AN IMPROVED MEANS OF JOINING SURFACES OF LEATHER
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Marc Antoine Francois Mennons, of the British and
Foreign Patent Offices, 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, in the Empire of
France, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MEANS OF JOINING SURFACES
OF LEATHER."A communication from A. L. Dezauz-Lacour,
residing
Sealed the 11th April 1860, and dated the 4th February 1860.
COMPLETE SPECI
San
Mennons at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition
and Declaration, on the 4th February 1860, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MARG
ANTOINE FRANCOIS MENNONS, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 39,
Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "AN IMPROVED MEANS
OF JOINING SURFACES OF LEATHER," (a communication,) and have petitioned
Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her
Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn declaration that it.
is a communication.
NOW KNOW YE, that I; the said Marc Antoine Francois Mennons, do
hereby declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes the nature of the Invention, and the manner in which the
[Price 8d.]

page_text: same is to be performed, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing
and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:--
The Invention consists in an improved means of joining leathern surfaces,
in the manufacture of straps, driving bands, articles of saddlery or harnessing,
and in general all detached pieces of leather requiring to be firmly united
either at a given point or over their entire surface. The surfaces to be joined
are first roughened and coated with a cement, prepared by boiling together
about twenty pounds weight of gutta percha clippings with about ten pounds
weight of oil of petrolium. A thin strip of gutta percha softened at the fire is
then laid on one of the leathern surfaces, the other is superposed, and the whole
is passed between a pair of rollers, or otherwise pressed to complete the adhesion
of the different parts. When this process is employed in the preparation of
driving bands and similar articles, the extremities to be joined should be cut
as represented in a, a', Figs. 1 & 3 of the accompanying Drawing. In this
case the ends of the detached bands are bevelled off to a certain distance either
by the hand or by machinery, and a slanting notch from b to b¹ is formed in
the thickness of one of the bevels. The peak of the second bevel is inserted in
this notch previously prepared with the cement, and the strip of gutta percha
being interposed the join is consolidated by pressure, as above described. By
this arrangement the free extremities of the superposed pieces being always
laid in the same direction are no longer liable to be ruffled in passing over
drums or pullies, as happens with the joins formed in the ordinary way. The
extreme ends of the complete band, formed by a number of sections thus united,
may be fitted with a set of metallic eyelets, the plates of which are each
inserted in a slit cut in the thickness of the leather and clamped by screws or
rivets, as seen in A, B, Figs. 3 & 4. The eyelets of one extremity being set
in the corresponding blanks of the other the whole is secured by a bolt and
nut. Instead of this hinged joint the free ends may, if so required, be secured
by a simple coupling plate screwed or rivetted to each, as in A, Figs. 1 & 2. The
above described process of surface joining may also be applied to the manufac-
ture of impermeable leathern tubes for general purposes. To this end. the skin
being pared off to a fine edge on each side is coated with the cement, on which
is laid a thin sheet of softened gutta percha of suitable dimensions. The whole
is then rolled on a mandril or core, and the adhesion of the superposed parts
completed by pressure. The lengths of tubing thus formed (a section of which
is shewn in Figure 5), may be either spliced and cemented end to end in the
same way as the bands, or be fitted with ordinary coupling joints in metal or
other matter.

page_text: As above noted, the same process may be employed in the joining of all
detached pieces of leather having a certain amount of surface, and may be
substituted with advantage to the stitching and rivetting at present adopted in
the manufacture of leathern articles in general.
In witness whereof, I, the said Marc Antoine Francois Mennons, have
hereto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
M. F. MENNONS. (L.S.)