NEW METHOD OF WORKING MINES OF COALS AND METALS BY A NEW MACHINE INVENTED BY HIM FOR HEWING, AND IN SOME CASES DRAINING THEM
Year: 1761

page_text: WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty, by His Letters Patent which
passed the Great Seal of Great Britain the Twentieth day of May last past,
was graciously pleased to grant unto Michael Meinzies, Esquire, his executors,
administrators, and assigns, the sole priviledge and authority to use, exercise,
and put in practice his "NEW METHOD OF WORKING MINES OF COALS AND METALS
BY A NEW MACHINE INVENTED BY HIM FOR HEWING, AND IN SOME CASES DRAINING
THEM," for and during the term of fourteen years; in which Letters Patent
there is this proviso, that he, the said Michael Meinzies, should within the space
of four calendar months, to be computed from the date of the said grant, cause
a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by a writing under his hand and seal, to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery in England.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Michael Meinzies, do hereby describe the nature of my said Invention, which is
to be performed in the manner following:-
It is moved by a fire engine, a water miln, a wind miln, or by a horse gin;
and the force is communicated from them by spears going down the pitt, the
lower end of each of which spears is fixed to a chain which goes round a
vertical wheel at the bottom of the pitt, and the other end of that chain is
fixed to another spear of timber which moves horizontally on rollers all along
the pavement of the coal till it comes opposite to the boards or rooms where
A

page_text: And in order
the coals are to be hewed. At that part of the roller a pegg is fixed, upon
which pegg a chain is affixed which goes into the board or room, and has
the other end of it fixed to a horizontal wheel or large pully, which has a
groove or furrow in the outside of it in which the chain runs, in the axletree
of which wheel a pick is fixed of many times more weight than the picks
commonly made use of by the coaliers, and this pick by the motion of the
sliding spear makes a semicircle by the chain affixed to the spear and the
wheel, and strikes upon the coal wall near the pavement of the coal, and so
undermines it (which is called about Newcastle curving, and in Scotland
pooling). This pick, after having made the stroke, is drawn back again by
another chain, which also goes round the horizontal wheel or pully, and is
fixed to another horizontal spear or slider, which is fixed to a chain at the
bottom of the pit, and the other end of that chain is fixed to a perpendicular
spear, which comes from the top of the pit, like the other spear before men-
tioned, and these two are put on two cranks in one axletree, which by going
round draw up and down the spears alternately, and so draw the pick back-
wards and forwards at the coal wall, and so undermine the coal.
to undermine it or pool and curve it further in, the shaft of the pick is made
long, and begins when short; but the axletree is so made that the shaft of
the pick may be thrust further through the axletree, and so curve or pool
further in, or picks may be had of different lengths, and the longer be put in
after the shorter has curved or pooled as far in as it can; but as this
curving or pooling in a semicircle leaves corners on the outside of the semi-
circle untouched, so these corners are hewed away by varying the position of
the undermining pick, first to one side of the board or room, and then to the
other, and lengthening the pick as before. For example, suppose the board or
room run east and west, and suppose the machine has undermined a semicircle
of the coal in the west side, then there remains without that semicircle on the
south side a part of the coal not touched, in order to take away which the
horizontal wheel with the pick must be placed on the south side of the board
or room, and there make the pick strike on the south side, first with a short
pick, and then with a longer, till all that was left untouched on the south side
is undermined, and so what was untouched on the north side may be also
taken away by removing the horizontal wheel with the pick to the north side;
and indeed by the manner of placing the undermining wheel and pick first
on the south side and then on the north, there will be no need of beginning
to undermine a semicircle on the west. This horizontal wheel, whose axletree
is vertical, runs within a frame which is about as deep as the coal is thick, and

page_text: as long as the room or board is wide, and this vertical axletree, by the con-
struction of the frame, may be moved either to the east or west, south or north
part of the frame, but for the security of the man who attends it, there must
be a floor of deals half a foot or more above the pavement, and fixed to the
frame, that the curving pick may go horizontally below that floor, upon which
floor the man may stand who attends the machine. When we would cut the
coal at the side of the board or room, which is commonly called shearing, there
is a vertical wheel, in the axletree of which, a little without the wheel, there is
a heavy pick fixed, which is drawn backwards and forwards by chains fixed to
the vertical wheel and to the sliders, and hews the coals vertically; the pick
is shortened or lengthened like the former, and the axletree of this wheel by
the construction of the frame may be placed higher or lower, further from the
coal wall or nearer it, in order to shear as far in as the length of the thickness
of the coall. This vertical wheel may be either fixed at the side of the former
frame or in a frame by itself, and on the other side of the former frame another
vertical wheel may be fixed to shear on the other side of the board or room;
only it would be observed that it is proper to undermine the coal in the board
or room before it be sheared at the sides. When the machine has pooled or
curved and shorn so many feet in as is desired, then the machine, which is
fixed on castors, is thrust into another board or room, taking the chains off the
peggs in the sliders, and driving out the wedges which were driven in betwixt
the top of the frame and the roof of the coal to fix it. When this frame is run
into the next board or room, the sliders being continued with peggs in them
opposite to the mouth of that second board, it is fixed there by the wedges at the
top, and the chains, which have a ring at the end of each of them, are put upon
the peggs in the sliders, then it begins to undermine and shear as in the first
board, and a coalier in the meantime is taking down, by what they call mall
and wedge, the coal which was undermined and shorn in the first room, if it
does not fall of itself, and then it is carried away to be drawn to the surface;
and if the machine has undermined and shorn the coal in the second board
before the have got the coals out of the first, then the frame must be run into
the third board to curve and shear there; and after the coals are carried out
of the first board the frame is brought back to it, and the chains lengthened,
and then it curves and shears further in, and so on; only when the boards
are turned along, and consequently the chains long, then there may be sliders
and rollers till they come near the frames instead of chains; and it would be
observed that there may be as many of these frames curving and shearing as
you have power in the first mover, whether fire engine, water miln, or wind
9

page_text: miln, or horses, for the sliders go along the mouth of all your boards. If there
must be angles in conveying the power of the first mover to the boards where
the coals are to be hewed, then it is only needfull. to have a wheel at the
angle, and a chain about it, as at the bottom of the first pit, to carry the power
in any direction. Here I have supposed two spears going down the pit, and
moving horizontally to draw the pick backwards and forwards; but this may
be done by having one spear, making it draw the pick one way, and making it
draw up a considerable weight, at the same time hanging upon a vertical
wheel, which weight by its fall will draw the vertical pick and wheel back
again. This is plain in the vertical wheels which shear; but a vertical wheel
with a weight appended to it, and properly placed with reference to the
horizontal wheel, with a chain fixed to and going round both, will also draw
the horizontal wheel and pick back again, after it is drawn one way by the
single slider. This may also be done by the shaft of the picks being sprindges,
which when drawn from the coal by the slider will, when it is let go, return
with violence, and strike the coal. This will be convenient where they are
pinched for room for two sliders. It would be observed also, that when the
place of hewing the coals is at a great distance from the first mover, the slider
or sliders may move on rollers on the surface, and the force may be carried
down the pit nearest the place of hewing, by having a vertical wheel and chain
at the mouth of that pit. This will be also proper where there are several
angles round which the force must be conveyed if carried below ground. Here
I have supposed all done by spears of timber; but all may be done by spears
of iron; all may also be done by ropes or chains, but not so well; (but these I
mention that no person by using these may pretend they are using another
machine, or one unknown to the Inventor of this). I have supposed above that
the curving or shearing pick must be lengthened from time to time, which will
make some stops in working while these are lengthening, but these stops may
be thus evited-Let a vertical wheel be placed in a frame like the former,
and at one side of the frame, which I shall call the north side; let the axle-
tree of this wheel be iron, and square or oblong, and let a pick be put upon
that axletree with a square or oblong hole in the end of the handle
of it, through which the axletree passes; let this axletree and the frame
be as long as the board is wide, then the pick may be moved from the
wheel to the other or south side of the board all along the axletree; and let
this wheel and axletree be placed as near the roof of the coal as the wheel will
allow, then let this vertical wheel be moved backwards and forwards by the
sliders and the chains as the vertical wheels for shearing, then the pick will be

page_text: drawn up to the roof when the wheel is drawn one way, and when it is drawn
the other it will be drawn down, assisted with its own gravity, and so curve at
the bottom as far as the length of the head of the pick, which may be made
longer on that account, and the man who attends the machine may, with a long
stick in his hand, safely moved that pick after it has curved or undermined in
one place along to another, without stoping the machine till it come to the
other side of the board; and thus it is curved all along as far in as the length
of the pick head without stoping; and if the shaft of the pick is shortened, it
may, by the direction of the long stick, make holes in the coal wall where it is
proper to drive in the wedges; and after the wedges are put into these holes,
which may be done by sloping the machine, and a mall with a hole in the
handle of it like the pick being put on the axletree instead of the pick, by that
mall, directed by the long stick, the machine will drive in the wedges to bring
down the coal, whither curved by the vertical wheel just now mentioned, or by
the horizontal wheel mentioned before, which will save labour in taking down
the coal by mall and wedge. In like manner, a horizontal wheel, like that for
curving, mentioned above, with a vertical axletree, square or oblong, like the
former, and having a pick with a hole in it like the former, and capable of
being moved from head to foot or from foot to head, this wheel and pick, being
moved backwards and forwards as that for curving, may shear at the side of
the board as far in as the pick head is long, and the pick may be moved up
from the bottom to the top of the axletree by a stick in a man's hand, and
shear from bottom to top without ever stoping the machine. The fire engine
and the other machines can communicate there power by the up-coming and
down-going of spears in the coal pit, not only by moving an axletree with a
double crank, in the manner above set forth. placed either at the surface or
near the bottom of the pit, but by having a broad spear to be drawn up and
down in the pit; there may be two row of peggs in the spear at eight inch
distance the one row from the other, and the pegg at a foot distance from the
pegs of the same row, and the peggs in the one row placed not opposite to
cach pegg of the other, but opposite to the void betwixt the peggs in the other;
and supposing two vertical wheels or pullys with spokes in them, so fixed that
the one row of pegs takes the spoke of the one wheel, and the other row of
peggs takes the spoke of the other wheel, which wheels having chains about
them affixed to the spears, the picks are drawn backwards and forwards by the
same as well as by the cranks; thus the spears, if drawn up six foot at one
stroke of the machine, will give three strokes with the picks. If it is intended
only to have one spear in the pit, and one horizontal spear and a weight

page_text: appended to a vertical wheel to draw the pick back again, then one row of
peggs and one wheel with a spoke will do; but the spokes must be put at
double the distance they were placed at before; one row of peggs will also be
sufficient if it is intended to make use of sprindges instead of vertical wheels
with weights appended to them. The machine draws of the small coal made
by the curving and shearing, least the pick in curving should be stopt by the
coal after it has curved a few strokes, and so stop the machine or break
some of the machinery. It is proper to have a joint in the shaft of the pick,
which will yeild instead of stoping the machine; the same may be made in the
pick for shearing, or these picks may be so joined to the axletree of the wheels
as to have a good deal of play. Mines of lead and other metals may be digged
by the same machinery, and pitts may be digged of any deepness by the same
machinery, applyed thus:-Either by a double crank at the top of the pit, with
spears going down and moving a vertical wheel, with a very heavy pick at
bottom, the sides of the pitt may be cut several inches down; and the pick and
axletree being like what is described above for shearing and curving, without
stoping the machine, the bottom of the pit may be cut all the length of the
axletree, that is, to the other side of the pit; and afterwards by moving the
wheel and the pick it may be cut down as many inches, and about half a foot
or a whole foot from the former cutting, and so on till the whole pit is cut
several inches down, and in lines at half a foot or a whole foot distance from
one another, as the nature of the stone requires, and then the bottom of the pit
may be cut down as far as before, and in lines at right angles with the former,
by which it will be all cut in squares, and so easily digged out by men's hands
when the machine is stopped for a while. For this cuting and cross-cuting the
bottom of the pit, chains will be as proper as spears, to prevent the necessity of
moving so often the axletree at the top of the pit, or the same work may be
performed by a roller over the top of the pit, with peggs in it, which may draw
up the spears or the chains, and draw the pick up and down as the double
crank only. Here it will be observed, that if the spears were shod with iron in
the shape of the pick they would cut the bottom of the pitt by their fall, and
by varying the place of the roller on the top of the pit with the peggs, these
shod spears may cut the bottom all in squares, as well as the wheels and picks.
But as all that is digged out of this pitt while sinking must be drawn out at
the mouth of it, perhaps it will be proper to have the machine which is the
first mover, at a distance from the mouth of the pit, and by peggs in an axle-
tree, or by a double crank, to move the picks or spears in this pitt by sliders
runing on rollers, and thus also quarries may be digged. If the stone in the

page_text: pit is too hard for the picks and shod spears, which perhaps will not often
happen, as the force of these picks or spears will be or may be made equal to
the force of twenty men, then a weight may be drawn up some fathoms, as in
the machine for driving loggs of timber into a river for the foundation of a
bridge, and let fall on the bottom of a pit, that will beat the stone to powder in
the place where it falls, especially if it is not very broad on the side which falls
on the bottom of the pit; and by varying the position of the machine it may be
made to beat the whole bottom of the pitt to powder for some inches down,
and when that is drawn up the machine may begin again, and beat other inches
below that to powder, and so on, till it is digged to the depth intended. By
this machinery also ditches or deep open casts may be digged at far less
expence then by men's hands, by lengthening the spears, and making then run
on rollers, and make the picks work at a distance above ground. Thus also
levels may be driven by carrying the sliding rodes and having the picks at the
forehead of the levell, or malls and jumpers to make holes for blasting.
Another way of applying the power of these engines to take down the coals
is by sawing them in this manner-Let there be a horizontal hole bored of
about three inch diameter in the left side of the board near the pavement
of the coal; it may be bored one, two, or three or more yards into the coal;
let another hole of the same diameter be bored in the right side of the board,
but eight or nine inches above the pavement of the coal; these holes may be
bored by a mall being put in place of the pick, and beating the end of the iron
instrument, which has the other end like a chessel of three inches broad, such
as they use in coal mines or lead mines, which in Scotland is called a
jumper, and which is commonly beat by men's hands when they make holes
for powder to blast with, or horizontal holes in coalierys when they are afraid
of old wasts full of water; let a third hole, of the same wideness and length
with the former. be made in the left side of the board near the roof of the
coal, and let a fourth be made on the right side of the board near the roof of
the coal; let a saw such as they saw marble with, only less than three inches
broad, be put into the lower hole on the right side of the board, and let water
and sand be dropt into it, which the machine may be made to do when the
water and sand are properly placed, and the machine will thrust the saw for-
ward and bring it back again, and so will saw from that hole on the right to the
low hole on the left, which will be in effect curving the wall along the board,
the saw having a gentle sprindge to press it forward, there being but a small
descent betwixt the hole on the right side and the hole on the left. The same
way, after that is done, the coal may be sawed from the upper hole on the left

page_text: side to the under hole on the left side, which is in effect shearing it on on the
left side; and in the same way it may be sawed from the upper hole on the right
side to the lower hole on that side, which is in effect shearing it on that side;
then the machine may be removed, and the man left to take down the coals by
mall and wedge, and the sawing machinery and utensils carried to another
board. This will make few small coals, and will not need to stop the machine
by varying the length of the picks, and it will be valuable in mines of lead
and other metals where much good metal is lost by the picks beating it small,
and by blasting, which might be saved by sawing, for when it is beat small in
the mine it is lost among rubbish. By the above method of boring horizon-
tally the sides of veins of metals may be bored cheap and in many places,
which may discover much good metal that is passed by.
Another expensive article in discovering and carrying on mines of coals and
other metals is boring, which is commonly done with men's hands, but this may
be done by any of the four powers above mentioned, by their turning round a
horizontal axletree with peggs in it; which peggs will raise up the boring rods
by having a circle of timber like a bonnet fixed to the head of the boring rods,
to be raised by the peggs, and turned round a little every time it is lifted by
the
peggs. Thus if the axletree is long, and many rows of peggs in it, there
may be many boring rods boring at the same time, which will be very proper
for discovering lead veins or lead in them. Pits may be also digged by boring
and sawing in this manner :-Suppose the pit four square, let there be a hole
bored in every corner of it, four inch diameter, and half a foot or a whole foot
perpendicular down; then let a saw cut down, by the help of any of the above
powers, the west side, by drawing the saw backwards and forwards from the
hole in the south-west corner to the north-west corner as deep as the holes
are bored, and then sawing the other sides the same way and to the same
depth; then it may be sawed in lines paralell to the other at half a foot
distance from one another, by which means this upper part of the rock will be
all cut into squares of half a foot broad and half a foot or a whole foot deep,
after which the sawing may cease, and men may easily take out what is so
sawed, after which it may be bored and sawed lower and lower till it come to
the intended depth of the pit. For facilitating the sawing, several saws may
be put into one frame at half a foot distance from one another, and so saw in
several places at once. If they want the pit should be round, the a saw
turned into a circle of the largeness of the pit may be moved round by the
machine, and let this saw pass through the four holes, that they may receive
the sand which is necessary for the sawing, and when they are full they must

page_text: be emptyed by a tool in a man's hand, and when it has sawed half a foot or
a whole foot down then the machine stops, and the circular saw is taken out,
and the stone that is sawed is taken out by men, and then holes are made, and
the circular saw saws another half foot or whole foot, and so on till the pit is
of the intended <leepness.
Another expensive branch of working mines of all sorts is driving levels
to drain them; but this may be done by a machine which works thus:-
Suppose you have or can have a water wheel at or near where you will
begin your level, let the axletree of this water wheel run nct far from the
line in which you would drive your level, were you to drive it; let that water
wheel be of the common sort, and let it have upon its axletree, on the
side next the mouth of the level, about six foot from the water wheel, a
wheel with coggs such as they have in the corn milns, and let that turn
a wheel with rungs, the axletree of which may be horizontal, and point to
the place where the level would be were it to be driven; let the axletree
of this last-mentioned wheel be hollowed from end to end, so as to leave
two inch square open all along; through the hollow of the axletree let
a rod be thrust, of iron, of two inch square and two or three yards long; let
the end towards the place of the level be pointed like a pick, and tapering
towards the point; let the other part of this iron rod be round, and taper to a
point to run in a nitch or socket of brass or on a flint, and let that nitch of
brass or flint be placed in a frame, behind which there are sprindges which
presses that frame towards the end of the level, and consequently when the
water which is set agoing, that iron rod will be turned round, and if of a
proper length will bore the rock in which the level was to be made, the other
end of it being pressed by the frame with sprindges behind it; and after
having bored three inches, for example, then the boring rod must be drawn
back again, by drawing back the frame which pressed it in, and puting in
another frame, which will press it out again, with sprindges, or by a frame and
a weight appended to the frame, and that weight going over a pully, it may be
pressed in and drawn out again. When it is drawn out three inch must
be added to the length of the boring rod, which may be done by screwing off
the part of the boring rod which has the point, and screwing on another three
inch longer than the former, with the point and angles of the pick sharpened,
and then put in to bore again. Here I have supposed only three inch bored at
once; but perhaps a foot may be bored at once, and so the rods need not be so
often drawn. After the rod has bored again and again till a yard is bored, then
a yard of new iron rod of two inch diameter must be added to the former, and

page_text: screwed into it, as in common boring rods, but this yard must be round, and
not square, as that part of the rod which is next the wheel and which never
comes into the bore hole, for that part of the boring rod which comes into the
bore hole must be round and of two inch diameter, and when the yard is
screwed into it it must be no bigger then two inch diameter, and & thus the
bore hole is bored from yard to yard till some hundred yards are bored, which
will be equal to a levell. But least the weight of such a long iron rod lying
horizontal should be burthensome to the wheel to turn round, there may be
little globes of iron or brass sunk into the two-inch boring rods, so as the
outer part of the globe may be very little without the surface of the boring
rod, and eight of them in every yard of the boring rod, four of them near one
end of the yard and four of them near the other end of it, but the four not
placed in one circle, but at some distance from one another, by which the bore
rod will be more easily turned round; and for making room for these globes
to run easily, the end of the pick which bores may bore the hole a little more
then two inch. These globes may run like castors, tho' within the boring rod.
For drawing out the heavy boring rods a frame may be made of three or four
yards long, on which three or four yards of the bore road may be draw out by
a water wheel, placed so as by a chain about it, with an instrument upon the
end of it like a pair of pinchers, to take hold of the bore road, thus the bore
rodd may be drawn out three yards after three yards till the whole is drawn
out. If one bore hole of this size is not sufficient to let out all the water,
then another may be made. Thus also a hill may be peirced, to know what
veins of metal are in it. But if it shall be found impracticable to bore in so far
this way as is necessary for the length required, then to cheapen the driving of
a level by sawing, let one hole be bored three inch diameter at the top of the
level on the right-hand side, half a foot or a whole foot, as the stone may
require, horizontal in the direction of the level; let another hole be bored at
the top of the level on the left-hand side, of the same wideness, length, and
direction; then the saw may be put into the hole on the right hand, and by the
machinery above mentioned it may be saw from the top to the bottom on
the right side in a perpendicular line; then it may be sawed from the same
bore hole, not perpendicularly, but sloping, so as to land at bottom half a fooi
nearer the left hand, then sawed again from the same bore hole so as to land
another half foot at bottom nearer the left hand, and so on, till not only the
whole bottom of the level is thus sawed, but the left side of the level is thus
sawed in lines from the foresaid hole till it is within two foot of the top; and
then the left-hand side is to be sawed perpendicularly from the bore hole at

page_text: the head of the left-hand side, and the rock in the level is to be sawed across
from it, as it was from the right-hand side; then the sawing is to be stopt till
the miners take down what has been sawed and cross-sawed, which will be
easily done by driving wedges into the cullers made by the saw, and when that
is taken out then the hole is to be bored in the forehead of the level, and it
cross-sawed as before, and the sawed stone taken out, and so on till the levell
is finished. This will be troublesome to execute, but still much cheaper then
the common method of digging a level. It may be sawed another way, thus:
let a circular saw of three inch diameter be put upon the boring rod men-
tioned above, to be moved by the water wheel, and let the cock in the level be
bored in a foot horizontal in the direction of the level; then let another saw, of
six inches diameter, be put in the place of the former, and let it bore in a foot,
also; and so on with saws of nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen inches diameter,
till you come to four or five foot, as you want the depth of your level, only
making each three inches larger then the former; when that is bored in a foot
the sawing stops, and the sawed stones taken out of the level; then the sawing
begins again as before; but as the sliding spears and picks are supposed at the
forehead of the level, in order to prevent the necessity of drawing them out at
every foot's sawing, the slider or sliders may be made to run near the bottom
of the level, and a barrow way or little waggon way laid above them, for to
carry out the rubbish easily on wheel carriages; or when the sliders are stoped
the wheel carriages may run upon them like raills in a waggon way.
The common way of discovering coals or veins of metal by boring with men's
hands is very expensive; but coals may be searched for in a much easier and
cheaper method. Thus, suppose the strata of metals, as they are called in the
country where coall is sought, and crops out to the north or south, for example,
then there needs only to run a deep ditch running north and south so deep as
to touch the outburst of the metals, and by this ditch all the various strata will
be scen, and consequently coal, if it be there; and this deep ditch may be a
good side of an inclosure, and it may be worked by any of the above powers
by sliding spears or picks on the surface in manner above set forth. This
method may be used for discovering veins of lead or other metals; but as the
veins don't lye paralell to the strata in the country where they lye, the discovery
of them is more uncertain; but if it be done by a water miln and the sliders
and picks, the expence will be small, and water is not wanting in the mine
countrys.
of
As there are coalierys wherein the owners of them will not be at the expence
of the four machines above mentioned, a cheap method of curving and
any

page_text: shearing may be performed by the force of a man in manner following:-A
horizontal wheel in a frame like that first above mentioned, only not so large
nor so large, nor so strong and heavy, and having a pick in its axletree
not so heavy as these moved by the former powers, but five or six times
heavyer than the common picks, but there may be ropes put round the hori-
zontal wheel, by one of which a man draws back the pick, and by the other
he drives it towards the coal wall, and makes it strike with much more force
then he can do the common pick, as the pick shaft may be much longer and
the pick heavier, and if the wheel is made large the pick will be acquiring
force all the time of its being drawn towards the coal wall, and he may be
setting on the ground while he curves by this wheel; whereas in the common
way of curving he lyes on his side, in which position he has less strength and
more uneasiness than when siting on the ground; thus he will curve more and
with more ease then the common way, and will make far less small coal, as the
pick strikes always in one line, and pools further in then he can do with his
arms and tho short pick shaft. In order to shear more and more easily by
man's force, if the coal is four or five foot high or more, a horizontal axletrec
may be fixed near the pavement of the coal, and in it a heavy pick is put, the
shaft of which is near as long as the coall is thick, and placed in the axletree
opposite to where the coalier wants to shear, and on another part of the axle-
tree one or two broad spokes are inserted, upon which he steps, and by his
weight make a violent stroke with the pick, and then draws back the pick by
a rope or with a stick with a crook at the end of it, and then steps on the
broad spokes again, and makes another stroke, and so on till he shear as far in
as the length of his pick, by which machine he will shear more and make less
small coal then the common way; and if a vertical wheel is put on this axletree,
and properly situate, with a rope about it, and also going round the aforesaid
horizontal wheel, he may pool also by this vertical wheel, by putting his weight
upon the broad spokes. This is the easiest way of man's applying his strength
and doing most; and the frame in which that horizontal and vertical wheel are
placed may be small and light, compared with these for the fore-mentioned
engines, and so easily moved from one part of the board to another, and the
coals curved and sheared may be taken down and taken out when the frame is
moved to the other side of the board. When the scam of coal is thin, then it
may be shorn by drawing the vertical wheel backwards and forwards with
the hand. Where the ground where the pit is will admitt of a level, tho
there be none driven, it may be drained for five fathom, whatever quantity of
water is in it, in this manner-Let a lead pipe of five fathoms and two foot

page_text: long be let down into that pit, let the lower end of that be turned up some
inches, and a plugg put into it; let the upper end of it be open, and stand two
foot above the mouth of the pit; let another lead pipe of the same diameter with
the former be soldered into the former at the mouth of the pitt, that is, two foot
below the mouth of the pipe; let this last pipe be laid along the surface, which
is supposed sloping, till the end of it is as low as the mouth of the other in the
bottom of the pit; let the end of it be turned up some inches and a plugg put
into it; then pour in water at the open mouth of the pipe in the pit till the
pipe in the pit, as well as the long sloping pipe, are both full of water, and so
close as to allow not a drop of water to go out; then shut that opening with a
plugg; then draw out the plugg out of the mouth of the pipe at the bottom of
the pit; then open the mouth of the other end of the pipe or tube which lys in
the sloping part of the ground, then the water at the bottom of the pit will run
out at the mouth of the tube on the sloping ground, and will run continually
like a level; and if the pipe or tube is not large enough to carry out all the
water, another tube of the same sort may be added, and of what diameter you
please, so the whole water will be drained from that deepness, be the quantity
never so great; so if the mouth of that pit is a level, the water in the level may
be let fall into that pit, and the pipe will carry it off, and by the fall of that level
water on a wheel water may be drawn up from below the bottom of the pit to
the bottom of it, and be carried off by the pipe; and if the mouth of the pit
comes to the surface, then if any stream of water can be got it may be let fall
on a wheel whose diameter is no longer then the depth of the pit, and draw
water from a greater depth then the bottom of the pit up to the bottom of it,
and the pipe will carry of the water which fell on the wheel and the water
drawn up by it. Wherever there is a water wheel drawing up water to a place
to which a level of five fathom may be had, a pipe like that above mentioned
being let down five fathom into the engine pit, the water need not be drawn
to the mouth of the engine pit, but may be discharged by the pumps into a
cistern five fathom below it, and the above pipe, having the end of it in that
cistern, will carry of all the water, and so save the engine the drawing of it five
fathom, which will enable the engine to draw the same quantity of water it did
before from five fathom deeper, and the water which moved the wheel may also
be let fall five fathom into that cistern, and may move a wheel in its fall, which
will draw more water up to the cistern, and will be carried off by the pipe, by
which the engine is freed of five fathom of its lift, and a further fall of five fathom
of the water that moved the wheel is got. Thus also a fall of five fathom of water
may be got where there is running water; and where there could be a levell of

page_text: five fathom got, for to sink a pit of five fathom, and put such a pipe in it as is
above described, and let the water fall into it, the pipe will carry it off like a
levell, and by the fall of the water a wheel may be moved, which is sunk into
the ground, and is thirty feet diameter. If the pit to be drained is ten fathom
deep or more, and if a level could be had to it by driving a hundred fathom or
two, it may be drained in this manner:-Let a cistern be made at the head
of the pit; let a timber ber trow be made from that cistern, going horizontaly
to the place above where the mouth of the level would be if it were driven, and
let there be a cistern at the end of that trow larger but no heavier then the
other; let a set of rollers be placed on the head of the trow all along from the one
cistern to the other, and let there a slider or spear as long as the trow, except
ten fathom, to slide upon these rollers, a pully placed on the outside of the
cistern above the pit, and another pully on the outside of the other cistern;
let there be twenty fathom of iron chain fixed to each end of the spear; let a
bucket be properly hung on the middle of each of the chains; let the cistern
and trow be filled with water by men's hands, then let the chains be put over
the pulleys; let that chain which goes down into the pit be altogether let
down into the pit, so that the bucket in the middle of it will be at the bottom
of the pit, and be filled with the water at the bottom of it; let the chain at the
other end be drawn up upon the rollers ten fathom, so that the bucket there
shall be just up at the cistern, and let there be a valve in this cistern, which
when lifted up will let the water out of the cistern into the bucket, and the
other ten fathom of chain will be hanging down from the bottom of the
bucket; let that valve be opened by the hand of a man till the bucket is filled,
and then it will go down by its own gravity, and will draw the sliding spear
ten fathom towards that end of the rollers, and so will draw up the bucket at
the bottom of the pit ten fathoms, that is, to the cistern at the head of the pit,
and the side of the bucket being held by a pegg as it comes up to the side of the
cistern, it will empty itself into the cistern, and the bucket at the other end will
then discharge its water by a pegg taking hold of one side of the bottom of it
as it descends, and then, being lighter then the bucket at the head of the pit,
consequently the bucket at the head of the pit will go down again to the
bottom of the pit, and draw up the other bucket to the cistern, and by its up-
coming shall open the valve of the cistern and let in the water, and the will be
heavier then the bucket at the bottom of the pit, and consequently will draw
it up again full of water, and empty it into the cistern and trow, and so it will
go on, and still empty the pit. The only objection to this is, the friction of the
spear upon the rollers must have some power to conquer it, which may be got

page_text: if a little stream of water can be had which can be brought into the trow to
give the bucket at the outer end of the trow some more water then the bucket
in the pit holds; and such small streams of water may be had in the mine
countries. Here a pit of ten fathom is spoke of, but twenty, thirty fathoms, or
more, may be thus drained, provided a level could be had to it. Here a trow
is spoke of, to convey the water from the mouth of the pit to the cistern at
the other end of the trow; but a pipe may go from the cistern at the head of
the pit all along the ground, and run up again at the other. cistern, and so
convey the water to it where it would be two expensive to support a trow
so high as is necessary. Where there is a stream and fall of water like what
they have for moving a bobb or crank engine for drawing mines, it may be
employed for the same purpose by a machine which is erected and main-
tained at far less charge then a bobb or crank engine, and evites all friction,
as it requires no wheel nor working buckets in pumps. The stream of
water is employed in this manner:-It comes along from the acqueduct in a
timber trow, which has a valve near the end of it, which stands shut, but
can be pressed up by a part of the machinery to be afterwards mentioned;
when that is opened by being thrust up some inches the water comes
out of it, and falls into an open tub, suppose, for example, of six foot
diameter, and four foot deep; within this tubb there is a buoy of five foot
diameter and three foot deep; in the middle of this buoy there is a peice
of timber put, of three inch diameter from top to bottom, in the middle of
which there is a hole bored of one inch diameter; but the buoy must be
so close on all sides that when it swims in water, none of the water may
get into the buoy, which buoy has a plate of lead on the top of it, with a hole
in the middle of it, which an iron rod also goes through. Below the foresaid
open tubb there is a cylinder, which I call the rarifying cylinder, of four foot
deep and four foot diameter, which is close on all sides except threc orifices,
one of which is on the top of it to let in the water out of the open tubb into
the rarifying cylinder, another is at the bottom of it, to let out the water
through a pipe or tube fixed to the bottom, which pipe or tube goes down per-
pendicularly, and may be thirty-two feet high if the fall of water is so high,
which it is here supposed to be. This pipe must be turned up some inches at
the lower end. The third orifice is near the top of the cylinder, and from which
there goes a tube or pipe which first rises half a foot above the top of the
cylinder, and then goes down to the bottom of the pit, from whence the water
is to be drawn, which is called an air pipe, and is ever open at the cylinder,
having no valve there. Through the hole in the buoy there goes an iron rod,

page_text: which below goes through the valve which covers the orifice in the top of the
rarifying cylinder, and then goes down to near the bottom of the rarifying
cylinder where it is affixed to the end of a laver, which laver has a fulcrum
which supports it in the middle, and to the other end of that laver is affixed a
valve, which covers the orifice which lets out the water at the bottom of the
rarifying cylinder, but in such a manner that when the orifice at the top is shut
this orifice at bottom is open, and vice versa. This iron rod is half a foot higher
then the buoy, and is peirced with holes through all the length of that foot, at
half an inch distance from each other, into any of which a pegg may be put. At
the bottom of the open tubb a small axletree goes horizontally from side to
side of the tubb, and passes by the iron rod which goes through the buoy, and
is so fixed that when that iron rod rises it turns that axletree one way, and
when the rod falls it turns the axletree back again. At one end of this axletree
beyond the buoy there is a hammer inserted into it, which hammer, when the
axletree is drawn about one way, it lets the valve in the trow shut, and
prevents any more water getting into the tubb. When the hañier goes the
other way the valve in the tubb is thrust up by it, and lets the water into the
open tubb. Suppose, then, that the pit out of which the water is to be drawn
is twelve fathom deep, then the air pipe must be twelve fathom long, and it is
turned up some inches at bottom, and may be three inch diameter; at four
fathom from the bottom of the pit there is a cylinder containing four foot
cubick; into the top of this the air pipe goes, and stands open there; then a
piece of the air pipe is taken away that would fall to be within the cylinder,
suppose two foot; then the four fathom, wanting two foot, has the upper
end of it put into the bottom of the cylinder, and a valve is put on it, which
opens upwards, and will let up water, but will let down none; and at the side
of this cylinder, near the bottom of it, there is an orifice and a valve to cover it
on the outside, so that it will let water out but none in, and when the water
runs out here it runs into a cistern, which cistern has a tube or pump standing
in it with its end turned up some inches; it goes up four fathom, and there it
put into the bottom of a little cylinder with valves like the former, and from
the top of it goes up a pipe of three inch diameter to the air pipe, and when
the water comes out at the side valve it runs into a cistern, out of which
cistern there goes a pipe up four fathom into a cylinder like the former, with
valves like it, and a pipe going from the top of that cylinder to the air pipe;
but when the water goes out at the side valve here in the upermost cistern it
runs into the level or place where it is carried off. But it is proper to observe,
where the side valves are there is a little vessel on the outside of them, which
is

page_text: makes the water stand so high as the orifice is covered by the valve before it
goes into the cistern. Now all these little vessels must be filled with water
by the hand, which is like priming them, as also all the cisterns into which the
water runs out of these side valves. The machine operates in this manner :-
The water, by opening the valve in the trow, is let into the open tubb, and
then into the rarifying cylinder till it is near full, and as the orifice which
lets in the water is open, so the orifice which lets out the water is shut, by
which the air is expelled out of the rarifying cylinder, and the buoy falls down
by its weight on the valve which shuts the orifice at the top of the rarifying
cylinder, and so shuts that valve, and at the same time it makes the hammer
come back again and thrust open the valve in the trow, and let the water come
out of it into the open tubb; at the same time as the orifice at the top was shut
so the orifice at the bottom was opened, and the water runs out through the
long perpendicular tube; and as that water goes out it leaves a void behind it,
to supply which the air in the air pipes, being rarified by rushing in to fill the
space of the rarifying cylinder which was filled by the water before it fell out,
the air within the pipe is thinner than the air without, and so the atmosphere
presses up the water from the bottom of the pit to the cylinder four fathom
above it, where it will stand about half a foot up in the lowest cylinder, and
will at the same time press up water from the lowest cistern to the second
cylinder, and from the second cistern to the third cylinder, when it will go off
by the side orifice to the level which carries it off. At this time the open tub
is filling with water and raising up the buoy to a proper height, when it turns
round the axletree and draws back the hammer, and allow the valve of the
trow to shut, and at the same time opens the valve at the head of the rarifying
cylinder, and lets the water which is in the tub into the rarifying cylinder, and
drives back the rarified air into the air pipe where it was, and allows the water
in the little cylinders to open the side valves, and fall into the cistern near
them. By the time the water is fallen out of the open tubb into the rarifying
cylinder the buoy falls, and by its weight shuts the orifice at the top of the
rarifying cylinder, and opens that at the bottom of it, and lets out the water,
and then the 'atmosphere will press the water again from the bottom of the
pitt and from the other cisterns, as before, and then the buoy asscends again,
and operates as before. Here there is but three lifts supposed, but there may
be twenty if the deepness of the pit require, only more water will be requisite,
and a larger rarifying cylinder. This is difficult to describe, and hard to be
understood without seening a model of it perform (but I made a modell of it
at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and another at Edin', both which did perfectly well,
which many persons of distinction came and saw). Another way of rarifying
B

page_text: the air in the cylinder is by rarifaction and condensation of the steam, which
may be done in timber as well as metall, when we have no piston, and the
water may be drawn by suction from any deepness, in the manner above
set forth, that is, without a regulation beam, without iron chains, without
working buckets, and without a strong house, only having a cylinder and
an air pipe, and four fathom lifts, in manner foresaid. Thus also the steam
of salt pans condensed in the cylinder will do, because we make use of
no piston. Thus the condensed steam of a salt pan may draw up as
much water as will make a corn mill go, and fire engines may be made at
half the price they are at present. Thus also a pit or sump as it is called,
which is far from the fall of water, were it a hundred fathom from it, by
having a pipe from the rarifying cylinder going along the level, it will by
suction draw from the pit at that distance, and near five fathom deep, and
if an air pipe is carried along and carried down to the bottom of that five
fathom pit it will suck near five fathoms below it water up to it.
Another way of using the rarifying cylinder, viz., without an air pipe, is
thus: Let the water be let into a tubb with the bottom upmost, and for the
bottom let it have strong but flexible leather; let the tubb be four and a half
feet diameter at the top, and four foot at the bottom, and four foot deep; let the
leather be firmly fixed about the mouth, and then go down four foot below the
mouth, and then let it be four foot diameter of leather; but let it also have a
bottom of strong timber board of nearly four foot diameter on the outside of the
leather; let an orifice of three inches be made in the bottom which is turned
upmost, and have a valve for shuting it, an open tub and a buoy in it, an iron
rod to go through the buoy, and the valve which covers the orifice under it,
with a laver, to one end of which the iron goes, and at the other end of which
laver a valve is fixed, which shuts the mouth of the tube which carries off the
water, which must be placed at the upper side of the rarifying tubb, and shuts
and opens alternately with the orifice in the top of the tubb which lets in the
water. So this water will be let into the rarifying cylinder and let out as before;
and when the water is let out of the rarifying cylinder the leather bottom will
be pressed up to the top by the atmosphere, which will be no less then near
eight foot, and if there are four pump staves joined to that bottom with the
leather on it by iron hooks, they will each of them have an eight foot stroke,
and may draw by suction from four fathom depth at least; and if they are
placed one above another water will be drawn up sixteen fathom, either by
common pumps or rather by suction, each of the spears having below it a
vessel like an obtruneate cone like the rarifying cylinder above, only the
leather side upmost, and that joined to the end of a spear; and at the bottom

page_text: the cone there is a pipe going down four fathom, with a valve at the top,
turned up some inches at the foot, with an orifice in the side, and a valve
he outside, and cisterns like what are mentioned above, and the pipe which
es from the upper obtruneate cone coming into the cistern, which comes
the obtruneate cone below; thus the water will be drawn sixteen fathom
suction.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Meinzies, have hereto put my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of September, in the first year of the
reign of His Majesty King George the Third, and the year of our
Lord Christ One thousand seven hundred and sixty-one.
This deed consists of this and the preceeding nineteen pages of stamped
paper, and is wrote by Thomas Menzies, writer in Edin', and filler up
of the witnesses names and designations. I say subscribed by me
at Edinburgh, of the date before written, before and in presence of
William Scot and Hugh Mossman, both writers in Edin', John
Mosman, Merchant there, and the said Thomas Meinzies, writer hereof,
witnesses also to my subscribing the two marginal notes, the one on
page fifteenth, and the other on page sixteenth, both wrote by the said
Thomas Menzies.

page_text: as they ought to have been, and therefore this additional description is added,
to be inrolled with the other in Chancery in due time.
As the pumps for drawing water out of deep pits are expensive in erecting
and frequent leathering of the buckets, a new and cheap way of drawing
up the water is:-Let the pump spear be as long as the pit is deep, and
hung to the regulator beam, as the present pump spear is, and at the bottom
let there be a bucket which holds as much or a little more water then
is drawn up by the fire engine at one stroke (suppose thirty English
gallons), let it be hung so that when it is drawn near six foot it meets
with a pegg which takes hold of the side of the bucket, and so draws it
down, or prevents it going up with the other side, and so makes the bucket
empty itself into a cistern which is fixed on purpose to receive it on the
south side of the pump spear, we shall call it, but the cistern is so large
that part of it goes to the north side of the spear, and out of the north side
of that cistern it is drawn up other six foot by a bucket of the same dimensions
with the former, which bucket is hung on the north side of the spear, so that
it fills itself in the foresaid cistern, and is carryed up near six foot, and then is
emptyed by a pegg as the former bucket was, but into a cistern on the north
side, but a part of which is on the south side of the spear; in this south side
of the spear a bucket is hung which fills itself, and is carried up near other
six foot, and emptyed into a cistern on the south side, but has a part of it on
the north side, out of which it is drawn up near six foot higher, and so it is
drawn up to the mouth pit by buckets hung on the spear, each of them
near six foot above another alternately on the south and north sides of the
spear, with cisterns at every six foot; thus the water will carried up from
the bottom to the top of the pit, and thereby much expence, trouble,
and danger will be saved. Here it is supposed the stroke is only six
foot, but the stroke may be eight foot, if the cylinders are made nine or
ten foot long, and a wheel used instead of a regulator beam, as it is in the
fire engines erected in Scotland by the ingenious Mr. John Kirk. This
method of drawing up the water may be used in water engines as well as
fire engines, and in the water engine mentioned in my other description, which
draws up the water without a wheel. Another article of considerable expence
may be much lessened, viz., the iron ribbs, which bear the fire below the
boiler of a fire engine, and the great iron bars which support the ribbs, are all
of solid iron, and are often melted by the violent fires; but this may be prevented
by having them of cast iron, and hollow, with ends turned up two or three foot,
each of them going into one pipe of copper, which goes into the bottom of the
boiler. These ribbs and barrs by thus being always filled with water will not

page_text: be melted by the fires; on the contrair, will be long preserved without being
wasted by the fire, and the steam made in them will encrease the steam of the
boiler, and the water in them communicating with the water in the boiler will
make less fire serve the boiler. As it was observed in the former description,
that by drawing up the water all by suction, and having no piston in the
rarifying cylinder, the steam of a salt pan may do as well as the steam of plain
water. So if the fire engine is made to draw up the water all by suction, which
may do by having an air pipe coming out of the side of the cylinder near the
top, and having the head of the cylinder shut, and going down to the bottom of
the pit, its end being turned up there some inches, and having pipes going off
from it at every thirty-three foot, and having a cistern into which the end of
these side pipes go, with the ends turned up two or three inches, and a cylinder
near five fathom above the bottom of that said pipe through which that pipe
passes, only discontinued while passing through the cistern, the orifice of it at
the bottom of that cylinder being covered with a valve which lets up water but
lets none down, and having an orifice at the side of it with a valve on the outside,
and a cistern to let the water fall into, in the manner more particularly men-
tioned in the former and principal discription; by these cisterns and side pipes
drawing from one to another the water is drawn up, and theres no need of a
piston, and consequently where salt water can be got easily to a fire engine,
the water which makes the steam may be made into salt.
Another new improvement of the fire engine is by making the engine throw
the coals into the fire, instead of a man's constantly attending for that purpose.
Let a small piece of timber of three or four yards long be hung at the upper
end to an axletree, so as the lower end hangs just opposite to the door of the
fire; to that end let there be a shovel affixed, which has a back of four inches
deep, and sides of the same deepness, but open at the mouth next the door of
the fire, only let the bottom of it be gently turned up towards the mouth; let
the fire door be opened by pulling up a chain, and shut by its fall; let that
shovel be as broad as the fire door is wide; let that fire shovel be filled with
coals falling out of a hopper as a miln is supplied with grain; let the tree which
opens and shuts the steam cock by its rising and falling touch a peice of timber
which will strike upon the hopper every time of the tree's falling, and every time
it rises let it move up the end of the peice of timber with the shovel, so that
in sixty strokes it shall raise it the sextant of a circle, after which it is let go,
and thus it descends towards the door of the fire, and at the same time draws
the door of the fire, and throws in the coals to the fire, after which the door
of the fire falls down again, and the machine goes on as before, and in sixty
strokes throws in a shovel-full of coals, so after every sixty strokes it throws in
up

page_text: shovel-full of coals; and if that be too many coals the shovell may contain less
oal, or the machinery may be made to throw in a shovel-full of coals every
undred strokes or more; and because this method will also throw the coals
treight in, which would not be proper when the fire further in under the boiler
s broader then the door of the furnace, the spear with the shovel may be made
o fall in such a different direction as to throw in the coals sometimes to one
ide and sometimes to the other, by which the man who attends the machine
without any other may manage the fire as well as the engine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Meinzies, have hereto put my
hand & seal, this Tenth day of September, in the first year of the reign
of His Majesty King George the Third, and the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and sixty-one.
This deed consists of this and the three preceeding pages of stamped
paper, and is wrote by Thomas Menzies, writer in Edin', who is also
the filler up of the witnesses names and designations; I say subscribed
by me at Edinburgh of the date before written, before and in pre-
sence of Mr. Andrew Jamieson, Merchant in Edinburgh, and Thomas
Menzies, writer in Edin', and writer hereof,

page_text: Gibbs Crawfurd, of the Inner Temple, London, Gentleman, maketh oath
and saith, that the name Mich. Meinzies, signed to a certain Paper Writing
contained in four sheets of paper or twenty pages, purporting to be a descrip-
tion of a certain machine invented by him, the said Michael Meinzies, and
for which His Majesty, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great
Britain, dated the Twentyeth day of May last, granted him the sole and
exclusive property for the term of fourteen years, is the proper handwriting
of the said Michael Meinzies, as this deponent verily believes. And this
deponent further saith, that he was concerned in the solliciting the said Patent
thro' the several offices for the said Michael Meinzies; and also saith, that
the name Mich. Meinzies, signed to the additional sheet, purporting to be a
further or more full description of the said machine, is likewise of the hand-
writing of the said Michael Meinzies, as this deponent also verily believes.
And this deponent further saith, that from the known credibility and honesty of
the said Michael Meinzies, he, this deponent, has the greatest reason to beleive
that such description of his said machine is a true description thereof, and that
the said Michael Meinzies did acknowledge it as such before the
persons therein
mentioned as witnesses thereto. And this deponent further saith, that he
brought the description of the said machine, herein-before referred to, to be
enrolled by Mr. Rooke at the Rolls Chappel on the Fourteenth of this instant
September; but Mr. Rooke did not choose to enroll the said description
without the privity of a Master of the High Court of Chancery, before whom
the same ought to have been acknowledged for his approbation thereto.