A CERTAIN NEW MANUFACTURE FOR FIRING EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Solomon Bickford and George Smith, both
of Tucking Mill, Camborne, in the County of Cornwall, Safety Fuze
Manufacturers, for the Invention of "A CERTAIN NEW MANUFACTURE FOR
FIRING EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Solomon Bickford
and George Smith at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 23rd May 1863.
We, the said JOHN SOLOMON BICKFORD and GEORGE SMITH, both of
Tucking Mill, Camborne, in the County of Cornwall, Safety Fuze Manu-
facturers, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention of "A CERTAIN
NEW MANUFACTURE FOR FIRING EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS," to be as follows, that
is to say-
We combine together by the ordinary processes employed in making
ropes strands of flax or yarns with gun cotton, so as to produce a new
manufacture available for firing gunpowder, explosive compounds, and
other purposes for which fuses are now employed.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Solomon Bickford and George Smith in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 21st November 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
SOLOMON BICKFORD and GEORGE SMITH, both of Tucking Mill, Camborne,
in the County of Cornwall, Safety Fuse Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John Solomon Bickford and George Smith, Her special licence that
we, the said John Solomon Bickford and George Smith, our executors,
adininistrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Solomon
Bickford and George Smith, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed,should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Chaunel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
A CERTAIN NEW MANUFACTURE FOR FIRING EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said John Solomon Bickford aud
George Smith, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, or one of our hands and scals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Solomon Bickford and George
Smith, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
muner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, that is to say:
We combine together by the ordinary processes employed in making
ropes strands of flax or yarns with gun cotton, so as to produce a new
manufacture available for firing gunpowder, explosive compounds, and
other purposes for which fuses are now employed..
For this purpose we proceed to manufacture a fuse in the same manner
as the ordinary" "Bickford fuse," the structure and appearance of which
is well known, but we insert in the centre of the fuse an inflammable yarn of
the nature of gun cotton in lieu or instead of the column of gunpowder

page_text: is
hitherto usually inserted. The inflammable yarn which we prefer for this
purpose gun cotton specially prepared by being soaked for about an
hour in dilute silicate of potash, after which it is washed in pure water,
after which it is dried and is then fit for use.
The apparatus employed in the manufacture of the ordinary "Bickford
fuse" will be adapted by any workman conversant with the manufacture of
fuses so as to introduce the inflammable yarn in lieu of the gunpowder.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that we
claim as our Invention, whereof the exclusive use is intended to be secured
by the said Letters Patent, a fuse having in its centre an inflammable yarn
for firing explosive compounds.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Solomon Bickford and George
Smith have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twentieth day of
November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three.
J. S. BICKPORD. (L.S.)
GEORGE SMITH. (L.S.)