AN IMPROVED COMPOSITION FOR COATING THE BOTTOMS OF SHIPS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Ward, of Liverpool, in the County of Lan-
caster, Chemist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED COMPOSITION FOR
COATING THE BOTTOMS OF SHIPS."
Sealed the 9th January 1857, and dated the 8th October 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Ward at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th October
1856..
I, PETER WARD, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Chemist, do
5 hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVED COMPOSITION
FOR COATING THE BOTTOMS OF SHIPB," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in coating the bottoms of ships with an insoluble
soap, of lime or other earthy base, with which is mixed oxide of copper, or
other metallic oxide or compound, to prevent the adhesion of barnacles.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Ward in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th March 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
WARD, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said.
Peter Ward, Her special licence that I,, the said Peter Ward, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter, Ward, 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 IMPROVED COMPOSITION FOR COATING THE BOTTOMS OF
SHIPS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Peter Ward, my
executors or administrators, 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 per-
formed, 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,
1
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Ward, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say:-
"
My Invention has for its object the preparation of a composition for coating
the bottoms of ships to prevent the adhesion of barnacles thereto. For this
purpose, I prepare an carthy soap in the following manner -I ‚makė ; an
alkaline. soap in the ordinary way, which is well understood; from a caustic
soda lye, fatty matter, and rosin. I prefer, in the manufacture of this soap, to
use palm oil, or lard, or a mixture of palm oil and lard with an oil, so as to
produce an earthy soap that will become thin when heated.
When the soap
has been finished, I draw off the spent lyes from the soap pan, and pump into
the pan as much solution of muriate of lime (chloride of calcium), at about
.30 degrees of Twaddle's hydrometer, as will decompose the alkaline soap.
After being well boiler, the alkaline soap will be found to have been all

page_text: decomposed; this may be ascertained by taking a sample of the earthy soap
and boiling it in water; if the water remains clear, there is no undecomposed
soap present, but if the water becomes turbid, then more muriate of lime
should be added, and the boiling continued until it has been found to stand the
above test. The carthy soap, thus formed, I transfer from the soap pan to an
iron pan with a fire beneath, where it is boiled or heated until the whole of the
water has been separated; I then add from 15 to 20 lbs. of oxide of copper,
previously dissolved in about 40 lbs. of resin to each cwt. of earthy soap, and
boil them well together. Or, in place of oxide of copper, metallic copper or
other combinations of copper, or other poisonous metal, may be added to the
carthy soap, but I prefer to use oxide of copper. In applying this earthy soap
as a coating to the bottoms of iron or wooden ships it is necessary to heat it,
and also to reduce its consistence with some fatty matter or oil, so that it may
be laid on; with ease with a brush. In place of the salt of calcium, salts of
barium, strontium, magnesium, or alumina may be used in the preparation of
the earthy soap, and I operate with them in the same manner as I do with the
chloride of calcium.
Having now described my Invention, and in what manner the same may be
performed, I would have it, understood that I make no claim to the mode of
preparing an earthy soap; but what I claim as my Invention is, the pre-
paration of a composition for coating ships' bottoms by mixing oxide of copper,
or other metallic oxide or compound, with an insoluble soap of lime or other
earthy base.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Ward, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. NEWTON,
of 38, Ray St., Liverpool.
PETER WARD. (L.S.)