AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING ORNAMENTAL WOODEN FURNITURE BY THE APPLICATION OF MACHINERY
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
PENN, of Richmond Hill, in the County of Surrey, Esquire, 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 Fourteenth day of
March, in the fifty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Penn, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Penn, my exors,
adiiors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years
therein expressed, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE
OF MANUFACTURING ORNAMENTAL WOODEN FURNITURE BY THE APPLICATION OF
MACHINERY;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that
if I, the said Richard Penn, 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 inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two 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, 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
Richard Penn, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
in and by the following description thereof (that is to say):-
My said improved mode of manufacturing wooden furniture consists in the
employment of the turning lathe, furnished with the sliding rest, which is in
common use with many turners, and is so well known as to need no descrip-
tion. But for effecting the purpose to which I apply it, I attach to or con-
nect with the said sliding rest or with the cutting tool certain simple machinery
or apparatus, by means of which I am enabled to employ the said lathe and
sliding rest in a manner in which the same has not hitherto been done for
effecting the said purpose, and which those who are acquainted with the art
of turning will easily understand from the following particulars. In the
turning lathe, as generally used, the wood is made to revolve while the tool
is brought up to it, and borne with more or less force against it; that is to say,
the revolving velocity by which the portion of the material to be displaced
is removed is given to the wood, while the tool may be considered as in a
great measure at rest, having no revolving motion upon its own axis, but being
merely carried along at the descretion of the workman; but for effecting the
object of my said Invention, I not only employ the sliding rest as caarriage
for the cutting tool, but I cause the said cutting tool, to the face of which I
give any required form suited to the moulding or embellishment intended to
be produced), to revolve upon its own axis by means of a small pulley driven
by a band or otherwise, and kept in action by any of the powers in common
use for giving motion, to machinery; and while the said tool or cutter is
kept thus in action, revolving upon its own axis and carried along by means
of the sliding rest, the wood is kept either stationary or in a slow motion
in such a way as to bring the different parts of its surface (conformably to
the pattern or figure intended to be produced) successively under the
operation of the revolving cutter or tool. By the means thus afforded me
for displacing that portion of the material which it is to displaces, I am
enabled not only to bring the face of the work to the form that is required,
finishing the surface in such a manner as to render the work which has
been bestowed upon it highly ornamental, but I am also enabled to prepare
the surface to receive other pieces of wood with the grain disposed in a
different direction, or pieces of other kinds and colours, the said pieces being
formed to fit the cavities made by the revolving cutter or cutters in the
surface of the piece to be ornamented, thus producing that species of work
which is commonly known or designated by the term "inlaid."
From the foregoing description no competent mechanist can be at any loss
to comprehend what is meant by causing the cutting tool to revolve, and the

page_text: way in which the same is effected by means of a pulley, driven by a band
or otherwise; but to render the same intelligible even to the most ordinary
workman at all acquainted with the turning lathe, I here add, that the same
or similar modes of using the cutting tool have been before applied to and
are now in use for cutting toothed wheels, and for drilling dividing plates and
other purposes, my said Invention depending and resting not on the lathe
or on its sliding rest, or on the tools for which the said sliding rest may
serve as a carriage, or on the rotary motion given to the said tools on
their own axis, all of which have been before in use, but on the application
of the said lathe, sliding rest, and cutters revolving on their own axis to a
new purpose, namely, that of manufacturing ornamental wooden furniture,
a purpose to which the same have not been hitherto applied in their combined
operation.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Penn, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord One