A CERTAIN NEW IMPROVEMENT IN. THE CONSTRUCTION OF A WATER MILL
Year: 1803

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
NORTON, of Rolls Buildings, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, London, Mathematical
Instrument Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of July, in
the forty-third year of His said Majesty's reign, did give and grant unto me,
the said John Norton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence that I, my executors, administrators, and assigns, deputy or deputies,
servants or agents, or such others as I, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an Invention of
"" A CERTAIN NEW IMPROVEMENT IN. THE CONSTRUCTION OF A WATER MILL;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said John
Norton, 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 enrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of.Chancery within one calendar month next after the
date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and
all liberties and advantages thereby granted, should cease, determine, and be
void, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may

page_text: NOW KNOW 1, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the sai
John Norton, lo hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
in manner herein-after mentioned, and by the Drawing or Plan thereof
hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-
sixth day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and three.
The Invention and improvement for which the Patent is claimed is, the
application of a screw, either horizontally, vertically, or obliquely, to the impulse
of water, in such a way that the screw may receive a motion round its own
axis from such impulse, and, being applied to and connected with any of the
well-known machinery used in mill work, shall produce and communicate to
any such said machinery the motions and effects of a water mill. I make thic
screw of wood, iron, copper, or any other material the circumstances of dimen-
sions, situation, &c. may require, and either with a single or double thread, and
with one, two, or more turns of the thread, and deeper or less deep in the
thread, as the said circumstances may require. The general appearance of a
screw of this kind, and the method of applying it to mill-work machinery,
is shown in Fig. 1 in the annexed Drawing. A, A, represents the screw
with the axis; B, B, are bevel wheels, one of which fixed on the axis of
the screw, and one on an axis which stands at right angles, or otherwise
inclined to it, and may carry other mill work for millstones, boring cannon, &c.;
M, M, M, M, is a vertical section of a rectangular or other convenient-shaped
vessel, open more or less to admit the steam to the screw A, A; G, G,
vertical section of a punt, barge, or other floating vessel, to which the machine
is fixed.
Fig. 2 represents a geometrical horizontal view of the vessel M, M, M, M,
shewing the method used to support the axis of the screw by iron or other bars,
B, B, B, B, B, B, bolted or otherwise fastened to the sides of the vessel at C, C, C;
in the centre of each bar is a plate A, A, A, on which is fixed a block or other
stay, in which the axis of the screw is held in its required position.
Fig. 3 is an end geometrical view of the vessel M, M, M, M, shewing in
B, A, B, the elevation of the bars B, B, B, B, B, B, in Fig. 2, and of the block
which holds the axis of the screw.
Fig. 4 represents, in A, A, the axis of the screw, being made of wood, iron,
or any other material which may be relatively suitable to the intended size,
&c. of the screw; it is made in one, two, or more lengths, and is joined by

page_text: couplings, as at D, in the Drawing,
methods.
or otherwise by any of the well-known
Sealed and delivered (being first duly
stamped) in the presence of
Wx SILK,
JOHN (L.S.) NORTON.
Parker's Rents.
THO HUNT,
Clk. to Mr. Collingridge, Lothbury.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-sixth day of
August, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Norton came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Twenty-sixth day of Acoust in the