IMPROVEMENTS IN SCYTHES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Goffe Clarke, of Brackley; in the County of
Northampton, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SCYTHES."
Sealed the 21st January 1868, and dated the 24th July 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Goffe Clarke at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
24th July 1862.
I, JOHN GOFFE CLARKE, of Brackley, in the County of Northampton,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SCYTHES,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements 'in scythes. For these pur-
poses, the crew or heel of a scythe blade in place of being turned up at an
angle and fixed to the lower end of the wood handle or sneath, as heretofore,
is formed in such manner as to pass into a hollow metal socket fixed to the
lower end of the sneath or handle. The end of the crew or heel where it
enters the socket is made with a recess on one side in such manner that when
in the socket the higher parts of the crew or heel where the recess is made
will come on either side or end of the socket so as to act as stops, and thus
prevent the crew or heel being drawn out of the socket, when a wedge is
driven into the socket between the heel or crew of the scythe blade and the
socket. The metal socket is, by preference, formed or fixed at the end of a

page_text: metal tube, which is passed into and fixed in a holo formed up the lower end
of the sneath or handle. In some cases, in place of the crew or heel of a
scythe blade being made with a recess, and fixed by a wedge in the metal
socket at the end of the sneath or handle, as above explained, it is formed to
fit the interior of the socket, and is fixed thereto by a screw nut, the end of
the crew or heel being made with a screw thread to receive the nut. When
thus fixing a scythe blade by a screw and nut, a collar is formed or fixed on
the crew or heel, in the face of which are formed ratchet teeth, and a similar
face of ratchet teeth is formed or fixed on one end of the socket, by which
the position of the scythe blade, in respect to the sneath or handle, may bo
adjusted.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Goffe Clarkė in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 24th January 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GOFFE CLARKE, of Brackley, in the County of Northampton, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Goffe Clarke, Her special licence that I, the said John
Goffe Clarke, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said John Goffe Clarke, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SCYTHES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said John Goffe Clarke, 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 dato of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: forming the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is the com-
bined arrangement of the parts a, a, a, b, c, and d, herein described. ..
In witness whereof, I, tho said. John Goffe Clarke, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
JOHN GOFFE CLARKE. (L.S.)