IMPROVEMENTS IN COMPOSITION FOR COATING VESSELS' BOTTOMS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Augustus Clarke, of Liverpool, in the County
Palatine of Lancaster, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
COMPOSITION FOR COATING VESSELS' BOTTOMS."
Sealed the 9th November 1858, and dated the 12th May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Augustus Clarke
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th May 1858.
I, JOSEPH AUGUSTUS CLARKE, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lan-
caster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN COMPOSITION FOR COATING VESSELS' BOTTOMS," to be as follows:-
My said Invention consists in the employment of certain materials to form
a composition suitable for covering wood or metal surfaces, to effect their
preservation against the action of sea water, and in the application of such
composition to vessels' bottoms.
The materials I employ are white lead ground in naptha, to which is added
rosin varnish, affording a paint-like composition capable of being used either
cold or hot, and which may be, when required, combined with oxides or salts
of iron or copper, and pitch, tar, or colouring materials.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Augustus Clarke in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 11th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
AUGUSTUS CLARKE, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of May in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Joseph Augustus Clarke, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph Augustus
Clarke, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Joseph Augustus Clarke, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN COMPOSITION FOR COATING VESSELS' BOTTOMS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Augustus Clarke, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under ny, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, 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 Joseph Augustus Clarke, 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:—
My said Invention relates to a certain composition or compositions of
materials to be used as a coating for the bottoms of iron and other vessels
exposed to the action of sea water, to prevent or lessen the adhesion of bar-
nacles, seaweeds, or like marine products, affecting the cleanness and durability
of such surfaces. And for the better understanding of my said Invention,
I will now proceed to detail the particulars thereof.
I employ carbonate of lead, being the white lead of commerce, free from
admixture with carbonate of barytes, oxide of zinc, or other like adulterations,
which is to be ground in naptha to a paint-like consistence, adding thereto

page_text: rosin varnish, by which means I obtain a composition capable of being used
either cold or hot, for paying or painting over vessels' bottoms, to serve as a
preservative coating against the action of sea water, and marine, vegetable, and
animal products. My said composition may, when required, be combined also
with oxides or salts of iron or copper, and pitch, tar, or colouring materials.
As, however, my said coating composition or compositions may be variously
compounded in regard to proportions, I do not limit myself to the same; and
as other materials may be added for their poisonous qualities, or to afford
variety in colour, but without affecting my said Invention, I wish it to bo
understood that what I claim as my Invention is, the peculiar composition or
compositions for coating the bottoms of iron and other vessels, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Augustus Clarke, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of November, in the year of our
Lord 1858.
JOSEPH AUGUSTUS CLARKE. (L.S.)
JOSEPH AUGUSTUS CLARKE. (L.S.)