IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING THE BOTTOMS OF IRON AND OTHER SHIPS AND VESSELS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John William Harker, of No. 24, Upper Barnsbury
Street, Islington, and John Kingsford Field, of Upper Marsh, Lambeth,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING THE BOTTOMS OF IRON AND
OTHER SHIPS AND VESSELS."-A communication from John Cooke Harker
and Frederick Field, both of Chili.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John William Harker and
John Kingsford Field at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 2nd March 1859.
We, JOHN WILLIAM HARKER, of No. 24, Upper Barnsbury Street, Islington,'
and JOHN KINGSFORD FIELD, of Upper Marsh, Lambeth, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING THE BOTTOMS OF
IRON AND OTHER SHIPS AND VESSELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in coating the bottoms of
iron and other ships and vessels. For these purposes a comparatively insoluble
soap is prepared by boiling an oxide of a metal, by preference, oxide of lead
with a fat or oil, or with a fatty or oily matter, and such preparation is applied
in a heated state to the bottom of an iron or other ship or vessel. Or, in place
of the compounds above mentioned, preparations of fats or oils, or of oily or
fatty matters which have been produced by subjecting those matters to the
action of deutoxide of nitrogen or to the nitrates of certain metallic oxides, may
be used; such combinations or preparations being applied in a heated state to
the bottom of an iron or other ship or vessel.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John William Harker and John Kingsford Field in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 2nd September 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE- PRESENTS SHALL COME,, we, JOHN
WILLIAM HARKER, of No. 24, Upper Barnsbury Street, Islington, and JOHN
KINGSFORD FIELD, of Upper Marsh, Lambeth, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said John William Harker and John Kingsford Field, Her special
licence that we, the said John William Harker and John Kingsford Field;
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
John William Harker and John Kingsford Field, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 layfully 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 COATING THE BOTTOMS OF IRON AND
OTHER SHIPS AND VESSELS,' a communication from abroad, by John Cooke
Harker and Frederick Field, both of Chili, upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said John William Harker and John Kingsford Field,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or
their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
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 we, the said John William Harker and John
Kingsford Field, 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:—
The Invention consists, first, in applying a comparatively insoluble soap
prepared by boiling an oxide of lead with a fat or oil, or with fatty or oily
matters to the coating of the bottoms of iron and other ships and vessels, such
application being made hot.
And, secondly, the Invention consists in applying the substances produced
by the action of deutoxide of nitrogen on fatty and oily matters to the coating

page_text: of the bottoms of ships and vessels, such application being made hot. By
these means, while the iron is protected from rusting, animal and vegetable
productions will be prevented adhering to the bottoms of such ships or vessels
so coated, and the bottoms thereof will be kept clean by the friction of the
water, owing to the slight solubility of the coating admitting of the outer
surface being to a slight extent constantly washed off or removed.
We would here state that we are aware that it has before been proposed to
use as coatings for ships and other vessels preparations of fatty and oily.
matters combined with oxides of metals, and amongst others oxide of lead has
before been proposed to be used in combination with a previously prepared
compound of argillaceous earth and fatty matters. We mention this in order
to state that we make no claim to the coating of bottoms of ships with such a
composition.
In preparing a soap by the use of an oxide of lead and oil or fat suitable for
the purpose of this Invention, we take any convenient quantity of oil or fat,
and heat and melt the same in a suitable vessel with a like weight of water,
and when perfectly fluid we add at the rate of about seventy-five pounds of
litharge for each hundred pounds of oil or fat. The whole is well stirred, and
the heat raised so as to produce ebullition. In the event of excessive frothing
the heat is to be diminished. After about five hours boiling a sample is to be
taken, and should it be found to sink when thrown into water, the process is
complete, otherwise the boiling is to be continued till a sample taken sinks in
water. In practice it sometimes happens that a portion of the litharge is
uncombined, when this occurs it is visible in the form of red specks in the
soap;
these may
be removed by boiling the soap with a further quantity of
water till the litharge separates and sinks to the bottom of the vessel.
We would remark that we do not claim. the boiling an oxide of lead with
oils and fats, or with oily and fatty matters so as to produce a lead soap, the
Invention consisting in applying such a compound to the bottoms of iron and
other ships or vessels, and we so apply it when in a heated state. We prefer
that the bottom of the ship or vessel should be prepared by a coating of
varnish or paint not containing lead. Other oxide of lead may be used in
place of litharge, or the oxide may be applied as the carbonate thereof, but
litharge is preferred. The soap above described is, when applied, combined
with or diluted by means of turpentine or other volatile diluent.
In preparing fats and oils in order to their being applied for coating the
bottoms of ships and vessels according to the second part of the Invention, the
fats or oils are subjected to the action of streams of deutoxide of nitrogen
(obtained as is well understood), which are passed through the fats or oils till

page_text: they become when cold of about the consistence of beeswax; this preparation,
which is not new in itself, and' may be prepared in any convenient manner, is
to be applied to the bottoms of ships and vessels as above described with
respect to the lead soap. In place of employing deutoxide of nitrogen in a
gaseous state, nitrate of mercury prepared in the cold may be made use of,
as this substance contains deutoxide of nitrogen in solution, and produces a
similar action to that obtained by the use of the gaseous deutoxide.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention and the manner of per-
forming and of applying the same, we would have it understood that what we
claim is,―
First, the coating of the bottoms of iron and other ships and vessels with a
lead soap, prepared and applied as herein described.
And, secondly, we claim the coating of the bottoms of iron and other ships
and vessels as herein described, with such substances as are prepared by the
action of deutoxide of nitrogen on fatty and oily matters.
In witness whereof, we, the said John William Harker and John
Kingsford Field, have hereunto set our hand and seal, this First day of
September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-nine.
J. W. HARKER. (L.S.)
J. K. FIELD.
(L.S.)