A COMPOSITION FOR COATING SHIPS' BOTTOMS TO PREVENT FOULING
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Francis Montgomery Jennings, Merchant, of the
City of Cork, Ireland, for the Invention of "A COMPOSITION FOR COATING
SHIPS' BOTTOMS TO PREVENT FOULING."
Sealed the 30th January 1863, and dated the 8th August 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis Montgomery
Jennings at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 8th August 1862..
I, FRANCIS MONTGOMERY JENNINGS, Merchant, of the City of Cork, Ireland,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A COMPOSITION FOR
COATING SHIPS BOTTOMS TO PREVENT FOULING," to be as follows:-.
Hitherto it has been the practice in preventing ships' bottoms from fouling,
to use poisonous soaps, poisonous paints of various kinds, and oil and tallow,
alone or mixed, and sometimes with and sometimes without poisonous sub-
stances.
Now I propose for coating the bottoms of ships, or boats, or buoys, whether
of timber, iron, copper, zinc, Muntz metal, or any kind of sheathing or coating
over any of those, whether or not previously painted, varnished, or otherwise
prepared, to use paraffine, Japan wax, bees'-wax, or the wax of insects, or
vegetable waxes, spermaceti, or napthaline, or such other hydrocarbons,
purified or otherwise, alone or mixed with tallow, fats, stearine, or any animal
or vegetable fats, common rosin, or oil, or any of their constituents. Either of

page_text: these substances may be used alone, or they may be used, when mixed together,
in any proportions, or one and all of them may be used together mixed with
.petroleum, pitch, tar, asphaltum, resins, gum resins, rosin, shellac, gutta percha,
india-rubber, or other such resinous matters, or any of the oils distilled there-
from. With any or all of the above first-named substances, or their mixtures or
combinations with substances afterwards named, I may combine or mix
creosote, carbolic acid, or any pyrogenous acid, alcohol, or ether, or organic
poisonous matter, or any poisonous metal, metallic oxide, or salt, or any
substance used as paint, either alone or in combination.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Francis Montgomery Jennings in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 5th February 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANCIS
MONTGOMERY JENNINGS, Merchant, of the City of Cork, Iroland; send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Francis Montgomery Jennings, Her special licence that I, the said
Francis Montgomery Jennings, my executors; administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Francis Montgomery Jennings, 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 "A COMPOSITION FOR COATING SHIPS' BOTTOMS
TO PREVENT FOULING," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Francis Montgomery Jennings, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 Francis Montgomery Jennings, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is

page_text: to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement, that is to say :-
Hitherto it has been the practice in preventing ships' bottoms from fouling,
to use poisonous soaps, poisonous paints of various kinds, and oil and tallow,
alone or mixed, and sometimes with and sometimes without poisonous.
substances.
.
Now, I propose, for coating the bottoms of ships, or boats, or buoys, whether
of timber, iron, copper, zinc, Muntz metal, or any kind of sheathing, or coating,
over any of those, whether or not previously painted, varnished, or otherwise.
prepared to use paraffine, Japan wax, bees'-wax, or the wax of insects,.or
vegetable waxes, spermaceti, or napthaline, or such other hydrocarbons,.
purified or otherwise, alone or mixed with tallow, fats, stearine; or any animal
or vegetable fats, common rosin or oil, or any of their constituents. Either of
these substances may be used alone, or they may be used, when mixed together,
in any proportions, or one and all of them may be used mixed together with
petroleum, pitch, tar, asphaltum, resins, gum resins, rosin, shellac, gutta percha,
india-rubber, or other such resinous matters, or any of the oils distilled
therefrom. With any or all of the above first-nained substances, or their
mixtures or combinations with substances afterwards named, I may combine or
mix creostote, carbolic acid, or any, pyrogenous acid, alcohol, or ether, or
organic poisonous matter, or any poisonous metal, metallic oxide or salt, or any
substance used as paint, either alone or in combination..
A compound, which I consider to be exceedingly well adapted for the coating
of the bottom of ships, or boats, or buoys of wood or iron, may be composed as
follows: Good tallow, say Russian in preference, is mixed with from one to
two per cent. of common, unbleached bees'-wax, and with from twelve to sixteen
per cent. of good common rosin. This I call No. 1. The tallow, wax, and
rosin are melted together in an iron or other vessel, and the whole well stirred
up together, when it is fit for use.
In coating the bottom of ships, or boats, or buoys of wood or iron with
No. 1, or any other mixture of mine, they may be applied whether they have.
been previously coated with any other preparation, or with any kind of paint
or varnish, or with tar or pitch, or patent varnish, or otherwise; but if they.
should have been coated with the three last substances, then the coating with.
my compound should not be applied until the tar or pitch, &c. becomes
somewhat hard; and again, my compound should not be so hot when applied
as to melt the tar or pitch, &c., except as little as possible. I, however, prefer
that the bottom of ships or boats, or buoys of wood or iron, should have been
coated with oil paint, varnish, or coating of some kind not antagonistic to a

page_text: mixture containing greaso, or rosin, or wax. Before applying my compounds
after plain oil, it need not be dry. My compounds I lay on with a soft brush,
like a whitewash brush; or some such means, and the coating should be from
about one to three-sixteenths or more of an inch in thickness: I prefer laying
ön my compound after oil only, say linseed oil, on iron. It may be, however,
applied on red lead or zinc paint, or any of the usual paints with which bottoms
of ships are painted. Ships' bottoms are best dried in wet weather by coke
fires.
;
No. 2 compound is to be composed of, say, eight parts of tallow, four parts
common rosin, and one part Japan wax, and melted in an iron or other vessel.
The Japan wax causes the whole mixture to harden rapidly; this is of great
importance in laying it on in hot weather.
Fatty matters are liable to crystallize; to prevent this, from one to two per
cent. of powered tale or aluminous clay in fine powder may be added. But I
much prefer mixing from one to two per cent. of common white arsenic of
commerce, in powder, with all the compounds, as it prevent rats or vermin
destroying them, and also stops tendency to crystallization.
When the compounds are applied to copper, Muntz's metal, or copper or
brass sheathing, or coating over vossels, boats, or buoys, I prefer to neutralizo
the fatty or other acids which may be contained in them, by adding before
using it, say, from three to four per cent. of litharge or carbonate of lead, or
some other metallic oxide or carbonate in fine powder, which will combine
with the fatty acids, or sonic other alkaline substance; but I prefer the common
white lead of commerce. I may vary the proportions of the substances in the
compounds, and sometimes I lay a first coating on the bottoms of ships, boats,
or buoys, of wood or metal, which contains a larger per-centage of rosin than
the second coating, and a third containing less rosin than the second; and I
may also lay a coating of plain tallow over all. When this or some such plan of
coating is adopted, it will permit a scaling off or waste of the outer preparation
so that marine animals or plants, even if they do adhere, inust, from the
movement of the ship slip off. This effect will also result from the one coating
if it be not made too hard. I may vary the proportions of the substances in
the compounds so as to vary their bardness according to the temperature of
the waters in the various seas; as for instance, in the Mediterranean it need
not be so hard or contain as much wax, or rosin and wax, as in the Red Sea,
Indian Ocean, or other warm seas. On vessels trading, from say Great Britain
to the Mexican Gulf, Australia, or India, it must neither be too hard: to crack
off in the cold seas, nor too soft to melt in the warm seas or in rivers.
'
The compounds before described, or even a compound in which the bees'-

page_text: wax is omitted, if rubbed when cold by a soft body, takes a good polish; and
a beautifully smooth surface is obtained when a cresset of burning coals or a
flame of any kind, or a hot body is passed along and held a little way from the
surface under opération after last coat.
Paraffin and napthaline may be substituted for the bees'-wax in my com-
pounds; but as these substances are more crystallizable than bees'-wax, I
generally use them in much less quantity; the paraffine in about half the
proportion, and napthaline in even less quantity. The other hydrocarbons and
spermaceti, &c., named, may be substituted in like manner for the bees'-wax
in my compounds, but the price of some is at present an obstruction to
their use.
'
From the details given above, any man acquainted with the coating of ships
bottoms, boats, or buoys, can easily form my compound of the desired quality,
as to hardness or softness, with any of the substances named being substituted
for the wax or rosin, and may test its properties by coating a piece of iron or
wood, painted or not, or copper with it, observing how it adheres and what
properties it possesses after hardening; when put into water about the
temperature the ship or buoy is expected to be in, the effect of waves beating
against these substances not being forgotten.
.
The mixture of wax, though small in one of the compounds above described, is
beneficial in preventing the tallow from oxidising, and if price and trouble are
not considered, in some instances I would also add to them india-rubber, say
about five to ten per cent. dissolved in the smallest quantity of either linseed
oil or turpentine, or other solvent.
Oils, whether fish, vegetable, or animal, when cheap, and tallow not to be
had or scarce, I would harden with mixtures of tallow, if obtainable, and Japan
wax or vegetable wax and rosin, to produce the effects belonging to the com-
pounds described above. Pitch and asphalte, &c., may be softened by mixing
with tallow and with the other substances named above, as before described,
or with the rough mineral oils, such as the American, Canadian, or
petroleum. These compounds will be of use by having attained somewhat
of the same qualities as are given to tallow by rosin, rosin and wax, or any
of the substances named above, namely, not being too rigid or hard to enable
marine animals or vegetables to attach to them, or if attaching to be disen-
gaged by the motion of the vessel.
Any poisonous substance or substances, whether organic (such as creosote
or carbolic acid) or mineral in the shape of metal, or metallic oxide, or acid
or salt in powder, or any substance used as paint, or plumbago or ochre, &c.,
may be mixed with any of my compounds in fine powder, the latter being used

page_text: principally for the purpose of giving body to my compounds or compositions,.
and when added for such purposes only; I prefer using the non-poisonous
substances, such as plumbago, ochre, &c..
Having now described the nature of my Invention,. and the manner in which
the same is carried into effect, it is to be understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise details herein, described, so long as the peculiar character
of the said Inventions, or any part thereof be retained, and I do not claim the
use of tallow, Japan wax, oil, or pitch, tar; or asphalt alone, for the purposes
abovo described; but what I do claim is the use of these substances. com-
pounded together as above described, and.also the use of the compositions or
compounds above described with paraffine, Japan wax, bees'-wax, or the wax
of insects, or vegetable waxes, petroleum, pitch, ashalte, resin, or resinous bodies,.
shellac, or india-rubber, gutta percha, spermaceti or napthaline, or such other
hydrocarbons, purified or otherwise, or with any one of them, or one and more
of them melted together, and of creosote and carbolic acid..
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Montgomery Jennings, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of February, in the
..year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
FRANCIS M. JENNINGS. (L.S.)