A NEW IMPROVEMENT ON A COMPOSITION CALLED NAVAL BLACK VARNISH, FOR PAYING YARDS, MASTS, BLOCKS, AND BENDS, ANCHORS, &C, OF SHIPS, AND WHICH IMPROVEMENT IS STATED TO SERVE IN A VERY SUPERIOR DEGREE FOR THE ABOVE PURPOSES, AND ALSO FOR SHIPS' BOTTOMS, AND FOR LAYING ON COPPER FOR SHEATHING OF SHIPS, MUCH BETTER THAN ANYTHING HITHERTO KNOWN, AND THE OIL EXTRACTED IN THE PROCESS IS REPRESENTED TO BE OF GREAT USE TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH OF MAN ON BOARD SHIPS AND IN HOSPITALS, AND IN ANY SITUATIONS, BY PURIFYING THE AIR
Year: 1790

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, MATTHEW
LUSCOMBE, of Stonehouse, near Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Merchant,
sendeth greeting.
WHEREAS in and by His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of October last past, reciting that the
said Matthew Luscombe had, by his Petition, humbly represented unto His
said Majesty that he had, after much labour and expence, found out and
invented "A NEW IMPROVEMENT ON A COMPOSITION CALLED NAVAL BLACK
VARNISH, FOR PAYING YARDS, MASTS, BLOCKS, AND BENDS, ANCHORS, &C, OF
SHIPS, AND WHICH IMPROVEMENT IS STATED TO SERVE IN A VERY SUPERIOR DEGREE
FOR THE ABOVE PURPOSES, AND ALSO FOR SHIPS' BOTTOMS, AND FOR LAYING ON
COPPER FOR SHEATHING OF SHIPS, MUCH BETTER THAN ANYTHING HITHERTO KNOWN,
AND THE OIL EXTRACTED IN THE PROCESS IS REPRESENTED TO BE OF GREAT USE
TO PRESERVE THE HEALTH OF MAN ON BOARD SHIPS AND IN HOSPITALS, AND IN
ANY SITUATIONS, BY PURIFYING THE AIR," and that he, the said Matthew
Luscombe, conceived the same would be of great public utility; that he was
the first and true Inventor thereof, and that the same had never been made or
used by any other person or persons, to the best of his knowledge and belief
(except by Mr. Edmund Saunders, of Plymouth aforesaid, Merchant, to whom
he had communicated the same); and praying that His said Majesty would be

page_text: graciously pleased to grant unto him, his executors, administrators, and assigns,
His Royal Letters Patent under His Great Seal of Great Britain, for the sole
use, benefit, and advantage of his said Invention, within England, Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years, according
to the Statuto in that case made and provided; His said Majesty, of His
especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, did thereby, for Himself,
His heirs and successors, give and grant unto the said Matthew Luscombe,
his exccutors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
solo priviledge and authority, that he, the said Matthew Luscombe, his
executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by himself and
themselves, or by his and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or
such others as he, the said Matthew Luscombe, his executors, administrators,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others; from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend his said Invention
within that part of His Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner
as to him, the said Matthew Luscombe, his executors, administrators, and
assigns, or any or either of them, should in his or their discretions seem meet,
and that he, the said Matthew Luscombe, his executors, administrators, and
assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit,
commodity, and advantago from time to time coming. growing, accruing, and
arising by reason of the said Invention, for and during the term of years
therein mentioned, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said license, powers,
priviledges, and advantages therein-before granted or mentioned to be granted
unto the said Matthew Luscombe, his 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 immediately ensuing, and fully to be
compleat and ended, according to the Statute in such case made and provided;
in which said Patent it is provided, that if, at any time during the term thereby
granted, it should be made appear to His said Majesty, His heirs or successors,
or any six or more of His or their Privy Council, that the said
grant is contrary
to law, or prejudicial or inconvenient to His subjects in general, or that the said
Invention is not a new Invention, as to the public use and exercise theroof,
in that said part of His Kingdom of Great Britain called England, Elis
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed aforesaid, or not
invented or found out by the said Matthew Luscombe as aforesaid; or if the
said Matthew Luscombe, his executors or administrators, or any person or
persons who should at any time or times thereafter, during the continuance of

page_text: the said grant, have or claim any right, title, or interest in law or equity of,
in, or to the power, priviledge, and authority of the sole use and benefit of the
said Invention, should make any transfer or assignment of the said liberty and
priviledge, or any share or shares of the benefit or profit thereof, or should
declare any trust thereof, to or for any number of persons exceeding five,
or should open, or cause to be opened any book or books thereof for
public subscriptions to be made by any number of persons exceeding five,
in order to the raising any sum or sums of money under pretence of carrying
on the said liberty or priviledge thereby granted, or should by him or them-
selves, or his or their agents or servants, receive any sum or sums of money
whatsoever, of any number of persons exceeding in the whole the number of
five, for such or the like intents or purposes, or should act as a corporate
body, or should divide the benefit of the said Letters Patent, or the liberty
and priviledges thereby granted, into any number of shares exceeding five, or
should do or commit any act, matter, or thing, contrary to the true intent and
meaning of a certain Act of Parliament therein particularly mentioned; or if
the said Matthew Luscombe should not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of his said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under his hand and seal, and cause the same to
be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month 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 should utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything
herein-before contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, that the said Matthew Luscombe, in pursuance of the
said Letters Patent, and the proviso therein for that purpose contained, doth,
by this present Instrument in writing under his hand and scal, declare and
specify, describe and ascertain, the nature of his said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be prepared, in manner following (that is to say) :— ·
The size of my still is about nine hundred gallons, which the proportion
must be taken from. In this still I place as much thin iron as it will con-
veniently hold, with eleven to fourteen barrels of choice Stockholm tar,
and about four hundred and thirty gallons of oil of tar; thus prepared, the
distillation is begun, and the first day from sixty to one hundred gallons of the
fine oil mentioned in the Patent is extracted, and so on from day to day until
the varnish be a fine japan black in colour and in size for masts, yards, &c",
of fine thin tar for bottoms, &c, until it be as stout, when cold, as you can
just penetrate with your finger. If it be found, after it is brought to a proper
size, that it be not sufficiently black, from not having imbibed a proper quantity

page_text: of iron (which will sometimes happen from the materials differing in quality)..
more oil of tar must be put in the still at discretion, and the process continued
in the manner before mentioned, until it become perfectly black in colour and
in size, as before noted.
In witness whereof the said Matthew Luscombe hath hereunto set his
band and seal, the Twenty-second day of November, in the thirty-first
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, (by tho
grace of God) of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender
of the Faith, and so forth, and in the year of our Lord One thousand
soven hundred and ninety.