PREPARING. AND DISSOLVING, IN, NAPTHA OR OIL OF TURPENTINE VULCANIZED INDIA-RUBBER, FOR THE PURPOSE OF WATERPROOPING, AND FOR ALL OR ANY OF THE OTHER. PURPOSES FOR WHICH THE SAME, NOT SO PREPARED AND DISSOLVED, IS NOW APPLICABLE, AND ESPE- CIALLY FOR THE COATING OF IRON SHIPS BOTTOMS
Year: 1856

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Alfred Ford at the Office of
the Commissioners, of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration, on the
27th June. 1856, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent Law Amend-
ment Act, 1852..
TO ALL TO, WHOM THESE PRESENTS. SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
FORD, of No. 35, Wellington Square, King's Road, Chelsea, send greeting...
WHEREAS: I am in possession of an Invention for "PREPARING. AND
DISSOLVING, IN, NAPTHA OR OIL OF TURPENTINE VULCANIZED INDIA-RUBBER, FOR THE
PURPOSE OF WATERPROOPING, AND FOR ALL OR ANY OF THE OTHER. PURPOSES FOR
WHICH THE SAME, NOT SO PREPARED AND DISSOLVED, IS NOW APPLICABLE, AND ESPE-
CIALLY FOR THE COATING OF IRON SHIPS BOTTOMS," and have petitioned Her
Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her
Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn declaration that I
verily believe myself to be the first and true Inventor thereof:
NOW KNOW YE,-that-I,-the said Alfred Ford,-do-hereby declare-that
the following Complete Specification, under my hand and seal, fully describes
the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, that is to say:-

page_text: having within it an agitator or stirrer, which is kept in constant motion during
the process of preparation. The only openings into this boiler are a manhole
with a screw top, a safety valve which comes into action only when the
pressure on the inner surface of the boiler shall exceed twenty-five pounds to
the square inch, and the opening occasioned by the passage of the stem of the
agitator which passes in at the summit. I then apply heat in such a manner
as that three-fourths of the outer surface of the boiler shall be at once exposed
to its influence, and at a temperature of never more than 300 degrees of
Fahrenheit, and I continue the same until the india-rubber shall be reduced to
the consistence of dough, when I take it out, and having mixed with it a suf-
ficient portion of French chalk in powder to remove its adhesiveness, pass it a
few times through metal rollers, after which it is capable of being dissolved in
naptha or oil of turpentine in the manner of ordinary rubber.
The rationale of my process is, that by means of the heat applied as
described to the boiler, I decompose a small portion of the vulcanized india-
rubber, whereby a gas is generated, which, filling the interior of the boiler, acts
upon. the remaining portion and softens it. My not allowing the gas to escape
is, therefore, a very important feature in this Invention. I then dissolve the
vulcanized india-rubber, so prepared, in naptha or oil of turpentine, and apply
it to fabrics in the ordinary way, or use it for any of the other purposes
mentioned above.
I claim as new the shape of the boiler which I have described, and its
special adaptation to the object of my Invention.
I claim as my discovery the softening power of the gas generated in the
boiler over the undecomposed rubber.
And I claim as my discovery the solution of vulcanized india-rubber in
naptha, and its application to the several purposes set forward in the title of
my Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Ford, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of June in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
ALFRED FORD. (L.S.)