AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE WATERPROOF STIFFENING FOR HATS;
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
BLADES, of Clapham, in the County of Surry, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said Joseph Blades, in consequence of a communication
made to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad, am in possession of an
Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE WATERPROOF STIFFENING FOR HATS;"
and whereas His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifteenth day of January, in the eighth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Joseph Blades, His especial licence that I, the said Joseph Blades, my
executors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Blades,
my exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the said Invention of "An
Improvement in the Waterproof Stiffening for Hats;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Joseph Blades, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Blades, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention to consist in
causing the stiffening of hats to be accomplished by means of gum shell lac
dissolved in alkali instead of spirits, applied to the hat body, and afterwards
hardened or set by diluted acid. And in further compliance with the said
proviso, I, the said, Joseph Blades, do hereby describe the manner in which
the said Invention is to be performed by the following description thereof
(that is to say):-
Take eighteen pounds of gum shell lac, one pound and an half of salts of
tartar, and five gallons and an half of water, or the like proportions for greater
or less quantities of the mixture, reserving part of the water to put in when
likely to boil over; put these three articles into a kettle over a fire, and boil
them gradually until the gum is dissolved, say for about an hour, stirring the
whole towards the last. The period of perfect solution may always be known
by the whole boiling up as clear as water, without any scum on the top. If
left till it is cold there will be a thin crust on the surface of a whitish cast
mixed with the dirt of the gum, which must be taken off. Dip the hat body
into the mixture in a cold state so as to absorb as much as possible of it, or
apply the mixture by a brush, sponge, or other means, and then draw the hat
body off on a plank with a stamper, using a light or heavy hand, according to
the stiffness required. The hat body being thus stiffened and drawn out, may
stand awhile till dry, or nearly so; then, having brushed it over with a hard
dry brush to clean it, immerse it in diluted acid, or water made acid in the
following manuer:-Say to five gallons of cold water put half a pint of vitriolic
acid; soak the hat body for about five minutes, when the gum will be sett. If
they are not to be napped immediately, they may be thrown into a reservoir
of pure water, using them as wanted. If the hat bodies have been made in
vitriol, soak them in hot water to kill the acid, and dry them before you
attempt to stiffen by the above-described process, and be careful not to drop
water on the stiffened bodies before they have been in the acid water. When
stiffening great quantities be particular to keep your acid water up to the
strength laid down as above directed, adding more acid, when you find by
applying the tongue that from repeated immersions the alkali has somewhat
weakened the power of the acid.
The Invention which I claim under my herein-before in part recited Patent
is, therefore, the new process of waterproof stiffening for hats by dissolving the
gum shell lac in alkali instead of spirits, and setting or hardening the said
gum after it has been introduced as aforesaid into the body of the hat by
neutralizing it in weak or diluted acid, as above described. And for this

page_text: purpose I mention and describe gum shell lac as the gum salts of tartar as the
solvent and vitriolic acid to neutralize the same, because I have used thesc
materials and find them to answer the purpose; but at the same time any other
alkali that will act as a solvent to the gum that is used, and any other acid
that will sett such gum or neutralize the alkali may be used, and I therefore
include their use as part of my aforesaid Invention, the object of which is to
produce hats without the use of spirits or essential oils, which have before
been used in the manufacture. And such said Invention being, to the best of
my knowledge and belief, entirely new and never before used within that part
of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, His said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I
do verily believe this my said Specification doth comply in all respects, fully
and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I hereby claim to maintain
exclusive right and privilege to the said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Blades, have hereunto set my hand
and seal. this Fifteenth day of July in the voor of
T
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord, One thousand
eight hundred and twenty-eight.