PORTABLE RAILWAY OR ARTIFICIAL ROAD, TO MOVE ALONG WITH ANY CARRIAGE TO WHICH IT IS APPLIED
Year: 1770

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
LOVELL EDGEWORTH, of Hare Hatch, in the County of Berks, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifth day of February, in the tenth year of His said Majesty's
reign, did give and grant unto me, the said Richard Lovell Edgeworth, His
special licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said
Richard Lovell Edgeworth, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, should and lawfully
might, during the term of years therein expressed, make, use, exercise, and
vend, within that part of His Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britian called
England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
new invented "PORTABLE RAILWAY OR ARTIFICIAL ROAD, TO MOVE ALONG WITH ANY
CARRIAGE TO WHICH IT IS APPLIED;" in which said recited Letters Patent is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said Richard Lovell Edgeworth, by
writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the

page_text: nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar
months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
said Letters Patent, and the Statute in that behalf made, relation being there-
unto respectively had, may more at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, and in pur-
suance of the said Statute, I, the said Richard Lovell Edgeworth, do hereby
rleclare that my said new Invention is composed and made in manner following,
that is to say-
The great advantages of wooden railways or artifical roads for the wheels
of heavy carriages to roll upon are so obvious, in removing such obstructions
as the circumference of wheels would otherwise meet with in soft or rugged
roads, that it would be necessary to enumerate them. It has been the great
expence of laying such railways for carriages in general that has hitherto
deprived the publick of the great advantage that might otherwise be obtained
by this principle. My Invention consists in making portable railways to wheel
carriages, so that several pieces of wood are connected to the carriage, which
it moves in regular succession in such manner that a sufficient length of
railing is constantly at rest for the wheels to roll upon, and that when the
wheels have nearly approached the extremity of this part of the railway their
motion shall lay down a fresh length of rail in front, the weight of which in
its descent shall assist in raising such part of the rail as the wheels havo
already passed over, and thus the pieces of wood which are taken up in the
rear are in succession laid in the front, so as to furnish constantly a railway
for the wheels to roll upon.
In, witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand seven
hundred and seventy.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1770, the aforesaid Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Esquiro,
came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and speci-
fied, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt
according to the tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of the
late King and Queen William and Mary of England, and so forth.
Inrolled the Second day of T..