AN IMPROVED METHOD FOR ADMITTING LIGHT IN THE INTERNAL PARTS OF SHIPS, VESSELS, BUILD- INGS AND OTHER PLACES
Year: 1807

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, APSLEY
PELLATT, of Saint Paul's Church Yard, in the City of London, Glass Manu-
facturer, sends greeting.
WHEREAS by His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal
of Great Britain, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the forty-seventh
year of the reign of George the Third, by the grace of God, of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, were given and granted unto
the said Apsley Pellatt, his exors, admors, and assigns, and every of them, by
himself and themselves, or by his and their deputy or deputies, servants or
agents, or such others as he, the said Apsley Pellatt, his exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, to make, use, exer-
cise and vend his Invention therein recited and mentioned to be "AN IMPROVED
METHOD FOR ADMITTING LIGHT IN THE INTERNAL PARTS OF SHIPS, VESSELS, BUILD-
INGS AND OTHER PLACES," 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 him, the said Apsley Pellatt, his exors,
admors, and assigns, or any of them, should in his or their discretions seem
meet; and that he, the said Apsley Pellatt, his exors, adiňors, and assigns, should
and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and
advantage from time to time coming, growing, accruing, and arising by reason

page_text: of the said Invention, for and during the term of years therein mentioned, to
have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers, privileges, and advan-
tages therein-before granted or mentioned to be granted unto the said Apsley
Pellatt, his exors, adññiors, and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and
term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent now in recital
next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat and ended according to
the Statute in such case made and provided, subject to the usual provisoes,
clauses, conditions, and restrictions expressed and contained in Letters Patent for
Inventions, and particularly to a proviso, clause, condition, or restriction, that
if the said Apsley Pellatt should not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of his said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under his hand and seal, and cause the same to bo
inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent now in recital, that then
the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby
granted; should utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything therein-
before contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, that the said Apsley Pellatt, party thereto, in pursuance
of the said proviso, clause, condition, and restriction above recited and men-
tioned to be contained in the above recited Letters Patent, doth, by this
instrument in writing under his hand and seal, make, declare, specify, and
set forth the description of the nature of his said Invention, and of what
materials and in what manner the same is to be formed, constructed, and
applied, in manner and form following, that is to say:-
This method consists in placing an illuminator in suitable apertures in the
decks or sides of ships and vessels, and in buildings and other places, to answer
as a window or skylight. This illuminator is a piece of solid glass of a circular
or elliptical form at the base, but the circular form is the most productive of
light, and the strongest against accident; it is convex on the side to be pre-
sented outwards to receive and condense the rays of light, and has a flat or 3
plane surface on the inside of the room or apartment, which it is intended to
light. It is or approaches to a segment of a sphere or spheriod; it is in fact
a lens; both sides may in general be left polished, but where the illuminator is
to be placed in a situation where any danger may be apprehended of its being
acted upon as a burning glass, one side at least should be ground or roughed. S
Its size is various according to the purpose or situation for which it is designed,
and its convexity is increased or diminished according to the size required.
The ordinary dimensions are a base of about five inclies diameter, to one inch
and a half in height from the center of the base; the illuminator is fixed in a

page_text: square or circular frame made of wood or of metal, with glazier's putty or
other cement.
For decks and other parts or ships, its construction is so managed by
thickening the edges, as to render it capable of resisting any injury from the
weight of goods of every description, and the beating of the waves of the sea in
the ports and scuttles. It is let into the deck or other building with the con-
vex part projecting above it, so as to receive the rays of light; it is fixed in the
deck or other building either with or without a wooden or metal frame,
according as the space wherein it is to be fixed will allow; a groove of only one
quarter of an inch will be sufficient to keep it firm, and in a deck of three
inches thick, oue quarter of an inch is bearing enough; in decks of less sub-
stance, the bearing must be increased one-eighth of an inch. The under part
of the deck or other building which forms the ceiling of the cabin or place
must be sloped away all round, so as to form a small dome, that the rays of
light may diverge in all directions; the like method is to be observed in the
ports and scuttles of ships, or in what place soever the illuminator is fixed. By
being fixed in a square or round frame, with or without hinges, it may be made
to open and shut for the free admission of air in hot climates.
In dwelling houses, buildings, and all other places, it is far superior to the
skylights now generally used, not being liable to accident or leakage, nor can
water pass under what it is fitted into. For buildings it is necessary that one
side should remain unpolished, as the rays of the sun produce the prismatic
colours when shining on the illuminator; this precaution is unnecessary in
ships' decks, as the traffic on them in a short time grinds or roughs the upper
surface, but in no degree to prevent the effect, but if any thing conveying a
more pleasing light under ground, vaults, and cellars, wherever any communi-
cation may be made with the open air, may also be lighted with this Invention,
excepting only where from its situation it may be liable to injury from the
passing or repassing of horses, &c.
The illuminator will also prove a very important substitute for the glass now
used in lanthorns for lighting the powder magazines in ships of war, care being
taken that the convex side be in the inside of the lanthorn where the light is
placed.
In witness whereof, the said Apsley Pellatt, party hereto, hath hereunto
set his hand and seal, the Third day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seven
APSLEY PELLATT (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of August, in the
year of our Lord 1807, the aforesaid Apsley Pellatt came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Third day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seven.