so woven, in various other modes, and in which it may be found advan-
tageous or useful, for it is the application of cork prepared, formed, united,
combined, or put together in any of the ways or methods herein set forth
which wo claim as our sole Invention. We conceive the advantages that are
to be derided from the application of cork in the manufacture of hats, caps,
bonnets, bodies, crowns, and tips, either wholly or in part, consist in their
possessing greater lightness, pliability, and elasticity, and being less liable to
injury from heat or moisture, their shapes will better preserved than most of
those formed or manufactured in the usual manner and of the usual materials.
'The porosity of cork will also afford greater advantages in point of ventilation

page_text: to the hats, caps, and bonnets formed of it than have hitherto been obtained
in such articles made in tho usual manner. The utility and advantages to be
derived from the application of the pliable woven cork cloth or fabric to the
manufacture of other articles of clothing are, that the said pliable cork cloth
or fabric will, when so employed, render such clothing or wearing apparel'
peculiarly fitted for life preservers in cases of shipwreck, or other accidents or
casualties by water, and they may also be worn as warm and dry clothing.
We also intended to apply the cork cloth to the purpose of sheathing or
covering the bottoms or sides of ships and other vessels, and likewise to cover
the walls or partitions of houses, &c. with it, in order to produce warmth, or to
preserve the paper, &c. from becoming damp or falling off.
We do not mean or intend hereby to claim as our Invention the application
of cork in its ordinary state or form to any of the purposes for which it has
hitherto been employed; but we do claim the application of cork when woven
to the manufacture of the various articles herein mentioned, as well as for
all other purposes to which it may be found applicable.
'We also claim the use of cork in the manufacture of hats, caps, bonnets,
bodies, crowns, and tips, in the manner described.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Rowbotham and Robert Lloyd,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Seventeenth day of October,
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.
W. WINGFIELD.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Seventeenth day of October.
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid James Rowbotham and Robert
Lloyd came before our Lord the King in Ilis 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 Seventeenth day of October, in the year above written.