AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURING SPRINGS FOR TRUSSES AND THE COVERINGS THEREOF, AND WHICH METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SPRINGS MAY BE APPLIED TO STEEL BACKS AND OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1792

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SLEATH, of Fleet Street, in the City of London, Truss Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty, King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighteenth day of October now last, give and grant unto the
said John Sleath, that I, the said John Sleath, during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURING SPRINGS FOR TRUSSES AND THE
COVERINGS THEREOF, AND WHICH METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SPRINGS MAY BE
APPLIED TO STEEL BACKS AND OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging-me, the said John Sleath, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner, the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within one calendar month next after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that as to such part thereof as is specified and described
in the said Letters Patent as relate to trusses, and the method of making
thereof, I have to describe, is done in the manner following::-
The springs-are to be made either with or without a pad or neck to the
pad, but after being so made, the spring must be tempered,to, the elasticity
required by the usual process. If the spring is inade without the neck, of the
pad, or the pad, it must be rivetted or otherwise fastened to the neck of the pad

page_text: or pad; but that is to be done after they have respectively been tinned, as
hereafter described. The method of tinning is done in the common form, as
iron plates or other things are usually done, either by pickleing, fyling, or
otherwise. That as this Invention is particularly intended for the use of
persons in warm climates, and sea or warfaring persons, persons of robust or
weak habit of body, who are liable to perspire, and particularly for children
that wet them by urine, and by which respiration or wet, springs made
in the ordinary manner will rust, and consequently lose their elasticity, the
tinning of the springs will (as by experience made on trial) prevent rust, and,
consequently, prevent them losing their elasticity; and by the further im-
provement of having an opportunity of changing the cloathing or covering, it
gives a pleasing relief to all persons who are under the necessity of wearing
trusses, and particularly to those of the above description. It is a grand and
long wished-for Invention, and an object which after many attempts has been
at last discovered.
The description of the method how the shifting of the cloathing or covering of
the spring, &c, may be made, so as to be removed and changed at pleasure, is as
follows: The pad being made of cork or other substance (and which may be fixed
to the cloathing or covering of the spring, &c, or made independent thereof (as
the maker thinks proper), on which is fixed a plate either of brass, iron, or
other metal or metallic substance, and which is sewed, rivetted, or otherwise
fastened to the covering of the pad and plate, and which cloathing or covering
may be made of leather, silk, sattin, or other materials, and in which pad
plate one, two, or more holes are made, bored, drilled, or framed, for the
purpose of receiving one, two, or more pins, spikes, rivets, screws, worms,
or other fastening, which said pins, spikes, rivets, screws, or other fastenings
are to be rivetted, screwed, or otherwise affixed to the pad of the spring,
for the purpose of keeping the whole steady, and in which said plate or
in the spring pad is to be formed, inserted, put, or affixed a screw, turnbuckle,
lock, ketch, or other fastening, which fastens the pad plate and the spring pad
together, and which may with ease release the spring from the pad plate, by
which means the whole of the cloathing or covering may be taken off, and a new
or dry one put on, and that in a very short time. The pad end of the cloathing
or covering being left open, and not sewed down, as in common cases, the studs
which are fixed in the spring pad confine that part, and which, by opening or
undoing the screw, turnbuckle, lock, ketch, or other fastening, immediately leaves
the spring at liberty to be drawn out of the cloathing or covering thereof, the
cloathing and covering being made so as to slip off the spring at pleasure
if wanted so to do.

page_text: That as the method of tinning of springs without their losing their elasticity
being entirely new and never before practised, I, the said John Sleath, con-
ceive that I, by the said Letters Patent, have an exclusive right to apply the
process to springs of all descriptions, as they may be applied to locks and other
things not immediately exposed to the air.
That in steel and other backs, and other things made use of particularly by
young ladies, and for other purposes where the object is liable to heat, wett, or
any moisture (which will occasion rust and consequently decay), this Invention
of tinning them is particularly applicable, as their being tinned prevents the
force of the heat, wet, or moisture from penetrating and hurting the metal,
which it otherwise would do.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Sleath, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fourteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord