AN IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING PIPES OR PUMPS FOR CONDUCTING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BELL, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, 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 Thirtieth day of April,
in the forty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
William Bell, my exors, admñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
solo privilege and authority, that I, the said William Bell, my exors, adñors,
and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN MAKING
PIPES OR PUMPS FOR CONDUCTING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William
Bell, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Bell, do describe and ascertain the nature of my said Improvement in
manner following, that is to say :-
It has been found by long experience that pumps or pipes for conducting

page_text: water from waterworks which have been made of wood or iron, lead or any
other metalic substances, have been justly objected to for the various following
reasons:-
First, pumps or pipes which are made of wood are liable to constant decay,
and in a short time to become rotten; and it is invariably the case that in their
rotten or decayed parts they generate insects and vast numbers of noxious animal-
cule, which may always be discovered in water which passes through wood pipes
or pumps which have been some time in use; and Doctor Buchan observes
that "Waters become putrid by the corruption of animal and vegetable bodies
with which they abound." Water which is conducted through pumps or
pipes which are made of iron, lead, copper, or most other metalic bodies,
becomes impregnated with the corrosive qualities of the metals, which renders
it unwholesome and poisonous, and of course unfit for cooking or washing
linen, and many other domestic uses. The nature of my improvement is,
therefore, to remove the aforesaid objections, which I completely perform by
making tubes of porcelain pottery, and various compositions which are
vitrifiable, and are not liable to corrosion or decay. These tubes are formed
in such a way at the ends as to fit one within the other, which I connect or
unite together by cement so as to make them water or air-tight, and by the
addition of any number of these tubes, connected as aforesaid, I form one
complete tube or pipe to any extent which may be required. I prefer the
method of inclosing them in cast iron pipes or cases, which are to be made in
various ways and forms, which pipes or cases serve as defenders of these porce-
lain or pottery tubes, to prevent breaking or bursting. Cases or pipes may be
made of wood and various other substances for inclosing these porcelain or
pottery tubes or pipes, but for the sake of compactness, strength, and durability,
I recommend cast iron cases, boxes, or pipes. There are compound metals
which are less corrosive than the real metals as aforesaid of which tubes may
be made, and, if inclosed in the manner before described, would be useful in
conducting water and various liquids, either hot or cold, for particular purposes,
as also thin tubes made of wood, which may be prepared for durability by
boiling it, or burning or charking it, which has the effect of preventing its
breeding or harbouring insects, &c. These, in addition to my porcelain or
pottery tubes inclosed, I claim the originality of.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bell, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eight.
W BELL. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of May, in the year
of our Lord 1808, the aforesaid William Bell 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 stampt according to the tenor of the Statute
made for that purpose.