A CHEMICAL COMBINATION OR COMPOUND FOR RENDERING CLOTH, WOOD, PAPER, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES INDESTRUCTABLE BY FIRE, AND ALSO PRESERVING THEM FROM THE RAVAGES OF INSECTS
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EUGENE
RICHARD LADISLAS DE BREZA, of Paris, now of Saint Martin's Street, Leicester
Square, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, 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 Twentieth day of February, in the first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Eugene Richard Ladislas de' Breza, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Eugene Richard Ladislas de Breza,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Eugene Richard
Ladislas de' Breza, my exors, admors, 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 "A CHEMICAL COMBINATION OR COMPOUND FOR RENDERING CLOTH,
WOOD, PAPER, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES INDESTRUCTABLE BY FIRE, AND ALSO
PRESERVING THEM FROM THE RAVAGES OF INSECTS;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that I, the said Eugene Richard Ladislas de Breza,
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 after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in

page_text: appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Eugene Richard Ladislas de Breza, 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):-
The proportions of my chemical combination, compound, or mixture vary
according to the artcle for which it is intended to be used. I shall therefore
describe separately the mode of preparing it for several different kinds of
articles.
For undressed and unbleached goods, in two pints and a half of water,
which I heat to one hundred and ninety degrees of Fahrenheit, I throw one
ounce of alum, one ounce and a half of sulphate of ammonia, half an ounce
of boracic acid, one drachm of animal glue, the clearest I can get, and at
last one drachm of starch, diluted in a small quantity of water. Care must
be taken that every one of those products is dissolved separately in the above-
described order, and not one before the other, and previously to putting in the
starch, the heat is to be raised to at least two hundred and twelve degrees of
Fahrenheit. The goods are then dipped slowly into the solution, and when
well saturated they are pressed or wrung to eject any redundance, and are
then dried at the temperature I find best.
For printed and dyed goods, the solution is prepared as above stated; the
temperature of it is, however, only one hundred and forty degrees. The
goods are spread on a table, and I pass over them a sponge dipped into the
solution, taking care not to put too much of it, for fear of taking away the
color. If the goods are fast colors, I can dip them in the way already
described. I finish afterwards the operation as in the first process. For
common cartridges for which very close calico may be used, I prepare my
compound by adding to the mixture already described half an ounce more of
alum and half an ounce more of boracic acid, and employ half an ounce less
of sulphate of ammonia. When the calico is dry, I cover it with a light coat
of carbonate of lime and of animal glue, a composition similar to that used for
whitewashing.
For paper and pasteboard, the compound is as I have already stated,
except that I double the quantity of alum and of boracic acid, and that I
diminish by one half the sulphate of ammonia, which in every case must be
well purified from all excess of acid. If the paper or pasteboard are already
manufactured, I dip them in the compound, and I end the process as I have

page_text: mentioned for the other articles. But if the paper or pasteboard are still in
an incomplete or pulpy state, I mix the compound with the pulp prepared for
the making of paper or pasteboard, and their fabrication is finished in the usual
way.
For the canvas of theatre seneries, my compound is as follows:-Two pints
and a half of water, two ounces of alum, two ounces of sulphate of ammonia,
one ounce of boracic acid, half an ounce of glue, and four drachms of starch,
which I prepare and apply as I have stated before; but if the seneries
are already painted and in use, I paste on their inside or wrong side some of
the paper prepared as I have described.
I prepare every kind of wood and timber in the compound solution by
immersing them in it. I observe, however, that the wood or timber must at
least remain twenty-four hours in the solution, and be entirely covered by it;
and it is to be borne in mind that the time which they are to remain immersed
depends on the bulk and on the quality of the wood, the hard dense woods
requiring more immersion than the more tender and porous ones, and in every
case the temperature of the solution must be always at about one hundred and
sixty-eight degrees of Fahrenheit. I must also observe that my processes
applied to the several above-mentioned articles can be carried on with all the
machinery and engines with which these articles are generally either manu-
factured or prepared, my solution being only an additional process, not
interfering in any way whatever with their manufacture. The quantity of the
compound depends entirely on the quantity or bulk of the artcle to be
operated upon, and must consequently be prepared in due proportions. As my
compound contains boracic acid and sulphate of ammonia, it preserves entirely
in all climates every article saturated with it from the ravages of worms and of
insects. I do not mean to say that by my processes I prevent articles and
substances from being affected by fire, but only that its spread by flame is en-
tirely prevented and stopped, there being in fact no flame. When articles and
substances are well prepared, there is no danger of conflagration, such articles
or substances being only carbonized by heat.
And having now described my said Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, I declare that though in my processes, herein-before
described, I make use of some substances already known as having the
properties of preserving more or less articles and substances from the action
of fire, and from the ravages of insects, yet that what I claim as new, and of
my invention, is the use of alum, sulphate of ammonia, boracic acid, animal
glue, and starch, combined in the proportions, in the order, and at the
temperatures herein-before specified, and applied in the manner also herein-

page_text: before directed for the purpose of rendering cloth, wood, paper, and other
substances indestructable by fire, and also preserving them from the ravages
of insects. And such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge and
belief entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare
this to be my Specification of the same, aud that I do verily believe that this
my said Specification doth comply in all respects fully, and without reserve or
disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained, wherefore I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and
privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Eugene Richard Ladislas de' Breza, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.
EUGENIUS RICHARDS LADIS (L.B.) LANUS DE' BREZA.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of August, in
the year of our Lord 1888, the aforesaid Eugene Richard Ladislas de' Breza
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 above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twentieth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.