MAKING AND FLATT GRINDING BY A MACHINE THIN METAL PLATES, AND OF WORKING OR FASHIONING THE SAME, BY THE HELP OF IRON ROLLS AND SWAGES, EITHER INTO MOULDINGS (OF ANY SIZE OR FORM) OR PLANES,
Year: 1742

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, JOHN BAS-
KEBVILLE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Jappanner, sendeth
greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty, by His Royal Letters Patent, under the
Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Sixteenth day of January, in
the fifteenth year of his reign, hath given and granted unto me, the said
John Baskerville, my exors, admors, and assigns, the sole licence and privi-
ledge of using, exerciseing, and vending a new Invention of "MAKING AND
FLATT GRINDING BY A MACHINE THIN METAL PLATES, AND OF WORKING OR
FASHIONING THE SAME, BY THE HELP OF IRON ROLLS AND SWAGES, EITHER INTO
MOULDINGS (OF ANY SIZE OR FORM) OR PLANES, AS EXACTLY TRUE AND LEVEL AS
THE BEST JOYNER COULD PERFORM THE LIKE IN WOOD, WHICH I PROPOSE TO JAPAN
OR VARNISH WHEN SO GROUND AND FASHIONED, AND TO APPLY THE SAME TO THE
FOLLOWING SUBJECTS (TO WIT), TO VENEIR THE FRAMES OF PRINTINGS AND PICTURES
OF ALL SIXES, LOOKING GLASS FRAKES, THE FRONTS OF CABINETS, BUROES, ESCRU-
TORES, DESKS, BOOK CASES, TOILETTS, AND DRESSING TABLES, CUPBOARDS, CLOCK
CASES, WEATHER-GLASS FRAMES, CHIMNEY PRICES, AND WAINSCOTT AND EVERY
OTHER SORT OF HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE HOW USUALLY VENEIRED WITH EBONY, WHALE
BONE, WALNUTT, MAHOGANY, PEAR-TREE, OR OTHERWISE (THE SAID PLATES SO
PREPARED AND JAPANNED OR VARNISHED BEING MORE BEAUTIFULL AND DURABLE, AND
IN ALL RESPECTS ANSWER BETTER THAN ANYTHING WHICH HAS HITHERTO BEEN
APPLYED TO THE SAME PURPOSE, AS THE SAME WILL PRODUCE A FINE GLOWING

page_text: MAHOGANY COLOUR, A BLACK NO WAY INFERIOR TO THAT OF THE MOST PERFECT INDIA
GooDs, OR AN IMITATION OF TORTOIESHELL WHICH GREATLY EXCELLS NATURE ITSELF
BOTH IN COLOUR AND HARDNESS, AND EACH COLOUR ADMITTING OF THE MOST PERFECT
POLISH, WHOSE BEAUTY, WITHOUT VIOLENCE, WILL NOT BE IMPAIRED IN SEVERAL AGES,"
to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said lycence and priviledge unto me, my!
exors, adiñors, and assigns, for the term of fourteen years from the day of the
date of the said Letters Patent according to the Statute in such case made
and provided; in which said Letters Patent is contained a provisoe that if I,
the said John Baskerville, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature and forme of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by instrument in writing under my hand and-seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within four calendar
months next after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the same
Letters Patent shall be void, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation
being thereunto had, may appear.
NOW KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that I, the said
John Baskerville, do, by this present Instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, declare the nature and forme of and in what manner my said new
Invention is to be performed to be as follows (to wit) :-
When the iron plates first come from the rolling mill they are covered with
a hard (half vitrified) scale, which is almost wholly thrown off by dipping in
(or washing with) water well impregnated with sal armoniac, and afterwards
annealing in a large fire; what remains must be scraped or scowered till
perfectly clean. It's then fit for flatting by the rolls, which differ from the
common sort in this respect, that to the top of the upper bolster through
which the gudgeons of the rolls run a neck or shank is fixed, which by a
mortice (with a pin and cotter) is fastned to a small frame of iron of almost
an oval figure which slides at pleasure on the outside of the bolsters. To the
lower end of the sliding frame is joyned by two eyes at each end, one with a
pin and cotter, a strong barr of about an inch and quarter diameter, that is,
longer than the rolls and frame together. Upon the middle of this bar is
fixed an iron laver of about four foot long, which moves at about five or six
inches from its end upon a strong gudgeon in manner of a steelyard, upon the
longest end of which (lever) is hung a weight, which, moving as a steelyard
weight, will give any required force to the rolls from an hundred to a tun
weight at pleasure, and answer the design of screws the comon way. The
advantage of which proceeds hence, that as the lever, strong bar, sliding
frame, and bolster (in which the upper roll moves) being firmly fixed to one
another, the upper roll rises and gives way to a thick or thin peice of metall

page_text: equally (the impending weight being all the force by which the rolls press
each other), but should the rolls be bound together by screws as in the
comon way, as the several parts of the same sheet of iron are scarcely ever of
an equal thickness, it would require a power sufficient to stretch the thickest
parts which would destroy the design of the work, no common force being
half equal to it. When the plates have been several times passed between
these rolls they are nearly flat and prepared for the horizontal trituration or
grinding described as follows:-A large peice of strong plank or stone is
firmly fixed about two foot high; at the end of this an iron spindle moves in
a frame of wood with two wheels upon it, each toothed but half way round.
A frame of wood, to move upon the first sleeper, has two racks fixed to it,
toothed the whole length to fit the wheels, the one imediately moving by
the wheel, the other has a pinion fixed between the rack and wheel, so that
when the toothing of the one wheel leaves the rack the toothing of tho other
takes the pinion, and returns the whole back by the other rack, so that the
whole motion is performed by a steady turning round a windlass one way.
Within the moving frame of wood is to be fixed stone, wood, sow metal, or
files, contrived on purpose either to work in oyl, sand, and water, or without
either, as shall upon experience be found most conducive to the purpose of
bringing the plates to a fine smooth surface (and with a little alteration in
the work to polish the same when japanned); when that is done, passing
them again between the rolls with a little correction by a hammer makes
them quite levell, and when cut in proper peices fit to be formed into
mouldings by a third machine, as follows:-
The general movement of this is upon the same principles with the rolls above
as to the pressure by a lever, and the communication between that, the bar,
sliding frame, and upper bolster, but as the force required here is no proportion to
that of the rolls above, this is almost that in miniature, but with the following
differences: As those are parallel and equal diameters these are first cast in
sow metal or forged in steel, and both finely turned to fit each other, the one
roll exactly the figure of the intended moulding, and the other its reverse, so
that the diameters of the two are very unequal, and would consequently
produce a curved moulding; to remedy which, a vertical contrate wheel is fixed
on the same end of each spindle upon which the rolls move, and is cach
reced by a pinion, which (pinions) move together horizontally upon a square
upright pillar, and as the teeth in both wheels and both pinions are equal,
there is no possibility of one going round sooner than the other, by which
means, with a very little correction by swages of the same figure, a perfect
moulding is produced. I should add, that a flat peice of iron is placed

page_text: perpendicular and parallel to each end of the rolls, and a peice of the same
moulding laid levell on each side of them to direct the plates both going to
and coming from the rolls in a right line.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Baskerville, have hereunto sett my
hand and seal, this First day of May, in the fifteenth year of the reign
of our Sovereign Lord George the Second, by the grace of God, of
Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, &c.,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and forty-
two.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the
presence of,
Jo' HIGGS.
MOSES IRONMONGER.
1
AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that the First day of May, in the year
above written, the aforesaid John Baskerville came before our said Lord the
King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Invention afores", and all and
every thing therein contained and specifyed in form above written. And also
the Invention aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made
in the sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary 2
of England, and so forth.