A PROCESS FOR SWEETNING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS, AND APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1812

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
DICKINSON, of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Esquire, and HENRY MAUDSLAY, of the Parish of Saint Mary,
Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, 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 Eighth day of February,
in the fifty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto us, the said Robert
Dickinson and Henry Maudslay, our exors, admors, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that we, the said Robert
Dickinson and Henry Maudslay, our exors, admors, and assigns, should and
lawfully might, during the term of years therein mentioned, make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, our Invention of "A PROCESS FOR SWEETNING WATER AND OTHER
LIQUIDS, AND APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso that if we, the said Robert Dickinson and Henry
Maudslay, or one of us, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by
an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and
seal of one of us, and cause the sanie to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and

page_text: all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease,
determine and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto
had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Robert Dickinson and Henry Maudslay, do hereby declare that the nature of
our said Invention is described in manner following, that is to say:-
Our
process consists simply in forcing a stream or streains of air through the
foul or tainted water intended to be rendered sweet; and this our process is
particularly applicable to the purifying of water on board ship which has
become tainted and stinking in the water casks. Having mentioned the
nature of our process, no competent mechanist can be at a loss to adapt
means to the end proposed. The means which we have found best for this
purpose are either bellows or a pump. If bellows be employed, a tube or
nose made of leather or any similar contrivance will be found a convenient
appendage fastened to the nozle of the bellows for conveying the air into the
water casks, and it will be found convenient to, attach, to the end, intended to
discharge the air a piece of tube made of iron or copper, and perforated with
small holes, to divide the air into numerous small streams, that the surface of
water brought into contact with the air may be the greater. If
pump be
employed, which we prefer, it should be furnish with a similar nose or pipe,
and the valves may be so disposed that the pump on being worked may at
each stroke take in a charge of air and force it to pass through the water
intended to be purified. In either case, the tube that discharges the air into the
water should pass into it deep enough to reach the bottom of the cask, and the
effect will be, that the offensive gas held in solution in the water (and which
on board ship is generally hydrogen derived from the decomposition of a
portion of the water, and holding different substances in solution derived from
the decomposition of the 'wood,) will, by continuing the process, be in a short
time expelled from the water; after which the water should be left at rest for
a little time, to allow its insoluble impurities to subside. We need hardly add
that the pump intended for this process may, by a judicious arrangement and
adaptation of parts, be rendered applicable to other very useful purposes or
board ship, as for watering a ship from alongside, and conveying the water
when required, from the hold to the deck; and by means of an air vessel and
discharging pipe judiciously attached to the pump it may be employed as ar
engine for wetting the sails or extinguishing fire; and, in addition to all these
uses, the same pump may be easily adapted to the purpose of ventilation, by
drawing foul air from the hold, and replacing it with fresh air. These things
are mentioned merely because it is particularly desirable on board ships tha

page_text: Inrolled the Seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twelve.