AN IMPROVED COATING FOR SAFETY, FUZES USED IN MINING
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Bickford Smith, of Tuckingmill, in the
County of Cornwall, Safety Fuze Manufacturer, for the Invention
of "AN IMPROVED COATING FOR SAFETY, FUZES USED IN MINING."
Sealed the 13th December 1870, and dated the 17th June 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Bickford
Smith at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 17th June 1870.
I, WILLIAM BICKFORD SMITH, of Tuckingmill, in the County of
Cornwall, Safety Fuze Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED COATING FOR SAFETY FUZES USED IN.
MINING," to be as follows:-
(1.) The Invention consists in the employment of a fibrous material,
such as is used in the manufacture of paper, for covering the safety
fuze, using it either as the only coating or as an addition to other
coatings now employed.
(2.) This same kind of fibrous material may be mixed with glutinous
or resinous bodies, such as common glue, in various proportions to make
a varnish suitable for different conditions of climate.

page_text: (3.) The same fibrous material may be employed in covering linen
or tape which again may be used for coating the said safety fuze.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Bickford Smith in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th December 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BICKFORD SMITH, of Tuckingmill, in the Parish of Camborne, in the
County of Cornwall, Safety Fuze Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Bickford Smith, Her special licence
that I, the said William Bickford Smith, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Bickford Smith, 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 for "AN
IMPROVED COATING FOR SAFETY FUZES USED IN MINING," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Bickford Smith, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, 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 I, the said William Bickford Smith, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement (that is to say):-
In the manufacture of the miners' safety fuze as heretofore practised
the centre core of gunpowder or other inflammable substance has been

page_text: surrounded by layers of flax, hemp, cotton, or other material laid
round the same, so as to afford a suitable coating and protection, and
varnish of various descriptions have been employed.
My Invention consists in the employment of a pulp of fibrous
material, such as is used in the manufacture of paper, for coating the
safety fuze in lieu of or in addition to such varnish. This pulp may
be used either as the only coating for the common safety fuze or as an
addition to other coatings now employed for such safety fuze, the manu-
facture of which is well known.
I take any of the materials employed for making paper pulp, and
having reduced them to a pulp by any of the processes well known in
the manufacture of paper, I grind the pulp with water in a mill heated
by steam, mixing with it starch, as usually employed in the manufacturo
of paper pulp, until it is reduced to a paste of the consistency of thick
paint; this paste is then applied to the fuzes as a varnish or coating
by any of the usual varnishing processes, so as to envelope the fuze
in a fibre of paper or with a paper covering. A mode which may be
conveniently employed for that purpose is to cause the fuze to pass
through the pulp in a vessel heated by steam, so as to maintain the
pulp at a temperature of about 150 F. in the same manner as it is now
passed through various compositions for varnishing in common use in
the manufacture of safety fuzes.
If the fuzes are intended to be used in hot climates I mix with the
paste during the process of grinding common glue or other glutinous
solution. I find a mixture consisting of fifty (50) pounds of common.
glue, and of one hundred (100) pounds of the pulp well adapted to the
purpose and to ensure the pulp adhering to the fuze.
The fuzes may be rendered less liable to damage from rough handling
in the course of use by adding to the pulp whiting, china clay, mineral
white, and other like substances so as to give body to the paste.
The paste or pulp compound in any of the before-mentioned con-
ditions may be applied in coats or layers on cotton, cloth, or linen, after
any of the ordinary processes for coating such cloth with ordinary paper
in pulp. The fabric so coated with the paste can be cut in strips and
used as an outer covering for the fuzes in the manner heretofore practised
in the manufacture of the safety fuze by laying or turning fibrous
materials about a centre corc.

page_text: The proportions above specified may in each case be varied in
accordance with the special purposes for which the fuzes may be
required, and the temperature and climates of the places in which it
is proposed to use them, as is well understood by persons acquainted
with the manufacture of the safety fuze and the coatings of varnish and
other materials which have been applied thereto.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is performed, I would have it understood that I do not
claim the exclusive use of the fibrous materials, or of the glutinous or other
substances or of the processes herein-before mentioned or referred to,
except when the same are employed in and for the application of pulp
to the safety fuze, but what I claim is, the use and manufacture of
paper pulp as a paste or paint in and for the coating of the safety fuze
as herein-described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bickford Smith, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of December, Ono
thousand eight hundred and seventy.
WILLIAM BICKFORD SMITH. (L.S.)
Signed & sealed by the said
William Bickford Smith,
in the presence of
VIVIAN PEARCE,
Accountant,
Hayle..