AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRESERVING THE CONTENTS OF PACKAGES FROM AIR, WATER, OR DAMP
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur Pritchard, of Derby, in the County of
Derby, Blacklead Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF PRESERVING THE CONTENTS OF PACKAGES FROM AIR, WATER,
OR DAMP."
Sealed the 7th July 1863, and dated the 29th January 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Arthur Pritchard at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th January 1863.
I, ARTHUR PRITCHARD, of Derby, in the County of Derby, Blacklead
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED METHOD OF PRESERVING THE CONTENTS OF PACKAGES FROM AIR, WATER,
OR DAMP," to be as follows:-
The packages are to be made of paper or other fabric, and to be filled with
goods or articles as may be practised, and when closed or fastened up the
same are to be dipped in a boiling-hot composition made of asphaltum and
pitch, which may, for instance, be one part asphaltum and five parts pitch.
The package, after having been dipped in this composition and dried, becomes
encased in a hard enamel capable of resisting wet, damp, air, or the action
of alkalies; hence alkaline compositions may be securely packed in this
manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Arthur Pritchard in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th July 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARTHUR
PRITCHARD, of Derby, in the County of Derby, Blacklead Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Arthur Pritchard, Her special licence, that I, the said Arthur
Pritchard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Arthur Pritchard, 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 IMPROVED METHOD OF PRESERVING THE CONTENTS OF PACKAGES FROM AIR,
WATER, OR DAMP," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Arthur Pritchard, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should parti-
cularly 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 Arthur Pritchard, do hereby declare
the nature of my 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:-
The materials to be packed are first to be made up into packages or packets
of any convenient form and size; the coverings or outsides whereof may be
of paper, chipwood, or any other suitable material, which packages or
packets are to be dipped or immersed in a boiling composition (which I term
alkareen or alkarene) composed of asphaltum, or coal tar, or coal pitch, and
soft pine pitch boiled together, which composition (when applied) forms a
hard glossy enamel on the surface of the packet capable of resisting alkalies,
air, water, or damp.
The proportions which I prefer to use in making this composition are one

page_text: part of asphaltum, or coal tar or coal pitch, and five parts of soft pine pitch.
And to facilitate the dipping and immersing of the packets or packages in
such hot boiling composition, the following arrangements of mechanism or
apparatus are those I have adopted, though any convenient arrangements for
facilitating the process may be adopted :-A spring clip or tongs, with a shank
or upper part, has an eye or hook, so that a number of such spring clips or
tongs may be placed in a row on a rod or stick termed a dipping-stick, as
shewn by the accompanying Drawing, where A shews one of the spring clips
or tongs made of springy wire twisted into the form shewn, and B, the
dipping stick or rod, to which any convenient number of the said spring clips
or tongs may be attached in the manner shewn by the Drawing, where * *
denote the points between which the package or packet will be held during
the process of dipping. The packets or packages having been thoroughly
immersed in such boiling composition are to be withdrawn therefrom, and
allowed to cool and "set," when the ends of each packet or package (being
the points where the clips or tongs have held the same) are to be branded
with a hot iron, or on a cylindrical gas or other stove with a flat top, by
passing the ends of the packets across the top thereof, in order to remove the
impressions of the clips or tongs.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I hereby declare
that I claim the method of preserving the contents of packages from air,
water, or damp herein-before set forth and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Arthur Pritchard, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Witness,
ROBERT BURDON.
ARTHUR PRITCHARD. (L.S.)