IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PARCHMENT
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hammond Smith, of Gloucester Row,
Walworth, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hammond
Smith at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 2nd June 1853.
I, WILLIAM HAMMOND SMITH, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PARCHMENT
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in a new mode of treating and preparing
parchment so as to give it a whiter color and smoother surface than
parchment when treated and prepared according to the processes
hitherto employed; and as by this Invention the parchment is entirely
freed from grease, it may be written upon on both sides equally well,
and is therefore well adapted to all the purposes to which writing
vellum is at present applied, and is considerably cheaper than that
article.

page_text: But in order to explain the nature of this Invention more fully I
will proceed to describe the process of treating and preparing parch-
ment according to this Invention, as follows:-The skin to be operated
upon is first stretched in a frame and subjected to an operation techni-
cally termed "filling;" it is then scalded, and the faces of the skin
afterwards rubbed with whiting; the skin is next subjected to the
operation of shaving, and afterwards rubbed on each side with pumice
stone and whiting; and, finally, a composition is applied to the skin
similar in all respects to that ordinarily used in the preparation of
writing vellum.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Hammond Smith in the Great Seal
Patent Office, on the 2nd December 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM HAMMOND SMITH, of Gloucester Row, Walworth, in the
County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Hammond Smith, Her special
licence that I, the said William Hammond Smith, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Hammond Smith, 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PARCHMENT," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Hammond Smith,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particu-
larly 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

page_text: 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 William Hammond Smith, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
My Invention consists in a new mode or process of treating and
preparing skins for converting them into parchment; and the object
and intention of my said Invention is to give to parchment a whiter
color and smoother surface than parchment when manufactured by the
modes or processes hitherto practised; and further, by such new mode
or process, the parchment is entirely freed from grease, and thereby
rendered capable of being written on both sides thereof equally well;
and parchment manufactured according to my said Invention is well
adapted for all the purposes to which writing vellum is at present
applied, and will be found considerably cheaper than that article.
In
order to explain my said Invention as completely as possible I now
proceed to describe the mode or process practised by me in the manu-
facture of parchment, as follows:
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS.
The skin to be operated upon is first stretched in a frame, and sub-
jected to an operation technically termed "filling," and commonly
practised by parchment manufacturers. It is then scalded to free it
from grease, and the faces of the skin are afterwards rubbed (while wet)
with whiting. The skin is next subjected to the ordinary operation of
shaving, and is afterwards rubbed on each side with pumice stone and
whiting, to give it a face; and, finally, a composition of French chalk,
whiting, and size is applied to the skin in a similar manner and for a
similar purpose to that ordinarily employed in the manufacture of
writing vellum.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be and may be performed, I declare my Inven-
tion of "Improvements in the Manufacture of Parchment" to consist
in, and I claim the treating and preparing of, skins, and the converting

page_text: of them into parchment, in the manner and by the means herein-before
particularly described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hammond Smith, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this First day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
three.
WILLIAM HAMMOND SMITH. (L.S.)
Witness,
ALEX PRINCE,
Patent Agent,
4, Trafalgar Square.