IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING METALLIC ARTICLES FROM OXIDATION AND DECAY
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Hickmott, of Clapham, in the County of
Surrey, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESERVING
METALLIC ARTICLES FROM OXIDATION AND DECAY."
Scaled the 28th August 1868, and dated the 5th May 1868:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Hickmott at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th May 1868.
I, JOSEPH HICKMOTT, of Clapham, in the County of Surrey, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PRESERVING METALLIC ARTICLES FROM OXIDATION AND DECAY," to be as
follows:-
The Invention has reference to the preservation of articles of iron,
steel, or other metals or alloys of metals from oxidation or other'
chemical or galvanic or destructive action from whatever cause, but
more especially from such destructive action as does or may arise from
contact with earth or soil when they are built in or buried under the
ground or are exposed to damp or moisture; and consists in the'
application of lime or compounds of lime as an envelope, or wrapper,'

page_text: or plaster, or bath, or bed, or covering round the articles to be preserved,
so as to neutralize the effects of acids or sulphurous compounds or
destructive agents and to prevent their contact with the articles. And
the manner of performing the Invention is to employ the lime either
slaked or unslaked, and alone or mixed with cement, or with sand, or
other material, or any combinations or compounds of these. In some
cases the mass may be solidified, in others only the crust or external
parts of the mass, the interior thereof being thereby cased in and thus
kept in contact with the articles; or potteryware cases or covers may
serve for packing the lime or the said compounds of lime around the
articles; or a paste of lime or of the said compounds may be applied
with straw bands or other belting to the articles to be protected.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Hickmott in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 31st October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPIL
HICKMOTT, of Clapham, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, send
.greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Hor heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Hickmott, Her special licence
that .I, the said Joseph Hickmott, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Hickmott, 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 "IMPROVE-
_MENTS IN PRESERVING METALLIC ARTICLES PROM OXIDATION AND DECAY," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Hickmott, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and im-
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Hickmott, 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 :-
The Invention has reference to the preservation of articles of iron,
steel, or other metals or alloys of metals from oxidation or other
chemical or galvanic action from whatever cause, but more especially
from such destructive action as does or may arise from contact with
earth or soil when they are placed in or buried under the ground or
are exposed to damp or moisture; and consists in the application of
lime or compounds of lime as an envelope, or wrapper, or plaster, or
bath, or bed, or covering round the articles to be preserved, so as to
neutralize the effects of acids or sulphurous compounds or other
destructive agents, and to prevent their contact with the articles. And
the manner of performing the Invention is to employ the lime either
slaked or unslaked, and alone or mixed with cement, sand, or other
material, or combinations or compounds of these as special conditions
may require, care being taken that the articles to be preserved be
entirely surrounded and separated from the soil in or under which
they are placed by a layer or coating of lime with or without other
material as above described, so that no immediate contact may exist
between the surface of the articles to be preserved and the soil, and
in consequence any destructive chemical or galvanic action which
would result from such immediate contact be neutralized or modified by
the interposed layer or coating of lime, with or without other material,
as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Hickmott, have heretofore
set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of October, in the