AN IMPROVEMENT ON SKATES, AND IN FIXING THE SAME ON THE FEET
Year: 1819

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MILWARD, of Eton, in the County of Bucks, Shoemaker, 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 Fourth day of March, in the
fifty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said William
Milward, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Millward, my exors,
admors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT ON
SKATES, AND IN FIXING THE SAME ON THE FEET;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that, if I, the said William Millward,
shall 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, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Millward, 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 by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and by the following descrip-
tion thereof (that is to say):-
My improvement on the skate, and fixing the same, consists of attaching
the skaite iron to the shoe instead of a wooden sole, to be strapped on to
the foot as heretofore. Fig. 1 represents a side view of the shoe and skate
iron attached. Fig. 2 a under view of the sole of the shoe and skaite iron
attached. Fig. 3 the skaite iron alone, at the toe end of which I make a dove-
tailed notch to be fitted to the staple (a), shewn in section at Fig. 4 and end
view Fig. 5; the skaite iron being sliped into the groove, and the notch pressed
home in the staple, will lock at the toe part, and then by means of two screws,
or any other such simple contrivance, the heel staple (6) is to be firmly attached
to the shoe heel, which will secure the skaite iron firmly on to the sole of the
shoe or boot, and be found a more certain and secure, as well as more conve-
nient, mode of fastening the skaite then that mode which has been hitherto
commonly adopted. It may be necessary to state, that in order to make the
attachment more firm, I work a piece or plate of iron into the sole of the
shoe, or under the sole leather; for the purpose of holding the screws, bolts, or
rivets of the staple (a), and the same also at the heel, in order to receive the
screws or other fastening of the heel staple (b).
In witness whereof, I, the said William Milward, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and nineteen.