IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PLOUGHING, HARROWING, AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES, TO BE WORKED BY STEAM OR OTHER POWER
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
MC RAE, of the County of Demerara, in the Colony of British Guiana,
Planter, but now residing at the London Coffee House, Ludgate Hill, in the
City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fourth of December, in the third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alexander McRae, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Alexander Mc Rae, my exors, adññors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alexander Me Rae, my exors, adiñors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the terms of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plan-
tations abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PLOUGHING,
HARROWING, AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES, TO BE WORKED BY STEAM OR OTHER
POWER;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
Alexander Mc Roe, 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 said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
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
Alexander McRae, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, refe-
rence being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon (that is to say):-
The country where this machinery is intended to be applied to agricultural
purposes more immediately is the Colony of British Guiana, where the cul-
tivated land is perfectly flat, or nearly so, and the fields are divided from each
other by navigable canals, which run parallel to each other, and at a distance
of from two hundred and forty to three hundred and sixty feet apart. The
main features upon which I rest my claim are as follows:-The application
of the power of the steam engine in the punt or craft at A, to the working
of a drum D, round which a common chain or rope is passed two or more
times, the one end of which chain or rope is secured to the machine or
agricultural implements at E, the other end is passed over the pulley B
in the opposite punt or craft, and secured to the machine or agricultural
implements at F; this being done, and the chain or rope wound up to a
sufficient tightness by means of a windlass at G, or otherwise, the steam
engine is to be set in motion, and will draw the machine or implements
across the field from side to side alternately, the motion of the engine
having been reversed at every turning of the machine or implements; and
the punts, machine, or implements being moved the required distance on every
occasion that the machine or implements finish traversing the breadth of the
field, so as to take up a new line for the furrows to be made by the ploughs, &c.
The machine C, however, only being applicable to perfectly level land, I dis-
pense with it entirely where the land undulates, and in such cases to apply
the power of the engine by means of the same machinery directly to all sorts
of agricultural implements usually worked by horse or other animal power.
In some cases I substitute a pitch chain and pulley, instead of the drum and
common chain or rope.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Mc Rae, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty..
A. MAC RAE. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of April, in
the year of our Lord 1840, the aforesaid Alexander Mac Rae came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation 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 Twenty-fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty.