CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAKING OF HATS, BONNETS, AND CAPS, AND IN THE COVERING THEM WITH SILK AND OTHER MATERIALS WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF MACHINERY
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ROBINSON WILLIAMS, of Norfolk Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King Georgo the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Greal Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eleventh day of September, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-eight, in the ninth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Robinson Williams,
His especial licence that I, the said Thomas Robinson Williams, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Robinson
Williams, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any tinie 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, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAKING OF HATS, BONNETS, AND
CAPS, AND IN THE COVERING THEM WITH SILK AND OTHER MATERIALS WITH THE
ASSISTANCE OF MACHINERY;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso, obliging me, the said Thomas Robinson Williams, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and scal, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and to cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said

page_text: recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto nad,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Robinson Williams, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described
and ascertained as follows, that is to say:-
My improvement in the making of hats, caps, and bonnets, and in the
covering of them with silk and other materials with the assistance of machinery,
consist, in the first place, in a method of preparing the shells or foundation of
hats, caps, &c., called planking, by the means of a machine containing two
series of rollers, between which the bodies of the intended hats, caps, &c. are
to be passed, and thereby submitted to the required pressure. The construc-
tion of the machine for planking will be seen by reference to the accompanying
Drawings, Fig. 1 being a horizontal view, shewing the upper side of the
machine; and Fig. 2, a vertical section, taken lengthwise through the middle
of the machine. a, a, a, are a series of rollers, placed horizontally and
parallel to each other, all of which turn upon their axles in the same direction
as shown by the arrows; b, b, b, are a corresponding series of rollers, placed
above the former and in similar positions, but all of them revolving in the
opposite direction to the lower rollers. The axles of each individual pair of
rollers are in perpendicular slits in standards, and the rollers are made to press
towards each other, either upwards or downwards, by weights or springs
applied near to the ends of the axles. Each pair of rollers are connected
together by a pair of toothed wheels affixed to their ends, as at c, c, c, c,
working into one another; and at one end of the axles of each of the lower
rollers there is a bevel wheel d, d, d, d, all of which are driven by mitre
wheels e, e, e, on the lateral shafts f. f, these shafts being driven by larger
mitre wheels g. g, on the main rotatory axle h, actuated by a band and rigger
or a winch.
The general construction of the machine being described, I now proceed to
explain the manner of using it. The hat body, or any number of hat bodies,
having been previously basoned or hardened by the workman, are placed
singly or in succession upon the feeding board i, from whence they slide down
into the liquor contained in the cistern k, and coming in contact with the
roller, which revolves on bearings in the cistern, are conducted upwards and
made to pass between the first roller a and the large roller m, and thence
proceed onwards between each successive pair of rollers a, b, until arriving at
the roller n, at the further end of the machine, their course is turned upwards,
and the hat bodies successively falling over on to the surface of the rollers b,

page_text: are brought back again to the hands of the workman. It will now be seen
that the inner surfaces of points of contact of the rollers a and b all move in
one direction, and thereby progressively draw the hat bodies forward, which
are by these means successively pressed or worked between every pair of
rollers, and thereby become shrunk and knitted together, or consolidated into
a consistency called felt. The upper rollers are pressed down upon the lower
rollers, each by a weighted lever bearing upon a metal block, which rests upon
the axle near its end, and the rollers are at liberty to rise and fall as the
variable thicknesses of hat bodies pass through the machine. The cistern
contains a small proportion of sulphuric acid and water, with dregs of beer or
any other liquor generally used in planking hat bodies by hand. This liquor
is heated by a steam pipe o, which conducts the steam from a boiler and
discharges it through small perforations in the lower part of the pipe into the
cistern, and thereby keeps the liquor constantly hot. By this arrangement of
the apparatus or machinery, the hat bodies placed on the feeding board slide
down into the liquor in the cistern, and are thence conducted in any number in
succession, for even bearing upon each other through the several pairs of
rollers, and are brought back again over the top rollers, as before described, to
the hand of the attendant workman, who stands at the feeding board to put
them through the machine again, if necessary, in different folds and positions,
until they are properly felted. After the bodies are planked, as above
described, they are blocked into shape, and the woven silk or other material
which is to form the external coating of the hat is attached to the said bodies
by an adhesive composition, made of caoutchouc, dissolved in the usual way
with a small proportion of rosin and linseed oil, which constitutes a firm and
adhesive cement, and at the same time perfectly elastic and waterproof.
I claim as my Invention, as respects the planking machine, the particular
and especial arrangement of the several parts of the same, as described and
fully set out in the accompanying Drawings; and as respects the covering of
hats with woven materials, I claim the employment of a composition made of
caoutchouc, dissolved by whatever means, and applied to that purpose.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Robinson Williams, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Eleventh day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.
THOS R. (L.S.) WILLIAMS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eleventh day of March, in the
tenth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth, the said
Thomas Robinson Williams came before our said Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing
therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the instru-
ment aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Eleventh day of March, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-nine.