A COMPOSITION VARYING IN COLOUR, WITH A PECULIAR METHOD OF APPLYING, FOR THE PURPOSE OF RENDERING CANVAS, LINEN, AND CLOTH DURABLE, PLIABLE, FREE FROM CRACKING, AND WATER- PROOF; AND ALSO FOR PRESERVING EVERY KIND AND DESCRIPTION OF WOOD FROM WIND OR WEATHER, WHETHER APPLIED TO SHIPS, HOUSES OR MANUFACTURIES, AND FOR ALL PURPOSES WHERE PAINT, VARNISH, OR TAR ARE USED FOR THE PURPOSE OP PRESERVATION OR BEAUTY, AND WHETHER APPLIED TO CANNON OR IRON OF EVERY DESCRIPTION
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WOLF
BENJAMIN, of Plymouth Dock, in the County of Devon, Umbrella Manu-
facturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said Wolf Benjamin, did, in and by my Petition, humbly
represent unto His Majesty King George the Third that I had, after much
labour, study, and expence, found out and invented "A COMPOSITION VARYING
IN COLOUR, WITH A PECULIAR METHOD OF APPLYING, FOR THE PURPOSE OF RENDERING
CANVAS, LINEN, AND CLOTH DURABLE, PLIABLE, FREE FROM CRACKING, AND WATER-
PROOF; AND ALSO FOR PRESERVING EVERY KIND AND DESCRIPTION OF WOOD FROM
WIND OR WEATHER, WHETHER APPLIED TO SHIPS, HOUSES, OR MANUFACTURIES,
AND FOR ALL PURPOSES WHERE PAINT, VARNISH, OR TAR ARE USED FOR THE PURPOSE
OP PRESERVATION OR BEAUTY, AND WHETHER APPLIED TO CANNON OR IRON OF EVERY
DESCRIPTION," I did thereby most humbly pray His said Majesty to grant unto
me, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His Royal Letters Patent, under the
Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for the sole
making and vending my said Invention within that part of His said Majesty's
United Kingdom called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years, according to the form
of the Statute in that case made and provided; and His said Majesty, taking
the premises into His royal consideration, and being willing to give encourage.
ment to all arts and inventions which tend to the public good, was most
graciously pleased to condescend to my said request, and thereupon His said
Majesty, by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the
Fifth day of May, in the fifty-eighth year of His reign, of His special grace,

page_text: certain knowledge, and mere motion, did give and grant unto me, the said
Wolf Benjamin, my exors, adñors, and assigns, His special licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Wolf Benjamin, my exors,
adiňors, and assigns, and every of us, by myself or ourselves, or by my or our
deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Wolf
Benjamin, my exors, adiñors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from to time and at all times thereafter, during the term of years
therein expressed,-should-and lawfully might make, use, excrcise, and vend
my said Invention within that part of His Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said Wolf Benjamin,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or any of us, should in our discretion should
seem meet, and that I, the said Wolf Benjamin, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity,
and advantage from time to time coming, growing, accruing, and arising, by
imcans of the said Invention, for and during the term of years therein men-
tioned; to have, hold, exercise,' and enjoy the said licence, powers, privileges,
and advantages herein-before granted or mentioned to be granted unto me,
the said Wolf Benjamin, 'my exors, admors, and assigns, for and' during' and
unto the full-end and term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters
Patent next and immediately ensuing, and 'fully to be complete and ended,
according to 'the Statute in that case made and provided; and in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if 'I, the said Wolf Benjamin,
should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be prepared, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be enrolled in writing in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters
Patent, and 'all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,' should
cease, determine, and 'become void, anything therein-before contained to the
contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding, as in and by the said Letters'
Patent (relation being thereunto had) will more fully and at large äppear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Wolf Benjamin, in compliance with
the said proviso,' do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to prepared, performed, and
applied, in manner and form following (that is to say):-
To make a black:-First the canvas, linen, or cloth is to be washed with hot
or cold water, the former preferable, so as to discharge the stiffening which
all new canvas, linen, or cloth contains. When the stiffening is properly

page_text: discharged, hang the canvas, linen, or cloth up to dry; when perfectly so it
must be constantly rubbed by the land until it becomes quite supple'; it then
must be streached in a hollow frame very tight, and the following ingredients
are to be used or laid on with a brush for the first coat; videlicet, eight' quarts
of boiled linseed oil, half an ounce of burnt umbre, a quarter of an ounce of
sugar of lead, a quarter of an ounce of white vitriol, a quarter of an ounce
of white lead. The above ingredients, except the white lead, must be ground
fine, with a small quantity of the above-mentioned oil, on a marble stone and
muller; then mix all the ingredients up with the oil, and add three ounces of
lamp black, which must be put over a slow fire in an iron broad vessel, and
kept stirred until the grease disappears; in consequence of the canvas being
washed and then rubbed it will appear rough and nappy.
'
The following method must be taken with the second coat, videlicet, the
'same ingredients as before, except the white lead. This coat will set in a
few hours, according to the weather; when set take a dry paint brush and
work it very hard with the grain of the canvas; this will cause the nap to lay
smooth.
Third and last coat, which makes a complete jet black which continues its
colour: Take three gallons of boiled linseed oil, an ounce of burnt umbre,
half an ounce of sugar of lead, a quarter of an ounce of white vitriol, half
an ounce of Prussian blue, and a quarter of an ounce of verdigrease; this
must be all ground very fine in a small quantity of the above oil, then add
four ounces of lamp black, put through the same process of fire as the first
coat. The above are to be laid on and used at discretion in a similar way to
paint.
To make lead colour:-The same ingredients as before in making the
black, with the addition of white lead in proportion to the colour you wish to
have light or dark.
!..
To make green :-Yellow ochre four ounces, Prussian blue three quarters
of an ounce, white lead three ounces, white vitriol half an ounce, sugar of lead
quarter of an ounce, good boiled linseed oil sufficient to make it a thin quality
so as to go through the canvas.
Yellow Yellow ochre four ounces, burnt umbre quarter of an ounce,
white lead six or seven ounces, white vitriol quarter of an ounce, sugar of
lead quarter of an ounce, boiled linseed oil as in green.
Red Red lead four ounces, vermillion two ounces, white vitriol quarter
of an ounce, sugar of lead quarter of an ounce, boiled linseed oil as before.
Grey Take white lead, a little Prussian blue sufficient to turn it grey,
according to the quality you want, which will turn it to a grey colour, a pro-

page_text: portion of sugar of lead, and white vitriol, as mentioned in the other colours,
boiled linseed oil sufficient to make it of a thin quality.
White White lead four pounds, spirits of turpentine quarter of a pint,
white vitriol half an ounce, sugar of lead balf an ounce, boiled oil sufficient
to make it of a thin quality.
N.B. The above ingredients of different colours are calculated as near. as
possible; but as one article may be stronger than another, which will soon be
discovered in using, in that case the person working the colour may add a
little or diminish, as he may find necessary. The same preparation for
wood or iron, only reducing the oil about three quarts out of eight, and to be
applied in the same manner as paint or varnish, with a brush.
In witness whereof, I, the said Wolf Benjamin, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the First day of July, in the fifty-eighth year of the
reign of His said Majesty King George the Third, and in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
WOLF (L.S.) BENJAMIN.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the