IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Rawle, of 1, Temple Street, in the City
of Bristol, and William Nathaniel Evans, of 1, East Street, Bed-
minster, near Bristol, in the County of Somerset, for the Invention
Scaled the 4th March 1873, and dated the 1st January 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Rawle and
William Nathaniel Evans, at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 1st January 1873.
We, GEORGE RAWLE, of 1, Temple Street, in the City of Bristol, and
WILLIAM NATHANIEL EVANS, of 1, East Street, Bedminster, near Bristol,
in the County of Somerset, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF LEATHER," to be as
follows:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Rawle and
William Nathaniel Evans at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 1st January 1873.
We, GEORGE RAWLE, of 1, Temple Street, in the City of Bristol, and
WILLIAM NATHANIEL Evans, of 1, East Street, Bedminster, near Bristol,
in the County of Somerset, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for “IMPROVEMENTS in the ManufactTURE OF LEATHER," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is mainly to diminish the time now
required for tanning hides and skins. In tanning hides and skins it is.

page_text: now usual to commence the tanning operations by subjecting the skins
to weak baths of tannin material and gradually to increase the strength
of the baths as the process proceeds. By proceeding in this manner
a considerable length of time is necessarily occupied, and if in order to
save time the skins are at once subjected to a strong bath of tannin the
grain side of the skin becomes hardened and the leather produced is
comparatively valueless.
According to our Invention we protect the grain side of the skins or
hides from the action of the liquor before placing them into the pits, so
that the skins may. at once be placed into a strong tannin solution, and
consequently the tanning of the skins will be greatly expedited, whilst
the grain side being protected from the action of the liquor will remain
soft and pliable.
To protect the grain from the action of the tannin liquor we prefer to
rub over the grain side of the skin with a dubbing of grease and oil,
but other modes of protecting the grain side from the liquor may be
adopted.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
•
filed by the said George Rawle and William Nathaniel Evans in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 30th June 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
RAWLE, of 1, Temple Street, in the City of Bristol, and WILLIAM
NATHANIEL EVANS, of 1, East Street, Bedminster, near Bristol, in the
County of Somerset, send greeting.
2
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 2
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of January, 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 successors, give and
grant unto us, the said George Rawle and William Nathaniel Evans, Her
special license that we, the said George Rawle and William Nathaniel 3
Evans, our exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said George Rawle and William Nathaniel Evans, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,

page_text: .
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF LEATHER," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said George Rawle and William Nathaniel Evans, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said George Rawle and William
Nathaniel Evans, 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 thereof,
that is to say:-
The object of this Invention is mainly to diminish the time now
required for tanning hides and skins. In tanning hides and skins it is
now usual to commence the tanning operations by subjecting the skins
to weak solutions of tanning material and gradually to increase the
strength of the solution as the process proceeds. By proceeding in this
manner a considerable length of time is necessarily occupied, and if in
order to save time the skins are at once subjected to a strong solution of
tanning, the grain side of the skin becomes hardened and the leather
produced is comparatively valueless.
According to our Invention we protect the grain side of the skins or
hides from the action of the liquor before placing them into the pits, so
that the skins may at once be placed into a strong tannin solution, and
consequently the tanning of the skins will be greatly expedited, whilst
the grain side being protected from the action of the liquor will remain
soft and pliable.
The hides or skins may also be first partly tanned in weak tannin
solutions in the ordinary manner, and be afterwards protected on the
grain side from the action of the tannin liquor before submitting such
partially tanned skins to the action of strong tannin solutions,

page_text: To protect the grain side from the action of the tannin liquor we
prefer to rub it over with a dubbing of grease and oil, but other modes
of protecting the grain side from the liquor may be adopted..
When we employ a mixture of grease and oil as the protecting
material we use by preference a mixture composed of cod oil and tallow,
in the proportion of about 2 lbs. of tallow to 1 gallon of the oil.
In carrying out our Invention we prefer to proceed as follows:---The
skins after being unhaired and after being washed in water are rubbed
down in the usual way; the grain side of the skins is then smeared over
with the mixture of tallow and oil, and the skins are placed into a pit
containing a strong tannin solution, say of a strength of 80 to 90 degrees,
which is the usual strength for the last bath when tanning skins in the
ordinary manner. A stronger liquor may however be used with
advantage. We prefer that the skins should be suspended in the pit at
a short distance apart from one another, so that the tannin liquor may
have free access to the flesh side of each skin; by this means the tanning
of the skins or hides may be effected without removing them from the
pit, tannin material being from time to time added to the liquor in the
pit as usual to keep it up to the required strength.
In place of coating the grain side of the skins or hides with a pro-
tecting coating, the grain side of two skins might be placed together and
caused to adhere to one another by rubbing them down before placing
such skins into the tan pit, or the grain side might be in other ways
protected from the action of the tannin liquor%; we however prefer to
apply a coating of protecting material to the grain side as above
described. By thus tanning hides and skins not only will the tanning
process be greatly expedited, but a superior leather will be produced to
that tanned by the present tedious tanning process.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, we would have it understood that we claim,-
1st. Coating the grain side of skins or hides with a protecting coating
of grease and oil or other coating capable of protecting such grain side
from the action of tannin liquor, and subsequently submitting the skins
so prepared to the action of tannin liquor in a tan pit, substantially as
herein described,

page_text: 2nd. Protecting the grain side of skins and hides from the action of
he tannin liquor during the tanning process.
In witness whereof, we, the said George Rawle and William
Nathaniel Evans, have hereunto set our hands and scals, this
Twenty-sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
cight hundred and seventy-three.