THE MEANS OF RAISING AND CONVEYING WATER, STEAM, GAS, OR ANY OTHER FLUID, BY PIPES OF PURIFIED EARTH
Year: 1814

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN READ,
of the Parish of Horsemonden, in the County of Kent, Gardener, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said John Read, did, by my petition, humbly represent
to His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, that I had by
much labour, study, and expense, found out and invented "THE MEANS OF
RAISING AND CONVEYING WATER, STEAM, GAS, OR ANY OTHER FLUID, BY PIPES OF
PURIFIED EARTH;" and in regard that I, the said John Read, was the first
and true inventor thereof, and that the same had never been made or used by
any other person or persons, to the best of my knowledge and belief, I most
humbly prayed His said Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, for the sole constructing, working, using, exercising, and selling my said
Invention, and for all other benefit and advantage thereof, within England and
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years,
according to the Statute in that case made and provided; and His said
Majesty, being willing to give encouragement to all arts and inventions which
might be for the public good, was graciously pleased to condescend to my
request; and therefore, by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighteenth day of April, in the fifty-fourth year of His reign, of
His especial grace, certain knowledge, and meer motion, did give and grant
unto me, the said John Read, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John
Read, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of us, by myself
and themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or
such others as I, the said John Read, my executors, administrators, or assigns,

page_text: should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, my said Invention within that part of His
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as
to me, the said John Read, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or any
of us, should, in my or their discretion, seem meet; and that I, the said John
Read, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might
have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage, from time
to time coming, growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the said Invention,
for and during the term of years therein mentioned, to have, hold, exercise, and
enjoy the said licence, powers, privileges, and advantages therein-before granted or
mentioned to be granted unto me, the said John Read, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years
from the date of the said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and
fully to be complete and ended, according to the Statute in such case made and
provided; in which the said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that if I, 'the
said Read, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, 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 two calendar months 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, any thing therein-before
contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding, as in and by the
said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Read, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained by the Drawings or Plans annexed to these presents, and the follow-
ing explanation thereof (that is to say) :-
My method of preparing earth for making the pipes mentioned or referred
to in the said Letters Patent, is to take soft, pliable clay or marle, or both
mixed together, and to work them with water to a complete puddle, which
should be strained through a fine wire sieve into vats or potters prepare their
earth for making pots, or according to the usual method of preparing earth for
pottery, and when sufficiently dry it must be worked by hand or ground in a
common clay mill, and it will be then fit to be formed into pipes. The manner

page_text: of making and forming the pipes for raising and conveying the water is as
follows: Sping them on a staff on a potter's wheel in lengths about 'fifteen
inches, more or less, and from half an inch to twelve inches internal
diameter, and in substance or thickness from half an inch to three or four
inches, as circumstances may require, and form them so as to fix or. lie.in
any direction that may be necessary, and fasten or connect them with spigot
and faucet joints, see Fig. 1 of Plan, and others with flanch joints, see Plan
Fig. 3, B, C, such as are in common use for joining or connecting cast iron
pipes. The pipes so prepared and formed must be dried very gradually, and
when pipes made for lifting barrels are what potters term hand hard, they
must be bored to a true cylinder to admit the bucket to act easy and tight.
They must be kept drying gradually, till every particle of water is extracted
from them, and then burnt in a potter's or other kiln; and pipes so prepared
and burnt will be fit for use for any height that may be required. I next
proceed to explain the manner of joining or connecting such pipes as 'are
made with spigot and faucet joints. This may be done with that preparation or
composition called Parker's Roman Cement. If the pipes are dry, I immerse
them in water for fifteen or twenty minutes, then work the cement up with water
to about the consistence of mortar, and with this I connect the pipes that enter
each other about an inch, see Fig. 1 of Plan, and in twenty minutes after the
cement is so applied, the joint will become hard and pérfectly air and water proof.
Fig. 2 of the. annexed Plan or Drawing represents the common sucking
pump, the pipes of which, cisterns included, are made of purified earth,
and represented as standing in a well of twenty-five feet below the surface: of
the earth. The joints of these pipes are spigot and faucet, see Fig. 1, and
made air proof with cement as before mentioned. The spar bucket and sucker
to act upon the same principle as those commonly used for wooden pumps; and
for the better security against frost in exposed situations, I sometimes apply a
hot cement from the ground line to the spout, A, composed of rosin, tallow,
pitch, and tow, over the aforesaid Roman cement.
Fig. 3 represents a lifting pump upon an improved plan of my own Inven-
tion, and upon which lifting principle I have raised water out of a well fifty-
three feet deep with the greatest ease, and it seems calculated to raise water to
any height that it can be raised by hydraulic principles. The principal power
by which water may be raised by this improved plan is by extending the length
of the lifting barrel from eighteen or twenty inches, which is the general length
in use, to twenty, fifty, or eighty feet. The spar G to act in the lifting barrel
must be proportioned to the size of the barrel, and made of fir-wood, or fir and
cork, as the perpendicular height may require, the specific gravity of which

page_text: being much lighter than that of water of the same bulk, it assists in a great
measure to raise the water. But in cases where the lifting barrel requires to
be extended to the length of forty or fifty fect, I glaze the inside of the pipes
that compose the lifting barrel with common glazing well known to potters,
and burn them a second time. The lifting barrel H, H, is united to the rising
main at the lower end by spigot and faucet joints, upon the same principle as
Fig. 2; the upper end is united by flanches, see Fig. 3. The screws to go
through the earthen part of the flanch and be screwed into a brass or iron
collar on the under side of the flaneh B, C. The flanch at the upper end of
the lifting barrel that unites with the rising main is a plain but joint, and
secured by a brass or iron coupling screwed together upon a bandage of rosin,
tallow, and tow E, E. The letters F, F, represent a brass or iron stuffing box,
secured to the flanch by screws.
Fig. 4 represents the manner of fixing or securing pipes to the side of the
well, which is by long bricks made for that purpose and banded into the
steaning of the well, and clasping the pipes, see Fig. 4, and set with Roman
cement, so that it becomes as solid as the steaning of the well.
be
Fig. 5 represents a pond, spring, or reservoir of water on an elevated situa-
tion, from which water may be conveyed to the cistern I by the patent pipes
laid under the surface of the ground. Steam, gas, or any other fluid may
conveyed in any direction by means of pipes prepared in manner before men-
tioned, and these patent pipes so prepared, formed, and fixed, are probably the
most durable and wholesome pipes ever used for the purpose of raising or
conveying water or any other fluid.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set and affixed my hand and seal,
this Eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and fourteen.
JOHN (S.) READ.