AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF HARD AND WATERPROOF FABRIC, AND THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF BOATS, PARTS OF CARRIAGES, AND OF FURNITURE, PORTMANTEAUS, AND TRAVELLING CASES, AND VESSELS OF CAPACITY
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF HARD AND
WATERPROOF FABRIC, AND THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO THE CONSTRUCTION
OF BOATS, PARTS OF CARRIAGES, AND OF FURNITURE, PORTMANTEAUS, AND
TRAVELLING CASES, AND VESSELS OF CAPACITY."-A communication.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 8th May 1858.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF HARD AND
WATERPROOF FABRIC, AND THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF
BOATS, PARTS OF CARRIAGES, AND OF FURNITURE, PORTMANTEAUS, AND TRAVELLING
CASES, AND VESSELS OF CAPACITY," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to produce a tough and durable waterproof
fabric, and one which in its green or semi-vulcanized state shall be capable of
being wrought into a variety of useful forms. To this end woven wire cloth
or pierced sheet metal is coated on both sides with india-rubber vulcanite
compound. If the wire cloth is coarse, and it is desired to cover it cheaply,

page_text: it is placed between two sheets of the compound, and the whole is passed
together between calender rollers which are covered with sheets of vulcanized
rubber or other elastic substance, to cause the sheets of vulcanite to adhere
between the meshes of the wire without the wire cutting the compound. But
when a smooth surface is desired, the wire cloth is to be heavily coated, and
the vulcanized compound is spread upon it in the same manner as upon cloth
with calender rollers. From this fabric it is proposed to construct boats, shoe
soles, parts of carriages, chairs, and other furniture, and it may be worked up
into portmanteaus, travelling cases, packing boxes, &c., which shall be
impervious to rain; and also into pans, troughs, or other articles of capacity,
and other articles heretofore made of sheet metal or galvanized iron.
To obtain a polish on flat surfaces, the fabric is to be moulded between
plates of glass or tin, and submitted to the vulcanizing process while still in
contact with the glass or tin. To form a portmanteau, trough, dish, or any
article of a simple form, the fabric is struck up either in the green or semi-
vulcanized state to the required form in suitably shaped dies. If the wire
cloth is thinly covered and in a green state, it must be either vulcanized to
about 270°, as india-rubber is usually vulcanized. If the article is of an
irregular or crooked shape, I strike it up, or otherwise form it in a green
or semi-vulcanized state, as sheet iron is worked, in two parts, and these are
then united and vulcanized. To give greater strength, these articles are
hooped with strips of the same fabric or with the vulcanite compound, or the
seams of the articles may be covered and trimmed or finished with the
compound only. Boats, portmanteaus, or other articles may have any required
amount of strength given them by cementing upon them braces or strips of
any required form made of the fabric, these being first formed to fit the part
where it is applied. The edges of the articles may be finished by binding
them with vulcanite, or by eating out the ends of the wire cloth with acid, and
closing the edges over the wire by pressure.
In applying the fabric to the manufacture of furniture, say, chairs, for
example, the fabric is bent into tubes to form the legs, and the upper ends
thereof are filled with vulcanized rubber. In this rubber is inserted a metal
key or dovetail, which projects. into a socket in the frame of the chair, which
is also filled in where the parts are joined, so as to be made solid, with
vulcanite compound; this key forms the connection between the leg and the
frame, and when the whole is submitted to the heating process, a firm junction
will be effected between the parts.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 8th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred Vincent
Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully night make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED MANU-
FACTURE OF HARD AND WATEPROOF FABRIC, AND THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO
THE CONSTRUCTION OF BOATS, PARTS OF CARRIAGES, AND OF FURNITURE, PORT-
MANTEAUS, AND TRAVELLING CASES, AND VESSELS OF CAPACITY," being a com-
munication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly 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
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 Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 (that is to say): —
This Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
relates to the production of a tough and durable waterproof fabric, which in
its unfinished state or softened state is to be wrought into a variety of useful
forms. To this end woven wire cloth or pierced sheet metal is coated on
both sides with india-rubber vulcanite compound in a plastic state.
If the wire cloth is coarse, and it is desired to cover it cheaply, it is placed
between two sheets of the compound, and the whole is passed together between
calender rollers, which cause the sheets of vulcanite to adhere between the

page_text: meshes of the wire without the wire cutting the compound. But when a
smooth surface is desired, the wire cloth is to be more thickly coated, and the
vulcanized compound is spread upon it in the same manner as upon cloth
with calender rollers. From this fabric it is proposed to construct boats, the
panels of carriages, chairs, and other furniture, and it may be worked up into
portmanteaus, travelling cases, packing boxes, &c., which shall be impervious
to rain; and also into pans, troughs, or other articles of capacity heretofore
made of sheet metal or galvanized iron.
.
To obtain a polish on flat surfaces, such, for example, as trays, the fabric is
to be moulded between plates of glass or tin, and submitted to the vulcanizing
process while still in contact with the glass or tin.
In carrying out this part of the Invention, it is preferred to strike up in a
die a tin plate corresponding in form to the article to be moulded, and to use
this tin plate not only as a "former" applied by the compressing die, but also as
a covering for the moulded article, while the same is being subjected to the
heat of the curing or hardening process. By the application of the smooth
metallic surface, the hard rubber will be found to have set with a beautiful
polished surface.
To form the box of a portmanteau, trough, dish, or any article of a simple
form, the fabric is struck up either in the green or half hard state to the
required form in suitably shaped dies. When the wire cloth is thinly covered
with prepared rubber in a green state, it must be submitted to a temperature
of about two hundred and seventy degrees in the manner ordinarily employed
in vulcanizing india-rubber. If the article required to be made is of an
irregular or crooked shape, it is to be struck up or otherwise formed while in
a green or half hard state, as sheet iron is worked, in two parts, or more parts,
according to the complexity of the form, and these parts are then united by
bringing the adjoining edges into close contact, after which the whole is sub-
mitted to the required temperature for hardening the soft rubber.
To give
greater strength, the articles thus formed may be hooped with strips of the
fabric of which they are composed, or the seams of the articles may be
covered and trimmed or finished with strips of the india-rubber compound
only.
In manufacturing boats, portmanteaus, or other articles, according to this
Invention, they may, in order to enable them to bear hard usage, have any
required amount of strength given them by cementing upon the moulded
plates or pieces of fabric composing the same, bands, strips, or braces of the
compound fabric, the same being cemented at the junction of these parts or
at the parts requiring the greatest power of resistance, the braces or strips

page_text: being first formed to correspond to the parts to which they are respectively to
be applied. A finish may be given to the edges of the articles by binding
them with a strip of soft vulcanite, or by eating out the ends of the wire cloth
with acid, and closing the edges over the wire by pressure, after which the
process of hardening by heat is to be applied to 'the articles.
In applying the compound fabric to the manufacture of furniture, the mode
of construction will vary according to the nature of the article, but taking a chair
as the type, the fabric is bent into tubes or moulded into half tubes to form
the legs, and the upper ends thereof are filled with vulcanized rubber, in
which is inserted, if thought desirable, a metal key or dovetail, for the purpose
of connecting with the frame; this frame may be made from a strip of the
fabric bent to a right angle, thus T, in cross section, its horizontal face being
cut through, to allow the fabric to be bent round to form the angles of the
frame. The angle at which the junction takes place is made secure with
vulcanite compound, and the legs are each secured at their respective angles
by the application of the same material; the back of the chair and also the
arms, when such are required, are likewise formed of the compound fabric and
moulded in dies to any required pattern. These are in like manner secured
to the frame by employing the vulcanite rubber as a cement. When the
moulding and fitting of the parts are completed the whole is submitted to the
hardening process, and a firm junction will be effected between all the parts.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, and explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters
Patent I claim the manufacture of hard rubber fabric, as above described,
and the application of the same to the construction of boats, panels of carriages,
furniture, portmanteaus, travelling cases, and vessels of capacity, in the manner
and for the purpose above set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Eighth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)