A NEW METHOD OF MAKING LEATHER FROM WASTE PIECES OF COMMON LEATHER
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Turner, Shoe Manufacturer, of Campbell
Square, Northampton, for the Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF MAKING
LEATHER FROM WASTE PIECES OF COMMON LEATHER."
Sealed the 30th June 1863, and dated the 6th January 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Turner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th January 1863.
1, GEORGE TURNER, Shoe Manufacturer, Campbell Square, Northampton,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW METHOD OF
MAKING LEATHER FROM WASTE PIECES OF COMMON LEATHER," to be as follows:-
The leather cuttings or other waste pieces of leather are first converted
into pulp by any of the processes already known, and this pulp which may
then be washed or left unwashed is thereupon digested in suitable vessels
with warm water either with or without the addition of animal or vegetable
gelatinous matter. When sulliciently digested the pulp is treated with a
caustic alkaline solution, such as is formed by the oxides of the alkaline
metals, the alkaline earths, the hydrates of such oxides. the subcarbonates
of these ammonia, or by other substances having an alkaline reaction. The
pulp after having been thus treated is pressed or rolled into sheets or bands,
which are then immersed into tan liquor, or other acid astringent solution,
whereby the action of the alkali will be arrested, and which combining with
Price 8.1

page_text: the organic matter dissolved by the alkali, at the same time converts the
gelatinous matter into tanmate of gelatine. By this process a homogeneous
substance approaching in its chemical composition to ordinary tanned leather
will be produced.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Turner in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
4th July 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
TURNER, Shoe Manufacturer, of Campbell Square, Northampton, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent. bearing date the Sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three. in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself. Her heirs and successors. give and grant unto
me, the said George Turner. Her special licence that t, the said George
Turner, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said George Turner, 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 "A
NEW METHOD OF MAKING LEATHER FROM WASTE PIECES OF COMMON LEATHER,"
upou the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Turner, my execu
tors 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 George Turner, 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:
In carrying out my Invention leather cuttings or parings or other waste
pieces of leather or skin are first converted into pulp by any of the processes
already known. This pulp, which may then be washed or left unwashed;

page_text: is thereupon digested in warm water in suitable vessels. When sufficiently
digested the pulp is treated with a caustic alkaline solution, such as is. formed
by the oxides of the alkaline metals, the alkaline earths, the hydrates of such
oxides, the subcarbonates of these or other substances having an alkaline
reaction. If desired animal or vegetable gelatinous matter may be added
to and digested with the pulp. After the pulp, with or without the addition
of animal or vegetable gelatinous matter, has been treated with the caustic
alkaline solution, it is pressed or rolled into sheets or bands of the desirable
thickness. These sheets or bands are then immersed in tan liquor, or other
acid astringent solution, which arrests the action of the alkali, combines
with the organic matter dissolved by the alkali, and converts the gelatinous
matter into tannate of gelatine. By this process a homogeneous substance
approaching in its chemical composition to ordinary tanned leather is pro-
duced.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, I wish it to be
understood that what I claim as the Invention to be secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is, the method of making leather
from leather cuttings or parings, or other waste pieces of leather, substantially
us herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Turner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of July, in the year of Our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
GEORGE TURNER. (L.S.)