AN IMPROVEMENT IN MEN MAID AD CHARA DAD WAS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles William Curtis, of Lombard Street,
in the City of London, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
MEN MAID AD CHARA
DAD WAS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles William Curtis
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 22nd July 1871.
I, CHARLES WILLIAM CURTIS, of Lombard Street, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GUNPOWDER FOR USE IN HEAVY ORDNANCE,"
to be as follows :-
My Invention relates to the manufacture of gunpowder used in heavy
ordnance and known as pellet powder, which is made by compressing
meal powder in moulds, whereby it is formed into pellets of cylindrical
form.
And my improvement consists in splitting such pellets longitudinally
into halves forming grains of semi-cylindrical form, the result attained

page_text: in use being a higher velocity of the projectile without increasing the
strain on the gun.
I take unglazed pellet powder or powder compressed into short
cylinders or pellets, the manufacture of which is completed with the
exception of the glazing process, and I subject each pellet to the action
of a knife or other known instrument operated by hand or otherwise,
whereby the pellet is fractured or split in a longitudinal direction. The
split pellets are afterwards glazed in the ordinary manner, which
completes the process of manufacture.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles William Curtis in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 19th January 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WILLIAM CURTIS, of Lombard Street, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria by Her
Letters Patent, bearing [date the Twenty-second day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Charles William Curtis, Her special licence
that I, the said Charles William Curtis, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles William Curtis, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GUNPOWDER FOR USE IN HEAVY ORDNANCE," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles William Curtis,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles William Curtis, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawing, and to the figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
My Invention relates to the manufacture of gunpowder used in heavy
ordnance, and known as "pellet" powder, which is usually made by
compressing meal powder in moulds, whereby it is formed into pellets
of cylindrical form.
And my improvement consists in splitting such pellets longitudinally
into halves, forming grains of semi-cylindrical form, the result attained
in use being a higher velocity of the projectile without increasing the
strain on the gun.
I take unglazed pellet powder or powder compressed into short
cylinders or pellets, the manufacture of which is completed with the
exception of the glazing and stoving processes, and I subject each pellet
to the action of a knife or other instrument, operated by hand or other-
wise, whereby the pellet is fractured or split in a longitudinal direction.
The split pellets are afterwards glazed and stoved in the ordinary manner,
which completes the process of manufacture.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents a pellet of
cylindrical form; Figure 2, a pellet after it has been split, showing a
rough or fractured surface. The pellets, when whole, instead of being
cylindrical, as shown in Figure 1, may be of other form, cubes or
parallelopipeds, for instance, according to the shape of the moulds in
which the meal powder is compressed; and the shape of the pellets when
split will be varied accordingly instead of being semi-cylindrical, as in
Figure 2.
In any case each split pellet has one roughened or fractured surface,
as above mentioned.
The compression of the powder into pellets may be effected by the aid
of any suitable machinery, as my present Invention does not consist
in the machinery for moulding the powder, or in any particular con-
struction of knife or other sharp or pointed instrument or machine for
splitting the pellets, as any suitable instrument or machine may be
employed for that purpose.

page_text: Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that what I claim as my Invention to
be protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
improvement in the process of manufacturing gunpowder for use in
heavy ordnance, such as the so-called "pellet" powder, the said im-
provement consisting as herein-before described in splitting each grain
or pellet into two halves, which are afterwards stoved and glazed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles William Curtis, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of January, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two.