IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PERCUSSION CAPS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Davies Morries Stirling, of the Larches,
Camphill, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PERCUSSION
CAPS."
Sealed the 9th March 1858, and dated the 10th January 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Davies Morries
Stirling at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 10th January 1853.
I, JOHN DAVIES MORRIES STIRLING, of the Larches, Camphill, near
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
PERCUSSION CAPS" to be as follows:-
Heretofore percussion caps have been made of copper, which has
been sometimes coated with silver. I have found that by employing
zinc coated with tin not only is the cost of production reduced, but that
this manufacture is otherwise greatly improved.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Davies Morries Stirling in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 9th July 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN DAVIES MORRIES STIRLING, of the Larches, Camphill, near
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Letters Patent, bearing date the 10th day of January, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Davies Morries Stirling, Her special
licence that I, the said John Davies Morries Stirling, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Davies
Morries Stirling, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PERCUSSION CAPS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Davies Morries Stirling,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
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 John Davies Morries Stirling, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
:
Heretofore percussion caps have been made of copper, which has
been sometimes coated with silver. I have found that by employing zinc
coated with tin not only is the cost of production reduced, but this
manufacture is otherwise greatly improved.
My Invention consists in substituting zinc covered or plated with
tin, Britannia metal, and other ductile alloys of tin and zinc covered

page_text: with silver, for copper and alloys of copper at present employed in the
manufacture of percussion caps; and I employ zinc so covered or
plated with tin and ductile alloys of tin, or zinc plated with silver, in
the same way as copper and its alloys are at present employed, and
as is well understood. I prefer zinc covered or plated with tin and
its ductile alloys, or with silver, by pressure, as described in my Patents
of 31st day of January 1851, and 22nd December 1851.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Davies Morries Stirling, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
J. D. MORRIES STIRLING. (L.S.)
Declared at Paris, this Eighth day of
July 1853, before me,
Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Paris,
(L.S.) THOMAS PICKFORD.