A PROCESS BY WHICH PLANKS AND OTHER SCANTLINGS OF WOOD OF EVERY DESCRIPTION WILL BE PREVENTED FROM SHRINKING, AND WILL BE ALTERED AND MATERIALLY IMPROVED IN THEIR DURABILITY, CLOSENESS OF GRAIN,, AND POWER OF RESISTING MOISTURE, SO AS TO BENDER THE SAME BETTER ADAPTED FOR SHIP BUILDING AND OTHER BUILDING PUR- POSES, FOR THE. CONSTRUCTION OF FURNITURE, AND ALL OTHER PURPOSES WHERE CLOSE AND COMPACT WOOD IS DESIRABLE, INBOMUCH THAT THE WOOD SO PREPARED WILL BECOME A NEW ARTICLE OF COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURE, WHICH I INTEND CALLING CONDENSED WOOD
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
FALCONER ATLEE, of Marchwood, in the County of Southampton, Gentleman,
send 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 Eleventh day of Janu-
ary, in the fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said James.
Falconer Atlee, His especial licence, that I, the said James Falconer Atlee,.
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Falconer
Atlee, my exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of therein
years
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "A PROCESS BY WHICH
PLANKS AND OTHER SCANTLINGS OF WOOD OF EVERY DESCRIPTION WILL BE PREVENTED
FROM SHRINKING, AND WILL BE ALTERED AND MATERIALLY IMPROVED IN THEIR
DURABILITY, CLOSENESS OF GRAIN,, AND POWER OF RESISTING MOISTURE, SO AS TO
BENDER THE SAME BETTER ADAPTED FOR SHIP BUILDING AND OTHER BUILDING PUR-
POSES, FOR THE. CONSTRUCTION OF FURNITURE, AND ALL OTHER PURPOSES WHERE CLOSE
AND COMPACT WOOD IS DESIRABLE, INBOMUCH THAT THE WOOD SO PREPARED WILL
BECOME A NEW ARTICLE OF COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURE, WHICH I INTEND CALLING
CONDENSED WOOD;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said James Falconer Atlee, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said.
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the

page_text: same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately 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
James Falconer Atlee, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention and manufacture, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed and carried into effect, is herein-after particularly set forth and
described, that is to say :-
The plank or scantlings of timber to be operated upon must first be reduced
by sawing, planeing, or other usual and known means into pieces, having two
of their opposite sides parallel to each other so as to produce as nearly as may
be equal thickness in the piece throughout, or from one end to the other, and
being so prepared I pass such timber or scantling between a pair of highly
polished cast iron or other metal cylinders in the nature of a flatting mill
or rolling press. The distance which these cylinders are asunder must of
course be regulated by the thickness of the piece of timber to be operated
upon; and in producing the pressure upon it especial care must be taken that
such pressure does not come on too rapidly, for that would have the effect of
splitting the wood or deranging the natural arrangement of its fibres, by which
it would be weakened instead of being condensed and improved. The pressure
must therefore be brought on very gradually, and the piece of wood or timber
to be condensed must be passed many times between the rollers, taking care
to increase their proximity and consequent pressure at each time of passing
the wood or timber. and to produce this increasing pressure by very slow
degrees, when it will be found that the sap or other moisture previously con-
tained in the wood will exude in very considerable quantities from the ends of
and sides of the piece, and that it will give way and condense in its thickness
without any tendency to disturb the natural grain or texture of the wood,
and without much effort to return back or swell into its original dimensions
again, even if wetted or exposed to damp. The wood so condensed becomes
much heavier and harder than similar wood without such treatment, and is
consequently less pervious to moisture, and therefore less liable to decay,
much stronger, and less subject to scratch or wear away, and it has the
important advantage of not shrinking by becoming dry or heated, and thus 3
it is rendered much more serviceable for many purposes, particularly in the
construction of wooden furniture and in ship building, where the shrinking of
dowells and trenails is often attended with serious disadvantages. In order to
expedite the process in condenscing wood and producing the beneficial effects

page_text: above enumerated without the trouble of adjusting the present cylinders at each
time when the wood has to pass between them in succession, I use and recom-
mend the use of a number of pairs of cylinders, fixed in a proper state of adjust-
ment one behind the other, so that as soon as the piece of wood or timber has
passed from between one pair of rollers another pair may be ready to receive it,
and to carry the compression further than it has been carried by the first pair,
and so any number of pairs of cylinders may be used in succession; but this is
evidently only for expedition's sake, as the same beneficial effects will be pro-
duced by one pair of pressing cylinders, provided they are set closer together in
B due and proper degree at each time in succession when the wood has to pass
between them. The requisite quantity of increased pressure cannot be described,
nor is it in all cases alike, because some woods, such as oak or mahogany, will
admit of a much greater pressure and higher condensation than fir or the slighter
woods, but the ratio increase of pressure, and the extent to which it should
be carried, will be very easily learnt by experience, and must, in many cases,
depend upon the purpose to which it is proposed to apply the condensed wood
when finished. For the formation of cylindrical dowells and trenails, I recom-
mend that the wood of which they are to be formed should first be pressed in
the form of plank, or else quartering of a proper size for their formation as
to diameter, and of any convenient length; this done, the corners may be
planed away or otherwise cut off, and the wood thus brought as nearly as
possible into a cylindrical form, when it is to be further pressed and finished by
passing it through a succession of slightly tapering holes in a steel plate, each
hole being a slight degree smaller than that which preceded, in the manner of
wiredrawing, except only that instead of drawing the wood through the
holes in the plate I find it more convenient to push it through them by the
application of any sufficient force.
On the whole, therefore, it will appear that the main object of 1 my Invention
is to produce an improvement in the quality of wood where durability and
hardness are objects to be obtained, for by my aforesaid process the softest
Honduras mahogany may be made equal in weight, hardness, durability, and
quality to the finest Spanish wood; and if one of the rollers is sufficiently
bright, a finished polish will be left upon the surface, and so of almost all the
several varieties of wood, which will all be more or less improved in quality by
the aforesaid mode of treatment.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Falconer Atlee, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand-eight hundred and twenty-five.
JAMES F. (L.B.) ATLEE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of July, in the year
of our Lord 1825, the aforesaid James Falconer Atlee came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification. afore-
said, 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.
Inrolled the Eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and twenty-five.