A MACHINE FOR PLOUGHING OR DRILLING LAND, AND THEREIN PLANTING OR SOWING ALL SORTS OF GRAIN, PULSE," AND SEEDS, MIXED WITH OR WITHOUT PULVERIZED MANURE, AND HARROWING THE SAME, WHICH WOULD BE OF PUBLIC UTILITY, AND APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1783

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, JAMES
COOKE, of Heaton Norris, in the Parish of Manchester, and County of Lan-
caster, Clerk, sends greeting.
WHEREAS the said James Cooke did, by his petition, humbly represent
unto His présent most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, that he
had, by great study, invented and constructed "A MACHINE FOR PLOUGHING OR
DRILLING LAND, AND THEREIN PLANTING OR SOWING ALL SORTS OF GRAIN, PULSE,"
AND SEEDS, MIXED WITH OR WITHOUT PULVERIZED MANURE, AND HARROWING
THE SAME, WHICH WOULD BE OF PUBLIC UTILITY, AND APPLICABLE TO OTHER
PURPOSES;" he therefore prayed His said Majesty to grant unto him, his
executors, administrators, and assigns, His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent
under the Great Seal of Great Britain, for the sole making and vending
the said machine, and exercising his said Invention within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years; 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 con-
descend to his request, and therefore by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing
date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of January, in the twenty-third year'
of His reign, of His especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, did give and grant unto the said James
Cooke, his executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole priviledge and authority, that he, the said James Cooke, his
executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by himself and them-
selves, or by his and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such

page_text: others as he, the said James Cooke, his executors, administrators, or assigns,
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 his said Invention within that part of His said
Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to him, the said James
Cooke, his executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should in his
or their discretion seem meet, and that he, the said James Cooke, his 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 the said James Cooke, his 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 then next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be
compleat and ended, according to the form of the Statute in such case made
and provided; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if
the said James Cooke should not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of his said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under his hand and seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
four 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 shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,
anything therein-before contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwith-
standing, as in and by the said Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had,
may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, he, the said
James Cooke, doth hereby describe and ascertain the nature of his said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the
plan of the said machine hereto annexed, and the reference thereto hereunder
written.
In witness whereof, the said James Cooke, hath hereto set his hand
and seal, the Twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand seven hundred and eighty-three.
The Reference to the Plan above mentioned:-A, A, A, A, frame of the
machine, about four feet wide, or of different sizes for different sorts of land,
made of wood, and put together by tennant and mortice, or by iron staples with

page_text: screws and nuts. B, a large roller, in proportion to the size of the machine,
made of wood, including an iron axis. C, shafts by which the machine is
drawn, made of wood, and applied to the top side of the rollers axis B, so as to
be taken off and put on with the greatest ease and expedition by means of iron
staples with screws and nuts. D, scraper to keep the roller clean, made of
rolled iron screwed to a rail of wood, and fastened across the frame by means
of iron pins and nuts, so as to be fixed nearer or farther from the roller B.
E, coulter beam, which is part of the frame, made of wood, and fastened to the
frame by means of iron staples with screws and nuts. F, a lever made of wood,
and extended across the frame, with an iron crank at each end to lift the
harrows R out of the land while the machine is turning round. G, a small
wooden roller to follow the harrow, occasionally fastened by pins and plates of
iron on the outsides of the frame. H, H, handles to lift up or depress the
machine occasionally. I, pinion wheel, made of cast iron, upon the axis of the
roller B. K, seed box in partitions, made of wood, tin, or other materials fixed
over the roller B, upon uprights in the frame, with a slide, and staple,
or screw at each end to elevate or depress the same with smaller or secondary
seed boxes, to be placed occasionally within the others, for containing small
seeds. L, valves in partitions, made of the same materials, and fixed in a rail
of wood across the seed box, a valve to each partition with an upright lever,
by which the grain or seed is let fall at pleasure in greater or lesser quantities.
by means of a screw pin and dent at each end of the rail, together with
a small slide, little 1, &c., of wood or iron to each valve, to be raised or.
depressed so as to let out the grain, seed, or manure more accurately by means
of an iron staple fixed over each slide, with a screw in each staple to keep the
slide where fixed. M, ladle cylinder, made of wood, with an iron axis, to
be placed upon two steps in two uprights, fixed by tenant and mortice in
the slides of the frame. N, N, iron wheels fixed upon the axis of the ladle
cylinders, so as to generate respectively with the pinion wheel. O, cups or
ladles of different dimensions for different sorts of grain and seeds made of
brass, cast iron, or other metal or wood, and set upon the ladle cylinder with
screws or nails, a cup to each dot upon the cylinder, which, being reversed and
each cup containing two separate cavities at right angles to each other, will
take up proper quantities of grain or seed respectively. P, P, P, P, P, P, P, P,
funnels of different dimensions for different sorts of grain and seeds, made of
tin, copper, or other metal, suspended by hooks put into holes in the edge of
the seed box 1, 1; l, to raise or depress the same. Q, coulters made of cast or
wrought iron, fixed in mortices at little (e) through the coulter beam E, by
means of wedges to make drills or incisions upon the land. R, harrows, made of

page_text: cast or wrought iron, suspended at the back edge of the coulter beam by means
of iron straps as little (r) going round, and projecting a little from the beam
with chains and plates of iron to put upon hooks in the lever F, to raise or fall
the same, so as to cover the grain, seed, or manure taken up out of the curved
part of the seed box by the cups or ladles, and dropping from thence, as the
cylinder revolves, into the funnels, and conveyed thereby into incisions made in
the land by the coulters, or suspended at the back edge of the coulter beam
by strong straps or plates of iron, as (r, r,) surrounding the coulter beam with
mortices through each strap or plate for the coulters to be fixed with wedges
or iron screws, and to slide upon the coulter beam so as to fix the coulters at
any given distance from each other. S, a lever, made of wood, with its fulcrum
in the upright (a), which, being lifted on to a notch in the open mortice in
the upright. 6, puts the respective wheels N, N, out of generation with the
pinion wheel I, by which the seed or grain may be sown or not sown at
the option of the planter. T, a lever, applied horizontally to the outside of the
frame by means of staples and a screw through one of the staples to regulate
the depth of the incisions made in the land by the coulters by suspending,
a proper weight by means of a hook at either end of the lever respectively..
b, b, b, b, iron hooks, at each end of the frame, to which weights may be applied
to regulate the depth of the incision made in the land by the coulters more
accurately, W, W, made of wood or cast iron, or other metal of the same
diameter, and upon the axis of the roller B, with the pinion wheel I, to supply
the place of the roller B occasionally.
JAMES (L.S.) COOKE.
AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the same Twelfth day of May, in
year above mentioned, the aforesaid James Cooke came before our said
;