AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING WATERPROOF FABRICS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Gurney, of St. James' Street, in the
City of Westminster, Tailor, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
MODE OF TREATING WATERPROOF FABRICS."
Sealed the 21st April 1854, and dated the 27th October 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Gurney at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 27th October 1853.
I, JOSEPH GURNEY, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING WATERPROOF FABRICS" to be
as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to remove the unpleasant odor from
goods or fabrics in the manufacture of which a vegetable gum or
vegetable gums dissolved in naphtha or other crude spirit has been
used. In carrying out my improvement I subject the fabrics pos-
sessing such offensive odor to moisture by steeping them in either hot
or cold water, and afterwards pass them between or over heated rollers,
or otherwise subject them (according to the nature of the fabrics
treated) to a dry heat, for the purpose of evaporating the moisture

page_text: which they have taken up. The fabrics when thus treated will be
found to yield up, together with the moisture, the offensive odor
derived from or due to the use of the solvent employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Gurney in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th April 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOSEPH GURNEY, of St. James' Street, in the City of Westminster,
Tailor, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her Most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in
the seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Gurney, Her
special license that I, the said Joseph Gurney, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Gurney,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING WATERPROOF FABRIOS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Gurney, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Gurney, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement (that is to say) :

page_text: The object of this Invention is to remove the unpleasant odour per-
taining to goods or fabrics in the manufacture of which a vegetable
gum or vegetable gums dissolved in naphtha or other crude oil have
been used. In carrying out my improvements I subject the goods or
fabrics possessing such offensive odour to moisture by steeping them in
hot or warm water, and afterwards submit them to a dry heat for the
purpose of evaporating the moisture which they have taken up. When
operating upon thin piece goods I steep them in warm water for from
one to two hours, or for so long a time as will suffice to saturate the
fabrics with water; I then remove them to a heated chamber and
expose them (suspended in any convenient way) to a dry heat, say from
one hundred to two hundred degrees of Fahrenheit, for about twelve
hours; or in lieu of this I pass them over or under heated rollers until
all the moisture which they have taken up is evaporated therefrom.
If the fabrics, after once undergoing this treatment, have not yielded
up, together with the moisture they absorbed, all the offensive odour
derived from or due to the use of the solvent employed, I repeat the
damping and drying process until the goods are entirely freed from
the odour. In order to deodorize made-up goods or garments (say,
for example, overcoats,) I saturate them with water, as before stated
(the heating of the water having the effect of greatly expediting the
saturating operation), and I afterwards expose them extended upon
proper shaped stands or frames to a dry heat, as before stated. As
the drying process proceeds I gradually reduce the heat to about eighty
degrees of Fahrenheit.
An important incidental advantage consequent on the use of this
process is, that the quality of the goods as regards their pliability and
softness, will be greatly improved, and the unpleasant noise arising from
the friction of the contact surfaces of a waterproof garment, due to the
movements of the wearer of the garment, will be wholly or in great part
prevented. When operating upon thick piece goods, garments, or
manufactured articles I find it requisite to repeat the damping and
drying process two, three, or more times, to ensure their complete
deodorization.

page_text: Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved
Mode of Treating Waterproof Fabrics," and explained the mode of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the
above in part recited Letters Patent I claim the mode herein-before
described of treating waterproof fabrics, whether made up or in the
piece.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Gurney, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
JOSEPH GURNEY. (L.S.)