Abstract
June 9, 1683.—Great public interest was aroused by the patent granted on June 9, 1683, to Robert Fitzgerald and others for his process for obtaining fresh from salt water. A previous patent granted in 1675 to William Walcot for a similar invention was voided by the Privy Council on the ground that it had not been put into operation, and it is said that Fitzgerald's prescription, certified by Robert Boyle, was sent by Charles II. to the Lord Mayor “to be kept lest a secret of so great importance might come to be lost”. But it was Fitzgerald's process that eventually proved a failure and Walcot's that triumphed. In 1695 an Act of Parliament was passed restoring Walcot's rights arid granting him a 35 years' monopoly.
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Calendar of Patent Records. Nature 123, 893 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/123893a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/123893a0