IMPROVEMENTS IN THE STEAM ENGINE
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
BILLINGSLEY, of Bowling Iron Works, in the County of York, Engineer, 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 Twentieth day of April, One
thousand eight hundred and fifteen, in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, did
give and grant unto me, the said Michael Billingsley, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Michael Billingsley, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my new Invented "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE STEAM ENGINE;" in which
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Michael
Billingsley, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of
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 Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, I, the said
Michael Billingsley, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and
ascertained by the Drawings annexed to these presents, and the following
explanation and references thereto, that is to say:-
My improvements consist in applying cranks and wheels to steam engines,
placed in a different manner to any heretofore used, whereby there is a saving
in the expence of the engine and engine house, and an encreased power obtained
in the engine by the vertical and even pressure of the piston in the cylinder.
These improvements are described in the Drawings annexed, Figures 1 and 2,
where the letters B, B, F, F, G, H, H, I, I, K, K, L, L, P, P, Q, Q,
R, R, S, S, U, refer. to those parts which are new and of my Invention;
B, B, representing two cast iron pedestals or standards, to carry the crank shafts,
L, L; F, F, representing two wrought iron guide rods, up and down which
two friction rollers H, H, run; G, representing a wrought iron horizontal bar
that is fixed by an axis to the piston rod, and in which are placed two friction.
rollers H, H; H, H, representing two brass friction rollers; I, I, representing
two wrought iron connecting rods which give motion to two crank arms, K, K;
K, K, representing two cast iron crank arms; L, L, representing two cast iron
crank shafts; P, P, representing cranks upon the two shafts, L, L; Q, Q
representing two wrought iron connecting links; R, R, representing an iron
horizontal bar, by which the pumps M, N, O, are worked; S, S, representing
two spar wheels fixed on shafts L, L; and U representing a multiplying wheel.
The rest are those parts which I do not claim as improvements, but are
introduced in order to shew the general connection of the whole.
In witness, I, the said Michael Billingsley, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twenty-ninth day of May, in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of
our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the Grace of God of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.

page_text: Maty & High Court of Ca
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-ninth day of May,
in the year abové mentioned, the aforesaid Michael Billingsley 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.