A FLOATING BREAKWATER
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, JOHN WHITE'
of the New Road, in the Parish of Saint Mary-le-bone, in the County of
Middlesex, Architect, sends greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of
January, in the fourth year of His reign; give and grant unto me, the said
John White, my exors, admors, and assigns, His said Majesty's especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John White,
my exors, adiňors, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves,
or by my and their deputy or deputies, servants, or agents, or such others as
I, the said John White, my exors, adññiors, or assigns should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter, during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, my Invention of "A FLOATING BREAKWATER," within that
part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, called England,
the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, to have, hold,
exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers, privileges, and advantages therein-
before granted unto me, the said John White, my exors, adññors, and assigns,
for and during, and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date

page_text: of the said Letters Patent, next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be
completed and ended; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
that if I, the said John White, should not particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, should cease, determine, and become void, as in
and by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, will more fully
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, the said
John White, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
in the Drawings hereto annexed, and as follows (that is to say):-
I, the said John White, do take logs or pieces of timber of such length and
thickness as herein-after mentioned, and either round or square, or of any
other form, capable of being fitted and fastened together as herein-after also is
mentioned; but I prefer those which are square, and which are composed of
wood of the most buoyant nature and least subject to decay in water; and I
place the said logs or pieces of timber on the surface of the waters of the sea,
or of rivers, or other places, the waters of which are liable to be agitated by
gales of wind or by currents of water, tide or flood, in open frames, as
described in the Drawing hereto annexed, and marked No. 1, well fitte.l
and joined, and compacted together by iron or copper bolts, and other ties and
fastenings; which frames I secure, floating on the surface of the said waters,
by iron chains or by ropes, or cables, attached by suitable means to the said
open frames, and also either attached to strong anchors or other moorings let
down to the bottom of the said waters, or where the situation of the shore or
coast renders it desirable, secured by common and well-known means to the
said shore or coast, or to stone or other piers or jetties, or to causeways or
projecting points or parts of land; or I secure the said frames, floating as
aforesaid, partly by one and partly by another or others of these modes, as the
case may require. And further I do proportion the bulk and magnitude of the
said open frames, and also the strength and thickness of the materials of which
they are made, according to the estimated or reputed powers or force of the
said waters when agitated and driven by gales of wind, or impelled by current
of water, tide, or flood; and in places where the said waters are liable to

page_text: any considerable agitation, I do, in proportion to the violence of such agitation,
increase the heighth of the said open flames by additional logs or pieces of
timber similar to those already mentioned, and placed vertically above each
other, as represented in the Drawing hereto annexed, and marked No. 2; and
I lay the said open frames on the said surface of the said waters so as to
oppose the generally strongest. impulse by their longest sides or broadsides;
and I arrange the said open frames in one or more series, or place them
separately, or in such numbers and in such positions, and at such distance
from the shore and from each other, and connected together by other suitable
ropes, chains, or cables, or not, as I consider best. calculated to protect the
particular place meant or intended to be protected from the violent agitation
or impulse of the said waters. And I do further declare that the thickness.
and length of the said logs or pieces of timber, and also the heighth and
magnitude of the said open frames must be regulated by the agitation and
force of the said waters to which they may be exposed, so that I cannot moro
particularly describe them than they are herein and hereby described and.
set forth. But I do further declare that I consider the thickness and lengths
of the said logs or pieces of timber, and the magnitude of the said open'
frames, as described in the annexed Drawings, marked Nos. 1 and 2, respec-
tively, are of medium dimensions and thickness, nor can I more particularly
state the number of the said open frames it may be necessary to use for the
protection of any particular place, nor in what particular position they must
be placed, either with regard to each other, or to the shore or land, as
their number and position must depend upon the nature of the places to be
protected, and the peculiar agitation of the water to which they are liable.
And whereas it may sometimes happen that, from the peculiar situation of the
place where the said open frames may be stationed, or from the nature of the
wood of which they may be constructed, or from the accumulation of sea-
weed, or other marine substances, or by the timber becoming saturated with
water, it may be necessary or desirable to render them more buoyant; now
I do hereby declare that in such cases I encrease their buoyancy by firmly
fixing thereto empty barrels or hollow buoys, or by any other mode usually
practised for a similar purpose, and as from the situations of the place where
such open frames are stationed, it may appear most adviscable or convenient.
And I do further declare that I do not consider myself confined to any precise
shape of the said several open frames, or to any.particular number of pieces of
which they may be composed, but that I consider myself entitled to construct
them of such a shape and with such a number of pieces as the situation

page_text: and circumstances of the place for which they are intended may seem to
require, adhering, however, to the general mode of arrangement herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John White, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twelfth day of March, in the year of our Lord, One 5
thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED that on the Twelfth day of March, in the
year of our Lord 1824, the aforesaid John White came before our said Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and:
all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the:
Statute made-for that purpose.
T