MY NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF COVERING OF FELT FOR THE MAKING OF CAPS AND HELMETS, AND FOR VARIOUS OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1801

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BICKNELL, of the Parish of Saint George Hanover Square, in the County of
Middlesex, Hosier, Hatter, and Glover, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of
April, in the forty-first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
William Bicknell, His especial license, that I, the said William Bicknell, during
the term of years therein mentioned should and lawfully might use, exercise,
and vend within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
"MY NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF COVERING OF FELT FOR THE MAKING OF CAPS
AND HELMETS, AND FOR VARIOUS OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Bicknell, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular descripy
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's Court of Chancery within one
calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and be
the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Bicknell, do hereby declare that my said Invention of a new and
improved Method of Covering Felt for making Caps, Helmets, and other use-
ful Purposes, is performed in manner following:-
First, take undyed felt, form it to the size and shape required, stiffen the
inside with common glue, then block the cap or helmet, and dip it once or

page_text: oftener, as occasion may require, into a boiling cauldron or copper of the fol-
lowing composition, till the external surface is covered or coated over equally
therewith one eighth of an inch thick, more or less at pleasure. The said
composition is formed of the under-mentioned materials, viz-Twenty-five
pounds of rosin, one pound of bees' wax, and one pound of pitch boiled or
simmered together. After the cap or helmet has been dipped in the said com-
position, and coated over in manner herein-before described, and is become
nearly cool and dry, flatten or smooth the external surface with any proper tool
or machine for that purpose; afterwards rub the outside surface:well with a
brush or sponge dipped into a boiling hot dye or preparation made of the fol-
lowing ingredients, viz'-Twelve pounds of logwood, a quarter of a pound of
copperas, half a pound of glue, and one pound of lampblack, boiled together in
about eight gallons of water. After this operation is performed, dip the cap
or helmet into a cauldron or copper of boiling liquid, compounded of equal quan-
tities of the best bees' wax and ivory black, the latter being first sifted through
a fine sieve. After the last-mentioned operation is performed, and the cap or
helmet is become cool, flatten and smooth the surface thereof with any proper
tool or machine, in order to unite the different compositions and give firmness.
and stability to the same. Lastly, the cap or helmet must be made quite
smooth and polished by any proper implement or by the friction of a turning
wheel or lathe rubbed against the external surface. When the cap or helmet
is thus finished, it will be completely waterproof, will resist a pretty severe blow.
or cut from a sabre, be very durable, and may be kept clean and neat for years
with little trouble by blacking the external surface now and then, as occasion'
may require, with a common heel or black ball, and polishing it afterwards
with a brush as you would a leather pouch, &c.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bicknell, have hereunto my.
hand and seal subscribed and set, this Twenty-first day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and one.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of May, in
the year of above mentioned, the aforesaid William Bicknell came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and everything therein contained, in form above written. And also the
Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Twenty-second day of May, in the year above written.