Selected quad for the lemma: state_n
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A66520
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An Answer to Mr. Fitz-Gerald's state of the case concerning the patent of making salt water fresh
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Walcot, William.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing W285A; ESTC R7366
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31,439
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28
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AN ANSWER TO Mr. FITZ-GERALD's State of the CASE Concerning the PATENT OF Making Salt Water Fresh Licens'd Jan. 16. 1694 5. D. Poplar LONDON Printed in the Year 1695. A Preliminary to the Work MR. Fitz-Gerald 's Publishing his State of the Case sheweth the Necessity that it should be Answered and sufficiently Justifieth the Design of the following Discourse which needs not any Recommendation When there is an Art found out by some person which might be Infinitely Advantageous to the Publick and is known to be Demonstratively True in it self and though the Secrets thereof are yet undiscovered many are arisen up Pretenders to it who sharply Contend to Enjoy to Themselves the Exercise of it whether they understand it or not carrying the Noise through several Nations and Troubling the World about it Few persons are so extraordinarily Employed but will probably spare some of their Minutes to be satisfied in the Truth of this matter to be able to judge whose the Right is and who do the Wrong that the Right Person may be Encouraged chearfully to proceed and the Wrong be restrained wholly from meddling They may be known both the one and the other by their Proofs and past actions It is too well understood that Mr. Fitz-Gerald with his Partners had long ago Obstructed Mr. Walcot 's Letters Patents granted for his Art of making Sea-water Fresh Clear and Wholesome by procuring a Patent for themselves and had taken great Freedom of the Press to Prejudice W. W. And the two last Sessions of Parliament set themselves to oppose the Passing of his Bill and brought in their state of the Case as they termed it to the Committee of the Lords March 1692 which is placed Entire on the next following side This forceth a Necessity of giving an account of the Truth and to unravel the whole matter which they would on purpose make perplexed and unintelligible They ever since their first appearing to Contend have incessantly busied themselves in Solliciting Great Personages to maintain their Interest against W. W. And if by their Specious Pretences they have so far Prevailed with any as to give them Countenance W. W. is apt to believe that those Honourable Persons they have presumed to Apply to when rightly informed of the very Truth of the Case between Him and Them and their Manner of Dealing will soon withdraw their Favour and leave them to themselves But if Mr. Fitz-Gerald with his Partners can still succeed in Freventing W. W. to obtain an Act of Parliament the Benefit of the Art will be Lost to the Nation which is obvious in the subsequent Narrative It is not intended to anticipate the Minds of any Persons but to open the Matter gradually only as Mr. Fitz Gerald offers the Occasion that thereby a true Judgment may be made by any Person on the Whole The State of the CASE concerning the Patent of making Salt Water Fresh as it stands between Mr. Walcot of the one part and the Lord Falkland William Bridgman Esq Mr. Fitz-Gerald and several others on the other part KIng Charles the Second about sixteen years since Granted to the said Mr. Walcot a Patent for making Salt Water Fresh with a particular Clause That he should put the same in Execution within seven years or some less time or his Patent should be void and with this farther Condition That if at any time hereafter it should appear to be inconvenient or prejudicial to His Majesty's Subjects and made so to appear to six of the Privy Councel it should for that reason be void and his Patent soon after to be Cancelled His Majesty soon after this Grant was invited by Mr. Walcot to see the Operation of his Engine and Invention which was of too great Dimension and so extreamly hot and for other Causes then appearing it was not found Practicable at Sea and about six years after the said Grant to Mr. Walcot Mr. Fitz-Gerald upon the Encouragement of the late Mr. Boyl made a Discovery of a new easie and practicable way of making Salt Water Fresh and Wholsome at Sea and Land having obtained great Credit among Sea men Physicians and others the King Granted a Patent to Mr. Fitz-Gerald and others to oppose which Mr. Walcot entered a Caveat and after full hearing by the Council learned on both sides the Patent of Walcot was laid aside and a Patent granted to Us the said Patentees which hath been since put in practice both by Sea and Land to the satisfaction of all Persons who have not been influenced by their particular Interests There being a Bill brought in by the said Mr. Walcot to destroy the Right of our Patent in which there are about five years unexpired It is therefore Humbly Prayed the said Bill may not pass to the prejudice of the said Letters Patents of Mr. Fitz-Gerald and his Partners the said Mr. Walcot having consented to an Agreement under them as will be ready to be produced If Mr. Walcot can obtain an Act of Parliament in prejudice of this Patent which seems unreasonable it is hoped it will be with a saving to Mr. Fitz-Gerald's Patent that of Mr. Walcot's being expired as to time and vacated by his own Consent as will appear on the Hearing An Answer to Mr. Fitz-Gerald's State of the Case concerning the Patent of Making Salt Water Fresh c. Wherein appears Whose the Right is to Exercise the Art WHen the Committee of the Lords appointed by the Right Honourable the House of Lords had taken into their Consideration a Bill which had Passed the House of Commons and was Carried to the Lords for their Concurrence intituled An Act for making Sea-water Fresh Clear and Wholesome and their Lordships in the Committee had also Passed it and was by Mr. Fitz-Gerald and his Partners Petition Recommitted as will be shewn more at large Mr. Fitz-Gerald gave in a Paper Printed Entituled The State of the Case concerning the Patent c. which was the Substance of what his Councel vehemently urged wherein the True Case between Them and Mr. Walcot was wholly Misrepresented wherefore now the Business is to inquire into it by every Part thereof severally as it falls in as well the Title which ought not to be passed by without some Censure as His State of the Case and what the Truth is shall be laid open Both the Title and Case are all along Distinguished from the Answer by a Line Intervening and so may be Read apart from the Answer 1. 1. The State of the Case concerning the Patent of making Salt water fresh The First Patent being Granted to William Walcot Esq in the Year 1675. Robert Fitz-Gerald Esq and his Partners precured an Order of Councel October the 30th 1683. that it should be Conditionally made Void On a Condition they never Performed And in Prosecution of that Order it was by Six of the Privy Councel made Void accordingly Another Patent was Granted to Robert Fitz-Gerald Esq and his Partners June in the
the Deficiency of the way that Mr. Fitz-Gerald pretends to render Salt-water wholesome there is a Scheme drawn to be seen upon occasion and another drawn of the Sufficiency of W. W.'s Art And that what they can do may be further known the Lords of the States General of the United Netherlands upon a Petition presented to them on the behalf of W. W. that He and his Opponents might be order'd to appear before them to make publick proofs of their Arts and the States to judge whose Art was the best and the Members of the States of the several Provinces saw Mr. William Fitz-Gerald deputed by Robert Fitz-Gerald Esq and his Partners and W. W. each of them apart thrice make their Tryals before them whose approbation seems sufficient to satisfy in this matter The States General granted thereupon to W. W. Their Letters Patents and each of the States of the other Provinces of Holland Zealand and Frizeland granted him their Letters Patents severally all of them were To him alone with exclusion of all others wherein may be seen their judgment hereof especially and more at large in the Patent of the States of Holland See the Preamble of their Patent Mr. Fitz Gerald and his Partners are there taken notice of and an ample account is there given what they found their skill to be Our Sea-men also to whom they appeal and others ha ve had experience of their Tryals and well know the Credit their work is of As well these as the States of Holland do aver that any that will but distil Salt water shall find the Salt water so prepared in every respect to be at least equal if not exceeding theirs So that whatever their Helps and Encouragements have been by what they have shewn and done it appears that all they have found out or made a Discovery of is That Water may be Distilled and certainly those that know this may know but little of the true Art so that what Ingredients they add upon the consideration of Salt water doth not at all improve but rather make the Water the worse Yet nevertheless Dr. N. G. put out a Treatise dedicated to King Charles undertaking to prove the Truth and Sufficiency of their Art upon which there have been made Observations concluding That what those Patentees have done will justly be accounted a Miracle Mr. Boyle's long Letter and also his Nicety as he is pleased to call it wherein he begs the question have been Re-published in recommendation of it And there was sent to the Lord Mayor closed in a Silver Box sealed up with great selemnity the Recitpts of the several Cements used by the Patentees for making Sea-water fresh as also the Receipt of their Metalline Composition and Ingredients certified under the hands of the Honourable Mr Robert Boyle to be kept so sealed up by the present and succeeding Lord Mayors lest a Secret of so great importance to the Publick might come to be lost if lodged only in the knowledge of a few Persons therein concerned See Londons Gazette January 23 1684. Or lest whilst themselves are busie taken up in the practising of their Art they should forget their Secrets wherewith they do it A voluminous Song or Panegerick in Verse was published in their Commendations and Medals engraven and cast in silver Representing and Illustrating their Art in Celebration of the last new Inventor And whilst they would have held all the World in admiration of their new Invention which some say in Gallens time was not known they demand by Vertue they say of an order of Council that W. W. the first and true Inventor of making Sea water fresh c. should pay according to one of their Articles which they proposed after the hearing before his Majesty in Councel in this manner Item It is agreed between the said Parties to these Presents that the said W. W. his Executors or Administrators shall pay and allow out of the first Profits arising by the said Art the sixth part of the Sum of fifteen hundred Pounds Sterling which the said Patentees have engaged to pay unto Mr. Jacob Kuffler for his Assistance given them in the Invention of their Art and Contrivance of the Engine proper for the same Whom King Charles took occasion himself to mention when he was seeing W. W.'s Experiment saying that he was very sure that Mr. Kuffler had not the Art which His Majesty said when those Persons that attended him thither were in his presence who can witness it In the Dedication of the Book to His Majesty owned by Mr. Fitz-Gerald it is said If the Fruits of your Royal Grant has not been hitherto derived to us 't is partly by some Obstacles we met from the Suggestions of a private Person And at the Council they pleaded that W. W. had no Art And their Articles proposed after the Orders of Council began thus Whereas the said W. W. having obtained as he hath suggested the Art and Knowledge of making Salt-water of the Sea Fresh Calling into Question His Majesties Testimony yet however the last of those very Articles runs thus Item The said William Walcot doth Covenant and Promise to and with the said Robert Fitz-Gerald Theophilus Oglethorp William Bridgman Patrick Traunt and Thomas Maule and every of them That in Case by his Skill and Knowledge in the said Art found out by the said Patentees that may make the Operation of Freshning Sea Water more Easy Commodious or Profitable He shall at all Times upon Request of the said Patentees inform and instruct them or any of them therein and give his Assistance in all manner of wars to the Promoting the Interest and Profit of the said Patentees in relation to the said Art And in a Proposal dispatched December 2d 1684. they say thus Upon Condition that He the said W. Walcot shall Joyn with the Patontees both his Skill and Endeavours So that though they are pleased to Stile his Art but only his Suggestions yet it is such that They think necessary He should instruct them in 14. 14. The King granted a Patent to Mr. Fitz Gerald and others to oppose which Mr. Walcot entered a Caveat and after a full hearing of the Council learned on both sides the Patent of Walcot was laid aside and a Patent granted Here they Jumble together confusedly to be done as they Pretend at Once what was done in a great Distance of Time for they had Obtained two distinct Hearings near Five Months asunder the former before the Lord Keeper North to have their Bill pass the Great Seal the latter before his Majesty and his Councel to Vacate W. W. his Patent so that the Caveat was entered to stop their Bill many Months before W. W. his Patent was on Condition Vacated Hereby also they would make the world believe that W. W. had no Patent when their Patent was granted that they might thereby create some Pretence if it had not been then in Being But Mr. Fitz-Gerald's Patent