AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GUNPOWDER
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Edwin Drayson, of Maresfield Powder Mills;
Sussex, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
GUNPOWDER."
Sealed the 25th January 1856, and dated the 31st October. 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Edwin Drayson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st October 1855.
I, HENRY EDWIN DRAYSON, of Maresfield Powder Mills, Sussex, do hereby.
declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF GUNPOWDER" to be as follows:
This Invention consists of dissolving the saltpetre used in the manufacture
of gunpowder, and combining the solution with the charcoal and sulphur, in
place of grinding undissolved saltpetre with the other ingredients. For this
purpose the saltpetre is dissolved by heat in as little water as may be, and is
immediately, used, for mixing with the other ingredients. The mixed matters
are then ground and finished in the ordinary manner.
144 1

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Edwin Drayson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 30th April 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
EDWIN DRAYSON, of Maresfield Powder Mills, Sussex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first-day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Henry Edwin Drayson, Her special licence that I, the said Henry Edwin
Drayson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Henry Edwin Drayson, my 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 Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GUNPOWDER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Henry Edwin Drayson, my executors or admi-
nistrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, 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 I, the said Henry Edwin, Drayson, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
This Invention consists of dissolving the saltpetre used in the manufacture
of gunpowder, and combining the solution with the charcoal and sulphur, and
then grinding the mixed ingredients under the mill, in place of grinding
undissolved saltpetre with the other ingredients. For this purpose the saltpetre
having been dissolved by heat in as little water as may be, the charcoal and
sulphur in a pulverized state are immediately and intimately mixed therewith.
The mixed materials are then ground under the mill until the combination of
them has become sufficiently intimate, and the manufacture is then completed
in the ordinary manner.
I prefer that the saltpetre used in carrying out my Invention should be

page_text: dissolved in about half its weight of water, and that the temperature of the
solution should be raised to the boiling point, but I do not confine myself to
this particular temperature or proportion of water. I may state that I prefer
to employ saltpetre that has not been melted, but only purified and crystalized.
The requisite process of milling may be shortened by first artificially drying
off part of the moisture in the mixed materials.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Edwin Drayson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
HENRY EDWIN DRAYSON. (L.S.)