METHOD OF PREPARING, FROM THE GLUTINOUS JUICES OF THE AMERICAN PITCH PINE TREE, A VARNISH OF PINE, AND BY THE SAME PROCESS PRODUCE THE FINEST VARNISH OF PINE FOR PAYING SHIPS SIDES AND MASTS, AND FOR PREVENTING TIMBER BUILDINGS FROM THE ILL EFFECT OF THE WEATHER, AND PROM DECAY
Year: 1754

page_text: LEWIS, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Second, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Twenty-
first day of May, in the twenty-seventh year of His reign, did give and grant
unto me, the said John Lewis, His especial licence that I, the said John
Lewis, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend my "NEW METHOD OF PREPARING,
FROM THE GLUTINOUS JUICES OF THE AMERICAN PITCH PINE TREE, A VARNISH OF
PINE, AND BY THE SAME PROCESS PRODUCE THE FINEST VARNISH OF PINE FOR
PAYING SHIPS SIDES AND MASTS, AND FOR PREVENTING TIMBER BUILDINGS FROM
THE ILL EFFECT OF THE WEATHER, AND PROM DECAY;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Lewis, by a
writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be inrolled in His Majestie's High Court of Chancery within
four calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as
by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Lewis, have caused a particular description of the nature of the said

page_text: THE APPARATUS.
The furnace to be three foot perpendicular and four foot six inches
diameter from the square of the sides, all strong copper; from that square
the crown must incline gradually eighteen inches, in a conical form, raising
twelve inches from the square of the furnace. On that conical head is
raised a cylindrical neck, six inches high, and two foot three inches diameter,
with a brim of two inches broad to receive the neck of the drum, made exactly
to fall into this neck, with a rim of two inches to rest on that before men-
tioned; and this cylindrical neck is to be six inches perpendicular also, and to
fix into the center of the drum, whose bottom is copper, and is four foot six
inches diameter, at whose extremity is placed a small tube of copper for the dis-
tilled liquor to run off into the receiver. On the bottom of the drum the sides
are well nailed on, and are five foot perpendicular, and the crown of this drum
head inclines two feet nine inches, in the center of which is a ventilater of
six inches high from the top of the crown, and six inches diameter; from the
extremity of the bottom of this head is left a rim of copper six inches all
round in the clear, to which is fixed a side of thin copper or tin plate, three
foot six inches perpendicular, which is the heighth of the drum, and this side
supports a culm of water of six inches all round the conical head of the drum,
and this is a refrigeratory to the work, there being a continual stream of water
running in and out by a pipe, so as to keep the liquor in a proper state, which
is known by the degrees of heat your work is in, and must be governed only
by the judgment of the operator.
THE PROCESS.
Place in the apparatus here described three hundred gallons more or
less of common plantation tar, add to it one fourth part of clean water
(let the quantity of tar be more or less), fix on the head and refrigeratory
in the cylender as described, and lute it down, fill it full of cold water,
so as to cover the conical head and set the water pipe going; then raise
your fire to two hundred degrees by the thermometer, and in about two
hours will come over a quantity of acid water, with about one eighth part oyl,
of the consistency of oyl of turpentine and colour of Florence oyl. Be sure

page_text: Continue this twelve hours,
Then take fifteen hundred-
render the process dangerous, and be quite useless.
and the water and the oyl will be all drawn off.
weight of fine claryfied turpentine, or any quantity in proportion, put it into
your furnace, raise a fire of one hundred and twelve degrees, inspissate it 'til
all the acid watery particles be evaporated, then add ten hundredweight of
the above oyl warmed gently down, and the whole will become one tenacious
and glutinous body for use, which I am well assured of, not only from my my
own judgment, but by the experience and testimony of many who have used it.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Lewis, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of September, One thousand
seven hundred and fifty-four.
Sealed and delivered (being first duly
stampt) in the presence of us,
JOHN FACEY.
ORLANDO MANLEY.
AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the said Eleventh day of Sep-
tember, the before-named John Lewis came before our said Lord the
King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Writing aforesaid, and
every thing therein contained, in form above said. And also the said Writing
was stamped according to the form of the Statute made in the sixth year of
the reign of the late King William and Queen Mary, and so forth.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of September, in the year above written.