MACHINE FOR CUTTING, AFTER A NEW METHOD, STANDING CORN, GRASS, AND THE LIKE, AND FOR MAKING REED
Year: 1800

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ROBERT MEARES, of Frome, in the County of Somerset, Dyer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George 'the
Third did, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, bearing date at Westminster the Twentieth day of May, in the
fortieth year of His Reign, give and grant unto me, the said Robert
Mears, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege, and authority that I, the said Robert Meares,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend my
"MACHINE FOR CUTTING, AFTER A NEW METHOD, STANDING CORN,
GRASS, AND THE LIKE, AND FOR MAKING REED," and which Machine may also
be applied to other useful purposes, within that part of His Majesty's
Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me the said
Robert Meares, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should in our
discretion seem meet; in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that if I, the said Robert Meares, should 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 enrolled in His Majesty's High Court

page_text: of Chancery within one calendar month 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 should utterly
cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the said Letters Patent,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Meares, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and declare that the same is to be performed in manner
following; that is to say, instead of a reaphook or scythe, I use a pair
of large shears, with which I construct a field shearing machine in the
manner herein-after described: I provide a pair of large shears, the
fore part or cutting part thereof shaped like the common garden shears,
the hinder part made to incline upwards, and sufficiently strong to
receive two handles, four or five feet in length, or any length that can
conveniently be worked. The handles may be bent like the handles
of a pair of scissors, or made straight or in any other shape that may be
judged convenient. I then place a narrow flat piece of wood, iron, or
any other substance proper for the purpose, on one or more wheels or
rollers, to move as near the ground as I wish to cut the corn, grass,
and the like. On the fore part of this wood, iron, or other substance
I place the shears in such a manner that the cutting part may project
over; I then confine them to the carriage by means of a piece of iron
fastened to the rivet, and screwed or nailed to the carriage, or I pass a
pin of iron or any other metal through the rivet part of the shears, and
also through the carriage, which pin, having a screw at the end,
I strain down with a nut under, which serves, not only to confine the
shears to the carriage, but also to regulate their cutting by confining
the opposite parts of the shears close together. On the side of the
shears that I wish the corn, grass, and the like to fall I place one or
more small rod or rods of iron or wire, to conduct it to the ground, and
on the opposite side of the shears I also place one or more rod or rods
of iron or wire, to prevent its falling, and to throw it on the other side.
The handles of the machine are used for working the shears, and also
for forcing the carriage forward after every cut. A small pole may be
made to take off and on, if required, that one person may move and