A NEW-INVENTED METHOD OF FELTING WOOLLEN CLOTH, AND ALSO OF FELTING CLOTH MANUFACTURED OF SHEEP'S WOOL AND OTHER COMBINED MATERIALS
Year: 1803

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
BENNET, of Oldham Street, Manchester, in the County Palatine of Lancaster,
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did grant
to me His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Tenth day of March, in the forty-third year of His reign,
for "A NEW-INVENTED METHOD OF FELTING WOOLLEN CLOTH, AND ALSO OF FELTING
CLOTH MANUFACTURED OF SHEEP'S WOOL AND OTHER COMBINED MATERIALS."
NOW KNOW YE, that the following is the nature of my said Invention,
and the mode, method, and manner in which the same is to be performed,
nsed, and put in practice (that is to say):-
After such cloth has been manufactured by the weaver, and the same has
gone through the usual regular processes of cutting, scouring, and cleansing,
or such of them as the particular manufacture may require, it must be
immersed in hot water, a little below the boiling point, and remain in that
state until it has imbibed a moderate warmth; it must then be taken out and
laid on a large polished flagged stone, which stone must be placed on a frame
having a roller at each end, for the purpose of receiving the cloth, which
must be wound tight over one of such rollers. The flag stone having been
previously heated pretty warm by means of pouring hot water on it, one end
of such piece of cloth must then be drawn tight over the surface of the
stone, and fixed to the roller at the other end; when so fixed, hot water, a
little below the boiling point, must be poured on such cloth as it lies on the

page_text: stone, and the surface of such cloth must then be rubbed or worked in that
state with a polished marble, or some other hard body having a polished surface,
by hand or with machinery, with a light pressure, until the workman perceives
a stifness in the friction, which will be produced by the marble or other
polished body working the water off, until the cloth becomes nearly dry, when
the same process of pouring the hot water on the cloth and expelling it again
by friction must be repeated until the felt required be produced, which
processes will produce a felt, and cause the body of the cloth to unite in a
sound substance. The above method may be used either with or without
soap; the latter mode, being found most beneficial to the substance of the
cloth, and causing it to, take the felt more expeditiously, is therefore recom-
mended to be preferred. The cloth may then be dyed and finished to any
color at the discretion of the manufacturer.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Bennet, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of August, One thousand eight
hundred and three.
Sealed and delivered (being first duly
stamped) in the presence of
ROBERT GILL.
JAMES (L.B.) BENNET.
ROBT HILLIER.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-sixth day of August, in
the year of our Lord 1808, the aforesaid James Bennet came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
T