A NEW COVERING OR PLATING FOR HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE, PICTURE FRAMES, CABINET AND FANCY WORK, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL USE, AND THE MODE OF MAKING SUCH COVERING OR PLATING
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BROWN, of Mile End, in the County of Middlesex, Librarian of the London
Mechanics Institution, send greeting.
.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of August, in
the third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Henry Brown, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Henry Brown, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said Henry Brown, my exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time appoint,
and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within that part of Her said United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"A NEW COVERING OR PLATING FOR HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE, PICTURE FRAMES,
CABINET AND FANCY WORK, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL USE,
AND THE MODE OF MAKING SUCH COVERING OR PLATING;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Henry Brown, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High

page_text: Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Brown, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention
consists in manufacturing from animal skins a new material or fabric which
I call pelletine, which is of a transparent and flexible texture and may be
stained at pleasure of any color or combination of colors and after any given
design or pattern, so as to resemble tortoiseshell, marble, scagliola, rosewood,
ebony, or any other natural or artificial object, and which new material or
fabric called pelletine, I propose to make use of after the manner of veneers,
as an outer covering or plating for bousehold furniture, picture frames, cabinet
and fancy work, and other articles of domestic and personal use.
And I declare that the manner in which the said Invention is performed,
is as follows (that is to say)
-
I take a number of sheets or pieces of parchment, or vellum, or skins of any
kind similarly dressed, (it being indifferent whether the same are old or new,
written upon or not written upon,) and immerse them in a cauldron of boiling
water for about five minutes; I then lift the sheets, or pieces, or skins out of
the cauldron and stretch them evenly on frames provided for the purpose; and
while they are in the soft and porous state produced by their immersion in the
boiling water, I stain them by means of any of the common dyeing stuffs of
any color or combination of colors and according to any design or pattern
I please. The sheets, or pieces, or skins are then left in the frames to dry or
taken out of the frames and laid aside to dry, or the process of staining may be
performed after, the sheets, or pieces, or skins are in a dry and solid state, and
when dry and stained they are in a state fit for use for any of the purposes
aforesaid. And for the better bringing out of the colors, designs, or patterns
with which the pelletine is impressed, in manner before mentioned, I recom-
mend that after any piece of furniture or other article has been covered there-
with, according to the accustomed mode of veneering by glueing or otherwise, it
should be done over with any of the most approved polishes or varnishes in
common use.
And I further declare that instead of immersing the sheets or pieces of
parchment, vellum, or other skins in boiling water, as before directed, the
sheets, pieces, or skins may be reduced to the soft and porous state required
by the pressure of rollers or plates heated by steam or otherwise; but that
I prefer the mode of submersion in boiling water as being upon the whole the
cheapest and most convenient.

page_text: And having now described my said Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim as of my Invention is
the conversion of animal skins into the new material, or fabric, or cover, or
plating for household furniture and other articles, herein-before described, to
which I have given the name of pelletine, and the mode, also herein-before
described, of making the same.
And such my said Invention being to the best of my knowledge and belief
entirely new; and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion
of Wales, Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, or in any of Her Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of
the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth comply
fully and in all respects without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the
said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I hereby
claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Brown, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of February, One thousand eight
hundred and forty
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of February,
in the year of our Lord 1840, the aforesaid Henry Brown 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 Thirteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty.