IMPROVED VESSEL OR BARREL FOR THE MORE SAFE AND EXPED. TIOUS CARRIAGE AND CONVEYANCE OF GUNPOWDER
Year: 1802

page_text: SMITH'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
HENRY SMITH, a Lieutenant in His Majesty's Royal Navy, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the
Third, in and by. His Royal Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirteenth day of November, in the forty-third year
of His reign, for Himself, His heirs and successors, did give and grant
unto me, the said Henry Smith, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, his especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Henry Smith, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
by myself and themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies,
servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Henry Smith, my
executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exer-
cise, and vend, within that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom
called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon
Tweed, my Invention of an "IMPROVED VESSEL OR BARREL FOR THE MORE
SAFE AND EXPED. TIOUS CARRIAGE AND CONVEYANCE OF GUNPOWDER," in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the

page_text: said Henry Smith, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, and
to 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 recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that-in-compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Henry Smith, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my
'said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
as follows, that is to say:
The barrel or vessel is to be made of copper or any other material or
materials least liable to produce sparks of fire, and of the shape or
nearly so of that now used in His Majesty's service for the purpose of
conveying gunpowder from the hoy to the magazine on board ships and
vessels, and on land or elsewhere; the size to be such as men may hand
to each other by means of a handle over or early over the bung hole
(if in the bilge), which, by a screw-bung or stopper, with a part of it
left at the top to receive a wrench or lever to heave it close, will render
it water-tight. This handle is to extend from the hoops round the bilge
of the barrel, and to traverse in holders well secured to the hoops. And
as the handle will serve the purpose of hoisting the barrel into and out
of the hoy or other vessel, the heads may be secured to the body without
chimes; other barrels, which are to be stationary in the magazine, may
be made of such a size as to hold any quantity of powder; and as they
will not be portable, a cock may be placed water-tight in the bilge or head to
draw the powder off when wanted for service. The vessel may of course,
if desired, be made square or in any other shape; but I think the shape of
those as at present used preferable. Having been brought up in His Ma-
jesty's naval service, I have had many opportunities of observing the dan-
ger to which gunpowder was continually exposed, as well to water and the
damp of the magazine as to fire; &c., on account of the barrel in which
it was and still continues to be contained being made of wood and fas-
tened with copper hoops, which require hanimering to drive them on
and off, so as to secure the powder or start it when wanted for use. By
my improvement the vessel, as in the case of wood, is not liable to be

page_text: injured by worms, and is made water-tight by means of a screw-bung
and bung-hole, or by a stopper, which is hove tight by a wrench or
lever after it is filled, and slackened by the same when the powder is
wanted for service; after which the bung or stopper may be relieved by
the hand without any further necessity for the wrench or lever, or the
least hammering. The barrel, as hitherto used, has chimes, to which
can hooks are fixed for the purpose of hoisting it from one vessel to
another, and in case of it's slipping out of them, which sometimes
happens, the barrel is bilged, and the powder not only destroyed, but
exposed to the possibility of danger. By my improvement, instead of
chimes, a handle is placed over the bung hole or nearly so, by means
of which it may be shipped and hoisted out of and into the hoy, which
conveys it to and from the ship. Heretofore, when a hoy went along-
side a ship great preparations were made by hides being laid along the
deck to prevent the nails of it and the copper hoops from creating sparks
of fire, and to save the powder which shook out of the barrel occasioned
by the rolling it along; but my improved barrel can, by the handle, be
handed into the ship and along the deck, and so down to the magazine,
by a rank or lane of men without touching the deck, or a risk of wast-
ing a grain of powder. The barrel heretofore used, held one hundred
pounds, and the half barrel fifty pounds. My improved barrel may be
made to hold such a quantity as men can conveniently hand from one
to the other, say, barrel and powder together, about seventy-five
pounds. When the barrel as now and heretofore used is opened to fill
cartridges, the head is taken out, and it is always found that a cake or
clod is collected under the head from the damp of the magazine in pro-
portion to the time the powder has been there deposited, because it is
not water-tight, and consequently, if the magazine were to be filled with
water in case of an alarm of fire or otherwise great part of the powder
would be rendered unserviceable; but by my improved barrel no cake
or clod can be collected, because it is water-tight; and therefore, were
the magazine filled with water in case of an alarm of fire or otherwise,
the whole of the powder would be safe from injury, and the same benefit
would result to an army whenever it might be found necessary to pro-
cure a safe magazine, for in that case none could be found more so than
a piece of water. The danger of sparks of fire being produced from the

page_text: friction by hammering the hoops on and off the barrel, as hitherto used,
has already been noticed, and it may not be improper also to notice the
tediousness of the process in filling cartridges from the barrel as hitherto
used; for after the head being withdrawn and the clod or cake taken
from that part of it's contents which will burn, the gunner's crew have to
accomplish the filling the cartridges by means of the can, &c., by lifting
the barrel with what remains in it to fill the can or cartridge, and have
to pour out of the larger aperture into the smaller, which must either in
liquid or grain always create a waste, and in the case of gunpowder may
produce a melancholy, event. By my improved barrel there is not any
chance of sparks of fire being produced, and it may be remarked that
the fewer instruments used in the process of filling the cartridges, the
less chance must exist of sparks proceeding. In the use of my improved
barrel for the purpose of filling the cartridges nothing more is required
than that after the bung or stopper is withdrawn, as before described, it
may be lifted with one hand by the handle and the other under the bilge,
and the powder poured into the can or cartridge without spilling a grain.
Should it be found expedient, barrels of this kind may be made to
hold more or less than a thousand weight, to be stationary in the
magazine, into which the powder may be poured by a funnel at the
bung hole, and taken out to fill the cartridges by a cock in the lower
part of the head or bilge, while it lays on a horse something like that
on which beer or wine is placed high enough from the deck or ground
floor of the magazine to admit the cartridge or can or the small barrel
with the funnel in it to go under it. And if this plan is adopted the
small barrels may be used only to transport the powder on board, when
the hoy may take them on shore until the ship is about to discharge her
powder previous to going into dock or otherwise.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Smith, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Tenth day of May, in the forty-third year
of His said Majesty's reign, and in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and three.
HY SMITH. (L.S.)
Sealed and delivered in the presence of Henry Pascoe Smith.
F. ABBOTT.

page_text: IN CHANCERY.
Francis Abbott, of Rolls Yard, Chancery Lane, London, Attorney
at Law, maketh oath that he was present and did see the above-named
Henry Smith sign, seal, and as his act and deed in due form of law,
deliver the above written deed, poll, or instrument, and saith that the
names or characters E Smith set and subscribed opposite the seal thereto
aflixed as the party executing the same, and Henry Pascoe Smith and
F. Abbott as witnesses attesting the execution thereof by the said
Henry Smith, are of the respective proper hands writing of the said
Henry Smith, Henry Pascoe Smith, and this deponent.
F. ABBOTT.
Sworn at the Public Office, Southampton Buildings, Chancery
Lane, this Eleventh day of May 1803, before me,
JOHN SIMEON.