AN IMPROVED DESCRIPTION OF FABRIC SUITABLE FOR MAKING FRICTION GLOVES,HORSE BRUSHES, AND OTHER ARTICLES REQUIRING ROUGH SURFACES
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HANCOCK the younger, of King Square, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters.
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Third day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and forty-one, in the fourth year of Her reign, did give and grant
unto me, the said William Hancock, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her
the said.
especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
William Hancock, my excrs, adñiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said William Hancock, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, should at any time.
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my
Invention of "AN IMPROVED DESCRIPTION OF FABRIC SUITABLE FOR MAKING
FRICTION GLOVES, HORSE BRUSHES, AND OTHER ARTICLES REQUIRING ROUGH
SURFACES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that I,
the said William Hancock, shall particularly describe and ascertain the nature

page_text: of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Hancock, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to
consist in the production of a fabric having as a pile horsehair, or horsehair in
combination with other substances, suitable for a great variety of useful
purposes. And I do further declare the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained by the following:-
My improved description of fabric is produced by weaving, in the same
manner as in velvet weaving. The loom which I use differs from the loom
usually employed in ordinary velvet weaving in having the ground bar and
ground or chain roller of the ordinary mat loom instead of only the ground
roller of the ordinary velvet loom, and also in having the breast bar and knee
roller of the ordinary mat loom instead of the breast roller of the ordinary
velvet loom, this alteration and adaption of the ordinary velvet loom being
rendered necessary by the circumstance that the ground must be kept tightly
stretched during the operation of weaving my improved fabric. The harness
of the loom is hung or suspended as in the ordinary mat loom, which method
answers rather better for weaving my improved description of fabric than the
harness hung as in the ordinary velvet loom; but either method will do. I
have used both, but I find the former most convenient. For the ground or
warp of my fabric I use fine hempen or cotton yarn, dressed or undressed, or
other suitable material; and for the pole, spun horsehair, either alone or in
combination with spun wool or cotton. I use also as the pole the long horse-
hair unspun, also the fibre called manilla, the fibre of the cocoa-nut tree, fine
split cane, or whalebone, in combination with the horsehair, spun or unspun.
The ground and pole are turned on their respective rollers by the common
warping mill with its axis horizontal, as in the ordinary mode of turning on
silk. The ground roller being placed in the loom, the ground is carried over
the ground bar, entered thro' the harness and reed, and braided down to a
piece of sacking or other suitable material brought up across the breast bar
from the knee roller, and the ground is spanded or stretched tight between the
ground and knee roller, either by a ratch or clutch, or by bar and pins on the
ground and knee rollers, or by any other usual and well-known method. The
pole roller is placed in the loom and weighted as in the ordinary velvet loom,

page_text: and the pole entered through the harness and reed according to the usual
practice in velvet weaving (two of the ground 'threads being between each pole
thread), and braided down to the sacking or other suitable material affixed to
the knee roller. I use a shoot of fine spun hemp wound on box-wood.pipes,
fastened in a shuttle. The weaving is conducted in every respect, and the pole
cut so as to form the pile or rough surface, in the same manner as in ordinary
velvet weaving. The pile wire and shuttle will in general be much larger,
and the battern heavier, and the reed coarser than those employed in ordinary
velvet weaving; but the size of the pile wire, and of the shuttle, and the
weight of the battern, and the degree of fineness or coarseness of the reed, as
well as some other ordinary arrangements and modifications which may be
occasionally requisite, will depend upon circumstances, and are perfectly well
known and understood by every weaver of velvets. If the weaving is well
done, the horsehair is fixed sufficiently.firmly for all the ordinary purposes to
which I apply my improved fabric; but for the purpose of fixing the horsehair
in the fabric with additional firmness and security I use a weak solution of
gum tragacanth (commonly called gum dragon) in water, or the solution.of
caoutchouc. This solution is smeared over the ground between the ground bar
and harness, and the shoot is saturated with the same. Either of these
solutions when dry give great additional firmness to the fixing of the horsehair
or material composing the pile of the fabric.
i
My improved fabric is applicable to a great variety of useful purposes, and
indeed to most of the purposes to which friction, by means of rough or brush-
like surfaces, is applied; and the finer qualities of the fabric are applicable to
many of the purposes for which the various species of fabrics with a pile upon
their surfaces are now used. The following are some of the purposes for
which my fabric is peculiarly applicable:-For friction gloves, by sewing the
fabric to one or both sides of a glove made of any usual materials, either with
or without fingers; for friction straps, brushes, and rubbers made, in any
convenient shape, size, and form; and. affixed to any suitable substances; for
horse brushes and horse gloves, for finishing the grooming of horses, and for
this purpose,
I use the fabric having a pile of the stiffest horsehair which can
be procured, which is hair of the tails of the horses; for brushes of all kinds
for clothes, bats, shoes, velvet, and all similar purposes for which brushes are
usually employed; for covering of seats and chairs, mats, rugs, and
mattrasses for children, or camp beds, the rugs and mattrasses may be in a
single or double thickness, and stuffed with any usual or suitable material;
for cleansing guns, cannon, and all species of artillery, in cleansing out' which
sponges or brushes are now used: For this purpose the fabric of which the

page_text: pile is a combination of horschair and wool is in some respects preferable to
the fabric of which the pile is horsehair only, inasmuch as the former absorbs
the damp more readily. These fabrics are affixed by nailing or otherwise to
blocks or cylindrical pieces of wood, so as to make sponges or brushes of any
required shape and size. The surface of my improved fabric will possess very
different qualities according to the quality of the horsehair or nature of the
material employed as the pole; and by properly selecting and combining these,
a fabric having a surface of any degree of roughness or clasticity may be
produced according to the purposes for which it is required. If an extremely
rough hard surface or stiff brush is required, as in grooming horses, the stiffest
horsehair or the spun tail horsehair must be used; if a surface of moderate
roughness and stiffness, as for friction gloves and belts for the human skin, or
for hat and velvet brushes, the ordinary spun horsehair or hair of the horse's
manc will be well adapted; and for other purposes requiring different qualities
in the surface, horsehair, in combination with some of the other substances
mentioned above, may be adopted. It is impossible to give any specific or
minute directions on these points, since the feel of the surface when made up
into the glove, brush, or other article, will point out the fabric best adapted to
the purpose required.
Having thus described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be under-
stood that I do not claim as any part of my Invention any of the above-mentioned
alterations in the ordinary velvet loom, whereby it becomes well adapted for
making my improved fabric, these and other similar alterations having been
long used in the web and mat looms, except so far as the said alterations are
made and used combined or in connexion with the manufacture of the im-
proved description of fabric herein described; nor do I claim as any part of
my Invention any particular method or mode of making the gloves, brushes, or
other articles for which my improved fabric is applicable, these methods being
well known and in constant use among the manufacturers of the respective.
articles. But I claim as my Invention the application of horsehair, and of
horsehair in combination with other substances, as herein mentioned, for the
production of the improved description of fabric suitable for the various
purposes herein mentioned.
In witness whercof, I, the said William Lancock the younger, have
haremato set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of July, in the
Tnd cight hundred and forty-one.
purposes merem ent
In witness whercof, I, the said William Lancock the younger, have 3
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of July, in the
Topup Tetard right hundred and forty-one.
WILLIAM HANCOCK, Ju. (L.B.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1841, the aforesaid William Hancock the younger came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Second day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-one.