AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF BUOYS, FOR SHIPS OR VESSELS, AND FOR MOORING CHAINS, OR SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
JOSEPH BROWN, of Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, in the County of Middle-
sex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of
December, in the fiftieth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Joseph Peter Brown, my exors, adiñňors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Peter Joseph Brown, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of
years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED
CONSTRUCTION OF BUOYS, FOR SHIPS OR VESSELS, AND FOR MOORING CHAINS, OR
SIMILAR PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Peter Joseph Brown, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, 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
Peter Joseph Brown, do declare that my said Invention is particularly de-
scribed and ascertained in manner following, that is to say:-
Instead of constructing my buoys of wood or of iron, which has already been
done, I construct them of copper, or of brass, or of any other metal, mixture
of metals, or metals coated with metals possessing sufficient tenacity and
strength, but I prefer copper; the said buoys are, in fact, hollow water-tight
vessels, of any form that may be required, but the nearer they approach to the
form of a sphere, the more buoyant are they in proportion to their weight, and
they are made either by fusing the metal or mixture of metals employed and
casting them in moulds, or of metal plates worked into form and joined
together, in a workman-like manner, by rivets, screws, solder, or any means
adapted to the end intended. The said buoys may, from time to time, receive
a coating of pitch, tar, varnish, or paint, to defend them the longer against the
action of the water, but this is not indispensibly requisite, as they will last for
a long time without any coating whatever. The said metallic buoys being
very sonorous, are intended also to be employed as an occasional substitute for
ships' bells; for this purpose it is only necessary to strike the buoy suspended
with a wooden mallet. I also propose, when it may be required, to attach a
little mast to coast or other buoys, which may carry a vane with the soundings,
bearings, and distances of the neighbouring buoys, or any other notice; and
particular buoys, where and when this may be desirable, may carry a lamp or
lamps attached to their masts, or they may be particularly adapted and con-
structed in the upper part of the buoy for that purpose. The buoys before
described may be employed for every purpose for which buoys have hitherto
been used, but the following improvements are of more general application.
Great inconvenience has often been experienced by mariners from the circum-
stance of the buoy rope getting foul of the anchor at low water, and it has
hitherto been found impracticable to place buoys with chains in water of more
than a certain depth, owing to the weight of the chains when of length suf-
ficient to reach to great depths; both of these evils are remedied by the applica-
tion of my Invention now to be described, that is to say:-To prevent a ship's
buoy rope from getting foul of the anchor, I attach to the buoy rope, anywhere
near its middle, another buoy, which I call the secondry buoy or carrier, and
which, by its buoyant effort to reach the surface, keeps the lower part of the
buoy rope constantly upon the stretch. In like manner to float a heavy chain
in great depth, I attach to different parts of the chain, below the main buoy,
secondary or carrier, of sufficient capacity to maintain respectively that portion
of chain which is between carrier and carrier. These carriers may, in some

page_text: cases, be made of wood, like the buoys in common use, or of any other
buoyant substance, but I prefer them to be made of metal. I also obviate the
difficulty of placing long chains in deep water by making the chain itself
buoyant; that is, at certain distances in the chain I interpose, as substitutes for
links, carrier buoys, furnished with rings at both ends to facilitate their
junction with the different portions of the chain, and which portions of chain
may be composed of long rods, with eyes or rings at each end; or, I substitute
for the chains in use, chains composed of portions of hollow cylinders, or prisms
of convenient lengths, attached to each other in succession by rings, chain
links, or any other suitable contrivance, taking care that the buoyant capacity
of those portions of cylinders or prisms be at least sufficient to maintain them-
selves and the interposed rings or other contrivance made use of to join them.
These buoyant chains present also another advantage which is of some im-
portance; they may be made of such a diameter as to prevent the possibility
of their getting entangled between the rudder and stern posts of ships that
happen to come in contact with them. And, lastly, I propose sometime to
construct my buoys of leather, either with or without internal supports, made
of metal, or of wood, or both combined, provided the same shall not have been
done before.
In witness whereof, the said Peter Joseph Brown, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our
PETER JOSEPH BROWN. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-sixth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eleven, the aforesaid Peter
Joseph Brown came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and
acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification afore-
said was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eleven.