AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN: THE COMPOSITION AND PREPARATION OF A METAL FOR THE MANUFACTURING THEREOF INTO SHEETS OR: PLATES, AND THE APPLICATION WHEN SO PREPARED AND MANUFACTURED TO THE PRESERVATION OF SHIPS' BY SHEATHING OR COVERING THEIR BOTTOMS THEREWITH, AND AN IMPROVEMENT' OR 'IMPROVEMENTS OF THE CHAIN PUMP USED ON BOARD SHIPS
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM' THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
COLLINS; of Maize Hill, near Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most. Excellent Majesty King George the Third did;
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland,. bearing date at Westminster, the Sixth day of
May, in the fifty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said William Collins, iný exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Collins, my exors,
adñors, and assigns, should. and lawfully might, during the term of years
therein mentioned, make;, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed! my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT
OR IMPROVEMENTS IN: THE COMPOSITION AND PREPARATION OF A METAL FOR THE
MANUFACTURING THEREOF INTO SHEETS OR: PLATES, AND THE APPLICATION WHEN SO
PREPARED AND MANUFACTURED TO THE PRESERVATION OF SHIPS' BY SHEATHING OR
COVERING THEIR BOTTOMS THEREWITH, AND AN IMPROVEMENT' OR 'IMPROVEMENTS OF
THE CHAIN PUMP USED ON BOARD SHIPS;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained. a proviso that if I,.the said William Collins; shall 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 inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of

page_text: 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, shall utterly cease, determine, and
become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Collins, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following descriptions thereof (that is to say): -
The principle of my Invention or Improvement of Sheets or Plates for
Sheathing Ships is, the application of sheets composed or mixed metals in lieu
of copper sheets. My mixed metal is of the nature or kind of metal known by
the name of bronze, which is a mixture of copper and tin in various propor-
tions; but I do not confine myself to any precise mixture of those metals or
exclude any addition of other metals or semi-metals, provided the properties of
bronze metal are preserved. For carrying this principle into effect I have
found that eighty parts of copper and twenty of tin produce a mixed metal
that answers the intended purpose. To prepare it for extension into sheets
proper for sheathing ships, it is. cast into ingots or pieces of a convenient
form for passing between the rollers generally used for extending metals. I
have found metals of this composition undergo the process of rolling and
extend best at a low red heat, just visible in the dark; but the experience of
workmen on actual trial will afford a more certain rule in respect to this
matter, and the process of heating and rolling; than can be exactly defined or
described in words, as small variations may take place in the preparation of the
metals.
The principle of my Invention or improvement on the chain pump, as
usually made, consists in the application of a saucer of a construction which
produces a greater effect, and retains that effect much longer. It is performed
as follows: Instead of the flat saucer now used, in which the edges of the
leather act against the side of the chamber, which, when worn, they do not
fill, and consequently suffer a proportionate quantity of water to fall back, I
construct a metal saucer of a dished form, that receives the leather and keeps it
in such a position that the sides of the leather act against the chamber by the
pressure of the water in the manner of the piston leather of a common lifting
pump; by which means the chain pump combines the best properties of the
lifting pump, with its own superior qualities of working thro' the foul water
and obstructions usually met with in the well of a ship. To prevent the

page_text: leather being caught or turned back a circular plate is fixed over it, that
admits of the action of the leather but defends it from injury.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Collins, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventeen.