"A METHOD, ENTIRELY NEW, OF MAKING SALT FROM SEA WATER, BY APPLYING AND ADAPTING A CERTAIN MACHINE NOT HITHERTO USED FOR THAT PURPOSE, WHICH MACHINE IS ALSO SO ALTERED AND CONTRIVED AS THEREBY TO EXTRACT AND DRAW OFF SPIRITS IN A SHORTER TIME AND AT A LESS EXPENCE THAN WAS THEN PRACTICED, AND YET PERFECTLY PURE AND LIMPID
Year: 1754

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wec, KEMP
BOWMAN, of the Parish of St. Mary, Rotherhith, in the County of Surry,
Gentleman, and WILLIAM CATHERWOOD, of the Parish of St. Luke, in the
County of Middlesex, Apothecary and Surgeon, send greeting.
WHEREAS wee, the said Kemp Bowman and William Catherwood, did, by
our Petition, humbly represent unto His present most Excellent Majesty King
George the Second, that wee were the sole Inventors of "A METHOD, ENTIRELY
NEW, OF MAKING SALT FROM SEA WATER, BY APPLYING AND ADAPTING A CERTAIN
MACHINE NOT HITHERTO USED FOR THAT PURPOSE, WHICH MACHINE IS ALSO SO
ALTERED AND CONTRIVED AS THEREBY TO EXTRACT AND DRAW OFF SPIRITS IN A
SHORTER TIME AND AT A LESS EXPENCE THAN WAS THEN PRACTICED, AND YET
PERFECTLY PURE AND LIMPID," and which wee had, with great labour, industry,
and application, and at a considerable expence, brought to a great perfection,
so as to be of general utility and benefit to His said Majesty's subjects, as by
repeated experiments wee could fully demonstrate; wce therefore most humbly
prayed His Majesty to grant unto us, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, for the
sole use and benefit of our said Invention, within that part of His Kingdom
of Great Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years, according to the Statute
in such case made and provided; His said Majesty, being willing to give
encouragement to all arts and inventions which may be for the publick good,
did, by His Letters Patent under Ilis Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing

page_text: date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of February, in the twenty-seventh
year of His reign, of His especial grace, certain knowledge, and meer motion,
give and grant unto us, the said Kemp Bowman and William Catherwood,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole priviledge and authority, that wec, the said Kemp Bowman and William
Catherwood, our executors, admors, and assigns, and every of us, by ourselves
& themselves, or by our deputys, servants, or agents, or such others as wee
or they should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter, during the term of years therein and herein-after
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, our
said Invention within that part of Great Britain called England, the
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to
us, the said Kemp Bowman and William Catherwood, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, shall seem meet, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the
said lycence, powers, priviledges, & advantages thereby granted unto us, the
said Kemp Bowman and William Catherwood, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years
from the date of the said Letters Patent next and imediately ensuing, and
fully to be compleat and ended; in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso obliging us, the said Kemp Bowman and William Catherwood,
particularly to describe and atcertain the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
our hands and seals, or the hand and seal of one of us, and to cause the
same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four
kalendar months next after the date of the said Letters Patent, otherwise
the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages thereby granted
should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the said in
part recited Letters Patent (relation being thereunto had) may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YEE, that wee, the said Kemp Bowman and William
Catherwood, do hereby declare that our new method of drawing off spirits by
distillation, in a cheaper and more expeditious manner than is now practised,
is performed in the following manner (to wit):
==
Instead of the still-head now in use, they have one of a conical figure, from
the top of which cone there proceeds a swan-neck, and at the bottome of the
cone within there is a groove all round to receive the vapour which condenses
against the sides, which vapour so condensing against the sides and running
into the above groove, is let out by a pipe proceeding from that groove into
the lower part of the swan-neck; by which Invention almost all the steam

page_text: that rises is caught and let out, so that time, trouble and fuel are thereby
saved.
And their new method of making salt from sea water is, by boyling the
sea water in a cover'd vessel so that the water may run off by destillation;
and when the water is almost all run off, to empty the vessel into an open
pan to boil off the remainder, and so in the conclusion to take care of the salt
in the pans, as in the method now practised.
In witness whereof, wee, the said Kemp Bowman and William Cather-
wood, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Seventeenth day of
June, in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of His said Majesty
King George the Second, and in the year of our Lord One thousand
seven hundred and fifty-four.
AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the Seventeenth day of June afore-
said, the above-named Kemp Bowman and William Catherwood came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledg'd the Writing
aforesaid, and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above said.
And also the said Writing was stamped according to the form of the Statute
made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King William and Queen
Mary, and so forth.
Inrolled the said Seventeenth day of June, in the year aforesaid.