A MACHINE OR COMBINATION OF MACHINERY FOR MAKING, REPAIRING, AND CLEANSING ROADS AND PATHS, WHICH MACHINERY OR PARTS OF WHICH MACHINERY IS OR ARE APPLICABLE TO THESE AND OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BIDDLE, of the Parish of Donnington, in the County of Salop, Glass Manu-
facturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS IIis present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by Ilis Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Eighth day of July, in the sixth year of lis reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John
Biddle, His especial licence, that I, the said John Biddle, my exors, adiñors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Biddle, my exors, adñiors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A MACHINE OR COMBINATION OF
MACHINERY FOR MAKING, REPAIRING, AND CLEANSING ROADS AND PATHS, WHICH
MACHINERY OR PARTS OF WHICH MACHINERY IS OR ARE APPLICABLE TO THESE AND
OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said John Biddle, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large annear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Biddle, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist
in a machine or apparatus for spreading and levelling materials for roads, for
rolling and hardening the said materials when so spread and levelled, and
also for scraping thin mud together on and taking up the same from the
road at one operation; and in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said John Biddle, do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention
is to be performed, by the following description thereof, reference being had
to the Drawing annexed, and the figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a plan of my said Invention. The parts marked (f) are the
general iron framework. A, A, A, are three cast-iron rollers, one a little in
advance of the other, and each consequently turning on a separate axis.
B, C, is a scraper or drag for levelling the materials placed on the road to mend
or make it. This scraper or drag is a sheet or broad plate of iron set on its
edge, and adjusted in respect of its height from or pressure on the ground by
means of the adjusting screws r, r, r. It will be observed, that this drag is
curved a little at the end C, the better to force a first entry into the resisting
surface of the roads, whatever that surface may be. D, D, are shafts to which
horses are to be attached to draw the machine along the road. Now when
the machine is required merely to spread materials, and level and harden
the surface of the road when new covered, only as much of the machine as
has been described need be used, and the hinder roller G, which will be
hereafter explained, may be removed. The effect produced by the machine
will then be as follows (that is to say), the scraper or drag B, C, will push
before it all heaps of gravel, broken stones, or other materials, except just so
much as will pass under it, and which will be regulated of course by the
height at which the scraper is raised by the adjusting screws r, r, r, from
the ground, and the scraper being placed at an angle to the plane in which the
machine moves of about forty-five degrees, all the surplus gravel, stones, or
other material will gradually find its way along the drag to the end B, where
it will free itself from the drag, and be left in a heap, forming one continued
line wherever the machine has passed. Thus, the duty of the drag will be
performed while the three rollers following on will bind or harden whatever
material is suffered to pass under the scraper or drag as aforesaid. It should
here be observed, that when this part of the machine is used merely to scrape
the mud from the surface of the road, the drag should be let down by the adjust-
ing screws just tightly to press on the surface, being much lower than when

page_text: used to spread new covering. G is another cast or wrought iron roller which
I call the drying roller attached to the hinder part of the machine before
described. At S this roller is perforated with holes or slits three inches long
by a quarter of an inch wide, and is for the purpose of taking up thin mud
from the road, in manner herein-after more particularly described. E, E, are
two smaller scrapers for collecting the said thin mud from the sides into the
the centre of the track which the roller G follows. The other parts connected
with this roller are better described in the second Figure, which I will
therefore now proceed to describe.
e, e, e, e, is a
Figure 2 is a side elevation of my said Invention. G is the said drying
roller. It will be seen by this view of the roller that it is furnished inside
with a swinging box or reservoir H, which I call a mud trough. This
trough hangs on the same centre as that on which the drying roller turns, so
that it always preserves it level without impeding the motion of the roller.
L is a trap or door for emptying and cleaning out the trough.
hoop frame, there being one at each end of the trough to form a bearing for
the axis of the brush M. This brush extends all across the inside of the
roller, and is kept up against it by means of the weighted bob J. The pur-
pose of this brush is to cleanse the inside of the roller, and cause the mud
taken up by it to drop into the trough; for it should here be observed, that
as the drying roller G revolves, the thin wet mud gets pressed into the holes
or slits cut through its surface, and is carried round in them till they come
over the trough, when, partly by its own specific gravity and partly by the aid
of the brush, the mud drops into the trough. The other letters on this
Figure refer to the same parts as are similarly lettered in Fig. 1. P is a
large caso or reservoir which may be filled with materials for mending the
road, which will thus be carried along with it, and will at the same time add
to the weight on the rollers, and thus reder their pressure more efficient.
Now whereas I do not claim as my Invention the said case or reservoir
marked P, and whereas scrapers and rollers of various kinds have at different
times been used in the formation of mending and keeping in repair roads of
different description; but whereas I claim as my Invention such an arrange-
ment of rollers with a scraper capable of adjustment, and used together, as is
berein-before described, and also a drying roller, such as is herein-before
described, either used together with the machine or parts of the machine
herein-before claimed or used separately; and such my Invention being to
the best of my knowledge and belief entirely new and never before used
within that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, His said Majesty's Dominion of Wales, or Town of

page_text: Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the
same, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth comply in
all respects fully and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I hereby
claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Biddle, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.