AN IMPROVED TUBULAR METALLIC VESSEL FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FLUIDS AND VARIOUS OTHER THINGS
Year: 1812

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WALKER, of Maidenstone Hall, in the County of Kent, 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, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of July,
in the fifty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said James
Walker, my exors, adññors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said James Walker, my exors, admňors,
and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED TUBULAR METALLIC
VESSEL FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FLUIDS AND VARIOUS OTHER THINGS;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said James
Walker, 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 the High Court of Chancery
within two 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said James Walker, in compliance with the
said proviso, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in manner following (that is to say):-
I do make certain tubes, of any size which may be required, out of lead or
copper, or any other tough and flexible metal or metallic substance or metallic
compound, by the usual means of soldering up certain flat pieces or plates thereof,
or by casting or forming or punching out, or otherwise making or fashioning,
a fit piece or pieces in the form or shape of a ring or hollow cylinder, to be
placed or applied upon a central cylinder of steel or other hard metal, and
drawn through several holes in succession, as the tubes of telescopes are made;
and I do by the said or other fit means draw out my said tubes so as to be
very thin and flexible, but at the same time sufficiently strong; and I do
solder in or make a bottom, or do otherwise close one of the ends of my said
tube, by bending in the same upon a fit piece of metal or other material
applied as a support within, and by soldering up the closed parts, and after-
wards do withdraw the said supporting piece. And with regard to the length,
thickness, and other dimensions of my said tube, which, when drawn or formed
to the requisite thickness and closed at one end as aforesaid, doth constitute
my said tubular vessel, I do regulate the same according to the purpose or
object to be answered in the application thereof, and the nature and quantities
of the several substances required to be kept and preserved therein. And I
do apply and use my said tubular vessel to keep and preserve therein the
more valuable fluids, and other vegetable, animal, and other products or
materials at or from foreign parts or elsewhere, such as the oils, gums, resins,
fluid or solid balsams, leaves, flowers, seeds, grain, and farinaceous powders
of vegetables, the aromatic parts of animal bodies, and various saline or pul-
vercelent matters or compounds, obtained or made from unorganized or
mineral bodies. And, more particularly, I do use and apply my said tubular
vessel for the preservation of gunpowder in separate quantities, either with or
without ball, to be ready for use, and to be used instead of the common
cartridges for large and small firc-arms and artillery, and for producing a
better and more powerful effect than can be obtained by the cartridges now
made, which are subject to damp and wet and numerous other injuries; and
whensoever my said tubular vessel hath been filled or charged, in part or wholly,
with the fluids or things aforesaid, I do close the mouth or the open end
thereof either with a cork to which a piece of tape or other fit material is
fixed to pull it out by, or by bending over and applying the metal itself, so as
to fom a closure; and I do, if need require, make the said closure more
perfect by the use and application of cement or solder. And in the use of my
said tubular metallic vessel for gunpowder, for ball or
short cartridges, I do

page_text: first put in the ball or balls or shot, and secure the same in its or their place
at the bottom or closed end of the vessel by means of a plug of cork or other
fit substance, or by compressing the metal just above the said ball or balls or
shot, and thereupon I do introduce the due quantity or charge of gunpowder,
and close the orifice in the manner herein-before described; but generally I
do not use solder, on account of inconvenience or danger which might be
imagined or aprehended from heat, although this may be obviated by the
use of the well-known fusible metallic compounds. And in the application of
all the said catridges I do open or unclose the end which was stopped or last
closed, and do use the same in all respects as a common cartridge, and the
thin metallic vessel itself serves the purpose of paper or flanel in a much
better manner than those substances do serve their purpose in charging
fire-arms.
And lastly I do declare, that my said tubular vessel, if constructed of lead,
will be very strong and tough, if made or drawn to such a thickness as that
about one hundred and sixty picces of the same, when laid out and compressed
upon each other, shall constitute the thickness of one inch in vessels of about
one inch in diameter, and that for larger vessels a greater thickness or strength
will be required.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Walker, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twelve.