IMPROVEMENTS IN PREVENTING PERSONS FROM BEING DROWNED
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
WHITE WHITE, of Charlton Marshall, in the County of Dorset, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Ninth day of December, in the third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Samuel White White, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Samuel White White, my exors, admors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel White White, my exors, adiňors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PREVENTING PERSONS FROM BEING DROWNED;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that I, the said Samuel White White, shall 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 Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately

page_text: after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large'
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Samuel White White, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof
(that is to say):-
-
My Invention consists of "An Aquatic Life Hat," with the extension of
the same principles to caps and bonnets, or any other covering for the head to
which it is applicable. The said bat is made in the first instance waterproof,
and may be made of any suitable material or shape. And the first part of
the Invention consists in dividing by a waterproof material as much of the
upper portion of the hat from the under portion as to have a sufficient depth
to admit of its being worn on the head, or by any other mode or contrivance
whatsoever that will prevent the water from entering or filling the whole or
any part of that upper portion.
The next part of the Invention consists in rendering the lining of it
subservient to its buoyancy, by making it waterproof and very full and drawn
together in the centre, leaving one or more apertures to admit the air, that
the lining when pulled may come freely out of the hat, so that when the hat
falls off the head (provided it is connected to a person's dress by a cord or
ribbon, and which it ought always to be) the lining becomes immediately
inverted in the form of a bag, and by grasping the neck or aperture of which,
or by any other means closing the said aperture or apertures and pulling the
hat under water, the person is powerfully supported without exertion, and
consequently prevented from drowning. Or the hat, after being made
waterproof, may be varied in its construction, so as to have the waterproof
lining without dividing the hat into an upper and under portion; or it may
be made with the above division without the waterproof lining, for in the two
latter forms the hat would be sufficiently buoyant to preserve life, although
it must be at once obvious that the first of the three modes is greatly superior,
and scarcely admits of a comparison.
__
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel White White, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Third day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty.
SAM WHITE (L.S.). WHITE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1840, the aforesaid Samuel White White came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
5 above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.