AN IMPROVED MACHINE OR VESSEL FOR THE SAFE CONVEYANCE OF GUNPOWDER, AND FOR ITS PRESERVATION FROM INJURY BY DAMP
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JAMES WALKER, of Wapping, in the County of Middlesex, Ship
Chandler, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
did by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, baring date at Westminster, the
Seventh day of September, in the fiftieth year of His reigu, give and
grant unto me, the said James Walker, my exors, admiors, and assigns,
His special licence, full power, sole privilege, and authority, that I, the
said James Walker, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, during the term of
years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon
Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED MACHINE OR VESSEL FOR THE
SAFE CONVEYANCE OF GUNPOWDER, AND FOR ITS PRESERVATION FROM INJURY
BY DAMP," in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said James Walker, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said In-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be

page_text: enrolled in the High Court of Chancery within two calendar months
after the date of the said recited Letters Patcut, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said James Walker, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed are particularly
described and ascertained as follows, that is to say:
In the annexed Drawings, Figure 1, represents my said machine or
vessel made of copper, brass, or any other fit material for the intended
purpose, but I give the preference to copper, and of any dimensions
that may be required, the form is cylindrical, but may be varied, tho'
not, in my opinion, with advantage. A, B, and C, D, represents stout
hoops or strengthening pieces soldered, rivetted, or otherwise firmly
connected with the vessel, so as to project beyond the extremities thereof
and afford chimes which serve to defend the heads of the vessel from
injury and afford firm and convenient hold for removing the same. And
I do further strengthen the said vessel by one or more other hoops, if
required, which may be fixed and applied either within or on the outside
of the same. At the top A, B, of the said vessel, of which the plan is
also shewn in Figure 2, the head consists of a circular piece having a
large perforation, E, F; upon which stands the rim or upright circular
piece L, L, of a larger diameter than the opening E, F; and upon and
around the said rim L, L, a cover G, H, is applied, which may be
opened by any joint of the nature of an hinge at H, but I prefer a
simple stud or pin standing outward from L, and passing through an
hole in the rim of the cover at H; and the said cover has a piece pro-
jecting on the side G, from its lower edge, in which piece there is a slit
of the nature of an. hasp which goes over a staple in the head of the.
yessel and affords the means of closing the same by a bolt, or pin, or a
copper padlock, or other usual means of compleating such fastenings;
T, represents a thin plate of copper, or lead, or zinck, or other flexible
metallic substance which fits or nearly fits the internal space within the
rim L, L, and is used as a first cover by placing it upon the projecting
part E, F, and securing the joint, if thought fit, by the application of
putty, or some proper luting or cement, in the angle near the circum-

page_text: feréncé. thereof; and I do put upon the said piece I, a round piece of
leather, flannel, or other like material sufficiently, large to extend beyond
the rims L, L, and I do press into the space K, upon the leather, flannel,
or other like material a round flat piece of wood, or an hoop or ring of
copper, brass, or other proper material which fits that space so nearly
as to require a moderate pressure to send them hoine; after which the
cover G, H, is to be put on, and the whole will be perfectly secure.
And farther that, when it shall at any time be required to open the said
vessel the same may be effected without any difficulty or the use of any
appropriate tools, namely, by first taking off the cover G, H, and in the
next place, raising the; wooden cover by pulling at one side of the
leather, flannel, or other like material, or by any other obvious means,
and, lastly, by giving a stroke with a mallet or otherwise upon the
metalic plate K, when the putty or cement joint will give way, and the
plate may be pulled up. And, lastly, I-do declare that, among the nu-
merous advantages with regard to economy, safety, and the facility of
use in this iny said Invention, it is singularly worthy of notice that
gunpowder either in cartridges, or loose quill tubes and priming cart-
ridges may at once be packed in vessels constructed as herein-before
described, and kept perfectly dry and in their original state for any
length of time without ever requiring to be sent on shore to be dried
or taken out of the vessels till wanted for use; that there can be no
scattering nor waste; and more especially that all the danger of filling
cartridges in the powder rooms of ships of war and elsewhere, particularly
during the time of action, is removed by charging the said vessels at the
mills, magazines, or arsenals, with cartridges ready made up and adapted
to the several exigencies of the land and sea service, whether in their
actual dimensions or in the quantities to be filled in each cartridge to
adapt the same to artillery, when it shall have become heated; and that
the quantity of gunpowder and the numerous tools, implements, hides,
and other materials which will be saved by the use of my said Inven-
tion, and the diminished expenditure of the cartridges which will not
be exposed to rot nor to the necessity of being changed or shifted, do
form an amount of saving which is immense; and that I do not in this
present Specification enter into any further detail of the said advantages

page_text: JAMES WALKER.
(L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1810, the aforesaid James Walker came before
or said Lord the King, in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and everything 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 Sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand cight hundred and ten.