AN ARMOUR WAISTCOAT, WHICH IS A SURE DEFENCE AGAINST THE BAYONET, SWORD, PIKE, OR ANY POINTED INSTRUMENT, AND IN MANY INSTANCES MAY PREVENT A WOUND FROM A MUSKET BALL
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
RICHARD KENTISHI, late Captain in the Cambridgeshire Militia, but
now of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirtieth day of
October, in the forty-sixth year of His reign, reciting that I, the said
Richard Kentish, had by my petition, humbly presented to His Majesty,
stated that I had, by much labour, study, and expence, found out and
invented "AN ARMOUR WAISTCOAT, WHICH IS A SURE DEFENCE AGAINST THE
BAYONET, SWORD, PIKE, OR ANY POINTED INSTRUMENT, AND IN MANY INSTANCES
MAY PREVENT A WOUND FROM A MUSKET BALL," and praying His Majesty
to grant to me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His Letters
Patent for the sole exercise of my Invention within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, for the term of fourteen years
from the date of the said Letters Patent, was graciously pleased to
condescend to my request; in which said Letters Patent is contained,
amongst others, a proviso, that if I, the said Richard Kentish, should
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said In-

page_text: vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to
be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one
calendar month next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and ad-
vantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine,
and become void, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation being
thereunto had, may and will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Kentish, in compliance
with the said proviso, hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention to be and to consist as follows:-
Of cast steel prepared in ingots, and which must be heated in a
furnace and then drawn into plates by passing thro' a pair of heavy
rollers, they giving a degree of density to the metal which no other
operation had been found by me to produce, but at the same time care
must be taken not to overheat the ingots. The plates thus prepared
are then to be formed into the various parts which compose the armour
waistcoat, the mechanism of which consists of a breast plate, to which
are attached, by means of rivits moving in grooves, a number of
moveable plates laid one above another, so as to admit of a considerable
degree of motion. The top of the breast plate and the sides near the
shoulders have a raised curve or groove, for the purpose of preventing
the bayonet or other pointed instrument from wounding the neck and
shoulders. There is likewise a similar curve or groove on the bottom
rib to defend the lower part of the body; to the edges of the breast
plates near the shoulders and neck are epaulets, composed of moveable
plates laid one upon the other, which admit of the free exercise of
various complicated muscalar motions; these epaulets may be extended
over the arms, back. thighs, legs, &c.; when all these pieces are
cut out and prepared. before they are put together, they should be
placed in a furnace (called a muffle), and as soon as they are of a red
heat they should be plunged into a tub of hot water. In a few minutes
afterwards they should be rubbed over with oil and replaced in the
mufle until the oil is (as the workmen call it) blazed off, and which
operation requires to be carefully attended to; the muffle thus prepared

page_text: should then be set in the open air to cool, and the pieces being properly
joined together, the armour waistcoat is then compleat.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and five.