NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD, MEANS, OR CONTRIVANCE FOR PREVENTING LEAKAGE FROM VESSELS EMPLOYED TO CONTAIN LIQUIDS, AND FOR THE PREVENTING THE ADMISSION OF MOISTURE INTO PACKAGES OR VESSELS INTENDED TO BE KEPT DRY WITHIN
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
WASHINGTON DICKINSON, of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, 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 First day of November,
in the fifty-seventh year of His reign, grant unto me, the said George
Washington Dickinson, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said George Washington
Dickinson, my exors, adiñors, 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 a
"NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD, MEANS, OR CONTRIVANCE FOR PREVENTING LEAKAGE FROM
VESSELS EMPLOYED TO CONTAIN LIQUIDS, AND FOR THE PREVENTING THE ADMISSION
OF MOISTURE INTO PACKAGES OR VESSELS INTENDED TO BE KEPT DRY WITHIN;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said
George Washington Dickinson, 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 Chancery within six 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Washington Dickinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particu-
larly described and ascertained in the following description thereof, that is
to say:
Whether the vessel be made of the barrel or cylindric form, or of a square
or oblong, or of any similar form, I construct the outside of wood, and fit into
it a vessel of iron; or I line it with iron, or with canvas, cotton, linen, or silk
cloth, or with leather or skins, the lining of canvas, cotton, silk, leather, or
skins being properly impregnated with or covered over with varnish, the nature
and kind of varnish being suited to the article to be contained in the said
vessel; and, further, when the inside is of iron, I give the said inner vessel or
lining a flanch projecting inward, on which the iron cover rests, and to which
it is male fast by means of screws and nuts, a gasket of hemp or cotton being
previously interposed. When the lining is of cloth of any description, or of
leather, or of skin, I make the lining lap over on the edge of the wooden
vessel, (suppose a common packing case,) and the lid or cover being covered
with the same material, I interpose between the vessel and its cover, before
fastening down the cover, with a gasket of hemp, or cotton, or a strip of leatlier,
or of cloth, of any suitable material and thickness, and where it may be
thought adviscable for further security, I impregnate the said gasket with the
varnish employed for impregnating or covering the lining of the vessel; but
for some purposes, when a lining of cloth of any kind is preferred to iron,
I make the lining into what may be called a bag, of a form answerable to the
outer case, but of such a greater depth as may allow the mouth of the bag to
be drawn together and properly secured by tying it up before fastening on
the cover.
To conclude, when the lining is of iron I clean it in the same manner as for
tinning before I lay on the varnish or coating, and I generally employ for the
coating what is usually called Lord Ribblesdale's rock cement mixed with
boiled oil; I have also found Cornish porcelain carth to answer well, and indeed
any earth which will give a body to the oil and which may not be of a dile-
terious quality may be mixed with the oil; and after laying on the coating,
I bake the vessel in an oven till the coating is perfectly dry and hard, and the
lining being finished in this manner is then put into its wooden case.
In witness whereof, I, said George Washington Dickinson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventeen.
G. W. DICKINSON. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirtieth day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1817, the aforesaid George Washington Dickinson came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventeen.