CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF GLASS
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I CHARLES
THORNTON COATHUPE, of Wraxall, in the County of Somerset, Glass Manu-
facturer, send greeting..
WHEREAS His late most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eleventh day of January, in the seventh year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles Thornton Coathupe, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Charles Thornton Coathupe, my exors, admors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Thornton Coathupe, my
exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times 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 Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF GLASS;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Charles
Thornton Coathupe, shall cause a particular of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Thornton Coathupe, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, that is
to say:
Whereas according to the ordinary methods of manufacturing crown,
window, and other sorts of glass (bottle glass excepted), the silicious, alkaline,
and other constituent materials are all in a state of dryness, or nearly so,
when mixed together previous to fusion; and whereas the alkaline portions
of the said materials when in such state of dryness, or approximation thereto,
are the product of certain tedious and operode processes of evaporation and
calcination.
Now the nature of my said invented improvements in the manufacture of
glass consists in adding the alkali or alkaline salt or salts in a state of
solution, or partly in a state of dryness and partly in a state of solution, by
which means, and according to the extent in which the alkali or alkaline salt
or salts are employed in such state of solution, the said processes of evaporation
and calcination are dispensed with, and a much better result obtained at much
less expence. And the manner in which I effect the said improvements is by
first throwing the various constituent materials of the sort of glass I intend to
manufacture (excepting the alkaline only) into a reverberatory furnace in a
state of dryness, or approximation thereto, as heretofore; secondly, in adding
the alkali or alkaline salt or salts in a state of solution of such strength as I
find, by the usual tests, or judge from inspection, to be sufficient for the pur-
pose, introducing the same through an aperture. in some convenient part of
the said reverberatory furnace; and, thirdly, in afterwards continually stirring
the whole of the said materials till the mixture has evaporated to dryness, or
nearly so.
And whereas it sometimes happens that the alkaline solution when about to
be introduced is found or judged to be of insufficient strength, or not insuffi-
cient quantity, I find it convenient in such cases to make up for the deficiency
in strength or quantity by adding as much dry alkali or alkaline salts as may
be proportionate to such deficiency to the other materials thrown in the first
instance into the reverberatory furnace; and whereas also it may sometimes
happen that circumstances will not conveniently allow of a solution of the
alkaline materials being previously prepared (which is the mode I: find in
practice to be the best), the course I recommend to be followed in such cases,
and which I have found by experiments to have a great advantage over the
ordinary process, is to throw the whole of the materials, alkaline as well as
silicious, into the reverberatory furnace in' a state of dryness, or approximation
thereto, and then to pour upon them as much water as may suffice for the

page_text: solution of the alkaline salt or salts, after which I evaporate the mixture to
dryness, or nearly so, as is herein-before directed.
And having now fully described the nature of my said invented improve-
ments, and the manner in which the same are to be performed, I declare that
what I claim as my Invention is, the employment of alkali or alkaline salts
necessary to the production of crown, window, and other sorts of glass, (bottle
glass excepted,) in a state of solution, or partly in a state of dryness and partly
in a state of solution, and whether also they are reduced to such state of
solution before or after their introduction into the reverberatory furnace. And
such my invented improvements being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the said Dominion of Wales, or
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this this to be my Specifi
cation of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth
comply in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise with proviso in the
said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained, wherefore I do
hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Thornton Çoathupe, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.