CERTAIN APPLICATIONS. Or CHAPAPOTE AND ITS PRODUCTS, AND OF THE SAME COMBINED WITH OTHER SUB- STANCES, AND OF MATERIALS TREATED THEREWITH, TO VARIOUS PURPOSES IN MANUFACTURES AND THE USEFUL ARTS
Year: 1861

page_text: Page 3, line 36, for "osé "read" José "
Page 6, line 20, for "tar
tar"read" tar"
LETTERS PATENT to José Joaquin de Arrieta, of Piccadilly, in the County
of Middlesex, Esquire, for the Invention of "CERTAIN APPLICATIONS. Or
CHAPAPOTE AND ITS PRODUCTS, AND OF THE SAME COMBINED WITH OTHER SUB-
STANCES, AND OF MATERIALS TREATED THEREWITH, TO VARIOUS PURPOSES IN
MANUFACTURES AND THE USEFUL ARTS."
Sealed the 16th July 1861, and dated the 1st February 1801.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said José Joaquin de Arrieta
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st February, 1861.
I, JOSÉ JOAQUIN DE ARRIETA, of Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex,
Esquire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN
APPLICATIONS OF CHAPAPOTE AND ITS PRODUCTS, AND OF THE SAME COMBINED WITH
OTHER SUBSTANCES, AND OP MATERIALS TREATED THEREWITH. TO VARIOUS PURPOSES IN
MANUFACTURES AND THE USEFUL ARTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the employment for various useful purposes of a
certain natural matter called in Cuba chapapote, whether in its concrete,
viscous, pasty, or more or less fluid condition, and either alone or combined
with other substances; it may be applied to wood, metal, brickwork, stone,
leather, paper, fibrous materials, and to various other substances, and to
fabrics, articles, and structures manufactured or constructed therefrom, and
to parts thereof, to protect and preserve them from wear, damp, oxydation,.
corrosion, the action of liquid or gaseous fluids, acids, and insects, and other
agents or means of deterioration, injury, and decay; also to ornament them, to
strengthen them, and to render them impervious to water, gases, and other
Price 1

page_text: fluids. Among the instances of the foregoing protective, preservative, and
useful applications may be cited its use in coating ships and plates for armour
vessels and floating batteries, in insulating and protecting telegraphic wires,
strengthening rope and cordage, coating sleepers, rails, and railway chairs,
and numerous other applications and uses. Combined with or applied to
paper and certain other materials a fabric or material is produced suitable for
protecting houses from damp, water, and atmospheric influences, for con-
structing pipes for fluids, ordnance, and various other purposes. The chapapote
may also be applied in covering roads and surfaces trodden or travelled on.
The chapapote is taken either in its natural state, whether concrete or solid,
viscous, pasty, or more or less fluid, or in the condition of crude oil or other
oil or product thereof, and it may be combined or not with its own or other
oils, also with lime, burnt or dried clay, powdered brick, or argillaceous,
aluminous, silicious, or earthy substances; wax, turpentine, gutta percha,
caoutchouc, resins, gum resins, fatty matters, alcohol, wood spirit, hydro-
carbons, and varnishes; also with agents for resisting combustion, and other
agents or matters.
When in the following description I use the word chapapote it is to be
understood that I mean either chapapote alone, or a product thereof, or com-
pound of chapapote, or any of its products, and other substance. I take the
article or substance to be treated either in a hot or cold state, and apply
chapapote thereon either in a concrete state or state of pieces, powder, paste,
or more or less fluidity, and either with or without a preliminary coating of
oil, paint, varnish, or fatty matter, and either with or without an exterior
coating thereof; in some cases applying heat for smoothing, melting, dis-
tributing, or shaping it by means of a heated instrument; or the object or
substance to be treated may be passed through a trough or vessel containing
chapapote, and brought out through an ejection orifice, or a die; or it may be
steeped or immersed in chapapote. For ropes, cordage, and fibrous and
textile fabrics, they may be coated with or steeped in chapapote, either when
manufactured, or their fibres or strands may be saturated therewith before
weaving, twisting, or working them up into the rope or fabric. Wire rope
may in like manner be coated with chapapote in the strands or before or after
twisting, and may have an external hempen or fibrous covering, also treated
with chapapote.
One mode of coating wire is to pass it either bare, or with paper treated
with chapapote wrapped round it spirally, through a vessel containing chapa-
pote, first coating it with oil or not, or wire coated with chapapote may have
applied on it a fibrous covering, heated with chapapote or not, then chapapote

page_text: in oil, powder, or paste, or first a paper covering, then chapapote, and then
wire, applying heat to the former or latter, then a fibrous covering treated
with chapapote.
Chapapote may be mixed up heated or not with dry paper pulp and pressed.
A strong fabric may be manufactured by coating or saturating paper, paste-
board, or the like, or textile, felted, and fibrous fabrics with chapapote suitable
for gas and water pipes, tanks, and other fluid vessels, ordnance, military
accoutrements, soles and linings for foot coverings, roofing, exterior and interior,
and foundations of buildings, telegraphic insulators, ships, and other vessels,
and other uses.
Chapapote may be introduced in the brickwork, masonry, or interior of the
walls of houses and structures, and used for facing and cementing brick work
and masonry of fortifications, and metal plates coated therewith or steeped
therein may be used for plating armour, ships, and floating batteries.
For ornamenting, the object is coated either hot or cold with chapapote, or
steeped therein, and then a smooth instrument, preferably heated, is applied;
coloring and decorative agents may be mixed with the chapapote.
For covering or paving roads or other surfaces slabs may be prepared by
mixing chapapote with oily matters, or with earthy, clayey or other such like
matters, or with both, expressing from it the excess of oily or other fluid, and
employing it either with or without granite or other rocky, stony, silicious, or
mineral matter, or even metal or wood, which when used may be imbedded
by pressure in the chapapote in powder or fragments. Or prepared and pressed
chapapote may be used as a foundation or cement for blocks of granite or
other paving materials.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said José Joaquin de Arrieta in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st August 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSÉ
JOAQUIN DE ARRIETA, formerly of Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex,
but now of Brompton, in the same County, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
osé Joaquin de Arrieta, Her special licence that I, the said José Joaquin

page_text: de Arrieta, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as 1,
the said José Joaquin de Arrieta, 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 "CERTAIN
APPLICATIONS OF CHAPAPOTE AND ITS PRODUCTS, AND OF THE SAME COMBINED WITH
OTHER SUBSTANCES, AND OF MATERIALS TREATED THEREWITH TO VARIOUS PURPOSES IN
MANUFACTURES AND THE USEFUL ARTS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that 1, the said José Joaquin de Arrieta, 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 Seal Patent Office, within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said José Joaquin de Arrieta, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to the employment for various useful purposes of a
certain natural matter called in Cuba chapapote, whether in its concrete (or
solid) or its viscous, pasty, or more or less fluid condition, and whether alone or
combined with other substances. It may beapplied to wood, metal, brickwork,
stone, leather, paper, fibrous materials, and to various other substances, and to
fabrics, articles, and structures, manufactured or constructed therefrom, and to
parts thereof to protect and preserve them from wear,damp,oxidation, corrosion,
the action of liquids or gascous fluids, acids, and insects, and other agents, or
causes of deterioration, injury and decay; it may also be applied to ornament
them, to strengthen them, and to render them impervious to water, gases and
other fluids. Amongst the instances of the foregoing protective, preservative,
and useful applications, I may mention its use in coating ships and plates for
armour, vessels, and floating batteries, in insulating and protecting telegraphic
wires, strengthening rope and cordage, coating sleepers, rails, and railway
chairs, and numerous other applications and uses; combined with or applied
to paper and certain other materials, a fabric or material is produced suitable
for protecting houses from damp, water, and atmospheric influences, for con-
structing pipes for fluids, and various other purposes. The chapapote may also
be applied in covering roads and surfaces trodden or travelled on.
The chapapote is taken either in its natural state, whether concrete or solid,

page_text: viscous, pasty, or more or less fluid, or in the condition of crude oil or other oil
or product thereof, and combined or not with its own or other oils; also with
lime, burnt or dried clay, powdered brick or argillaceous, aluminous, silicious,
or earthy substances; wax, turpentine, gutta percha, caoutchouc, resins, gum
resins, fatty matters, alcohol, wood spirit, hydrocarbons, and varnishes, also with
agents for resisting combustion, and other agents or matters.
When in the following description I use the word "chapapote," it must be
distinctly understood that I mean either chapapote alone, or a product thereof,
or compound of chapapote, or any of its products with other substances. Itake
the article, object, or substance to be treated either in a hot or cold state, and
apply chapapote thereon, either in a concrete state or in a state of pieces,
powder, or paste, or in a more or less fluid state, and either with or without a
preliminary coating of oils, paint, varnish, or fatty matter, and either with or
without an exterior coating thereof, in some cases applying heat for smoothing,
melting, distributing and shaping it, by means of a heated instrument. Or the
object or substance to be treated may be passed through a trough or vessel
contatning chapapote, and brought out through an ejection orifice or a die,
or it may be steeped or immersed in chapapote.
For ropes, cordages, and fibrous and textile fabrics, these may be coated
with or steeped in chapapote, either when they are manufactured, or their fibres
or strands may be saturated therewith before weaving, twisting, or working
them up into the rope or fabric. Wire rope may in like manner be coated
with chapapote in the strands, or before or after twisting, and may have an
external hempen or fibrous covering, also treated with chapapote.
One mode of coating wire is to pass it either bare or with paper (treated
with chapapote) wrapped spirally round it through a vessel, containing
chapapote, first coating it with oil, or not, or wire covered with chapapote may
have applied on it a fibrous covering treated with chapapote or not, then
chapapote in oil, powder, or paste; or first, a paper covering, then chapapote,
and then wire, applying heat to the former or latter, then a fibrous covering
treated with chapapote. Chapapote may be mixed up, heated or not, with dry
paper pulp, and pressed.
A strong fabric may be manufactured by coating or saturating paper, paste-
board; or the like, or textile, felted, and fibrous fabrics with chapapote suitable
for gas and water pipes, tanks, and other fluid vessels, military accoutrements,
soles and linings for foot coverings, roofing, exterior and interior, of buildings,
telegraphic insulators, ships, and other vessels, and other uses.
Chapapote may be introduced into the brickwork, masonry, or interior of

page_text: the walls of houses and structures, and used for facing and cementing brick-
work and the masonry of fortifications, metal plates coated with chapapote, or
steeped therein may be used for plating armour, ships, and floating batteries.
For ornamenting, the object is coated either hot or cold, with chapapote, or
is steeped therein, and then a smooth instrument, preferably heated, is applied;
coloring and decorative agents may be mixed with the chapapote.
For covering or paving roads or other surfaces, slabs. may be prepared by
mixing chapapote with oily matters, or with earthy, clayey, or other such like
matters, or with both, expressing from it any excess of oily or other fluid; and
employing it either with or without granite, or other rocky, stony, silicious or
mineral matter, and with or without metal or wood, which when used may. be
embedded by pressure in the chapapote. Or prepared and pressed chapapote
may be used as a foundation or cement for blocks of granite or other:paving
materials.
I may here mention that the substance.referred.to.in this Specification as
being called in Cuba "chapapote" is sometimes called in this country and
elsewhere by various other names, and is found in other places besides Cuba.
In carrying the Invention into effect in those cases in which I employ chapa-
pote in combination with oils and hydrocarbons, I prefer, in many instances,
to use for that purpose coal tar or other mineral tar or common vegetable tar
and in others naptha or napthaline; also among other agents or matters
with which I sometimes combine chapapote, as herein-before stated, I find
that silex and other natural or artificial mineral substances may, in many
instances, be usefully employed. The concrete chapapote may be reduced to
powder by ordinary crushing apparatus.
For carrying out that part of the Invention which relates to the coating of
articles or substances with chapapote, I find that a preliminary coating of coal
tar may be applied with advantage on the surface to be coated, before applying
chapapote. When the chapapote is heated for coating purposes by flame
or gas, the effect of the heat may be modified by interposing wire gauze
between the chapapote and flame. A thin layer of chapapote is mostly suffi-
cient; I find that a little powdered quartz or other similar mineral substance
mixed with chapapote before or after applying it, renders the substance so
treated better adapted for resisting concussion or blows. The more absorbent
the substance to which the chapapote is applied the larger must be the pro-
portion of oil used. A thin layer of chapapote is generally sufficient. Heat
may be applied to the chapapote while being laid on to facilitate its mixture
with the substances with which it is combined, or the chapapote may be mixed

page_text: with other substances by heat, and stirring before applying it. If the surface
to be coated be cold, I sometimes first apply thereon vegetable or coal tar or
other mineral or vegetable oils, and then sprinkle over it the chapapote in a
state of powder, and then apply heat, smoothing down or not; or I sometimes
heat the surface and then apply chapapote; or whether the surface be cold or
not, after having first applied oil or tar, or not, I sometimes take the chapapote
in a stick or pieces, and melt or liquify it as required, by igniting it in a flame
or fire, and then apply it; or I take it in a more or less pasty or liquified
condition and apply it over the surface to be treated, smoothing it down after-
wards or not, a cold smoothing instrument may sometimes be used. If the
surface to be coated be more or less hot, I apply oily, tarry, or fatty matter
first or not, then chapapote powdered or in pieces, and then heat by a heated
instrument or otherwise; if I use pasty or liquified chapapote, there is generally
no need of additional application of heat; I sometimes immerse the article in
hot chapapote.
A cheap mode of coating the wood or metal forming the bottoms of ships
and vessels to protect them from incrustation, or adhesion of marine, animal, or
vegetable matters, is first to apply oil on the wood or metal, sprinkle it with
a thin layer of powdered chapapote, and theu apply heat; or I apply a coating
of a mixture of liquid and concrete chapapote. When metal plates coated with
chapapote are attached to ships' sides and bottoms to protect them from
incrustation, I recommend the insertion of a quantity of a fibre called agava
Americana, or jeniquén, steeped in chapapote between the metal projecting
plates and the wood hull or keel. When portions of houses and other
buildings already constructed are to be rendered water and damp-proof, a
portion of the brickwork or masonry, say, a length of from three to four feet
is removed at a time, and into the opening thus formed a layer or a slab
of chapapote is inserted, the opening is then bricked or built up again, and
another portion of the wall or structure opened and treated in like manner,
and so on till the whole layer of chapapote has been laid within the same,
forming a continuous line or surface of chapapote, which will keep every part
of the structure above it free from damp rising from below. This may also be
applied in building structures, the outer and inner surfaces of walls may be
coated with slabs, or in the manner described for coating metals; the last surface
of chapapote may be covered with paper or other fabric, or paint, or colour,
stucco or cement may be applied thereon, or paper or textile, or other fabric,
coated or treated with chapapote may be prepared beforehand and applied on
the surfaces of structures.
Among the numerous applications of my method of employing a coating of

page_text: chapapote on metals for preservative purposes, 1 may especially mention its
use for permanent way, sheet iron and other roofing, tiles, and other house
coverings, tanks, and floors. The mixture of dry paper pulp with chapapote
produces a composition suitable for constructive purposes. I sometimes apply
on wire rope paper coated with chapapote.
When telegraphic wires treated with chapapote are encased in tubes, as for
underground communications, the spaces between the wires or its covering
and the inside of the tube may be filled up with chapapote. Coal tar, or
vegetable or mineral tar may be used with advantage as a preliminary coating,
for wire (or for coating the paper wrapped round it, when used) before
subjecting the same to the chapopote; powdered quartz.or other silicious and
vitreous matter may be mixed up with the chapapote for.coating wires, or the
fibrous coverings thereof.
In carrying out the part of the Invention which relates to paving or covering.
roads and other surfaces trodden or travelled upon, chapapote may be com-
bined with oily, earthy, clayey, or other matters by heating the materials and
stirring well till the mixture is complete, and it is than pressed or moulded,
into blocks or other required shape, or otherwise solidified: Mineral matters.
may be mixed up with the chapapote before working it up into paving blocks
or surfaces. When wood is used it should he steeped in heated.chapapote.
When wood or stone, or mineral substances are to be embedded in chapapote,
the chapapote may be spread hot on the road or surface to be covered, and
the wood, stone, or other substance pressed or embedded into it before it
becomes cold. One mode of using chapapote with wood, stone, or other
paving material, is to prepare slabs or pieces of chapapote and place the same
heated or not in the interstices formed between the lumps or pieces of wood,
stone, or paving material. For pavements I recommend. the addition of a
layer of chapapote below or upon, or both below and upon wood prepared.by
immersing it in heated chapapote. In applying chapapote for the formation
of slabs for covering purposes, I sometimes mix. it with coal tar, naptha,
napthaline, and similar agents, also with finely ground flint, gravel, or mineral
matter, which stir well while hot, and mould into shape, preferring to coat
the inside of the mould with sand. Thus a slab or piece of stone, or other
material may be coated on both surfaces at once, first laying down chapapote,
then the stone or surface to be covered, then chapapote. Rock, stones, or
minerals may be added to the mixture in the mould before it gets cold. Slabs
will adhere together by heating their edges, or by heated strips or pieces of
chapapote. I find the following proportions suitable for paving and some
other purposes :—

page_text: 6
"
"
"
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coal tar or liquid chapapote.
mineral matter, and this part may be subdivided
into fragment and powder, though this relative
proportion may be varied according to the nature
of the mineral.
In carrying out that part of my Invention which relates to facing walls,
brickwork, and masonry, I prefer to prepare the chapapote beforehand, by
forming it into slabs, one or both surfaces of which contain pieces of rough
stone, or other material which present surfaces suitable for being cemented to
the wall, brickwork, or masonry, so as to hold the slab in place; the outside
of the slab may be ornamented by stucco, or otherwise. The mode I prefer of
mixingchapapote with powdered silicious or other mineral matter (preferably
finely powdered), is to stir them well up together while subjected to heat. I
sometimes add tar or oil, and I apply the mixture as a coating, or as slabs, or
otherwise for industrial, manufacturing, and useful purposes, in some cases
spreading it hot on the surface to be covered. It may be used for coating or
saturating felted or textile fabrics previously saturated with oil, tar, or not,
(but preferably so saturated.)
Having now described the nature of thesaid Invention, and in what manner
the same may be performed, I declare that although I have described herein
numerous applications of chapapote, its products and compounds, and modes
of operating therewith, I do not lay claim to them all; but I declare that
what I claim as constituting my Invention, is,
First, the mode of coating metal, wood, brickwork, masonry, and other
hard substances herein-before described, in which I first apply liquid chapapote,
mineral tar, or other oil, or not, then powdered chapapote, then powdered
silicious or other mineral matter, or not, and then heat, smoothing over or not.
Also the mode in which I take concrete or solid chapapote in a stick or pieces,
and melt it by flame or heat, and then apply it while melting ou the surface
to be treated, which is first coated or not with liquid chapapote or mineral tar
or other oil, then (after applying the concrete chapapote) a layer of silicious
or other mineral matter or not, and then heat or not.. Also the mode in which
I first heat the surface to be coated, and then apply liquid chapapote, mineral
tar, or oil or not, then chapapote in powder or pieces, then finely powdered
silicious or other mineral matter or not, the chapapote in these three modes
being combined or not with other substances.
Second, the application to manufacturing and useful purposes herein
described of the combination of chapapote or its products with hydrocarbons,

page_text: lime, clay, powdered brick, or aluminous, silicious, or other mineral matters,
as herein-before described.
Third, the application of chapapote or its products, or of the same combined
with other substances, or of materials treated therewith to walls, brickwork, or
masonry of structures (whether erected or while being erected), in the manner
herein-before described to resist or arrest damp.
Fourth, the application of chapapote (or its products) or compounds of the
same with other substances, or of materials treated therewith, for paving or
covering roads and other surfaces trodden on or travelled over, as herein-before
described.
Fifth, the application of chapapote combined with silicious or other mineral
matters to the coating of bare telegraph wires, and to the coating of walls, and
to the covering in or roofing of structures, as herein-before described.
Sixth, the application of chapapote alone or combined with silicious or other
mineral matter to the surfaces of wood, metal, or other substances for roofing
houses and other structures, in the manner herein-before described.
Seventh, the application of chapapote or its products, but preferably of its
crude oil, and whether alone or combined with other substances, to wire ropes
and fibrous ropes and cordage, or to the manufacture thereof, in the manner
herein-before described.
Eighth, the application to rails, railway chairs, and sleepers, of chapapote
combined with other substances, especially with silicious or other mineral
matter, preferably by iminersing or steeping the rails, chairs, and sleepers in
such chapapote mixture while hot.
Ninth, the application of chapapote combined with silicious or other mineral
matter, as described, to the coating of textile or felted fabrics (preferably
previously steeped in oil or tar), as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said José Joaquin de Arrieta, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
JOSE JOAQ. DE ARRIETA. (L.B.)
Witness,
M. HENRY, Patent Agent,
84, Fleet Street, London.