IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER- PROOFING AND otherwise Improving the CONDITION OF LEATHER
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Matthew Bird, of Limehouse, in the County of
Middlesex, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER-
PROOFING AND otherwise Improving the CONDITION OF LEATHER."
Sealed the 2nd April 1875, and dated the 14th December 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Matthew Bird at tho
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th December 1874.
I, MATTHEW BIRD, of Limehouse, in the County of Middlesex,
Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN WATERPROOFING AND OTHERWISE IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF
LEATHER," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improving the condition of leather, whether
in hides, or skins, or in picces, by treatment which shall render it
waterproof, and at the same time materially strengthen the fibre and
texture, and which can be varied so as to leave the leather treated either
rigid or pliant, according to the purpose for which it is required.

page_text: This Invention consists in taking leather, either in hides, skins, or
pieces, and immersing it in a vat or vessel containing a mixture of
bitumen, coal tar, pitch, or pine pitch, or other vegetable pitch, and solid
paraffin or other similar mineral, or animal, or vegetable wax, or a
mixture thereof. The mixture consists of about seventy-five per cent.
solid paraffin or other wax, and about twenty-five per cent. pitch. These
two substances are first dissolved by heat and in separate vessels, and
then the pitch is run into that containing the paraffin, and the heat is
maintained until they become by stirring or agitating intimately mixed
together. The heat of the mixture being still maintained the leather
(which has previously been heated in an oven to about 90 degrees
Fahrenheit) is, according to its substance or its quality, either dipped
into the mixture or allowed to remain in it for a few seconds or minutes,
by which time it will have imbibed a sufficient quantity of the mixture.
The leather thus treated may or may not be again placed in the oven to
ensure the absorption of the mixture. After complete absorption has
taken place the leather is rolled between brass, gun metal, or wooden
cylinders.
Some leather I find it advantageous to immerse in a solution of
chloride of sodium and bicarbonate of soda or potash previously to
passing it through the above process, as it renders the leather when
highly tanned more susceptible of this treatment.
When the leather is very thin in substance instead of immersing it it
is placed upon a heated metal plate, and the mixture is applied with a
brush on cither or both sides. Care must be taken that the plate is not
heated sufficiently to damage the leather.
ру
but salu
AUTO W Dird treat Deal I atent once
the 14th June 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MATTHEW 3
BIRD, of Limehouse, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Maiesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters

page_text: our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Matthew Bird, Her special licence
that I, the said Matthew Bird, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Matthew Bird, 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
WATERPROOFING AND OTHERWISE IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF LEATHER," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Matthew Bird, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and scals, 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 Matthew Bird, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the samo is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say :—
This Invention relates to improving the condition of leather, whether
in hides, or in skins, or in pieces, by treatment which shall render it
waterproof, and at the same time materially strengthen the fibre and
texture, and which can be varied so as to leave the leather treated either
rigid or pliant, according to the purpose for which it is required.
This Invention consists in taking leather, either in hides, skins, or
pieces, and immersing it a vat or vessel containing a mixture of
bitumen, coal tar, pitch, or pine pitch, or other vegetable pitch, and solid
paraffin or other similar mineral, or animal, or vegetable wax, or a
mixture thereof. The mixture consists of about seventy-five per cent.
of solid paraffin or other wax, and about twenty-five per cent. of pitch.
The two substances are first dissolved by heat and in separate vessels,
and the pitch is run into that containing the paraffin, and the heat
maintained until they become by stirring or agitating intimately mixed
together. The heat of the mixture being still maintained the leather

page_text: (which has previously been heated to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit) is,
according to its substance or its quality, either dipped into the mixture
or allowed to remain in it for a few seconds or minutes, by which time
it will have imbibed a sufficient quantity of the mixture. The leather
thus treated may or may not be again placed in the oven to ensure the
absorption of the mixture. After complete absorption has taken place.
the leather is rolled between brass, gun metal, or wooden cylinders.
Some leather I find it advantageous to immerse in a solution of
chloride of sodium and bicarbonate of soda or potash previously to
passing it through the above process, as it renders the leather when
highly tanned more susceptible of such treatment.
When the leather is very thin in substance instead of immersing it in
the proofing mixture it is placed upon a heated metal plate, and tho
mixture is applied with a brush on either or both sides. Care must be
taken that the plate is not heated sufficiently to damage the leather.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I
wish it to be understood that what I claim as my Invention and desire
to secure by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
process of waterproofing and otherwise improving the condition of
leather by heating it and causing it to absorb or imbibe the mixture of
paraffin or wax, and pitch or their chemical equivalents, its treament
with such mixture and its after treatment, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Matthew Bird, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
Witness to the signature of
Matthew Bird,
MATTHEW A. SOUL.
MATTHEW BIRD. (L.S.)