AN IMPROVEMENT IN CASES OR MAGAZINES FOR GUNPOWDER OR OTHER EXPLOSIVE PREPARATIONS OR COMPOUNDS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Shears, of Bankside, .Southwark, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN CASES OR MAGAZINES FOR GUNPOWDER OR
OTHER EXPLOSIVE PREPARATIONS OR COMPOUNDS."
Sealed the 3rd July 1855, and dated the 26th April 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Shears at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th
April 1855.
I, WILLIAM SHEARS, of Bankside, Southwark, do hereby declare the nature
of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN CASES OR MAGAZINES FOR GUNPOWDER
OR OTHER EXPLOSIVE PREPARATIONS OR COMPOUNDS " to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the application of bands or straps of harder
or stronger metal than the cases or magazines are composed of, when such
cases or magazines are each made with six equal sides, and of metal, tin, or
tin alloyed. For this purpose I prefer bands or straps of copper or brass
coated with tin, but they may be of other strong metal, the object being to
give strength to such constructions of cases or magazines.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Shears in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th October 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SHEARS, of Bankside, Southwark, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Shears, Her special licence that I, the said William Shears,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Shears, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN CASES OR
MAGAZINES POR GUNPOWDER OR OTHER EXPLOSIVE PREPARATIONS OR COMPOUNDS,'
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Shears, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 William Shears, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):-
:-
This Invention has for its object the application of bands or straps of harder
or stronger metal than the cases or magazines are composed of, when such
cases or magazines are each made with six equal sides, and of metal, tin, or
tin alloyed. For this purpose I prefer bands or straps of copper or brass
coated with. tin, but they may be of other strong metal, the object being to
give strength to such construction of cases or magazines.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shows a case or magazine; Figure 2 is a plan thereof, with the
outer cover open; Figure 3, a vertical section; and Figure 4 is a plan, with
the outer cover closed. These cases are each, as is shown, formed with six
equal sides, made of metal, tin, or of an alloy of tin, and similar to those
patent magazines which have now for a long time been used, excepting that
in these there are strengthening hoops of harder and stronger metal than tin.
a, a, are three hoops, which are preferred to be of copper or of brass, but
hoops of other metal may be used. These hoops are first well tinned or
coated with tin, and they are then attached to the sides of the magazine
or case by soldering.
I would state, that although I prefer the strengthening hoops to be inside,
it is not essential that this should be, and there may be more or less hoops used
in a case.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Shears, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
GEO. PITT,
4, Old Square.
WILLIAM SHEARS. (L.s.)