A NEW METHOD OF LOADING TUBES, CALLIBERS, OR
Year: 1780

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I
JOHN AITKEN, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, in the City of
Edinburgh, send greeting.,
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Fifth day of December, in the twenty-
first year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said John
Aitken, ny executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial license,
full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said John Aitken,
my executors, adñiors, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and
themselves, or by my and their deputy and deputies, servants or agents,
or such others as I, the said John Aitken, my executors, adiñiors, or
assigns, should agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and
might lawfully make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Great
Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick
upon Tweed, and also within all His Colonies and Plantations abroad.
my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF LOADING TUBES, CALLIBERS, OR

page_text: BORES, COMMONLY CALLED GUNS OR FIRE-ARMS, &C., WHETHER THE SAME BE
MOUNTED OR UNMOUNTED, OF EVERY FORM, DIMENSION, AND DENOMINATION,
WITH TWO OR MORE CHARGES OF GUNPOWDER AND SHOTT OR BALLS, SAID
CHARGES PLACED BEFORE ONE ANOTHER IN ONE TUBE (SITUATION OF SAID TUBE
SUPPOSED HORIZONTAL), AND OF DISCHARGING THEM PROM SAID TUBE IN SUC-
CESSION BY FIRE COMMUNICATED THROUGH CORRESPONDENT PERFORATIONS OR
TOUCH HOLES, OR OTHERWISE," as to me, the said John Aitken, my execu-
tors, adñiors, or assigns, or any of them, shoukl in their discretion seem
meet, and that I, the said John Aitken, my executors, adññiors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit,
benefit, commodity, and advantage, from time to time coming, growing,
and arising by reason of the said Invention, for and during the term of
years therein mentioned; to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said
license, powers, priviledges, and advantages herein-before granted or
mentioned to be granted unto me, the said John Aitken, my executors,
adñiors, and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of
fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent next and imme-
diately ensuing, and fully to be complete and ended, according to the
statute in such case made and provided; in which said Letters l'atent
there is contained a provisoe, obliging me, the said John Aitken, by an
instrument under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within four calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent, 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 provisoe, I, the
said John Aitken, do hereby declare that my said, Invention of a
mew method of loading tubes, barrels, callibers, or bores, commonly
called guns or fire-armis, is performed in the following manner, that is
to say:
Into a tube, barrel, &c., cylindrical, conical, chambered, or not, its
posterior extremity (situation supposed horizontal) securely closed,
named breech, its anterior one open, named muzzle, 1 lodge a plurality
of charges of powder and shott. The extension of the fire in a posterior

page_text: direction from the charge next the muzzle, which is first inflamed, is
intercepted by intermedia or colfings betwixt the several charges about
or above the shotts firmly rammed; these I form of any substance
sufficiently resistent, compact, and incombustable, properly proportioned
and shaped. In the smaller tube, the musquet, blunderbuss, pistol, &c.,
I chiefly employ the thicker stuff's or leather. In the larger one, (the
cannon, swivel, &c.), various stuffs, pastes, &c., as being commodius
and procurable. The charges are ignited in succession though touch
holes by the lock or match as occasion demands, according to the size
and condition of the tube.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Aitken, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Ninth day of March, in the twenty-first
year of the reign of His present Majesty King George the
Third, and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred