A NEW INSTRUMENT OR MACHINE, WHICH I CALL A TRAVERSE ELASTICK TRUSS OR BANDAGE, FOR THE RELIEF OF PERSONS OF EITHER SEX OR ANY AGE WHO ARE AFFLICTED WITH RUPTURES EITHER IN THE GROIN OR NAVEL, AND WHICH IS OF GREATER RELIEF TO ANY PERSON AFFLICTED WITH SUCH DISORDERS, AND SITS WITH GREATER EASE ON THE PATIENT, AND GREATLY VARIES FROM ANY INSTRUMENT OR MACHINE HITHERTO INVENTED FOR THAT DISORDER
Year: 1771

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
BRAND, of Long. Acre, Truss Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Tenth day of August, in the eleventh year of His reign, did give
and grant unto me, the said Robert Brand, His especial licence, full power, sole
priviledge and authority, that I, the said Robert Brand, during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within that part of the Kingdom of Great Britain called England, the Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in His Majesty's Planta-
tions and Colonies abroad, my Invention of "A NEW INSTRUMENT OR MACHINE,
WHICH I CALL A TRAVERSE ELASTICK TRUSS OR BANDAGE, FOR THE RELIEF OF PERSONS
OF EITHER SEX OR ANY AGE WHO ARE AFFLICTED WITH RUPTURES EITHER IN THE
GROIN OR NAVEL, AND WHICH IS OF GREATER RELIEF TO ANY PERSON AFFLICTED WITH
SUCH DISORDERS, AND SITS WITH GREATER EASE ON THE PATIENT, AND GREATLY VARIES
FROM ANY INSTRUMENT OR MACHINE HITHERTO INVENTED FOR THAT DISORDER;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Robert
Brand, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and

page_text: by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Brand, do hereby declare that my said Invention of a New Instrument
or Machine, which I call a Traverse Elastick Truss or Bandage, for the Relief
of Persons of either Sex or any Age who are afflicted with Ruptures
either in the Groin or Navel, and which is of greater Relief to any Person
Afflicted with such Disorders, and sits with greater Ease on the Patient, and
greatly varies from any Instrument or Machine hitherto invented for that
Disorder, is performed in the manner following (that is to say):-
The materials of the traverse elastick truss and traverse elastick navel
bandage, which are made of steel, are both hardened by being first made
red hot in a clear fire; then they are dropt into cold water, which chills
them, and hardens them harder than a flintstone. They are then taken and
holden over the same fire till the fire takes off the half of that degree of
hardness they before had, which hardness is taken from them by the heat of
the fire, and which may be known by the trial of filing them with-a file, which
will cut or diminish them; before they were put over the fire, the file would
have no more impression on them than it would on a flintstone. Then they
are rivetted to their proper cushion plates, which are of iron. That for the groin
rupture the cushion is composed of cork, covered with flannel and leather;
and that for the navel rupture, after the two springs are fixed to a small piece
of iron, then that iron is affixed to a piece of bend leather, which is covered
with shammy leather, which is the cushion of that bandage, and then it is also
compleat as the other.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Brand, have hereunto sett
my hand and seal, the Twenty-ninth day of November, in the twelfth
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the
grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender
of the Faith, and so forth, and in the year of our Lord One thousand
seven hundred and seventy-one.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the aforesaid Twenty-ninth day
of November, in the year above said, the aforesaid Robert Brand came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
of his Invention aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the
reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary of England, and so
forth.
Inrolled the same Twenty-ninth day of November, in the year aboves".