A CERTAIN MACHINE OR INSTRUMENT FOR THRASHING CORN, WHEREBY MUCH MANUAL LABOR WOULD BE SPARED, AND THE PROCESS OF BEATING OUT GRAIN FROM THE STRAW GREATLY FACILITATED
Year: 1796

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Jonn
STEEDMAN, of the Toft Farm, in the Parish of Trentham, in the County of
Stafford, Farmer, send greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said John Steedman, did by my petition humbly
represent unto His Majesty, that, after various experiments, considerable
labour, and much expence, I had invented, constructed, and brought to
perfection "A CERTAIN MACHINE OR INSTRUMENT FOR THRASHING CORN, WHEREBY
MUCH MANUAL LABOR WOULD BE SPARED, AND THE PROCESS OF BEATING OUT GRAIN
FROM THE STRAW GREATLY FACILITATED;" I therefore most humbly prayed Elis
Majesty that he would be graciously pleased to grant to me, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of
Great Britain for the sole use, benefit, and advantage of my said Invention,
within England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
for the term of fourteen years, pursuant to the Statute in that case made and
provided; and whereas, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, bearing date the Thirty-first day of October, in the thirty-seventh year
of the reign of His said Majesty, His Majesty did, for himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Steedman, my executors,
administrators,, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said John Steedman, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves, or by my or their deputy
or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said John Steedman,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times hereafter during the term of

page_text: years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend my said Invention within that part of His Majesty's Kingdom of Great
Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said John Steedman, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should in my or their discretions
seem meet; to have, bold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers, privileges,
and advantages therein-before granted or mentioned to be granted unto me, tho
said John Steedunan, my executors, administrators, 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
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that if I, the said John Steedman,
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 Elis 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 contained to the contrary
h creof in anywise notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said John Steelman, in compliance with the
said proviso, do hereby declare that the Drawing delineated upon the margin
hereof, with the several references and descriptions herein-after mentioned
describing the samic, contains a full and particular description of the said
machine or instrument, and of the method of using or working the same, being
as follows:-
A, A, A, the horse wheel, consisting of 120 cogs; B, B, the leavers to
which the horses are hooked that work the machine, and move round in a
tract of eighteen feet diameter; C, the nut (of the tumbling shaft), which has
twenty cogs, into which the one hundred and twenty cogs of the horse wheel
A, A, A, works; D, the tumbling shalt; E, the spur wheel (of the tumbling
shaft D), which has seventy-two cogs; F, the nut of the flail barrel, which has
twenty cogs, into which the seventy-two cogs of the spur wheel E works;
G, G, the flail barrel; H, H, HI, the flails, to be made of wood, with iron joints
or the shaft of wood, and the striking part iron, and to be mortised through the
flail barrel G, G. In the above Drawing only three flails are represented as
attached to the flail barrel, in order to avoid confusion in the Drawing. Ten or
twelve are the number made use of in the machine intended hereby to be
described, which number must be varied according to the size and powers by

page_text: which the machine may he worked. I, I, I, I, the guard or regulator, the lower
part of which, by catching up the flails as soon as they have made their blow,
prevents the straw from being disturbed or thrown back off and from the
circular floor of the machine (which said floor will be described under the
letters K, K,) in their turning round the flail barrel; the other part of the
regulator prevents the flails from lighting upon their points upon the circular
floor of the machine, by keeping them so long back, that when disengaged from
the regulator they fall even on the circular floor. K, K, a circular floor on
which the corn in the straw is laid to be thrashed; it stands at about two feet and
a half from the ground floor; its planks are left open enough in the joints to
admit the grain as it is thrashed to fall through to the ground floor below, and is
moved round by means of the rope and pullies (which are herein-after described),
and by which it performs a revolution in about thirty seconds of a minute,
which gives sufficient time to the two people who attend it to take off the
straw that is thrashed, and to put fresh corn in the straw on without stopping
the machine. L, L, L, the rope, which by going round the floor K, K, and
over the tumbling shaft D, puts the said floor in motion; M, M, the pullies
which conduct the rope L, L, L, over the tumbling shaft; N, N, a frame of
wood fastened in the wall O, O, in which the pullies M, M, are fixed; 0, 0,
the wall of the building, through which the tumbling shaft D passes to the
inside of the building; P, P, a strong upright post set fast in the earth, to the top
of which the cross piece of timber Q, Q, is mortised; the other end of the cross
piece Q, Q, is made fast in the wall O, O. The pivot of the horse wheel A, A,
works in the said cross piece of timber. R, a piece of wood fastened to the
cross piece of timber Q, Q, in which the pivot of the tumbling shaft D works.
The regulator and machinery in the inside of the building is supported by
canis going across the building. The machine as above drawn and described
s worked by one or horses, according to the size of the machine, and which
said machine may be also worked or put in motion by the use of any other
dequate power, such as water, steam, or wind, where the situation may be
convenient for that purpose.
In testimony whercof, I have hereunto put my hand and scal, this Twenty-
fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand seven
hundred and ninety-six.
35
Signed, sealed, and delivered (being
first duly stamped), in the presence of
FRA DAIN.
W HINKLEY.
JNO STEEDMAN. (L.S.)

page_text: Extraord in Chancery
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fourth day of
November, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Steedman came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of tho
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of November, in the year above written.