AN IMPROVED MODE OF PREPARING OAKUM AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR CAULKING SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN WARD
TRENT, of Old Ford, Bow, in the County of Middlesex, Ropemaker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-first day of March, in the fifth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Edwin
Ward Trent, Her especial licence that I, the said Edwin Ward Trent, my
exors, adiiors,.and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edwin Ward Trent,
my exors, adiñiors, 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 of "AN IMPROVED
MODE OF PREPARING OAKUM AND OTHER FIBROUS SUBSTANCES FOR CAULKING SHIPS
AND OTHER VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Edwin Ward Trent, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the late 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
Edwin Ward Trent, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to
consist in preparing either new or picked oakum or other fibrous substances

page_text: to be used as oakum for caulking ships or vessels into even and soft rovings or
slivers, of suitable dimensions and equal sizo and substanco throughout their
length, being a great improvement on the present mode of rolling the oakum
on the thigh and knee of the caulker while in the act of caulking, as at present
adopted. And, in further compliance with the said proviso, I, tho said Edwin
Ward Trent, do hereby describo the manner in which my said Invention is to
be performed, by the following statement thereof (that is to say):―
proper
I take oakum, composed either of new hemp, hemp-tow, or any other suit-
able fibrous substance, or composed of old or second-hand ropes or rope yarns
picked in the ordinary manner; and if of the first or now kind, I prepare it as
follows:-A sufficient quantity of the fibrous substance is to be taken, and
if the fibres are too long, they must first be acted upon by a breaker or
breaking machine, to reduce them in length sufficiently to allow of their being
passed through the carding machino without clogging or hindering the 1
working of the same. It must then be subjected to the process of working it
through the card or ordinary carding machine, to equalize and straighten the
fibres, and to deliver the same in continuous bands or slivers of sufficient thick-
ness for the purpose of using for caulking; and fibrous substances which havo
never been tarred must then go through that process as follows:-A number
of bands or slivers, so produced as aforesaid, are then to bo spun or formed
into a stout strand or haul of yarn, of such a thickness as to pass properly
through a rope nipper to be tarred. Such strand or haul of yarn must then be
passed through tar, tar and tallow, tar and oil, or other suitable mixture, such
mixture being heated and kept at or near the boiling point, so as to render the
fibrous substance impervious to moisture, similarly to the tarring of yarn for
making ropes. After the yarns or hauls of yarn are so tarred, they must be
carefully separated into the original slivers delivered from the tow card, and
these slivers must be hung up to dry. While they are drying, the fibres of
the slivers may be opened or pulled apart a little, in order to increase their
bulk, as well as to prevent them from adhering too closely together previously
to being used. With regard to the ordinary picked oakum, or what may be
called second-hand fibrous substances, the same process must be followed in
preparing it into slivors of uniform size and substance for the caulker; but this
kind, being made from second-hand yarns, which have been formerly tarred,
need not be subjected to the processes of tarring or drying.
And whereas, I claim as my Invention, the preparing of oakum, whether
.from new hemp or tow, or from old second-hand stuff, as from ordinary picked
oakum, or from any other suitable fibrous substances, when to be used for
caulking ships or vessels, by passing it through suitable machines, and thus
forming it into even and soft rovings or slivers of suitable dimensions, and of

page_text: uniform size and substance throughout their length; and, if made of new
fibrous substances which have never been tarred before, then I further claim
the tarring and opening process when applied to such substances and for such
purpose as aforesaid, by which aforesaid improved mode of preparing oakum
I am enabled to prevent the inequality of substance now prevailing in the
strands of oakum twisted up by hand rolling on the thigh and knee of the
caulker, to save much time in caulking, and to secure a more perfect and even
filling of the seam to be caulked.
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, and that I do verily believe this my
said Specification doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or dis-
guise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
contained: wherefore I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and priviledge
to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Ward Trent, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-two.
EDWIN WARD (L.s.) TRENT.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the
Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the
presence of
EDWIN WARD (L.s.) TRENT.
CHARLES FEW, jun.,
Covent Garden,