A COMPOSITION FOR COVERING PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION COMP FOR COVERING AND PROTECTING THE BOTTOMS OF SHIPS AND VESSELS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Harrison, of Hackney, in the County of
Middlesex, Ship Owner, for the Invention of "A COMPOSITION FOR COVERING
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Harrison at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd
February 1855.
I, THOMAS HARRISON, of Hackney, in the County of Middlesex,' 'Ship
Owner, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A COMPOSITION
FOR COVERING AND PROTECTING THE BOTTOMS OF SHIPS AND VESSELS" to be as
follows:-
The application of a composition as a paint to the outside surface of iron
vessels, for the purpose of preventing the deposit and accumulation of animal
and vegetable matter; and to vessels built of wood, the application of the said
composition as a coating between the timber and the copper sheathing, to
prevent the ravages of the worm.
The basis of this composition consists of asphalte; the remainder or secondary
ingredients are, arsenic, copperas, and corrosive sublimate, one or more of
which three ingredients are to be mixed with the asphalte and softened with
napthaline.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Harrison in the Great Scal Patent Office on the
8th August 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
HARRISON, of Hackney, in the County of Middlesex, Ship Owner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Harrison, Her special license, full power, that I, the said Thomas
Harrison, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Thomas Harrison, 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 of "A Com-
POSITION FOR COVERING AND PROTECTING THE BOTTOMS OF SHIPS AND VESSELS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Harrison, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my 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 Thomas Harrison, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
The Invention consists in producing a composition for covering and protect-
ing the bottoms of ships and vessels from barnacles and other muscula, and
also as a preventive to ships worming beneath the copper.
To prepare the composition, I melt by the heat of steam in an iron pot
(having an outer covering or steam jacket), thirty-five parts of Trinidad or
other pitch or rosin, to which, when thoroughly melted, I add thirty-five parts
of a preparation of chalk, made by washing out all particles of sand, and after-
wards drying and grinding to a fine powder. When these are well mixed, by an
agitator revolving in the pan, I add, carbonate of barytes, in powder, twenty-
five parts; sulphate of copper, in powder, five parts. The whole being well
mixed and allowed to cool down to one hundred degrees, I add as much crude

page_text: naptha or spirit of turpentine as will make it of a consistence fit to be used
with a brush. The method which I have found to be the best for using the
composition is, to heat the material to be dressed in the usual way, which is
well known to all seafaring men. Two or three coats should be laid on at the
first application, after which one coat will be sufficient.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise details or proportions herein laid down; but what I claim
is, the production of a composition for covering and protecting the bottoms of
ships and vessels, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Harrison, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this First day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
5 Witness,
H* GILBEE,
4, South Street, Finsbury.
THOS HARRISON. (L.s.)