AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR SOFTENING THE BRIMS OF STIFFENED FELT HATS FOR CURLING
Year: 1873

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LETTERS PATENT to George Worsley, Joseph Brelsford, and Ralph.
Ashton, all of Audenshaw, near Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Worsley, Joseph
Brelsford, and Ralph Ashton at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 1st November 1873.
We, GEORGE WORSLEY, JOSEPH BRELSFORD, and RALPH ASHTON, all
of Audenshaw, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF
AND APPARATUS FOR SOFTENING THE BRIMS OF STIFFENED FELT HATS FOR CURLING,"
to be as follows:-
Hitherto the brims of stiffened felt hats have always been softened by
means of hot irons, a necessarily slow process, as the curler has to first
soften and then curl the brim, and the iron has to be frequently re-
heated..

page_text: Our Invention consists principally in the use of gas in place of heated
irons for this purpose in the following manner :-
We take two sheets of tin, zinc, or other suitable metal, about six
inches wide (one being rather wider than the other), and we bend them
· into a semicircular or other suitable shape corresponding with the circum-
ference of the brim of the hat to be softened. We fix these metal plates
together about an inch apart (the wider plate being the outermost) so
that they form between them a semi-annular space open at the top and
bottom, and we then place them edgewise over a piece of gas piping
bent to a corresponding semicircle, and having several jets in its upper
side, so that all the heat from these jets passes up between the metal
plates. The hat is placed on a block of such a height as to bring its
brim just above the edge of the inner plate and inside the raised edge of
the outer one, which forms a kind of stop. The heat of the gas passing
up between the metal plates, as above mentioned, softens the brim of the
hat, but is prevented from entering the crown of the same by the wooden
block. By this arrangement great saving of time and labor is effected,
as the brim of one hat is softening whilst the curler is manipulating
another.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Worsley, Joseph Brelsford, and Ralph
Ashton, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 29th April 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
WORSLEY, JOSEPH BRELSFORD, and RALPH ASHTON, all of Audenshaw,
near Manchester, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said George Worsley, Joseph
Brelsford, and Ralph Ashton, Her special license that we, the said
George Worsley, Joseph Brelsford, and Ralph Ashton; our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said George
Worsley, Joseph Brelsford, and Ralph Ashton, our executors,, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from

page_text: 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 METHOD OF
and Apparatus FOR SOFTENING THE BRIMS OF STIFFENED FELT HATS FOR CURLING,"
upon the condition (amongst others), that we, the said George Worsley,
Joseph Brelsford, and Ralph Ashton, our executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under our, or one of our, 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 Joseph Brelsford, on behalf of
myself and the said George Worsley and Ralph Ashton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement and accompanying Drawing (that is to
say) :-
Hitherto the brims of stiffened felt hats have always been softened by.
means of hot irons, a necessarily slow process, as the curler has to first.
soften and then curl the brim, and the iron has to be frequently re-
heated.
Our Invention consists principally in the use of gas in place of heated
5 irons for this purpose, and the apparatus which we employ for this
purpose will be readily understood from the following description
thereof, reference being had to the annexed Sheet of Drawings, in which
Fig. 1 is a plan view, and Fig. 2 a vertical section of our improved
apparatus :-
• We take two sheets of tin, zinc, or other suitable, metal a, a, b, b,
about six inches wide (one a being rather wider than the other 6), and
we bend them into a semicircular, semi-oval, or other suitable shape
corresponding with the circumference of the brim of the hat to be
softened. We fix these metal plates together about an inch apart (the
3 wider plate being the outermost) so that they form between them a
semi-annular spape c, c, open at the top and bottom, and we then place
them edgewise over a piece of a gas piping d, d, bent to a corresponding

page_text: semicircle, and having several jets' or holes in its upper side, so that all
the heat from these jets passes up between the metal plates a and b.
The hat is placed on a block or table e, e, of such a height as to bring
its brim just above the edge of the inner plate b, and inside the raised
edge of the outer one a, which forms a kind of stop. The heat of the
gas passing up the space c, c, between the metal plate, as above
mentioned, softens the brim of the hat, but is prevented from entering
the crown of the same by the wooden block or table e, e. By this
arrangement great saving of time and labor is effected, as the brim of
one hat is softening whilst the curler is manipulating another.
Having now described the nature and object of our said Invention,
together with the method in which the same is to be or may be performed.
or carried into practical effect, I wish it to be understood that we claim
as our Invention,―
Firstly. The use of the direct heat from gas in place of heated irons 1
for softening the brims of hats previous to curling.
And, Secondly. The construction and arrangement of the apparatus
for softening hat brims by the direct heat of gas, as herein-before described
and illustrated by the Drawings annexed or any mere modification or
imitation thereof, constructed and operating in substantially the same or
a similar manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Brelsford (on behalf of
myself and the said George Worsley and Ralph Ashton) have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of April,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy- 2
foxy
Witnessed by,
JOHN HUGHES,
JOSEPH BRELSFORD. (L.S.)
Clerk to George Davies, C.E.,.
Patent Office,
St. Ann's Sq.,
Manchester.