NEW INVENTION AND DISCOVERY OF GRINDING OR REDUCING TO POWDER BARK FOR TANNING LEATHER, AND BRAZIL WOOD, LOGWOOD, FUSTICK, MADDER, INDIGO, SALTPETRE, AND ALL OTHER WOODS, DRUGS ROOTS, MINERALS, AND COLOURS USED IN DYING, BY CERTAIN MILLSTONES OF A PARTICULAR FORM AND CONSTRUCTION PLACED HORIZONTALLY, AND WORKED WITH WIND OR WATER
Year: 1774

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
SHEPLEY, of Horseleydown, in the Borough of Southwark, in the County of
Surry, Leather Dresser, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third hath
'been graciously pleased, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of June, in the
fourteenth year of His said Majesty's reign, to give and grant unto me, the
said George Shepley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said George
Shepley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by
'myself or themselves, or by my or their deputy or deputys, servants or agents,
or such others as I, the said George Shepley, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, should and lawfully
might from time to time and at all times hereafter during the term of years
therein expressed, make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Great
Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my "NEW INVENTION AND DISCOVERY OF GRINDING OR REDUCING TO POWDER
BARK FOR TANNING LEATHER, AND BRAZIL WOOD, LOGWOOD, FUSTICK, MADDER,
INDIGO, SALTPETRE, AND ALL OTHER WOODS, DRUGS, ROOTS, MINERALS, AND COLOURS
USED IN DYING, BY CERTAIN MILLSTONES OF A PARTICULAR FORM AND CONSTRUCTION
PLACED HORIZONTALLY, AND WORKED WITH WIND OR WATER," in such manner as

page_text: to me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should in
their discretions seem meet; and that I, the said George Shepley, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the
whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time coming,
growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the said Invention; to have, hold;
exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers, priviledges, and advantages therein
granted unto me, the said George Shepley, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from
the date of the said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be
compleat and ended, according to the Statute in such case made and provided;
and whereas in the said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that I, the
said George Shepley, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Discovery and Invention, and in what manner the same is performed, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within four calendar months next
after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the said Letters
Patent, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in obedience to the said Letters Patent, and the
.proviso therein contained, I, the said. George Shepley, do hereby declare that
the best millstones for the purposes, aforesaid are those which are found at
La Ferté sous Jouarre, in the province of Champagne, in France, though the
Derbyshire, Cologne, and many other common millstones, will effect the pur-
poses intended as aforesaid, but, for want of a sufficient hardness, not so well.
My said Discovery and Invention consists in the form and manner of placing
and working the said millstones for the purposes aforesaid, which is in manner
following:-
The millstones are to be placed horizontally, and worked in the common
manner by wind or water. The upper stone is to be cut into a concavity, begin-
ning about a foot more or less according to the size of the stone, from the
edge or skirt, and approaching to the center thereof; the lower or bedstone is
to be flat, and to be steadily fixed. There is to be a needle or spindle of iron
run through both stones, in the same manner as through common millstones;
but the wooden box placed in the center of the lower or bedstone, and through
which the said spindle passes, is to be raised or made a little convex. There
are placed upright in the said wooden box, so fixed in the lower or bedstone,
several flat pieces of iron or other metal, shaped like knives, which, by the
circular motion of the upper stone, will direct the bark or other substances to
be ground from the concave parts of the upper millstone to the sides or edges
of the said stones, where the same are to be ground and reduced. to powder.

page_text: The bark or other substances to be ground by these stones are to pass through
a hopper, fixed, as common hoppers for grinding corn are, into the concavity of
the upper millstone, but the hopper and eye of the said upper stone are to be
made much larger than in common millstones for grinding corn. The laying
in of the work differs from the work in millstones used for grinding corn in
the following particulars,-that the lands used in this Invention are round
instead of being flat, and the furrows wider and deeper, but that must be in
some degree varied according to the nature of the substance intended to be
ground, which a little experience will teach any person acquainted with grind-
ing with millstones. Bark, and the several woods and other substances before
enumerated, can be ground and reduced to powder with millstones formed,
placed, and worked in manner aforesaid, in a much cheaper, better, and more
expeditious manner than by any method now in use.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Shepley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Ninth day of July, in the fourteenth year of the
reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, King over Great
Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c., and in the
year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and seventy-four.
Inrolled the Ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
seven hundred and seventy-four.