CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN IMPLEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE PURPOSES OF NAVIGATION, NAMELY, AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE IMPLEMENT CALLED THE SOUNDER, AND AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SHIP'S RUN BUOY AND BEACON BUOY
Year: 1814

page_text: DICKINSON'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBENT
DICKINSON, of Great Queen Street, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of
December, in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto mo, the
said Robert Dickinson, my exors, admiors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert Dickinson,
my exors, adñiors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of
years herein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN IMPLEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE PURPOSES OF NAVIGATION,
NAMELY, AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE IMPLEMENT CALLED THE
SOUNDER, AND AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SHIP'S RUN BUOY
AND BEACON BUOY;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
that if I, the said Robert Dickinson, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
bo performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and
advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and

page_text: become void, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more
fully and at large appcar.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Dickinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, aro particularly described
and ascertained as follows (that is to say) :—
My said improvement or improvements in tho implement called the sounder,
consists in employing a reel contained in a floating box or vessel made of wood
or metal, on which reel the sounding lino is wound up previous to taking
soundings. In the bottom of the said box there is a small vertical tube
through which the sounding line runs out, and within the said box a spring
pressing lightly upon one end of the reel to give it such a degree of friction
as to prevent its revolving, except when the sounding lead is acting upon the
line. When the sounder is about to be used a line is to have one of its ends
fastened to the ship and the rest of it coiled up on the deck ready for running
out; the other end of the said last-mentioned line must be passed through a
hole in any convenient part of the said floating box or vessel and then mado
fast to a gripe of any convenient form, so posited within the said floating box
that, when any effort may be employed to draw the floating box or vessel on
board, the said gripe shall press against the said reel and prevent its revolving
either one way or the other while the box is in the act of being pulled on board.
Things being thus arranged, and the sounding line in its place upon the said reel,
the said floating box or vessel containing the said reel is to be put overboard;
the said box will then remain nearly stationary upon the surface of the water,
while the said sounding line is running off from the said reel by means
of the weight, caro being taken to let off the before-mentioned line, coiled
upon the deck at a rate proportioned to the way of the ship or vessel. Things
being thus arranged and put in action, when the sounder shall be judged to
have reached the bottom (whether it has or not, will be afterwards seen by
the usual means, namely, the adhesion of bottom sand, gravel, or shells to the
greased lead), but when, as before said, the sounder shall be judged to havo
reached the bottom, the said floating box or vessel is to be drawn on board by
means of the line which connects the said floating box or vessel with the ship.
When this line is pulling in it pulls the gripe against the reel, as before
mentioned, and prevents its revolving till brought on board, when the length
run out by the sounding lino may be ascertained.
And my said improvement or improvements in the ship's run buoy or beacon
buoy consists in employing, in place of the buoys hitherto used, a quantity of
cork or cork shavings inclosed in a covering of cloth or canvas, the said cloth or

page_text: canvas being impregnated or filled with tar or tar and turpentine, or oil paint, or
beeswax and rozin and oil, or any substance calculated to prevent or delay the
rotting of the said cloth or canvas, than which I have found nothing more
effectual than to rub into the said cloth or canvas, by means of water or oil, a
quantity of the red precipitate of mercury, commonly called the precipitate
per se; and further, on the buoys intended to be used as beacon buoys, I
place a tilt, also a mast or pole (which may pass through the body of the buoy),
on the top of which may be placed a- or any other kind of signal mark.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Dickinson, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
ROB (LS.) DICKINSON.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1815, the aforesaid Robert Dickinson came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery and acknowleged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifteen.