MAKING PAPER FOR THE BUILDING OF HOUSES, BRIDGES, SHIPS, BOATS, AND ALL SORTS OF WHEEL CARRIAGES, SEDAN CHAIRS, CHAIRS, TABLES, AND BooK CASES, EITHER INTIRELY OF PAPER, OR WOOD AND IRON COVERED WITH PAPER
Year: 1788

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
LEWIS DUCREST, of Jermyn Street, in the Parish of Saint James, Westminster,
in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Twelfth day of August, in the twenty-eighth year of His reign, did give
and grant unto me, the said Charles Lewis Ducrest, His special licence
that I, the said Charles Lewis Ducrest, during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Inven-
tion of "MAKING PAPER FOR THE BUILDING OF HOUSES, BRIDGES, SHIPS,
BOATS, AND ALL SORTS OF WHEEL CARRIAGES, SEDAN CHAIRS, CHAIRS, TABLES, AND
BooK CASES, EITHER INTIRELY OF PAPER, OR WOOD AND IRON COVERED WITH
PAPER;" in which Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said
Charles Lewis Ducrest, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
one calendar month next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent should be void, as in and by the
said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear,

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Lewis Ducrest, do hereby declare that my said Invention of Making
Paper for building of Houses, Bridges, Ships, Boats, and all sorts of Wheel
Carriages, Sedan Chairs, Chairs, Tables, Book Cases, either intirely of Paper,
or Wood and Iron covered with Paper, is as follows:-
The bodies of carriages are made on a mould which is covered.all over with
canvas, upon which several layers of paper are pasted one above another
until the necessary strength is acquired; the mould is then disjointed and
taken out and the canvas taken from the paper, leaving the body of the
carriage (with proper openings for doors and windows) of paper only, and in
öne intire piece; and in order to strengthen the edges of the body for
receiving the doors and windows, small slips of white wood, very light, are
added to them, over which several layers of paper are pasted, and those layers
extended over the whole surface of the body both inside and out. The body
is afterwards put into a stove or hot room made for the purpose, where it
remains until all the moisture and damp are intirely extracted, when five or
six coats of common varnish are laid on and well dryed in; afterwards a new
coat of varnish is added, on which, whilst wet, is immediately thrown by a
cylindrical sifter an extremely fine powder composed of one third part of
pumice stone and two third parts of steel filings, which amalgamates and
incorporates itself with the varnish; and after this has been very well dryed
"new coats of varnish are laid on until an extremely hard mastic is formed,
*impenetrable by rain or water and sufficiently strong to resist any violent shock.
The doors are made of layers of paper pasted one on another in the same
manner as the body of the carriage, and small slips of light white wood are
added to the edges of the doors, and then several layers of paper are pasted
over these slips of wood and extended over both sides of the doors. The doors
are hung to the body of the carriage in the same manner as doors of other
carriages generally are. The frames for the windows are made of slips of
light white wood covered over with layers of paper pasted one upon another
in the same manner as for the body of the carriage. The carriages are
formed of very light wood without iron, except at the joints. The axletrees
are either of wood, making a part of the carriage, or of copper or iron, and
then each axle tree is of two pieces, each piece composed of the fuzee and the
tail which goes seven or eight inches into the carriage; the carriage being
thus constructed, layers of paper are pasted all over the same, so as to give it
the appearance of an entire composition of paper; it is afterwards dryed in
the stove or hot room and varnished, and the parts liable to friction are
covered with plates of iron or copper. The wheels are made of light wood in

page_text: the same manner as the carriage; the naves are composed intirely of paper
pasted together, as above, and constructed on the fuzees of the carriages,
which serve as moulds; the spokes and fellies are made also of light wood,
and the spokes are covered with paper from the end next the naves to two
thirds of their length, the other part of them to the fellies are of wood only.
The bodies, carriages, and wheels, being well varnished, the carriages are
painted and ornamented as others. The furniture for apartments is made, as
carriages, of light white wood covered all over with several sheets of paper pasted
successively one on another; it is afterwards dryed in a stove or hot room and
varnished. The varnish being quite dry, the furniture is painted and ornamented:
Boats are made on a mould in the like manner as the bodies of car-
riages; after taking them from the mould, the bends, benches, and sup-
porters are made of white wood, and all enveloped with several layers of
paper pasted one upon another until of sufficient strength, which layers of
paper are also extended all over the boat, within and without, so as to give it.
the appearance of one entire composition of paper.
Larger vessells are first constructed of thin light wood, layers of paper:
are pasted thereon as well within as without in such manner as to give the
vessel the appearance of an intire composition of paper; two coats of the
hard mastic, above described, arc then applied to the inside of the vessell and.
four to the outside, and, the better to guard the outside from the shock of
extraneous bodies, it is sheathed with sheets of copper a little thicker than
those generally used for sheathing of vessells.
Bridges are made with ropes of the whole length of the intended bridge;
the number of ropes and their thickness depends on the breadth and
length of the bridge. All these ropes are covered with a great number of
sheets of paper pasted successively the one upon the other, then dryed in the
stove or hot room, and the varnish and mastic applyed, as above. When the
ropes are thus prepared, a temporary bridge is made at the place where the
paper bridge is constructed, for which purpose several boats are lashed
together, on which scaffolds are erected, terminated at the top by the flying
bridge, composed of planks not fastened, but all placed on the same plane
perfectly horizontal, on which the papered cords are extended and fastened at
the two extremities by means of very strong adjusting screws to piles fixed in
the ground on each side of the river properly supported and secured; across
these cords are placed two layers of thick planks, each six inches in breadth
and as long as the breadth of the bridge, jointed contrariwise, dovetailed,
strongly glewed one upon the other and nailed together with brads or small
nails; each layer of planks thus formed is covered with fifteen or twenty sheets

page_text: All these
of paper, and afterwards dryed, varnished, and cemented, as above.
planks are placed two or three eighths of an inch from each other for the
water to run off; when they are all laid, similar ones are placed under the
cords, fixed to those above by means of strong iron pins. The bridge being
thus constructed, the scaffolds are struck and the river is cleared of the boats
that supported them. Before carriages are suffered to pass, boards of oak are
nailed upon the upper planks, to preserve them from being rubbed; and the
balustrades on each side are constructed of light wood and paper, in the same
manner as the bridge.
Houses are constructed two ways. The one by compartments, by con-
structing each room on large moulds exactly in the same manner as the
bodies of carriages. All the rooms being thus made, those which are to
form the ground floor are first placed side by side and fixed together
by screws and nuts; the first story is afterwards placed in the same manner
above the ground floor, the second story above the first, and third above
the second, &c. The other way, by making the side of the wall of each
story of timber very thin light white wood, covered all over with fifteen or
twenty layers of paper, as above; the timber work of each side is so
constructed that more space is left than what is filled up, to make it as light
as possible, the paper giving it all the strength that is necessary. When the
walls are all constructed and varnished over twice with common varnish, then
all the walls of the ground floor are raised in their place, and supported top
and bottom by cords made in the same manner as those for bridges, fastened
very strongly and crossed perpendicularly one over the other if the rooms are
square, or all drawn towards the center if the rooms are circular; these cords
represent the joists or beams of cielings or floors in common buildings, and
are consequently intended to support them. The ground floor being layed,
the first story is raised on the ground floor, the second floor on the first, and so
on, and each additional story is fastened by nuts and screws to the under one.
The house, being so far constructed, remains to be enclosed and covered in ;
the method of enclosing it is by covering the exterior surface of the walls with
deal boards covered all over with seven or eight layers of paper, which form on
the outside a small jutting out of pasteboard, intended, when the boards are
put side by side, to cover over the joints from top to bottom, in the manner of
quartering in partitions, so that the rain cannot get in. Before these boards
with the pasted paper are put up, they must be varnished all over with
common varnish and the exterior surface only with the hard cement, as above
described. The exterior surface of the lower planks, to the height of seven
or eight feet, may be again covered with iron plates or copper in order the

page_text: better to enclose the house and shelter it from accidents. The roof or
covering, whether the house is square or circular, is composed of several
pieces of thin white wood covered with paper, dryed, varnished, and cemented
as above described, and placed in a declining line upon each other, so as to
convey the water from the one to the other by the different inclination of
their planes.
The bodies of sedan chairs are made upon a mould in the same manner as
the bodies of carriages.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Lewis Ducrest, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Ninth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of September, in the
year of our Lord 1788, the aforesaid Charles Lewis Ducrest 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 Statutes made for that purpose.