A VALVE COCK, SIMPLE IN ITS PRINCIPLES, NOT LIABLE TO BE OUT OF ORDER, AND THAT WILL BEAR ANY CONCEIVABLE WEIGHT OF WATER WITHOUT RISQUE OF LEAKING
Year: 1793

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
FERRYMAN, of Hammersmith, in the County of Middlesex, Clerk, send
greeting.
WHEREAS the King's most Excellent Majesty, by Letters Patent under
the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Fifteenth day of June
instant, gave and granted unto me, the said Robert Ferryman, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His Majesty's special licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, for me, the said Robert Ferryman, my executors,"
administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves,
or by my and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I,
the said Robert Ferryman, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at
any time agree with (not exceeding the number of five), and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
to make, use, exercise, and vend my Invention of "A VALVE COCK, SIMPLE
IN ITS PRINCIPLES, NOT LIABLE TO BE OUT OF ORDER, AND THAT WILL BEAR
ANY CONCEIVABLE WEIGHT OF WATER WITHOUT RISQUE OF LEAKING," within that
part of His Kingdom of Great Britain called England, Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said Robert
Ferryman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should, in
my or their discretion, seem meet, to have hold, and enjoy the said licence, power,
privilege, and advantage to me, the said Robert Ferryman, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, for the term of fourteen years from the date of
the said Letters Patent next immediately ensuing, and fully to be complete

page_text: and ended, according to the Statute in that case made and provided; in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said Robert Ferry-
man, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent; that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
should utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything therein-before
contained to the contrary notwithstanding, as in and by the said Letters
Patent, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
..
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Ferryman, in pursuance of the
said proviso, in the said Letters Patent contained, 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:-
Though cocks are of very old invention, yet it hath always been lamented
that there hath never been any so perfect as to hold for any length of time
without dripping. Valves and plugs of various constructions. have long been
in use in this and every other country; there is scarce a water engine of any
kind wherein they are not applied; they are perhaps the only means whereby
a weight of water can be supported without risque, of leaking, yet, I do not
know that they have ever been properly adopted to cocks, or a convenient
mode of raising them contrived. I, have placed the valve or the plugg in such
a manner, and invented such a method of lifting, as cannot well fail of answer-
ing all that can reasonably be expected of them.
..
...)
... 1
No. 1 (in the annexed Drawing) is the section of a cock intended for a.
vessel or urn. (a) is the grated end that goes into the vessel, through which,
the liquor flows into the tube (b, 6). (c) is a plugg with a shank (d) working.
cn a centre at (e), and so nicely fitted and ground into the part of the tube (f)
as to stop the flowing of the liquor. (g) is a pin going through, and turning.
freely in its hole. Through this goes another pin (h, h) to the bottom of the
plugg (c); the other end (i, i) lies back over the head of the cock. When this
end of the lever (i, i) is gently raised by the finger, the other end (h) presses.
on the bottom of the plugg (c), and raises it for the water to flow through the
lower tube (). When the finger is taken away the plugg falls, and stops the
flowing of the liquor; and the greater the head of water the heavier the pres-.
sure on the plugg, and of course the more securely it holds. (1) are.
flanches. (m, m) are screws through the flanches, fastening together the
upper part of the cock (A), and the lower part.(B), with leather between, to

page_text: make the joint sound. The valve or cock may be raised by other means, as
circumstances require, as in No. 2 of the annexed Drawing, where the pin (g)
is placed behind, and the lever (i, i) fitted to it on a square at each end, and
secured by a screw; the rest of the movement is the same as in No. 1. The
form of the cock may be almost infinitely varied. No. 3 is a cock originally
designed for Gloucester Prison. The end of the tube (6) is turned downward
the more readily to join to an ascending pipe, and a valve (c), with leather at
bottom, is used instead of a plugg.
plugg. No. 4, where the tube (6) is upward, to
join to a descending pipe, No. 5, intended as a stopcock, in an horizontal pipe.
From these may be understood what I mean by the variety of external forms,
tho' the grand principle is in all the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Ferryman, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-seventh day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.
ROBERT (L.s.) FERRYMAN.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-seventh day of
June, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Robert Ferryman came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Twenty-seventh day of June, in the year above
written.