THE MANUFACTURE OF A MATERIAL OR MATERIALS, AND THE APPLICATION THEREOF TO THE MORE EFFEC- TUALLY MAKING WATER-TIGHT AND SEAWORTHY SHIPS AND ALL OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1815

page_text: WOOD'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WOOD, of Shadwell, in the County of Middlesex, Shipwright, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Ninth day of March,
in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said William
Wood, my exors, admors, and assigns, His special licence, full power, solo
priviledge and authority, that I, the said William Wood, my exors, aditiors,
and assigns, during the term of fourteen years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of His said
Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and-ale-in-all His Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abread, my Invention for "THE MANUFACTURE OF A
MATERIAL OR MATERIALS, AND THE APPLICATION THEREOF TO THE MORE EFFEC-
TUALLY MAKING WATER-TIGHT AND SEAWORTHY SHIPS AND ALL OTHER VESSELS;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said
William Wood, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
strument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, then
the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby
granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the

page_text: samt Letters Patent (relation being thereto had), will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Wood, in compliance with the
said proviso, do hereby specify, describe, and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and do declare that the same is to be performed in manner
following (that is to say):-
=
My Invention consists in the application of sheets or flat pieces of felt
manufactured and prepared according to the herein-after contained description
to ships and other vessels for the purposes of preventing leakage, and so to
effect the better preservation of the said ship and other vessels, and the good
condition of their cargoes. I do declaro that for these purposes I take hair,
wool, cotton, or any materials which have the property of felting, which I
manufacture into sheets or picces of the size of about three feet in length by
a width of about sixteen inches, which is the size I find in practice the most
convenient to apply to the object to be covered with these sheets.. In tho
choice of materials, I use wool or hair, cither by themselves or mixed
with each other, or with cotton or. any material fit for the purpose, in
such proportions as experiment shall determine necessary to produce a
compound which will felt properly. Thus, if I wish to make a sheet of
twelve ounces weight, and I find on trial with equal quantities of hair, wool, 'or
cotton sheet, the mixture does not felt readily, then I add wool to the com-
pound in small quantities, as, for instance, of two ounces at each experiment;
taking away an equal weight of the material. already mixed at each addition
of the wool until I find the whole mixture felt properly and easily. It is only
necessary to make this experiment on the relative proportions of the materials
at the first use of a fresh purchase of materials, or an. untried parcel of
materials. The duo proportions of the mixture, if any mixture. is required,
being duly ascertained, I take the quantity I. mean to use in the sheet
according to its intended dimensions, and bow it finely according to the
methods well known and practised in heat making. I gather the materials
thus bowed and arrange them in the figure of the sheet. I wish to make with
a piece of basket-work, with which the workman Jays the materials together
more lightly and uniformily than he could do with the hands. Sheets of the
dimensions of three feet by one foot four inches are made of about. half an
inch in thickness, more or less, except about an inch in width from each edge,
through which width the thickness gradually diminishes to the outer edges,. as
in the Figure 1 of the explanatory Drawing; which represents the cross section
of a sheet A, B, the thickness of a sheet C, D, and D, E, the two outer edges,
gradually diminishing in thickness to the edges C.and E. The width of this
.

page_text: gradual diminishing of the thickness of a sheet will depend on the dimensions
of the sheet; it will generally be from one inch and a half to three inches.
The materials of the sheet being thus laid ready for felting, a straight-edge is
applied to each edge, and the sheet trimmed or cropped to its dimen-
proper
sions with the finger and thumb. When the sheet has by pressure with the
basket acquired sufficient consistency to bear folding, it is folded in a wet
cloth, such as is known in hat making by the appellation of tho bason cloth;
and is then laid upon a hot iron plate, when it is worked gently with the hands,
after the known practice of: felting among hat makers, for about ten or fifteen
minutes. The cloth is then unfolded, and if the felting is sufficiently ad-
vanced for the sheet to bear folding up, any thin or defective parts are then
made good by the addition of fresh materials, and the felting process is
continued until the sheet has acquired sufficient hardness and firmness to hold
well and compactly together. In the process of felting I use the usual and
well known practico of hat makers, and I fold one or or more sheets in
the bason cloth at one time. I bow and felt either by hand or with tho
assistance of such machinery as hat makers in general do or may avail them-
selves of for those purposes according to the scale of the operation. The
sheets being thus folded and formed are then ready for the final process
of tarring, which I perform in manner following:-I take Stockholm tar,
Archangel tar, coal tar, or any other tar, but in practice I prefer thick Stock-
holm tar, to every barrel of which I add about half a hundredweight of pitch,
but which mixture is discretionary. I then heat the tar, or the compound of
tar and pitch aforesaid, to a.convenient and sufficient fluidity to the weather
and the natural consistency of the tar. I then add about one quart of oil to
every barrel of the tar or compound of tar. and pitch. If any other mixturo
is required, such as brimstone, arsenic, or any other preventitive for worms,
I apply them, and I then proceed to dip the sheets of felt in the mixture.
This operation I perform in the following manner :-A cistern, kettle, vat, or
any other suitable vessel of an oblong shape, or any other convenient or suitable
shape, contains the mixture, as the vessel A, B, C, D, Fig. 2, in my explanatory.
Drawing, over which I place two cylindrical or other suitably figured rollers E
and F; which are supported by any convenient and proper framework, suitable-
to their size and weight, and they aro made to revolve cach in a: contrary
direction to the other, by having a toothed wheel or pinion set on the end of
each, and one of them, as E, being worked by a winch, the pinions working.
into each other. The lower roller F will revolve in a contrary direction to the
upper roller.E, which is turned by the winch, or each roller may have a winch,
as in Fig. 3, by which two men may turn them in opposite directions. The

page_text: rollers are hollow, and are moderately, licated either by iron heaters, which are
applied within them, or by the introduction of passage of steami at a sufficient
temperature, or by any other convenient and sufficient móde of supplying
heat which may suit the scale of the machinery and operations. A man
stands at the end A of the vat or vessel containing the mixture, see Figure 4.
He takes a sheet of felt -K; L, M, and holding it in both hands by the upper
edge of one of the shorter sides, as K, he dips it in the kettle, as shewn by
the dotted line K, L, M, as far as the line L. He then presents tho end
K, which yet remains undipt, to the rollers, and introduces it between
them, as in the Figure. The rollers are then worked by any of the aforo-
described methods, in the direction indicated by the darts marked on their
ends in the Figure; until the end K of the sheet of felt has descended so far
into the mixture that the portion of it which was left undipt by the workman
at A has descended into the mixture, and is dipt, as in Figure 5. The motion
of the rollers is now stopped; and the workman at A turns the end M of the
felt over the upper roller E, as in Figure 5. The assistant at B holds the end
M, which is now turned towards him, and the rollers are worked in the opposite
direction, as is indicated by the darts märked in their ends in Fig. 6. . The
sheet of felt will now be gradually released from the rollers, the workman at B
still holding the end M, and lie takes it from the vat completed. The spaco
between the rollers which regulate their pressure on the sheet of felt, and
also the quantity of the mixture which is expressed from the sheet, is adjusted
and preserved by levers and weights, or by any of the obvious and suit-
able methods known to mechanics for adjusting the 'pressure of rollers. I
further declare that I apply my said Invention, manufactured and produced
as aforesaid, in manner following, that is to say:The bottoms and sides,
or those parts of the ship or vessel to which the sheets of felt are to
be applied singly, are first pay'd over with tar or a mixture of tar and
pitch or other adhesive and proper material of that naturè, according to
the according to the known practise of shipwrights, and the sheets of felt
are then placed singly and in succession upon the parts required. to bo
protected by them, due care being taken to overlap the same and enils,
and the same is then held or fastened on by scripper or other proper nails.
In applying the sheets of felt singly and. in succession to cach other, the
edges and end of those already fixed, and be payed over with tho materials
already used in paying the surface on which the sheet of felt is applied, and
when the sheets are placed and fixed as aforesaid, the joinings- must be
carefully payed over again with the same matèrials before used in paying. I
also apply the felted sheets previous to their being tarród, by applying tar or
.
.

page_text: mixed stuff to the ship or vessel, the part being prepared as before described,
and raising the said felted sheet thereon, in the same way as above described,
and afterwards I apply the said tar or mixed stuff to the outer side, by the
usual means, but I prefer the before-mentioned method of preparing the felt,
and applying the said mixtures. The adhesion of the sheets of felt to the
parts to which they are applied may be further secured by a covering of thin
plank or copper sheating, or by any other of the obvious and suitable methods
known and practised by shipwrights. When in covering a surfaco it is found
necessary to cut a sheet of felt into any smaller pieces, the cut edges, which will
then be thick, must bo reduced to a sloping edge by a knife or other suitable
instrument. Sheets or pieces of felt may beneficially be cut into narrow
strips, for the purposes of filling in seams or other hollow or vacant parts.
I further declare that I claim only as my Invention the production of tho
aforesaid sheets or pieces of fitted materials, manufactured and prepared as
aforesaid, for the purpose of applying them to the bottoms and other parts of
ships and other vessels, for the prevention of leakage, as aforesaid.
I claim tho substance produced as in its finished state, and its application as
aforesaid, and not any part of the process by which it is or may be produced;
and I further declare that the herein contained descriptions of process are
set down by mo for the sole purpose of explaining the nature of the substance
produced, and the most simple manner of producing it, intending to avail
myself in my processes of production of all such devices and machinery known
and practised by hat makers and others as I lawfully may, or according to tho
scale of my operations, I may from time to time judge necessary and suitable.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Wood, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
WILLIAM (L.B.) WOOD.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1815, the aforesaid William Wood 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 Statuto mado for that purpose.
Turolled the Eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifteen.

page_text: .
At the Rolls. Master of the Rolls.
Friday, the Twentieth day of June, in the fourth year of the reign
of His Majesty King George the Fourth, One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-three, in the matter of William Wood's Patent
for Adhesive Felt.
Whereas William Wood, did, on the Thirtieth day of May - last, .prefer:
his Petition unto the Right Hoñble the Master of the Rolls, setting forth
that the Petitioner had invented the Manufacture of a Material or Materials,
and the Application thereof to the more effectually making Water-tight and
Seaworthy Ships & all other Vessels, which he denominated adhesive felt, for 1
the solo working & using of which sd Invent", His late Majesty King Geo..
the 3rd granted to the Petit His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal
of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Ninth day of March, in the
fifty-fifth year of: His said. late Majesty's reign, as also His present Majesty's
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Scotland, bears date the Seventh 1
day of Nov, One thousand eight hundred & twenty; that the Petit only
petitioned. His said,laté: Majesty for Letters Patent for England and for
Scotland, and never for His said late Majesty's Colonies or Plantations abroad,.
& that Letters Patent-never had been granted to the Petit' for the sole working
& using of his said Invention in His said late Majesty's Colonies or Plantations 2
abroad; that the said, Letters, Patent so granted as aforesaid under. the Great
Seal of Great Britain contained a proviso that a Specification.of the Petitioner's:
said: Invention shod bo inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within:
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent; that a Specificat had been inrolled pursuant to the terms of the said
proviso; that it had lately been discovered that, owing to some clerical error in
the said Specification so inrolled as afores, it was recited that the Petit had
obtained the Letters Patent of His lato Majesty King George the Third for
the solo working and using of his said Iuvention in all His Majesty's Colonies
and 'Plantations abroad, which was not the fact, and therefore praying that the s
words "and also in all His Majesty's Colonics and Plantations abroad" might
be erased from and struck out of thos" Specification so inrolled as afs, the same
words being mere surplusage,' and no way material to the said Specification,
but, on the contrary, being inserted merely by mistake, and not being in
conformity with the Letters Patent, of which that part of the Specification was 3
intended to be a recital; whereupon all parties concerned were ordered to
attend his Honor on the matter of the said Petition, this day, and Counsel
for the Petit this day attend accord; upon hearing the said Petition

page_text: and the said Letters Patent read, and what was alledged by the Counsel for
the said Petitioner, his Honor doth order that the Deputy Clerk of tho Inroll-
ment Office be at liberty to strike out the words "and also in all His Majesty's
Colonics and Plantations abroad" in the said Specification of the Letters
Patent herein-before mentioned, and tho Inrollment thereof.