A NEW WHITE COMPOSITION CALLED MARINE METAL, WHICH WILL BE FOUND PARTICU- LARLY USEFUL FOR SHEATHING OF SHIPS AND OTHER VALUABLE PURPOSES
Year: 1780

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
SMITH, of Bush Lane, Smelter and Dealer in Metals, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Twelfth day of June, in the twentieth year of His reign, give and grant unto
Nicholas Donnithorne, of the Parish of Saint Mary, Aldermanbury, Merchant,
Robert Sherson, of Bridewell Precinct, Gentleman, and me, the said Edward
Smith, all of the City of London, His especial licence that we, the said
Nicholas Donnithorne, Robert Sherson, and Edward Smith, during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also
within all. His Majestie's Colonies and Plantations abroad, our Invention of
"A NEW WHITE COMPOSITION CALLED MARINE METAL, WHICH WILL BE FOUND PARTICU-
LARLY USEFUL FOR SHEATHING OF SHIPS AND OTHER VALUABLE PURPOSES;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a provisoe obliging us, the said Nicholas
Donnithorne, Robert Sherson, and Edward Smith, or any one of us, by
writing under our hands and seals, or the hand and seal of any one of us, to

page_text: cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and how the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within four callendar months after the date of the said recited
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
Edward Smith, do hereby declare that our said Invention of a New White
Composition called Marine Metal, which will be found particularly useful for
Sheathing of Ships, and other Valuable Purposes, is described in the manner
following (that is to say);
Take zinc (quantum placet), break it into small pieces, put it into an iron
pan, on which invert another; then place on a sand heat and give it a roasting;
remove it, and suddenly extinguish the heat in very strong lime water, about
four pints to the pound weight of zinc. This operation must be repeated six
times, always taking care to prevent that point of heat as not to sublime, or
suffer to escape any part of the flowers of this semi-metal. This operation
duly finished, let the matter be taken out of the lime water and finely tritu-
rated. Then put it, thus prepared, into the lime water it was immersed in
before, and evaporate gently over a moderate fire (in an iron pot), adding by
degrees of black soap one ounce, of salt of zinc one dracham (first mixt to-
gether), to every pound of zinc (as above prepared); then evaporate till the
moisture is nearly exhaled, or rather to the consistence of paste. It must be
covered close from the air & kept in a dry place, or it will spoil. To every
hundred weight of melted tin add ten pounds of the foregoing mixture, let it
fuse with a moderate fire (stirring now and then till it has acquired phlogiston
enough to deprive the metal when beat of the peculiar characteristical crackling
noise which authors describe it has, the ceasing of which denotes a new modi-
fication of parts, and that the operation is duly finished. Generally, this
last operation is effected in about three hours, more or less, agreeable to the
judgment of the operator respecting the management of the fire.. As this
mixture is liable to stick to the hands in preparing, a little grease will remedy
that inconvenience. Zinc is made from all the mineral cadmias.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Smith, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of October, One thousand seven hundred
and cighty
E. SMITH. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the same Fifth day of September, in
the year above mentioned, the said Edward Smith came before our said Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, 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 in the sixth year of the reign of William and Mary of England,
and so forth.