IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TRAINING HOPS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Horace Boys, of the Downs, Northfleet, in the
County of Kent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
TRAINING HOPS."
Scaled the 23rd July 1867, and dated the 25th January 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Horace Boys at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th
January 1867.
I, HORACE BOYS, of the Downs, Northfleet, in the County of Kent; do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR TRAINING HOPS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object-improvements in apparatus for training
hops. For this purpose I set up at each hill of hops a pole as is now usual,
only I use a pole of shorter length, and I connect these poles the one to the other
by inclined rods, and in training the hops as they ascend the upright poles
and come in succession to each of the inclined rods two or other number of
bines are led along each inclined rod whilst the remainder continue with the
upright pole. In this way expense is saved in the first instance, for this
arrangement is less expensive than the ordinary hop poles; a better crop is
obtained in consequence of a larger twining surface being provided, and the

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Horace Boys in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
25th July 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, HORACE
Boys, of the Downs, Northfleet, in the County of Kent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Horace Boys, Her special licence that I, the said Horace
Boys, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Horace Boys, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TRAINING HOPS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Horace Boys, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Horace Boys, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for training
hops. For this purpose I set up at each hill of hops one pole only, in place
of the three poles usually employed, and I connect these poles the one to the
other by inclined rods or poles, and in training the hops as they ascend the
upright poles and come to the inclined rods or poles the bines are led along
them.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
The Drawings shew in perspective apparatus for training hops arranged
according to my Invention and in the manner I prefer.
a, a, are poles set up in the ground one at each hop hill, I prefer that they
be about nine feet out of the ground. The hop bills are conveniently set out
as is usual at a distance of six feet from centre to centre every way; at a
distance of about two feet six inches down from the top of each of the poles a
two other rods or poles b, b, are tied or secured to it, as is shewn, by means of
strong tarred string or otherwise, and these rods or poles 6 pass in directions
at right angles to each other to two poles a, adjacent to the first, and are
fastened to them as near as may be to the top, and so each pole a receives at
its upper end the extremities of two other poles b. The hop bines ascend the
upright poles, and are led along the inclined rods or poles as soon as they reach
them.
b
If the hop grower should desire to obtain an increased twining surface
In this case the
other inclined rods or poles may be used below the first.
poles a should be about ten feet.out of the ground, and the lower inclined rods
or poles should be fastened to them at a distance of five feet from the ground
at the lower end. This, however, applies only to the alleys running in one
direction, that is to say, by preference the two sets of inclined rods or poles
are used along the alleys running from east to west, but the alleys from north
to south have one set only, so as to leave them free for horse labour; additional
inclined rods or poles may also be employed, to pass in a diagonal direction
from one pole a to another, the position of one. such pole is indicated by the
dotted line c.
By arranging and combining the poles in the manner above described not
only is a saving of expence effected, but also a construction obtained which is
more favorable to the growth of the crop than the vertical poles, up which
hops are now usually trained for their whole height, as more sun and air is
admitted to the crop, and it is able to spread laterally with an inclination
upward, which is the natural habit of the plant; the crop also is not liable to
be injured by high winds.
My arrangement also admits of the hops being gathered more readily and
without disturbing the poles, and the plant is not injured as at present by

page_text: cutting off the bines whilst they are green, which causes the plant to bleed to
the great injury of the stock.
In witness whereof, I, the said Horace Boys, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
HORACE BOYS. (L.S.)