AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PREPARING STRAW OR GRASS TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HATS AND BONNETS
Year: 1826

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, JOHN GUY
and JACOB HARRISON, both of the Parish of Workington, in the County
of Cumberland, Straw Hat Manufacturers, do hereby severally send greeting.
WHEREAS by certain Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, and bearing date the Fourteenth day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-six, His Majesty did give and grant unto the said
John Guy and Jacob Harrison, their exors, adññiors, and assigns, special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, during the term and in the
manner therein mentioned, to make, use, exercise, and vend their Invention
therein specified to be "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PREPARING STRAW OR
GRASS TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HATS AND BONNETS," within that
part of the United Kingdom called England, the Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all His said Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, in such manner as they should think meet, with a proviso
therein contained, that if the said Jolin Guy and Jacob Harrison, or one of
them, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of their said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, by an instru-
ment in writing under their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one
of them, and cause the same to be enrolled in the High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, then and in such case the said Letters Patent, and all

page_text: liberties and advantages thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and
become void.
NOW KNOW YE, that in order to comply with the terms and conditions
of the said Letters Patent, and to describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and how the same is to be performed and carried into effect,
the said John Guy and Jacob Harrison do hereby severally and respectively
testify and declare in manner following (that is to say) :-
If the article to be prepared be straw and not grass, let the following process
be adopted-In the latter end of spring, or in the beginning of summer,
after the corn is in the ear, but whilst it is still in a greenish state, and
before the grain is ripe, the precise time always depending on whether the
season be favorable to growth or not, cut the straw off close by the roots, or
rather pluck it up by the roots, as being more convenient, and when cut or
plucked up, tie it together near the roots, in small bundles of about one
hundred and fifty straws in each, and take it from the field where the
same is cut or plucked up into any adjoining field that is laid down in grass,
spread out each bundle so tied up like a fan, and in that state lay the bundles
upon the grass exposed to the air for two or three days and nights, taking
care to turn each bundle once or twice each day, in order that every straw
may have the benefit of the air. It will be equally beneficial if the bundles
are exposed to the air in any dry place, upon hooks or cords, or in any other
similar way, instead of laying them upon grass, provided they have the full
benefit of the air, and are regularly turned, and are exposed to the air during
the day. After the bundles have been thus exposed to the air for two or three
days and nights, (if the weather be moist, two days and nights will be better than
three), the bundles are to be gathered together, and tied up in larger bundles,
each of which larger bundles will contain about thirty of the smaller ones, but
this must not be done when the smaller bundles are in a wet or moist state.
The larger bundles are then to be carried into tents or sheds erected in the field,
or in any other convenient adjacent place, where such bundles must remain
during the nights, and must be effectually and completely kept free from the
dew, and from rain, wet, or damp of any kind, and in the morning after the
sun has risen, and the dews have disappeared, and the weather is dry, these
larger bundles are to be brought out from the tents, sheds, or other buildings,
and taken asunder, and the smaller bundles spread out, and exposed as
before to the air and to the sun's rays, if it happens to shine. They are to
be tied up again, and carried back into the tents or sheds every evening before
the dew falls, and also during the day, if there be any appearance of rain
or wet, and this must be repeated every day, morning and evening, until

page_text: all the vegetable juices within the straw are perfectly and completely dried,
and it is then to be considered as cured, whether the greenish hue remain
or not. The number of days it will take to effect this curing must depend
on the state of the weather. If the sky be cloudless and serene, the straw
will be cured in about ten days; but if there be intervals of wet or damp
weather, the time will be proportionably longer. If before being cured, in
the manner above stated, the bundles are allowed to remain under cover,
without being exposed to the air as above stated, they would sweat or become
heated, and would give to the straw a dark tinge, that could not afterwards be
removed, and would destroy or materially injure the bright golden yellow
colour, which, if the process before directed be properly attended to, makes
its appearance on the straw after a longer exposure to the sun's rays. Any
kind of damp or wet to which the straw may be exposed during the time the
larger bundles are out in the air will be equally injurious to the colour, and
are therefore to be avoided, as there is seldom a sufficient continuance of
sunshine to allow the straw to assume the golden hue, which is so essential,
without some intervals of wet. As soon as the straw is properly cured, in
the manner above directed, so as completely to dry the vegetable juices,
it should be submitted to a continued exposure to the air and rays of the
sun during the day, and placed under cover at night, and also during
the day when the weather is moist, pursuing precisely the same method
as that directed for curing the straw, or it may be put by during the
winter in any dry place, and be brought out at convenient opportunities,
when the weather will permit, and exposed to the sun's rays, either by laying
the bundles spread out, as before directed, before a window or in the open
air; and this process must be perservered in till all appearance of green be
totally and completely gone, and till the straw assumes a bright yellow or
golden hue; or after the straw is cured, as above directed, it may be exposed
to the sun's rays in a glass house of any kind, until the golden hue is
produced, and, being cured as above, it is then fit for use, or it even may be
platted and used when in a greenish state, and then exposed to the sun's rays
till it acquire the golden hue above mentioned, which it will do equally as
well when platted as in its unmanufactured state. Any kind of straw may
be subjected to the process above directed, but wheat straw is the best.
The method of preparing grass is precisely similar to that before directed
with regard to straw, care being taken to cut or pull it up by the roots after
the ear has sprung forth, but before it is quito ripe; and the said John Guy
and Jacob Harrison do hereby severally declare that the several matters and