IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING OR PREPARING LEATHER, AND ▲ MIXTURE OR COMPOSITION THEREFOR."
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Tombs, of No. 12, Fitzwilliam Road,
Clapham, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING OR PREPARING LEATHER, AND ▲ MIXTURE
OR COMPOSITION THEREFOR."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Tombs at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th June 1875.
I, EDWARD TOMBS, of No. 12, Fitzwilliam Road, Clapham, in the
County of Surrey, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for “IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING OR PREPARING LEATHER, AND
▲ MIXTURE OR COMPOSITION THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
-
My Invention consists in dressing or preparing hides or skins with a
mixture composed of a resin, gum resin, or oleo resin, birdlime, and
caoutchouc, in solution with oil, turpentine, or other terebinthinate

page_text: substance in proportions according to the nature of the skin to be
prepared or dressed.
I take the hide or skin as tanned or made ready for dressing, and I
either steep the hide or skin in the mixture or rub the mixture into the
hide or skin until the mixture is thoroughly incorporated into the hide
or skin. By this means of dressing leather it becomes exceedingly soft,
flexible, and elastic, and is far superior and much more durable than
leather dressed or prepared by the present process, and can be used in
the manufacture of boots, shoes, gloves, harness, carriages, bags, trunks,
bands, straps, hose, and other articles, in the manufacture of which
leather can be used.
-
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said Edward
Tombs in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th January 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
TOMBS, of No. 12, Fitzwilliam Road, Clapham, in the County of Surrey,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Edward Tombs, Her special
licence that I, the said Edward Tombs, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Tombs, 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN DRESSING OR PREPARING LEATHER, AND A MIXTURE OR COMPOSITION THEREFOR,”
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward Tombs,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within seven calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Tombs, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
My Invention consists in dressing or preparing hides or skins with a
mixture composed of a resin, gum resin, or oleo resin, birdlime, and
caoutchouc, in solution with oil, turpentine, or other terebinthinate
substance in proportions according to the nature of the skin to be
prepared or dressed.
I take the hide or skin as tanned or made ready for dressing, and I
either steep the skin or hide in the mixture or rub the mixture into
same until the mixture is thoroughly incorporated into the hide or skin.
By this means of dressing leather it becomes exceedingly soft, flexible,
and elastic, and is far superior and much more durable than leather
dressed or prepared by the present process, and can be used in the
manufacture of boots, shoes, gloves, harness, carriages, bags, trunks,
bands, straps, hose, and other articles, in the manufacture of which
leather can be used.
I carry out my Invention aforesaid in manner following, that is to
say :-
First. I take sixty-four pounds of linseed oil, eight pounds of sugar
of lead, twelve pounds of litharge; I thoroughly mix and strain the
above, and then take sixteen pounds of birdlime mixed with one gallon
of the first above described mixture; when thoroughly mixed I add
five gallons of linseed oil; I mix and strain the same, and then add six
gallons of turpentine. Or I use a mixture composed of sixty-four
pounds of copal, one hundred and sixty pounds of linseed oil, two
pounds of copperas, two pounds of litharge; I mix and strain the same
and then add forty gallons of turpentine. Or I use a mixture composed
of fifty-six pounds of copal, fourteen gallons of linseed oil, eight pounds
of prepared caoutchouc; and I mix and strain and then add twenty-four
gallons of turpentine. Or I use a mixture composed of sixty-four
pounds of linseed oil, eight pounds of Burgundy pitch; I mix and

page_text: with or into the hides or skins, substantially in accordance with my said
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Tombs, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
six.
Witness,
T. MORGAN,
Secretary,
Inventors' Patent Right Association, Ld.,
21, Cockspur Street,
London,
8.W.
EDWARD TOMBS. (L.B.)