INVENTION OF AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PIECE GOODS COMPOSED OF COTTON, OF FLAX, OR OF HEMP, OR OF ANY MIXTURE OR MIXTURES OF TWO OR MORE OF THOSE ARTICLES, BY WHICH SUCH GOODS WILL RESIST THE ROTTING ACTION OF WET OR MOISTURE MUCH BETTER THAN SIMILAR FABRICS MANUFACTURED BY THE METHODS IN COMMON USE
Year: 1806

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PATRICK
WHYTOCK, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
in and by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth
day of March, in the forty-sixth year of His reign, for Himself, His heirs
and successors, did give and and grant unto me, the said Patrick Whytock,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Patrick Whytock, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, by myself or themselves, or by my or their deputy
or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Patrick Whytock,
my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England and Wales and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my "INVENTION OF
AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PIECE GOODS COMPOSED OF COTTON, OF
FLAX, OR OF HEMP, OR OF ANY MIXTURE OR MIXTURES OF TWO OR MORE OF THOSE
ARTICLES, BY WHICH SUCH GOODS WILL RESIST THE ROTTING ACTION OF WET OR
MOISTURE MUCH BETTER THAN SIMILAR FABRICS MANUFACTURED BY THE METHODS
IN COMMON USE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Patrick Whytock, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within

page_text: four calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) will
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Patrick Whytock, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, as follows,
that is to say:-
My said Invention consists in the application of the oxides, calces, or solu-
tions of quicksilver to the articles intended to be so preserved. My Invention also
includes the calces, oxides, or solutions of copper, so far as they are applicable
to this purpose; but these are liable to an objection stated below. I reckon the
Invention chiefly useful in such coarse linens as are used in bulky articles,
such as hammock cloth, the coverings of soldiers' tents, but especially the
sails of ships, which, from being sometimes unavoidable heaped together in a
damp state, suffer severely from the destructive blight commonly called mil-
dew, which is very much if not wholly prevented by my Invention. The
oxides, &c., above mentioned, may be variously applied. I have hitherto
found it most effectual to take quicksilver in the state of what chemists call
red oxide, and after levigation to mix it with the starch which the weaver
uses for smoothing his threads. The quantity need not exceed 8 or 10 ounces
to the cwt. of cloth. I prefer the red oxide to quicksilver in the state of a
neutral salt, because the latter is soluble, and may be washed out of the cloth,
which is also the objection to the principal or green oxide of copper (the anti-
septic powers of the brown oxide of copper are small), but the red oxide of
quicksilver being insoluble in water, and inserted along with the starch into
the heart of the cloth, tends to defend it from mildew, even when packed or
stowed in a wet state for a length of time, and though by long use in sails or
otherwise a portion of the oxide may be beat out by friction and exposure to
the weather, the great strength of the canvas is by that time exhausted by
ordinary wear, and it has also lost much of its tendency to mildew, it being
well known that seamen are most troubled with this evil when their canvas is
new, so much so that spare sails are often found almost rotten when taken
from the store-room to be bent for the first time. From this has arisen the
plan adopted by some canvas manufacturers for preventing mildew, viz³,
bleaching the materials or cloth before putting them to use.
I consider my
Tavention as greatly superior, as canvas made by it can be manufactured at
less expence than bleached canvas, and the operation of bleaching has always
a great weakening tendency; whereas my plan cannot injure the texture of
the cloth in the slightest degree, while it tends to preserve its original strength,

page_text: and, as has before been stated, to preserve it from mouldiness or mildew when
laid aside in a cellar or ship's hold in a wet state.
My Invention may likewise be applied to preserve cordage from the banc-
ful effects of moisture, especially to preserve the standing rigging, cables, and
ground tackles of ships. For this purpose the oxide may be applied to the
yarns along with the tar, or, as tar is principally useful in retarding putrefaction,
by excluding in some degree the entrance of the water, the tar, which in some
respects weakens the cordage, may be rejected entirely, and the oxide of
quicksilver be substituted for it, mixed with a little starch or other mucila-
ginous substance, merely to make it adhere till the cordage is laid. In this
way the cordage may be made lighter and stronger than tarred cordage, and
able at the same time to resist the rotting effects of heat and moisture.
In witness whereof, I, the said Patrick Whytock, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and six.
Sworn at Dundee, this 30th day of
June, 1806, before me,
ROB DUFF, J.P.,
One of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace
for the County of Forfar.
JA' OGILVIE.