A METHOD OR METHODS OF FLAX SPINNING, AND OF PREPARING OR MAKING A SPECIES OF TWIST, THREAD, FURNITURE, CLOTH, FRILLS, OR ATTIRE, WHICH I CALL TELARY TEGUMENTS, FROM SILK, WOOL, COTTON, FLAX, HEMP, OR TOW, AS WELL AS FROM A VERY GREAT VARIETY OF OTHER ARTICLES IN A COMBINED OR UNCOMBINED STATE, AND FOR A METHOD OR METHODS OF RE-FABRICATING OR RENOVATING THE SAME, AND OF PRODUCING OR RE-PRODUCING FROM TATTERS IN GENERAL A NEW BODY
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
DUMBELL, of Mersey Mills, in the Parish of Warrington, and County Palatine
of Lancaster, Miller, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day of
August, in the forty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said John Dumbell, my executors, admors, and assig. His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Dumbell, my
executors, admors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term
of fourteen years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A METHOD OR METHODS OF FLAX SPINNING, AND OF PREPARING OR MAKING A
SPECIES OF TWIST, THREAD, FURNITURE, CLOTH, FRILLS, OR ATTIRE, WHICH I CALL
TELARY TEGUMENTS, FROM SILK, WOOL, COTTON, FLAX, HEMP, OR TOW, AS WELL
AS FROM A VERY GREAT VARIETY OF OTHER ARTICLES IN A COMBINED OR UNCOMBINED
STATE, AND FOR A METHOD OR METHODS OF RE-FABRICATING OR RENOVATING THE
SAME, AND OF PRODUCING OR RE-PRODUCING FROM TATTERS IN GENERAL A NEW
BODY;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said John Dumbell, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation
being thereunto had, may and will more fully and at large appear).
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Dumbell, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained as follows; that is to say :-
or
As to flax spinning, according to my said method or methods, instead of
preserving the vegetable fibres or staple thereof as long as possible, and
spinning the same by means of such wheels, machines, or instruments as are
usually applied to that purpose, I do, by means of shears or scissars, or a
knife or knives, or of any other suitable cutting tool or tools, either managed
by hand or fixed or set in and used along with any frame or engine heretofore
commonly used for similar purposes (by manual labor or any other first
mover), cut the said vegetable fibres or staple into such lengths as shall
render the same fit to be manufactured by the machinery now used for
spinning cotton; and that I do find the common agricultural machine or
instrument, called the chaff cutter, to be a very fit instrument for cutting the
said fibres or staple, (excepting that the cutting or section would not be neat,
but shagged at the portions or parts of the flax cut at or about the termination
of each stroke of the cutting knife (that is to say), near the bottom, and
particularly near the angles of the body containing box, if a remedy were
not to be applied for this inconvenience; and the remedies which I apply either
jointly or severally, as may be preferred or found most advantageous, according
to circumstances, in the use of the said machine or instrument, do consist in
supporting the flax by a thin stratum or layer of straw, or rushes, or reeds, or
other similar substance, which in consequence becomes cut along with the flax;
or otherwise I do remedy the said inconvenience by making the delivering parts
of the said body or containing box, not of an angular, but circular or curved
form; or otherwise I make the said delivering parts with one angle only,
opening towards or facing the stroke or course of action of the cutter; and into
the said angle, if cutting downwards, I put a support of straw, rushes, reeds,
or other similar substance as before; or otherwise I do construct my chaff
cutting machine so that the cutting stroke shall be made not downwards but
upwards; or, lastly, I do make my cutter of extraordinary strength and
thickness, in order that the edge thereof may not spring or give way, and I
cause the same to act by moving in close and very fair contact-with a face of
iron or steel or other fit material, and I do protrude the flax intended to be

page_text: cut through one or more apertures in the said face. And further, that in order
more effectually to open, divide, and separate the said vegetable fibres or
staple, and to render the same much finer and more soft and flexible than can
with facility be effected in the usual methods of working the long uncut fibres
or staple, I do, as occasion may require, operate upon and work the said
fibres or staple, (after having duly cut the same as aforesaid) by pounding,
beating, crushing, bruising, stamping, or rolling the same, and also by steeping,
macerating, digesting, boiling, spreading, opening, exposing, or bleaching the
same. And after having so prepared the said flax, I do treat the same in the
same manner as cotton is usually treated in the manufacturing thereof, and
I do spin the said flax in the cotton spinning engines in the same manner
as cotton is spun. And I do further declare, that I do make use of and apply
wholly or partially, as occasion may require, the methods of operation herein-
before described with regard to flax, to silk, wool, cotton, hemp, tow, and such
other bodies as afford a fibre or staple fit to be spun and manufactured into
piece goods, and that I do, according to the nature of the produce or article
intended for the market, mix, unite, or combine and work the said materials
together in various proportions; and that the operation of spinning flax,
prepared as herein-before described, is much facilitated by an admixture of
cotton, or of silk, or of wool, and also that the fibres or staple of flax are
rendered fitter for spinning, by subjecting the carded material to strong
pressure, with or without the application of heat, at the same time by means
of presses, cylinders, or other instruments; and, moreover, that I do re-fabricate
or renovate the said produce or articles, and do produce or re-produce a new
body or material from any other articles composed of fibres, and worn, cut, or
divided into tatters or fragments; and that in such re-fabrication, renovation,
production, or re-production, I do cut the said produce or articles into portions,
or shreds, or stripes, and do again cut the said portions, shreds, or strips,
if need be, into short pieces, and that I do reduce the same to a loose staple,
fit for spinning, by one or more of the mechanical operations herein-before
described and set forth, or by such well-known methods of mechanical
treatment as may be best suited to each and every of the materials herein-
before mentioned.
In witness whereof, I the said John Dumbell, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-third day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and nine.
JOHN (L.s.) DUMBELL.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of February,
in the forty-ninth year of the reign of His Majesty King Georgo the, Third,
the said John Dumbell came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
forty-eighth year of His said Majesty's reign.
Inrolled the Twenty-fourth day of February, One thousand eight hundred
and nine.