A NEW SORT OF INVENCONS BY FURNACES AND PREPARATIVE PANS FOR BOILING SEA WATER TO MAKE SALT THEREOF, BY WHICH MEANS SEA SALT MAY BE MADE AS GOOD, MUCH QUICKER, AND AT LESS EXPENCE THAN BY ANY OTHER METHOD HITHERTO USED OR DISCOVERED, AND WHICH I, THE SAID EDWARD FAIRLESS, BY AND AT GREAT PAINS AND EXPENCE, HAVE BROUGHT TO PERFECTION
Year: 1745

page_text: FAIRLES' SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Second, by His Letters
Patent, dated at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of September, in the
nineteenth year of His said Majesty's reign, of His special grace, certain
knowledge, and meer motion, did give and grant, for Him, His heires &
successors, unto me, EDWARD FAIRLESS, of South Shields, in the County of
Durham, Merchant, my executors, admiors, and assignes, His especial licence,
full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, my executors, administrators,
and every of us, by myself and themselves, or by my and their deputy and
deputies, servants or agents, or such other as I, my executors, administrators,
or assignes, should at any time agree with, and no other, from time to time and
at all times hereafter during the term of fourteen years from the date of
the said Patent, should and lawfully might, within that part of Great Britain
called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
make, use, exercise, and vend, in such manner as to me, my executors, admors,
and assignes, or any of us, should seem meet, "A NEW SORT OF INVENCONS BY
FURNACES AND PREPARATIVE PANS FOR BOILING SEA WATER TO MAKE SALT
THEREOF, BY WHICH MEANS SEA SALT MAY BE MADE AS GOOD, MUCH QUICKER, AND
AT LESS EXPENCE THAN BY ANY OTHER METHOD HITHERTO USED OR DISCOVERED, AND
WHICH I, THE SAID EDWARD FAIRLESS, BY AND AT GREAT PAINS AND EXPENCE, HAVE
BROUGHT TO PERFECTION," with such other powers and liberties as is and are
therein expressed, nevertheless subject to a provisoe therein contained, that if
A

page_text: I, the said Edward Fairless, should not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Inventions, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, & cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four kallendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that
then the same Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and
by the said Letters Patent, whereunto relation being had, doth more fully and
at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Fairless, in pursuance of the
said provisoe, do hereby declare that the said Inventions consist of granulating
pans or boilers and preparative pans. The granulating pans or boilers are
made of plates of iron fixed together upon banks of iron, the bottoms whereof
are flatt and oblong, twenty feet by thirteen, or may be made of a greater or
lesser size at pleasure, the sides or ledges whereof are upright planes standing
round the bottom of the boilers, so as to form vessels of fourteen inches deep
or thereabouts, which said granulating pans or boilers are placed on or over
furnaces consisting of fires placed directly under the center or middle of the
boilers, which fires burn upon grates or bars of iron supported by iron sleepers;
underneath the sleepers are caves into which the ashes fall; the doors to the fires
are placed at the ends of the furnaces, and those fixed to the grates under arches.
The air to the fires is conveyed under the grates through the ends opposite to
the furnace doors. The hearths of the furnaces at the ends and sides thereof are
built and carryed up slopeing or with a batter till they reach within ten inches
more or less of the boilers, upon which hearths are placed staples of stone or
iron which support the said granulating pans or boilers. The chimneys to the
said furnaces are placed at or near the corners of the said boilers, wherein
regulators or registers are fixed, by means of which the fire may be expanded
or diffused to all parts of the said granulating pans or boilers, and the heat
thereof increased or decreased at pleasure, as well for the quicker making of
salt as the saving of coals or fuel. One preparative pan is placed between two
granulating boilers, and may be made either of lead, iron, or plates of iron
fixed together, the bottom whereof is flat and oblong, to witt, fourteen feet by
thirteen or thereabouts, or may be made square or of any other form, or of a
greater or lesser size at pleasure, the sides or ledges thereof are upright plane
standing round the bottom of the pan, forming a vessel of fourteen inches deep
or thereabouts, which preparative pan is placed on or over flues fourteen inches
more or less from the sole or floor. The two chimneys to the said preparative
pan are placed one oposite to the other on each side of the said pan, and

page_text: have regulators or registers fixed therein, by means of which the heat may
be increased or decreased, expanded or diffused, for the operation and purposes
intended. The other preparative pan is made of plates of iron fixed together
upon one or more baulk or baulks of iron, the bottom whereof is flat and
oblong, thirty feet by fifteen, or may be made of any other form or of a greater
or lesser size, the sides or ledges whereof are upright planes standing round
the bottom of the pan so as to form or make a vessell of fourteen inches deep
or thereabouts, which said preparative pan is placed on or over ovens at three
feet or a greater or less distance from the top of the said ovens from whence
the fire ascends, to which pan four or more chimneys are placed at or near
every nook or corner thereof, in which said chimneys regulators are fixed for
the purposes intended,
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Fairless, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of December, in the nineteenth year of
the reign of our Soveraign Lord George the Second, by the grace of
God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the
Faith, &c., and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred
and forty-five.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the
presence of us,
JACOB PEARSON.
JN° AIREY.
JANE DALE.
A section of the above-mentioned furnaces and preparative pans for making
salt from sea water, quicker and at less expence than by any other method
hitherto used.
[See accompanying Drawing.]
The letters A, A, represent the boilers; B, B, two chimneys; D, D, the
regulators in the chimneys; E, E, the fire grates; F, F, the furnace doors
through which the fuel is thrown into the fireplace or furnace; G, the arch
leading to the fireplace or furnace; H, H, the side hearths; I, I, the end
hearths.
A, A, represents the first preparative pan placed between the granulating
boilers; B, B, B, &c. the flues on or over which the same is placed; D, D,
two chimneys; E, E, the regulators in the chimneys.
A, A, represents the second preparative pan placed on or over ovens;
B, B, B, &c. two chimneys; D, D, &c. regulators in the chimneys.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the Tenth day of December, the
above-named Edward Fairless came before our Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the Writing abovesaid, and all and everything
therein contained and specified in form aforesaid. And also the said Writing
was stamped according to the form of the Statute made and provided in the 5
year of the reign of the late King William and Queen Mary, and so
sixth
forth.
Inrolled the Ninth day of January, in the year One thousand seven
hundred and forty-five above written.