IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TIMBER AND OTHER JACKS. AND FLOOR CRAMPS
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WELLS, of Ware, in the County of Hertford, Whitesmith, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventeenth day of May, in the eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Wells, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Thomas Wells, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Thomas Wells, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TIMBER AND OTHER JACKS.
AND FLOOR CRAMPS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that
I, the said Thomas Wells, shall cause a particular description of the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters

page_text: Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
⚫ NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Wells, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:
The first part of my Invention has for its object an improvement in the con-
struction of jacks for lifting timber, and applies to that class where screws
are employed for such purpose. I am aware that various arrangements of
screw jacks have before been made, but in doing so, each screw jack heretofore
mado has had two or more threads to the lifting screw. Now the object of this
part of my Invention is to have on the lifting screw a single worm or thread
working through a proper corresponding female screw formed in the nut,
which is caused to revolve by the winch handle by a toothed wheel on the nut
taking into the toothed wheel or a worm on the axis of the winch handle; in
all other respects the jacks, according to my Invention, may be made in the
same manner as screw jacks have before been made. It will be found that by
the use of a single-threaded screw greater weights may be raised, though at a
slower speed, and at the same time, owing to the use of a single-threaded
screw, the weight raised will not be liable to run back as the single-threaded
screw will remain where left, notwithstanding very great weights are sustained
thereby, which is not the case when the lifting screw has two or more threads.
I will now describe the second part of my Invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shews a side view of a-jack for roasting meat, with the side plates
removed in order that the interior works may be better understood. a, a, iš
the case of the jack, which is suspended by the loop b, as heretofore, when
using bottle jacks, and the fly-wheel and meat is suspended from the loop c.
This jack has a spring and train of wheels, which are similar to what has
before been used in such description of jacks; d is à quantity of threads of
worsted, fastened to the upper part of the tube é, and fastened at the lower
end to the axis f.. On this axis fare two toothed pinions ġ and h; which
alternately is driven by the cogged wheel i, and it is the application of this
description of wheel which constitutes the novelty of the first part of my
Invention. This wheel has teeth to only part of the circumference, as is

page_text: shown, there being a. spring tooth at ', as shewn, to prevent injury to the
tooth should it come incorrectly to the pinion, and a continuous rotatory motion
is communicated. to the wheel i from the main spring in the case j-by the
following means:-The main spring is at one end fixed to the fixed case, and
at the other end to the axis k; on this axis k is affixed the-ratchet wheel-, and
on the same axis is the cog wheel m, which can turn-freely on the axis in one
direction, but is retained to the axis in the other direction by means of the
spring catch n; hence, when the main, spring has been wound up, the spring
will exert itself to turn the axis, and as the wheel m is held by tho catch
thereon taking into a tooth of the ratchet wheel, it will be carried round with
the axis, and the wheel m will give motion to the pinion o fixed on the axis p,
by which the cog wheel q, fixed on that axis, will give motion to the pinion r,
affixed on the axis s, and, consequently, to the wheel t, affixed on that axis,
and the wheel t will give motion to the pinion v, affixed on the same axis as
the wheel i is affixed, and thus is motion given to the jack.
I will now describe the third part of my Invention, which has for its object
a novel combination of parts for cramping boards in laying down floors.
Figure 1 shows a plan; Figure 2, a side view; Figure 8, a longitudinal
section; and Figure 4, a transverse view of this apparatus. This Invention
consists in a lever having a curved surface at its ond, which slides a bolt, as
will readily be traced on the Drawing. a, a, is the frame, the nature of which
is clearly shewn in the Drawing; 6 is a screw, by which the frame is securely
fixed near the edge of the board to bo cramped; c is a bolt with a flat plate d
at the end, which comes against the edge of the board f, and the bolt slides in
the socket g, and motion is communicated to the bolt by the cam or curved
surface h, affixed to the axis i of the lever j, as is shewn; and it will readily bo
understood that great power will thus be obtained in cramping the board, and
by having a ratchet wheel k and a click the bolt is prevented going back.
In this part of the Invention I do not claim any of the parts separately, but
only the mode of combining the parts into an instrument as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Wells, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
THOMAS (L.s.) WELLS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of November, in
the year of our Lord 1845, the aforesaid Thomas Wells came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforo-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Seventeenth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-five.