Gambits Patent Substitute for Leather-1824.—This invention consist* in the application of an elastic coating and varnish to substances of a pliable nature, such as all kinds of cloth, whether cotton, linen, woollen, or felt. When the material is required to have flexibility, the composition is to be made of the fol lowing ingredients :— These are to be melted and well blended together over a fire. At first the size is to be melted, then the oil is to be added in small quantities at a time, next the lamp black, white lead, and pipe clay, during which it should be con stantly stirred; the composition is then complete. The cloth being previously strained upon frames, the composition is spread on it evenly and smoothly with a pallet knife, working it well therewith into the interstices of the cloth, so that it shall be thoroughly saturated with the composition. The first coat is then to be dried, either in the air, or in a warm room, by hanging up the frames, care being taken that they be not exposed to much heat. When thoroughly dried and hard, a second coat may be laid on and dried in a similar way • also a third, a fourth, or a fifth, if required of great substance, which should :ill be spread on as smoothly, and every successive coat be bard before the next is laid on. This material, the patentee states, is chiefly intended for the manufacture of patten ties, and therefore he cuts it into strips previously to varnishing it, and panes them between polished metal rollers to give them a smooth even surface.
Some drying linseed oil, or other suitable varnish is then brushed over the strips; mixing with the vanish any required colour to give the article the desired tint. The next operation is the cutting up the material into the usual sizes for patten ties, and finishing the same as usual under a screw-press with dies.
For coach tops, and other purposes where flexibility is not n , the quantities of the pipe clay, white lead, and size, may be increased, • g to the nature and use of the article to be manufactured of it. For smoothening down and polishing such large pieces of the cloth as will not pass through the roller press, the common method of rubbing with pumice stone, tripoli, &c. is adopted previous to varnishing.
Hancock's Patent Substitute for Leadier.—Instead of using cloth, as in Mr. Gunby's patent just described, Mr. Hancock merely hackles or cards the fibres of flax, cotton, &c. by which they are drawn out into layers of a suitable thickness ; they are then felted together in a trough of water, and afterwards pressed between cylindrical rollers. Over this fabric, liquid caoutchouc or Indian-rubber is to be spread uniformly by means of a spatula. When the caoutchouc has sufficiently solidified, it is to be again pressed, then receive another coat of the resin, and again pressed.