AN IMPROVEMENT IN TANNING HIDES AND SKINS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Denny Ruck, of Topping's Wharf, Tooley
Street; for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN TANNING HIDES AND
SKINS."
Sealed the 28th October 1856, and dated the 28th April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Denny Ruck at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th April 1856.
I, WILLIAM DENNY RUCK, of Topping's Wharf, Tooley Street, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN TANNING HIDES
AND SKINS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in tanning hides and
skins. For this purpose the hides and skins having been properly prepared
as usual, are, in place of being submitted to the process of tanning heretofore
practised, to be placed in a closed vessel, from which the air is to be
exhausted, the tanning liquor run in, and subjected to pressure; a portion of
the liquor is from time to time to be withdrawn, and fresh liquor is to be
introduced.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Denny Ruck in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 28th October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
DENNY RUCK, of Topping's Wharf, Tooley Street, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Denny Ruck, Her special licence that I, the said William Denny
Ruck, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Denny Ruck, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 TANNING HIDES AND SKINS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said William Denny Ruck, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particu-
larly 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Denny Ruck, 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 tanning hides and
skins. For this purpose the hides and skins having been properly prepared as
usual, are, in place of being submitted to the process of tanning heretofore
practised, to be placed in a closed vessel, from which the air is to be exhausted,
the tanning liquor run in, and subjected to pressure; a portion of the
liquor is from time to time to be withdrawn, and fresh liquor is to be
introduced.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
The skin or hide being first limed and prepared for tanning, as now adopted
by the tanners, is to be placed in a vessel of any size or shape capable of being

page_text: made air-tight, and of containing any required number of hides, and of
sufficient strength to bear a pressure of from 50 to 80 lbs. on the square inch,
the hides being placed in this vessel, and the same being made air-tight, the
air is to be extracted by means of an air-pump; and when a vacuum is obtained,
the vessel is allowed to fill itself with tan liquor made in the usual way (and I
prefer it to be used warm) by means of a pipe with a cock in it, having
communication with a reservoir filled with the tan liquor; when no more
liquor will run in a force pump is to be used to force in as much liquor as
possible, it is then to remain for a few hours, after which a tap at the bottom
of the vessel is turned partly on, and some liquor allowed gradually to escape,
and stronger liquor is to be forced in at the same time. This plan is to be con-
tinued at intervals of a few hours each for three days, stronger liquor being
used each time. The hides will then be turned into leather, which is to be
dressed and finished in the usual way.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Denny Ruck, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
W. D. RUCK. (L.S.)