IMPROVEMENTS IN BUILDING SHIPS, BOATS, AND OTHER VESSELS; AND ALSO IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BOXES, PACKING CASES, ROOFS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES REQUIRING TO BE WATERPROOF
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
THOMAS FORSTER, of Plymouth, a Master in Her Majesty's Navy, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of
June (One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine), in the thirteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Thomas Forster, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Thomas
Forster, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said John
Thomas Forster, my exors, adñiors, and 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUILDING SHIPS, BOATS, AND OTHER VESSELS; AND ALSO IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF BOXES, PACKING CASES, ROOFS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES
REQUIRING TO BE WATERPROOF;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said John Thomas Forster, shall cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be
enrolled in Her 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 Thomas Forster, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of applying boards or planks, coated with gutta
percha or with gutta percha combined with other matters, as planking and as
sheathing, and also as linings or ceilings of ships and boats and other like
descriptions of vessels.
And in order that my Invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
I first cause the planks or boards (for the purposes of my Invention,
whether to be used in building ships or boats or other similar descriptions of
vessels,) to be coated with gutta percha or gutta percha combined with other
materials. Similar coating has, however, been before proposed to be done for
other purposes; I do not, therefore, claim the applying of gutta percha as a
coating to wood, nor do I confine myself to the means hereafter described for
applying such coating, but I believe the same to be the best, and is accom-
plished as follows:-The wood should be dry and be left rough on all its
surfaces as it comes from the saw, and I coat the surfaces first with water-
proof cement, and, I believe, the best for the purpose is dissolved india-rubber
(caoutchouc) or dissolved gutta percha, which are cements well known. I
generally employ india-rubber cement, and when the same has become com-
paratively dry, I lay on by pressure sheets of gutta percha, and which may
be considered as veneering the several surfaces of the wood with gutta percha,
the surface of the gutta percha being warmed so as to cause, it more readily
to adhere, as is well understood when cementing sheet gutta percha on to
wood and other surfaces for other purposes; and for so heating the under
surface of the sheet gutta percha at the parts where the same is about to be
laid, I employ a flame or flames of gas, or I can use a blast of heated air,
directed against the under surface and at the part of a sheet about to be
pressed down; or other means of heating may be resorted to.
In some cases,
particularly for thin planking for building small boats, I prefer to cement two
or more thicknesses of thin planking or boards together with a waterproof
cement, and in addition thereto I prefer them to coat over the outer surfaces

page_text: with gutta percha or gutta percha combined with other materials; by this
means the planking of a boat will be rendered less liable to split when out of
the water and in dry places.
In using the planking or boards of wood coated as above explained when
building ships or boats or other similar vessels, they may be used as planking
or sheathing for the outsides of ships generally, and also for internal linings
or ceilings thereof; and such is the case with respect to steam and other large
boats, and also other similar vessels; and in applying such coated wood, the
edges and ends of which overlap or which butt against each other should have
a waterproof cement placed over the surfaces of the joints; and I prefer for
such purposes to employ gutta percha cement (dissolved gutta percha), in
order to cause these surfaces to adhere and be waterproof; and when using
wood treenails or fastening (passing through such planking or boarding), I
recommend that such wood fastenings should be dipped first into a waterproof
cement before driving them. The surfaces of wood thus coated, in addition
to the exterior planking and sheathing and interior lining or ceiling-work of
a ship, boat, or vessel, will also be very valuable as lining or boarding in form-
ing water-tight bulk heads of ships, boats, and other similar vessels.
I would state that it is well known that gutta percha has heretofore been
combined with india-rubber, and also with other materials; and I would
remark that such may be the case with gutta percha employed for the purposes
of my Invention, so long as the matters combined therewith do not act to
an injurious extent on the waterproof and flexible character of gutta
percha.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is performed, I would observe that I am aware that gutta
percha and also gutta percha combined with other matters have (when
uncombined with wood) been before proposed to be used as a sheathing to
ships, boats, and other vessels, I do not therefore claim the same; but what
I claim is the application of planks and boards of wood coated with gutta
percha or gutta percha combined with other matters in the building of ships,
boats, and other similar vessels, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Thomas Forster, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of December, One thousand
eight hundred and forty-nine.
JOHN THOMAS FORSTER. (L.S.)

page_text: En the Matter of a Patent granted to John Thomas Forster, of
Plymouth, a Master in Her Majesty's Navy, for his Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BUILDING SHIPS, BOATS, AND OTHER VESSELS, AND
ALSO IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BOXES, PACKING CASES, ROOFS, AND OTHER
STRUCTURES REQUIRING TO BE WATERPROOF," bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-seventh day of June, One thousand eight.
hundred and forty-nine.
DISCLAIMER proposed to be entered by the said John Thomas Forster with
the Clerk of the Patents of England, pursuant to an Act passed in the
fifth and sixth years of the reign of His late Majesty King William.
the Fourth, intituled "An Act to amend the Law touching Letters"
Patents for Inventions."
I, the said JoHN THOMAS FORSTER, do declare that since I obtained the said
Letters Patent I have discovered that the Invention which was intended to
have been described under that part of the title which is contained in the
words following, "and also in the manufacture of boxes, packing cases, roofs,
and other structures requiring to be waterproof," is not wholly new, for which
reason I am desirous to and do hereby disclaim all that part of the title
contained in the following words, "and also in the manufacture of boxes,
packing cases, roofs, and other structures requiring to be waterproof."
In witness whereof, I, the said John Thomas Forster, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Twenty-second day of December, One thousand
eight hundred and forty-nine.
This is to certify, that John Thomas Forster, of Plymouth, a Master in
Her Majesty's Navy, has applied to me for leave to enter with you the
above-written Disclaimer of a certain Invention, for which Letters Patent
were duly granted to him under the Great Seal, bearing date the 27th a

page_text: day of June 1849, and having considered the said application, and no
objection having been made to the same, I have accordingly granted leave
to the said John Thomas Foster to file bis said Disclaimer, pursuant to
the Statute passed in the 5th & 6th years of the reign of His late Majesty
King William the 4th, entitled "An Act to amend the Law touching Letters
Patents for Inventions.
Temple, Dec 24th, 1849.
Entered with and filed by the Clerk of the Patents of England, this
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid John Thomas Forster came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her 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.
Enrolled the Twenty-seventh day of December, in the year of our Lord