A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVE MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BARRELS AND OTHER PACKAGES MADE OF IRON AND OTHER METALS
Year: 1814

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
DICKINSON, of Great Queen Street, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire,
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, bearing date the Tenth day of December, in the fifty-
fifth year of Our reign, give and grant unto me, the said Robert Dickinson,
my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
& authority, that I, the said Robert Dickinson, my exors, admors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein men-
tioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention of "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVE
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BARRELS AND OTHER PACKAGES MADE OF IRON AND
OTHER METALS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
that if I, the said Robert Dickinson, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, 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 six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,
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
Robert Dickinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to bo performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in manner following, that is to say :-
Within each end of the barrel, made of iron or any other metal, I place an
iron hoop, so form'd that it shall, for about one half of its breadth, be in contact
with the inside of the barrel, the other half receding inward a little way, and
then going in the direction of the side so as to form a recess or grove to
receive into it the edge of the picco which forms the top or bottom, the said
piece being formed of a diameter somewhat greater than that of the barrel,
and having its edge all round turned up at a right angle, or nearly so, to the
plane of the top or bottom, commonly called the head (somewhat like the lid
of a common circular tin snuff box), in such manner that the diameter of the
flat part shall be such as to go within the edge of the cask or barrel, the
turned-up edge or rim going into the foresaid recess or groove, in which
recess or groove is previously introduced, with any proper soft cement, a fil-
liting of hemp, cotton, or any yielding substance fit for the purpose, that the
said turned-up edge or rim, when pressed home against it, may form a joint
sufficiently close to retain fluids of any kind intended to be put in the cask;
the top and bottom are then pressed home into their respective recesses. They
are kept in their places by a hoop of iron, of a breadth equal to the chime
intended to be given to the barrel, fitted into each end of the barrel, prossed
home against the head and bottom, another fillit of hemp or any fit substance
being previously put in all round in all round under the said hoop, with some
proper cement, still more effectually to make a safe tight joint, when the top
and bottom, with such hoop on the outside of each respectively, are pressed
home to their proper bearing. The said hoop is secured on its place by pins
passed through the said internal hoop through the side of the cask, and
through (an outside hoop, one outside hoop being put on at each end to give
still more strength to the chimes), the said pins being either screwed in or
secured in their places by rivetting. The said outside hoops may be made of
flat hoop iron, in the usual way in which iron hoops are made; but I prefer
hoop iron rolled for the purpose, of such a form as would be exhibited by the
remains of a cylendrical rod of two thirds or three fourths have been taken
away longitudinally. By adopting this form the hoop, though left flat within
to embrace the surface of the cask, is rounded in its breadth without, some-
what like a common wooden hoop, so that being narrower in breadth or
thicker in the middle than a common hoop of the same weight and diameter,
it presents less surface for the destructive effects of oxidation or rusting than

page_text: a hoop made in the usual form, and consequently will last much longer. I
also furnish the iron barrels with a metal valve, so constructed as to open
outward by the internal pressure produced by the expanding of the contained
fluid when its temperature happens by any means to be raised higher than at
the time when it was introduced. In the mere construction of the valve I
claim no originality of invention, as any construction fitted to act well in the
manner stated, and to allow a part of the contents to escape when expanded,
will answer the purpose; but the application of a valve to casks or barrels
destined to contain tar, oil, varnish, and other liquids, which by their expansion
in warm climates, or by heat generated in any way in the holds of ships, often
burst the vessel intended to preserve them, is, I believe, new.
thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
ROBT DICKINSON. (LS.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1815, the aforesaid Robert Dickinson 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 Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand