IMPROVEMENTS IN RENDERING WOOD, CORE, LEATHER, WOVEN AND FELTED FABRICS, ROPES AND CORDAGE, STONE AND PLASTERS OR COMPOSITIONS, EITHER MORE DURABLE, LESS PERVIOUS TO WATER, OR LESS INFLAMABLE, AS MAY BE REQUIRED FOR VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BETHELL, of Mecklenburgh Square, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria the First,
by Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Eleventh day of July, in the second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Bethell, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said John Bethell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said John Bethell, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, shall at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RENDERING WOOD,
CORE, LEATHER, WOVEN AND FELTED FABRICS, ROPES AND CORDAGE, STONE AND
PLASTERS OR COMPOSITIONS, EITHER MORE DURABLE, LESS PERVIOUS TO WATER,
OR LESS INFLAMABLE, AS MAY BE REQUIRED FOR VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
John Bethell, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, parti-
cularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in

page_text: what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled 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
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
John Bethell, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof; that is to say:-
My Invention of Improvements in Rendering Wood, Cork, Leather, Woven
and Felted Fabrics, Ropes and Cordage, Stone and Plaster or Compositions,
either more Durable, or less Pervious to Water, or less Inflamable, as may
be required for various Useful Purposes, consists in more perfectly impreg-
nating such articles, in manner herein-after described, with various mixtures
or solutions herein-after mentioned, so that they may be saturated throughout
with such mixtures and solutions, whereby they are rendered either more
durable, less pervious to water, or less inflamable, according to the different
mixture or solution with which they are impregnated. To explain my Inven-
tion more clearly, and to show how it is carried into effect, I will, first,
describe the various forms of apparatus or means for more thoroughly impreg-
nating the articles with the mixtures and solutions; then, secondly, the
mixtures or solutions; and, thirdly, state with what mixtures or solutions each
description of article is to be impregnated, as aforesaid, to render it either
more durable, less pervious to water, or less inflamable, as may be required
for various useful purposes.
First, as to the various apparatus or means for more thoroughly impreg-
nating the above-named articles with the mixtures or solutions herein-after
described. These forms of apparatus are constructed for the purpose of
forcing the various mixtures or solutions herein-after named into the inte-
rior of the above-named articles, either by means of hydrostatic or pneu-
matic pressure, aided in some cases by exhausting the pores of the articles
of the atmospheric air contained therein, or by boiling the articles in vacuo,
or, as to wood, by placing the but ends of trees, immediately after they
are felled, in vessels containing the solutions of the first class herein-after
described, so that the solutions may circulate with the sap throughout the
interior of the tree, and thus thoroughly impregnate the wood. The various
apparatus I will now describe. An air and water tight vessel or tank must
be made of strong metal, of any form that may be preferred (one made like
the circular wrought-iron boilers for high-pressure steam engines answers very

page_text: well), strong enough to withstand an internal pressure of two hundred pounds to
the square inch, having a lid or door to it which is made to screw on air-tight.
The tank is fitted on the top with a common steam-boiler safety valve, and it
is connected by one pipe having a stopcock or valve in it with an exhausting
air pump, and by another pipe likewise fitted with a stopcock, with a pump
for forcing liquid into the tank made like the pump for forcing water into the
hydrostatic presses. This form of apparatus is well known, and can be made
by any engineer. The articles to be impregnated are put into the tank and
the lid screwed on air-tight, the cocks in the pipes leading to the pumps being
shut; the tank is then filled with the desired mixture or solution through a
pipe having a stopcock in it, which is then shut, and the cock in the pipe
leading to the air pump being opened, that pump is set to work for the
purpose of exhausting or drawing the air out of the tank, and also out of the
pores of the various articles, after which the liquid, mixture, or solution will
penetrate into and fill up those pores before occupied by the air, more
particularly if the tank is kept heated, which may be done in any convenient
manner. But for some articles this may not be found sufficient, and in such
cases the air pump, after having exhausted the tank, is stopped, the cock or
valve shut, and the liquid force pump set to work (its cock being previously
opened) to force some of the same mixture or solution into the tank until the
required degree of pressure is obtained. The working of the liquid forcing
pump must be repeated every one or two hours, as the articles, by absorbing
the mixture or solution, cause the pressure to diminish. The degree of
pressure to which it is determined to work up to is regulated by loading the
safety valve with the appropriate weights, and as soon as the pressure of the
condensed liquid exceeds the weight in the valve the liquid is forced out of
the valve, and the pressure within reduced. In impregnating wood by this
apparatus I have found that the process is much expedited by placing the logs
of wood in the tank in a perpendicular or slanting position, so that the
but ends of the logs may be at the bottom of the tank, and their upper
ends a little above the surface of the liquid. In this case, as soon as the
exhausting process is commenced with the air pump, the air travels freely up
the longitudinal pores of the wood, and the liquid follows it, entering into such
pores at the bottom or butt end of the log and following the air as it is drawn
out of them at the top by the air pump. It may not be necessary with some
very porous articles to use both the processes of exhausting the tank of air by
the air pump and forcing in the liquids by the bydrostatic force pump, but
either one or the other of the processes as is most convenient may be used,

page_text: and will be found to impregnate the articles sufficiently. The form of appa-
ratus above described is that which I prefer using, but it is evident that the
pressing or forcing the liquid mixtures or solutions into the articles by means
of pneumatic or hydrostatic pressure may be obtained in various other modes,
some of which I will mention. Steam at very high pressure may be let into
the tank through a pipe over the surface of the liquid within, thereby pressing
on it with considerable force; or condensed air might be pumped in for the
same purpose; or an hydrostatic force may be obtained in the closed tank by
connecting it by means of a pipe having a stopcock in it with a cistern placed
at a considerable height above the level of the tank, when upon the cock
being opened the pressure of the liquid through the pipe from the elevated
cistern will be increased in the tank in proportion to the altitude of the
cistern over the tank. Another mode of impregnating wood is by means of
bags made of sheet caoutchouc or air and water proof cloth large enough to
hold about two gallons, which are made open at one end, into which the but
ends of the pieces of wood are placed, and the edges of the bags tied very
firm and close to the pieces of wood by means of small lines wound several
times round the outside edges of the bags over the pieces of wood, and to the
other ends of the bags are fitted small pipes furnished with stopcocks, which
proceed either to an elevated cistern containing the liquid with which it is
desired to impregnate the wood as above described, or else to a liquid forcing
pump as above mentioned. When the cock in the pipe is opened the liquid in
the cistern, by its greater altitude, will force its way into the pores of the wood,
or when the pipe is connected with the pump the hydrostatic pressure caused
by the pump when worked will force the liquid into the pores of the wood.
One cistern or pump will thus be sufficient to impregnate many pieces of
wood at once. Trees that have been just cut down may be rapidly impreg-
nated in this manner, and many such new fallen trees will be thoroughly
impregnated in a few days with the solutions of the first class hereafter men-
tioned, by merely placing the but ends in troughs or open tanks filled with the
solutions which will circulate with the sap throughout the whole tree. Skins
of leather and fabrics of any kind may be impregnated in a similar manner
by sewing them together in the form of bags, having pipes leading to an
elevated cistern or pump, as above described, through which the solutions or
mixtures may be forced into the bags and through every pore of the skins or
fabrics. Pipes made of leather or of folds of 'thick canvass can in this
manner be made less pervious to water with the mixtures or solutions here-
after mentioned for that purpose, by closing one end of the pipes and forcing

page_text: the liquid mixtures in at the other end. Any of the articles may also be
impregnated by placing them in the tank above described, exhausting the air
thereout by the air pump, and then applying heat in any convenient manner
to the tank until the solution or mixture therein is made to boil, which
is commonly called boiling in vacuo.
Secondly, as to the mixtures or solutions to be used with either of the above
forms of apparatus for impregnating the various articles. To describe these
more clearly I have divided them into three classes, the first class containing
such as are applicable to render certain of the articles above named more
durable; the second class, such as will render all the above-named articles
more durable and less pervious to water; and the third class, such as will
render them less infamanie
Tender inem less innamanie
THE FIRST CLASS.
Number 1. Solution of sulphate of iron. One pound of the salt to be
dissolved in two or three gallons of water and to be used as soon as dissolved,,
or the pyroligneous iron liquor used by dyers mixed with about half its
quantity of water..
2. Sulphate of copper. One pound of the salt dissolved in three or four
gallons of water.
3. The waters of copper mines, and also the waters of streams or brooks
in a copper country which contain copper suspended in solution, in them.
4. Chloride or chlorate of copper. One pound dissolved in four gallons of
water.
5. The yellow chromate of potash. One pound dissolved in four gallons of
water.
6. Refuse lime water from gasworks. This liquor must be allowed to
rest for several days until the lime is precipitated to the bottom, when the
supernatant liquor may be drawn off and used to impregnate wood.
I would here remark, that I prefer that the solution of chromate of potash
and of the refuse lime liquor of the gas works should be forced into the pores
of the wood in manner above mentioned, but I do not mean to confine myself
to the mere impregnating the wood therewith in such manner; but I do claim
the use of chromate of potash and of the said refuse lime liquor, in any
manner that may be preferred, for the purpose of rendering wood more
durable, as part of this my Invention.

page_text: penetrate the articles of which it is to be used, and to which may be added
a portion of caoutchouc or black rosin, which is incorporated therewith
by heat.
8. Coal tar obtained from gas works, thinned with from one third to one
half of its quantity with the essential oil or spirit obtained by the distillation of
coal tar. That which I use is the common spirit left after the naptha is obtained,
and commonly called in the trade "dead oil." Either caoutchouc or rosin
may be added to this mixture if required, by dissolving the caoutchouc or
rosin in the coal tar and oil by heat, or by adding the well-known caoutchouc
paste or varnish to the tar and oil, heating the mixture and stirring it well
until the caoutchouc is thoroughly mixed with the tar. From one quarter to
half a pound of caoutchouc, or half pound of black rosin to one gallon of
tar and oil, may be used; but it will be necessary that more of the dead
oil should be added to thin it sufficiently to penetrate the wood, &c. The
foreign bitumens or asphaltes may be used instead of the coal tar, but they
will require a greater proportion of dead oil or other volatile oil to thin them
sufficiently.
Number 9. Vegetable tar, as Archangel or Stockholm. These tars contain
an acid which is injurious, and therefore before using them I free them from
it by agitating them for some time with lime water, or by throwing into the
tubs or vessels in which the tar stands a quantity of old rusty iron or iron
slag, and this 'prepared tar is then mixed with the above-named dead oil, or
with the spirit distilled from itself; but 1 prefer the dead oil, as it is cheaper.
Caoutchouc or rosin may be added thereto if desired, in manner described in
No. 8.
Number 10. Whale oil, cod fish oil, or any other fish oil, mixed with from
one third to one half of dead oil.
11. The same as Number 10, with the addition of sulphur, as three ounces
of sulphur dissolved by heat in every gallon of the mixture, Number 10.
12. Boiled or drying linseed oil mixed with oil or spirits of turpentine.
13. Boiled or drying linseed oil, to which caout. paste is added, as about
one half pound of caout. paste to every gallon of linseed oil.
14. Rape oil in which caout. is mixed as in Number 13.
15. Solutions of caout. in spirits of naptha or turpentine, or any other
spirits.
16. Bees wax dissolved in spirits of turpentine, as about one pound of
wax dissolved in one gallon of spirits of turpentine.
THE THIRD CLASS.
discaluzul in
the wution

page_text: pound to five or six gallons of boiling water (soluble glass is well known, and
the mode of making it is fully described in several chemical and other
books).
18. Four pounds of alum, eight pounds of potash or soda, two pounds of"
borax, and four ounces of glue or starch dissolved in twenty gallons of warm
or boiling water; the articles to be dissolved in the water in the order in
which they are named. In describing the solutions and mixtures above
named, I have given the proportions of the ingredients composing the distinct.
solutions and mixtures, and also the separate solutions and mixtures which I
have found to answer best, but I do not mean to confirm myself to these
proportions, or to the use of these solutions or mixtures separately, because the
ingredients composing each solution and mixture may be mixed in different
proportions, and several of these solutions or mixtures may be combined with
each other in order to produce the desired effects.
Thirdly, as to the different mixtures or solutions with which the different
artitles are to be impregnated. Wood may be impregnated in manner above
mentioned with either of the solutions No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, of the first class,
to render it more durable. When No. 1 is used, and it is intended to place
the wood where it will be exposed to the weather, I recommend that the
wood be painted or tarred over, which will not be necessary when placed in the
interior of a house, or under cover. To render wood more durable, and less
pervious to water, I use any or either of the mixtures No. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12;
or 13, of the second class, according to the different purpose to which the wood
is to be applied. The mixtures No. 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11, are chiefly applicable
to wood that is much exposed to the weather, as for railroad sleepers, piles,
out-door posts and fences, &c., &c. For wood intended to be polished I use
No. 12, which peculiarly fits it to take a high polish; and for wood that it is
desirable to render tough, such as carriage wheels, frames of machines, &c., &c.,
I use No. 13: The mode of impregnating wood by means of bags, as above
described, or new-fallen trees, by the circulation of the sap, is not applicable
to impregnating wood with either of these last-named solutions of the second
class, but in such cases the wood must be impregnated in the tank in manner'
above mentioned. Cork may be rendered more durable and less pervious to
water by impregnating it in manner above mentioned with several of the
solutions above named, but I prefer using either No. 12, 13, 14, or 15.
Leather I impregnate in manner, above mentioned with either of the mixtures
No. 12, 13, 14, 15, or 16 of the second class respectively, to render it more
durable and less pervious to water. In this manner boots and shoes may be

page_text: rendered less pervious to water after they are made. To render woven and
felted fabrics, including paper, more durable and less pervious to water, I
impregnate them in manner above named with either of the mixtures No. 12,
13, 14, 15, or 16, and besides these; canvass may be impregnated with either
of the solutions No. 2, 3, or 4, to render it more durable. To render ropes
and cordage more durable and less pervious to water, I impregnate them in
manner above mentioned with either of the mixtures No. 12, 13, 14, or 15.
All descriptions of porous stones, such as Portland stone, freestone, chalk, some
marbles, and plaster of Paris, or such compositions as are made with burnt
clay, or with plaster of Paris and cements in imitation of plaster or stone, are
to be impregnated in manner above named with the solutions No. 1, 2, or 3 of
the First Class to render them more durable, and with either of the mixtures
of the Second Class to render them more durable and less pervious to water.
For Portland stone, freestone, chalk, or any other porous stone, No. 8, 9, 10,
or 11, may be used. Statues or architectural ornaments made of Portland
stone or freestone when impregnated with these mixtures will become infinitely
more durable, and if the color is objected to, they can be afterwards painted or
colored in any color that is desired; marble ornaments or statues when
impregnated with either of the mixtures No. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, or 16, will
resist the injury generally caused by exposure to the weather, and become
more durable and less pervious to water, which, congealing in its pores by the
frost, causes it frequently to crumble away. Statues or ornaments made of
plaster of Paris, or with the compositions above mentioned, must be impreg
nated with either No. 1, 2, and 3 of the First Class, or with either No. 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, or 16 of the Second Class. Bricks impregnated with either
No. 7, 8, or 9 would be very durable and less pervious to water, and useful
for many purposes, particularly for building foundations of houses or cellars
in damp situations, or for paving the streets, the joints being made with
asphalte or bituminous matter instead of common lime mortar. All the
articles above named may be rendered less inflamable by impregnating them
in manner above described with either of the solutions of the Third Class,
No. 17 or 18.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eleventh day of January, in
the second year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said John
Bethell came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.