AN INSTRUMENT FOR ASCERTAINING THE TRUE OR ACTUAL ACCLIVITY AND DECLIVITY OF BODIES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Tomyns Browne, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, for the Invention of "AN INSTRUMENT FOR ASCERTAINING THE
TRUE OR ACTUAL ACCLIVITY AND DECLIVITY OF BODIES."
Scaled the 1st January 1858, and dated the 2nd July 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Tomyns Browne at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd July 1857.
I, TOMYNS BROWNE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN INSTRUMENT FOR ASCER-
TAINING THE TRUE OR ACTUAL ACCLIVITY AND DECLIVITY OF BODIES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists of two picces of wood or other suitable material
hinged together at one end. One of such said pieces has a spirit level fixed
thereinto at the top side thereof, and the other of such said pieces has a
folding piece connected thereto, upon which are marked degrees of inclination,
and constitutes in fact a folding sector, which, when the instrument is in use,
passes through the before-mentioned upper part of the instrument containing
the spirit level. In using the above instrument, the lowermost part thereof is
placed upon the sloping surface to be measured, the uppermost part is then.
raised until the spirit level is horizontal, and in this position the instrument is
fixed by a thumbscrew pressing against the sector. By reading off the upper-

page_text: most exposed division upon that portion of the sector between the aforesaid
hinged parts the true or actual inclination of bodies may be readily and
accurately ascertained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Tomyns Browne in the Great Seal Patent Office on tho
2nd January 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, TOMYNS
BROWNE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Пer Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, IIer heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Tomyns Browne, Her special licence that I, the said Tomyns Browne,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Tomyns Browne, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "AN INSTRU-
MENT FOR ASCERTAINING THE TRUE OR ACTUAL ACCLIVITY AND DECLIVITY OF
BODIES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Tomyns Browne,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and scals, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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 Tomyns Browne, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
.
My Invention consists of two pieces of wood or other suitable material
hinged together at one end. One of such said pieces has a spirit level fixed
thereinto at the top side thereof, and the other of such said picces has a
folding piece connected thereto, upon which are marked degrees of inclination
or angles of space, apd constitutes in fact a folding sector, which, when the

page_text: instrument is in use, passes through the before-mentioned upper part of the
instrument containing the spirit level. In order to explain my said Invention
as completely as possible, I now proceed to describe the best means I am
acquainted with for carrying the same into practical effect, reference being
had to the illustrative Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the numeral figures
and letters of reference marked thereon respectively, as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of an instrument constructed according to my
said Invention, and as it would appear when folded up and out of use;
Figure 2 is an elevation of the said instrument as it would appear when in
use; Figure 3 shews the instrument laid open; Figure 4, the top of the samó
when closed. At each of the foregoing Figures I employ similar letters of
reference to denote corresponding parts in so far as such parts appear or can
be seen at each of such said Figures respectively.
A, A', are pieces of wood or other suitable material hinged together at a
and fastened by a hook at the end thereof; C is a folding piece of metal or
other suitable material, having graduations marked thereon corresponding to
the divisions on an instrument known as a sector, employed for setting out
degrees or angles of space. One end of the piece C is connected by a pin or
screw to the piece A; said folding piece when out of use lies in a recess
formed in the picce A, as exhibited at Figure 3, and when in use the loose
part of said folding piece passes through a slit & in the upper piece A¹, to which
said piece is also affixed an ordinary spirit level D, shown at Figure 4; E is a
screw for fixing the piece C when the instrument is in use and the spirit level
is horizontal. This screw, when the instrument is out of use, fits into a holo
c in the part A, as at Figure 3, the head of said screw fitting in a recess & in
the part A', by which the instrument is rendered very compact and portable.
In using the above instrument the limb or piece A is placed upon the
sloping surface to be measured. The other piece A' is then raised until the
spirit level attached thereto is horizontal, and in this position the instrument
is fixed by the thumbscrew E pressing against the sector C. By reading off
the uppermost exposed division upon that portion of the piece C which is
immediately under the bottom of the piece A', the true or actual inclination of
bodies may be readily and accurately ascertained.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention of "An
Instrument for Ascertaining the True or Actual Acclivity and Declivity of
Bodies," together with the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the
same into practical effect, I hereby declare my Invention to cousist in and I

page_text: claim the general arrangement and combination of parts, as above described
and represented, as constituting an instrument for the purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Tomyns Browne, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
ROBERT DONNISON,
No. 1, Norton Street,
Liverpool.
TOMYNS BROWNE. (L.S.)