AN IMPROVEMENT IN COATS AND WAIST- COATS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Gwillim Merrett, of 49, Leadenhall Street;
Surgeon, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN COATS AND WAIST-
COATS."
Sealed the 8th September 1857, and dated the 19th March 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Gwillim Merrett
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th March 1857.
I, WILLIAM GWILLIM MERRETT, of 49, Leadenhall Street, Surgeon, .do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN COATS
AND WAISTCOATS," to be as follows:-
This Invention' has for its object an improvement in coats and waistcoats;
and the Invention consists of introducing into or forming those parts of coats.
and-waistcoats which come under the arms of the wearers portions of fabric
or leather, or suitable: flexible material, perforated or made with numerous
small holes in order to ventilate under the arms of persons wearing coats and
waistcoats with sleeves.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Gwillim Merrett in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 16th September 1857..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GWILLIM MERRETT, of 49, Leadenhall Street, Surgeon, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing, date the Nineteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Gwillim Merrett, Her special licence that I, the said William
Gwillim Merrett, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Gwillim Merrett, my executors, 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 IMPROVEMENT IN COATS AND WAISTCOATS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Gwillim Merrett, my executors.or adminis
trators, 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 William Gwillim Merrett, 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 :-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in coats and waistcoats,
and the Invention consists of introducing into or forming those parts of coats
and waistcoats which come under the arms of the wearers portions of fabric
or leather, or suitable flexible material, perforated or made with numerous
small holes in order to ventilate under the arms of persons wearing coats and
waistcoats with sleeves..
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
In a former Specification I described the application of perforated or re-
ticulate portions of fabric or of leather to the seat of a pair of trousers, or of

page_text: drawers, or of such like garment to be worn on lower parts of the person,
such perforations being applied in order to obtain ventilation.
And my present improvement consists in the application of like perforated
or reticulate fabrics or of leather to the under parts of the sleeves of garments
covering the upper parts of the person, in order to obtain ventilation to the
armpits of the wearer. For this purpose, in making a coat or external
garment, I apply under the arms gussets or pieces perforated or made with
numerous small holes, and the gussets or pieces so used may be of the same
material as the coat or garment, or of leather or other suitable material, such
as knitted fabrics or other open or reticulate work, or the fabric of which the
arms of the garment are made may themselves be perforated with numerous
holes in those parts which come under the armpits. In making up waist-
coats or such like under garments with sleeves, they are to be similarly
provided with perforated gussets or parts under the armpits of the wearer.
When such garments with sleeves are made by knitted or loop-made fabrics,
the under parts of the sleeves which come to the armpits of the wearers may
be produced of open or reticulate work in the act of making them, whilst the
other parts of the sleeves and garments may be made of close looped fabric,
excepting that when desired the central portion of the back of a garment
may be similarly produced or made of reticulate or open work.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Gwillim Merrett, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
E. BARKER.
W. G. MERRETT. (L.S.)