A METHOD OR MEANS OF ACTING UPON MACHINERY
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
BARKER, of Cottage Green, Camberwell, in the County of Surrey, Artist,
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 Nineteenth day of
November, in the fifty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Joseph Barker, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Joseph Barker, my exors,
adiñors, 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 "A METHOD OR MEANS
OF ACTING UPON MACHINERY;" in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a proviso that if I, the said Joseph Barker, 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, shall utterly cease,

page_text: 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 Barker, do declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following description
thereof, that is to say :-
Fig. 1. The piston rod is connected with either of the rods or racks
A or B, so as to move it up and down, and the upper ends of these, being
toothed and engaged by the toothed wheel C, are always caused to move in
opposite directions, that is, one will go up while the other goes down. Each
of the rods or racks A, B, is furnished with teeth to work in the ratchet
wheels D and E, which teeth project from the rack so as to catch in the teeth
of the wheels when ascending; but in the other direction, videlicit, when
the racks are descending, the teeth will yield or lift up the rack so as to take
no hold on the teeth of the two wheels D, E, which are sloped away on one
side for the purpose. Both the wheels are fixed upon a common axis F, to
which it is intended to communicate a rotatory motion, and which may have
a fly wheel upon it if required. The operatin of this contrivance is as
follows: Suppose the rack A to be ascending, it teeth will engage or hook
in the teeth of the ratchet wheel D and turn it round in the direction of the
arrow, and thus give motion to the axis F. At the same time the rack B
will be descending, because it is on the opposite side of the wheel C, but its
teeth will not oppose any resistance to the motion of the wheel E, because
each tooth is fixed to the rack by a centre pin, so as to be at liberty to lift up
freely and pass over the sloping sides of the teeth of the wheel E. Suppose
the rack A to have completed its ascent, it will begin to return, as shewn by
the arrow, and in the descending motion its teeth will slip freerly over the
sloping sides of the teeth of the wheel D to which it before gave motion;
but at the same time the rack B being on the ascent, its teeth will hold upon
the wheel E and turn it round in the same direction as before. Thus,
whether the piston rod is ascending or descending, that rack which is ascend-
ing will alone operate upon the wheels to turn them round, but the other
rack which is at the same descending will have no operation.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Barker, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventeen.
J. BARKER. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1817, the aforesaid Joseph Barker 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 aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventeen.