IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FUR INTO FABRICS
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSHUA
PROCTER WESTHEAD, of Manchester, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of
June, One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in the eleventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Joshua Procter Westhead, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Joshua Procter Westhead, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said Joshua Procter Westhead, my exors, admors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, 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 England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF FUR INTO FABRICS," communicated to me from abroad; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Joshua
Procter Westhead, should cause a particular description of the nature of
the said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: 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
Joshua Procter Westhead, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the samo is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is
to say :-
My Invention consists of causing the fur of animals to be spun into yarn,
and then woven into fabrics.
And in order that the Invention, as communicated to me, may be fully
understood and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means
pursued by me, first remarking that what I mean by fur is that annual product
which consists of the short fine soft fibres of certain animals, growing thick on
the skin, and distinguished from the hair, which is longer and coarser. The
fur used when carrying out the Invention is to be cleansed whilst yet on the
skin or pelt by washing. The coarser hair thereof is then to be removed by
plucking, as is well understood in preparing fur for the manufacture of hats.
The fur is in the next place to undergo the operation of "carroting," which
is a process well understood by fur cutters, to which process of carrotting,
separately, I make no claim, and is practised preparatory to felting. The
fur is afterwards separated from the pelt either by hand or by machinery in the
ordinary way. The fur is next subjected to the action of machinery for
separating the coarser hair, as distinguished from the fine soft hair of the
animal, as is well understood. The fur is then to be saturated with oil or oil
and limo water, in the manner of treating wool, but I prefer to employ strong
soap suds for such purpose; and having so treated the fur, it is to be carded,
in like manner to what wool has heretofore been carded, and formed into
slubbings or rovings, and spun and woven into fabrics in any of the ordinary
ways in which yarn of wool has heretofore been woven, and such woven fabrics
may then, if desired, be finished in the same manner to what similar fabrics
of wool have heretofore been finished; to which processes of slubbing or roving,
spinning, and weaving, I make no claim.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I do
not confine myself to the precise details, so long as the peculiar character of
the Invention be retained. But what I claim is, the causing fur to be
prepared, carded, made into slubbings or rovings, spun and woven into
fabrics.

page_text: And I also claim the employment of fur which has been subjected to the
rocess of "carotting" in the manufacture of yarn.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joshua Procter Westhead, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.