AN IMPROVED METHOD OR METHODS OF CLEARING OUT WATERCOURSES
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
FARISH, of Cambridge, in the County of Cambridge, Jacksonian Professor in
the University of Cambridge, send greeting.
WHEREAS His prosent most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourth day of September, in the ninth year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Farish, His especial licence, that I, the said William Farish, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Farish, my
exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and send, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OR METHODS OF CLEARING OUT WATERCOURSES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Farish, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to.
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference.
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 Farish, do declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say) :-
:-
My said Invention of a certain method or methods of clearing watercourses
consists in the employment of self-acting machines, which, when filled to a
proper height with water, shall on a sudden empty the said water in such a
manner and with such power as will render it capable of washing away or
removing those substances which lie in the said watercourses and which it
may be desirable to get rid of; and I hereby claim the employment and appli-
cation of all and every such self-acting machine to this purpose. As, however,
it may be desirable to afford examples of methods of carrying my said Invention
into effect, I shall proceed to do so by referring to the different Figures which
are contained in the Drawing annexed, as before said, to this Specification, and
in which said Drawing, Fig. 1 represents a vessel or trough suspended upon
an axis, with turning necks or pivots formed upon the sides or ends of it, as
shewn at A, B, C, D; the back part B of this said vessel or trough pre-
ponderating and resting upon any proper support, it will be kept in a hori-
zontal position, but when it is filled to a proper height with water, the length
of its front part between the axis A, C, and D, being greater than that of the
back part between A, C, and B, it will, in its turn, preponderate, and the
vessel becoming inclined will suddenly discharge the water it contained, washing
before it whatever it is desirable to remove, and will then resume its horizontal
position. A cylindrical or barrel-shaped, or other suitable form, may also be
given to this apparatus, as shewn in Fig. 2, which may also be hung upon an
axis, with necks or pivots at its ends, and having a lip or other appendage
made to project on one side of it opening into the cylinder. This vessel being
so balanced as that the said lip or appendage shall be brought to the desired
situation, and as shown in the said Figure. Upon water being suffered to run
into it, it remains at rest, until the water rising into the lip or appendage will
overcome the balance and suddenly cause it to turn and discharge its contents,
when it will again recover its original position. It will be desirable to have
an opening to admit air made in the upper part of this cylindrical vessel to
enable it to discharge its contents more readily, and likewise to provide stops
to prevent the lip from either rising too high or falling too low. If it be
desired that water collected in a tank, pond, or other receptacle should be let
out suddenly into the drain or watercourse, it may be effected by the use of a

page_text: vessel similar to those above described, only they must be so covered in as to
admit no passage for the water when the vessel oversets, except through a
small hole, represented in Fig. 3 at E. The vessel is in a place defended from
the water of the tank, except that when the tank is full it flows through the
pipe G, R, and through the funnel R into the vessel, on the axis of which a
pinion marked P is fixed, commanding a rack and rod N, F, H, which passes
through a water-tight collar F, and being connected at H with the cover of
the opening between the tank and the watercourse opens or shuts it as the
vessel oversets or rises, and will keep it open till the tank is sufficiently
emptied, the time being regulated by the size of the hole E. The opening at
L is designed for the escape of waste water. The cylinder used for the purpose
above described should be very small, and the lip or appendage very large; any
other vessel or apparatus may be used, or any other contrivance, provided only
that the communication or communications between the receptacle of water
and the watercourse be duly set free and impeded.
Having thus afforded these examples of methods of carrying my said Inven-
tion into effect, I hereby state that I do not mean or intend hereby to confine
myself to the particular forms of the machines here shown and described, but
to avail myself of any others which may be capable of clearing out water-
courses by their self-acting powers. I do not mean or intend hereby to claim
as my Invention any of the various self-acting contrivances herein designated,
which may or may not have been used heretofore for other purposes; but I do
hereby claim as my Invention, and the object of this Patent, their application
on the principles above described to the purposes specified. And as the
taking out of this Patent was suggested by Mr. Joshua Jowett, of Great
Queen's Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, on my mentioning the Invention
to him, so I wish that the apparatus or machines may be known by the name
of "Jowett's Patent Machines or Apparatus for Clearing Watercourses."
In witness whereof, I, the said William Farish, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.
Signed, scaled, and delivered in the
presence of
FRED RANDALL, Sol",
Cambridge.
WILLIAM (L.S.) FARISII.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of March, in the
year of our Lord 1829, the aforesaid William Farish came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.