AN IMPROVED LIQUID FOR DESTROYING VEGETABLE LIFE AND CHECKING ITS DEVELOPMENT
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Spencer Dunn, of Prince's Square, Finsbury, in
the County of Middlesex, Manufacturing Chemist, for the Invention
of "AN IMPROVED LIQUID FOR DESTROYING VEGETABLE LIFE AND CHECKING
ITS DEVELOPMENT."
Scaled the 19th December 1873, and dated the 1st July 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Spencer Dunn at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 1st July 1873.
I, SPENCER DUNN, of Prince's Square, Finsbury, in the County of
Middlesex, Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED LIQUID FOR DESTROYING VEGETABLE
LIFE AND CHECKING ITS DEVELOPMENT," to be as follows :—
The only chemical means hitherto adopted for killing weeds or
destroying vegetable life and checking its development, has been the usc
of common salt (chloride of sodium) which has been sprinkled upon
gravel walks or other places; but this has been found inefficient.

page_text: Now my Invention consists in the manufacture and use of a liquid
containing arsenic in sufficient quantity to effectually destroy vegetable
life and check its development.
This liquid may be a solution of arsenic acid, or of arsenious or arsenic
acid in potash or soda, or other suitable base, or carbonates of these bases
with water, being in fact a solution of arsenite or arseniate of potash or
soda, or of the other base employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Spencer Dunn in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 30th December 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SPENCER
DUNN, of Prince's Square, Finsbury, in the County. of Middlesex, Manu-
facturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Spencer Dunn, Her special licence
that I, the said Spencer Dunn, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Spencer Dunn, 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, excrcise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
LIQUID FOR DESTROYING VEGETABLE LIFE AND CHECKING ITS DEVELOPMENT,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Spencer Dunn,
my exccutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing, under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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

page_text: 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 Spencer Dunn, do hereby declare
the nature of my 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 :-
The only chemical means hitherto adopted for killing weeds or
destroying vegetable life and checking its development, has been the
use of common salt (chloride of sodium), which has been sprinkled upon
gravel walks or other places; but this has been found inefficient.
Now my Invention consists in the manufacture and use of a liquid
containing arsenic in sufficient quantity to effectually destroy vegetable
life and check its development.
This liquid may be a solution of arsenic acid, or of arsenious or arsenic
acid in potash or soda, or other suitable base, or carbonates of these
bases with water, being in fact a solution of arsenite or arseniate of
potash or soda or of the other base employed.
The strength of the solution as applied for destroying vegetable life
has a specific gravity of 1·050 or more.
In witness whereof, I, the said Spencer Dunn, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of December One thousand
cight hundred and seventy-three.
SPENCER DUNN. (L.S.)