A NEW OR IMPROVED ART, METHOD, OR PROCESS OF INCREASING THE INFLAM- MABILITY AND COMBUSTABILITY AND OF IMPROVING THE LIGHT OF OILS USED FOR BURNING, PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO THE OILS REFINED ACCORDING TO THE PATENT PROCESS OF ME, THE SAID WILLIAM SPEER, BUT WHICH WILL ALSO BE FOUND TO IMPROVE OTHER OILS, WHEN USED FOR BURNING
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SPEER, late of the City of Dublin, but now of the City of Westminster, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, on or about the Sixth day of April, in the fiftieth year of His
reign, did give and grant unto me, the said William Speer, my executor,
administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Speer, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend the Invention therein mentioned,
to wit, "A NEW OR IMPROVED ART, METHOD, OR PROCESS OF INCREASING THE INFLAM-
MABILITY AND COMBUSTABILITY AND OF IMPROVING THE LIGHT OF OILS USED FOR
BURNING, PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO THE OILS REFINED ACCORDING TO THE PATENT
PROCESS OF ME, THE SAID WILLIAM SPEER, BUT WHICH WILL ALSO BE FOUND TO
IMPROVE OTHER OILS, WHEN USED FOR BURNING," within that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the
said William Speer, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them,
should seem meet, to have, hold, exercise and enjoy the said licence, powers,
privileges, and advantages therein granted unto me, the said William Speer,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, for and during and unto the full

page_text: end and term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent next
and immediately ensuing, and fully to be complete and ended, according to the
Statute in such case made and provided; in which said Letters Patent there
is (amonst other things) contained a proviso, that if I, the said William
Speer, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, 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 the
High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately
after the late of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever hereby granted, should utterly
tease, determine, and become void, as in and by the said recited Letters
Patent, reference being thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, T, the said
William Speer, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and also the manner in which the same is to be performed, is as follows,
that is to say -
The oils commonly used for burning in lamps are generally of that species
called by chemists fixed oils, and are obtained cither from the seeds or other
parts of certain vegetables by expression or pressure, with or without the
application of heat and moisture, or from the oleaginous parts of fishes and
other animals, by the application of heat and moisture, and in some cases of
pressure. A second species of oils are called essential oils, and are obtained
generally from various odoriferous vegetables, and vegetable substances by
distillation, with or without water, or alcohol. And a third species are called
empyreumatic oils, which are obtained from most vegetable and animal
substances, and from pit coal and other bituminous mineral substances, by the
application of dry heat to close vessels in which the substance to be distilled is
contained. These two latter species of oils are highly inflanumable, volatile,
and odoriferous. Camphor, though generally appearing in a solid dry formi,
is considered as a concrete essential oil.
My new process or method (the subject of this patent) consists of adding
and uniting to the fixed oil, intended to be made more inflammable, certain
portions of some one or more of these two latter species of oils, and in some
cases of camphor. Although any of these volatile or essential oils will
communicate the desired propertics of greater thinness and inflammability to
the fixed oils (and consequently come within the scope of this Patent), I
generally use the essential oils of turpentine, rosemary, and origanumi united to
camphor, or without it, as the case may seem to require; or instead of
the oil of turpentine, the rectified empyreumatic oil of pit coal, amber,

page_text: or bitumen, united to the said oils of rosemary, origanum, and camphor; or
instead of the empyreumatic oil of pit coal or bitumen, I use the oil of tar,
the empyreumatic oil of any wood, or other vegetable substance, or these
from animal substances obtained by distillation in the dry way, united to
some of the essential oils and camphor, as before. It is necessary to remark,
that all these empyreumatic oils, having more or less disagreeable smells, ought
not to be used as additions to oils which are to be burned in the best
apartments, or where such smells might be offensive or disagreeable. The
proportions to one another and to the fixed oils with which they are to be
mixed, of these essential oils and of camphor, if any is added, are variable, and
depend on the previous inflammability, thinness, and other qualities of the
fixed oil to be improved, and the use to which it is to be applied; but in
general I dissolve by means of heat two pounds of camphor in twenty gallons
of oil of turpentine, rectified oil of tar, or rectified oil of pit coal, to which I add
three pounds of oil of rosemary and half a pound of the oil of origanum, and
I put all these ingredients into a retort or copper still, and draw off the highly
inflammable essence, which generally amounts to two-thirds of the whole
mixture; aud of this essence, I add to the fixed oil from one-tenth to one-
twentieth part, more or less, according to the nature or inflammable
quality of the oil to which it is to be added; but larger quantities may be
sometimes requisite, and smaller quantities may be sufficient with certain fixed
oils, and the camphor may be omitted, and any one of the volatile or essential
oils may be used separately or singly; and though the distillation or rectification
considerably increases the inflammability of the volatile oils, and consequently
of the fixed oil to which they may be united, yet it may be dispensed with.
Lastly, I unite this prepared essence, or any of the said volatile or
essential oils to the fixed oil, by agitation in a churn or other proper vessel
until the union appears to be complete, and then draw the whole off into
proper vessels for preservation and use; and oils thus prepared will be found to
be improved by their remaining in a state of fluidity even at temperatures at
which they would otherwise become thick or coagulate.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Speer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and ten.
WILLIAM (L.S.) SPEER.
Sealed and delivered, being first duly
stamped, in the presence of
CHAS DERRICK,
JOHN EASON, 38, Fonchurch Street.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fifth day of June in the
year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Speer came before our Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the 5
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Fifth day of June, in the year above written.
And