CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OR ON OIL MILLS
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
BOWLES, of Bennett Street, Blackfriars Road, in the County of Surrey,
Millwright, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of March, in
the fifty-sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Bowles,
my exors, adors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Joseph Bowles, my exors, adñors, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OR ON OIL MILLS;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said
Joseph Bowles, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six 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, utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Bowles, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained as follows, that is to say:
My said improvements consist in giving to the body of the oil press, and to
the wedges and dam blocks and fore irons, such forms as to lessen or remove
entirely the tendency which the dam blocks and fore irons in the common
presses have to rise when the driving wedge is under the operation of the
stamper, and in substituting for the common stamper one made of metal,
and of a construction hereafter described. In the press commonly in use,
that is, in the box containing the wedges, dam blocks, fore irons, back
irons, and hairs, between which the seeds are pressed), the two ends stand up
vertical and parallel, and when otherwise it is by accident and not by design.
In my improved oil mill the said ends of the press are not vertical; they incline
inward from the bottom to the top, at such an angle that the length of the
press from end to end at top is about three inches less than the length of
the bottom, both measured inside, that is, each end inclines inward at top
about one inch and a half. By this improvement, and a corresponding
alteration in the wedges, dam blocks, and fore irons, to make the whole fit the
press and each other, the work is in a great measure, if not entirely, prevented
from rising, which rising always brings great friction on the bags, and causes
them to be cut, and rendered unserviceable much sooner in the common
than my improved press. In the common methods of working in oil mills
the driving wedge is usually of a taper of two inches and a half to the foot,
but some have been used at two inches and a quarter taper to the foot. In my
improved press I never wish to employ wedges of a greater taper than two
inches and a quarter to the foot for pressing seed, and for what is called small
work a taper of only two inches to the foot, and I find by experience that such
a wedge can be driven further, and consequently operate more powerfully in
expressing in oil than more obtuse wedges. In the common press the driving
wedge and spring wedge are both of one taper, so that when laid on each.
other, the thick end of the one on the thin end of the other, their opposite
sides are parallel; but in my improved press the spring wedge is from two
inches and three quarters to three inches taper in the foot, and therefore if
laid on the driving wedge, as before described, their opposite sides will not
be found parelle!.
From what has been stated, any person acquainted with oil mills will
perceive that with such a press and such wedges as I employ my dam
blocks must be different in form from those in common use, as dam blocks
with parallel sides would not fill up the press which I have described; and in
fact in my press the dam box are each made about half an inch thicker

page_text: at bottom than at top, the different tools being all thus adjusted so as to fill
the press. To save the expence of new presses where presses of the commen
construction are already in the mill, I adopt the following simple contrivance,
when the length of the press will admit of it; that is to say, in the common
press the back irons have their sides parallel. In place of these I introduce
back irons of a wedge form, making each of them one inch and a half.thicker
at the top than at the bottom; that is, by means of this additional thickness
given to them at the top I encroach three inches on the top, and thus prevent
the rising of the dam lock and fire iron, but especially the latter, in the
same way as when a press of three inches difference between top and bottom
(as before described) is employed.
My improvement or improvements on the stamper of oil mills will
easily be understood by the following description:-The stampers in general
use hitherto have been made of wood, some of them shod with iron, and some
few have been made of solid iron; but the latter have generally been laid
aside as often as they have been attempted to be introduced, either from
the difficulty of preventing their being too heavy when made of such a
material, or from some defect in their construction. I have found means
to obviate the objections which have hitherto prevented metal stampers from
coming into use. I make the body of my stampers conical, or pyramidal,
or cylindrical, but the first-mentioned form I find most convenient, as it
enables me more easily to get a sufficient breadth of striking face with the
limited weight to which the driving stamper must be confined, and to gain
the length necessary to keep the braces and nogs at a height to be out of the
way of the workmen. I make my stamper hollow except at the lower ends,
and I find in this way I can very conveniently make my stamper from five
to eight feet long from its bottom to the under side of the nog. It may be
made of copper, brass, or iron. I prefer cast iron, as being the cheapest, and
easily cast into form. I make the said stamper with its nog in one piece, and the
stamper is furnished with two projecting parallel guides which work in grooves.
From the preceding description any millwright or other person acquainted with
the structure of the common oil mill will be at no loss to comprehend and to
put in practice my said improvements, as they do not affect the general con-
struction of the oil mill, but only the forms of the press or box, and of the
wedges and other tools working therein, and the driving stamper, as above
particularly specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Bowles, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixteen.
JOS. (L.s.) BOWLES.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1816, the aforesaid Joseph Bowles came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified in form
above written. And also the Specification was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eighteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixteen.