CERTAIN IMPROVE MENTS ON OR IN MACHINERY FOR IMPROVING TURNPIKE AND OTHER ROADS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1807

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
DICKINSON, late of Long Acre, but now of Great Queen Street, in the County
of Middlesex, Esquire, 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 First day of August,
in the forty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert Dickinson, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority that I, the said Robert Dickinson, my
exors, admiors, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVE
MENTS ON OR IN MACHINERY FOR IMPROVING TURNPIKE AND OTHER ROADS, AND FOR
OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Robert Dickinson, by an instrument in writing 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, to be inrolled!
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Dickinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention;

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained as follows, that is to say:-
My said improvements do consist in two methods of applying and working
certain setts of scrapers for removing mud and other useless soil from the
surface of roads, and the first of the said methods is set forth in the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and numbered No. 1 and No. 2, of which Drawings No. 1
represents the machinery viewed in front, and No. 2 represents the same
machinery viewed on one side in a direction at right angles to the intended
motion thereof when in use; and in both designs the same letters of the
alphabet denote the same things. A represents a roller, or, instead thereof,
a pair of wheels, moving on an axis so fixed to the same that the said axis
is made to revolve along with the said roller or wheels. B represents
the framework to and by which the respective parts of the machinery
are connected together. C represents a wheel connected and moving along
with the roller on one of the wheels, and giving motion to D another
wheel, and the axis of the said last-mentioned wheel drives two other
wheels E, E, of which the office is by the teeth thereof, which are duly
shaped, to carry an endless flat chain F. G, G, &c. represents scrapers
carried round by the chain in the direction of the arrow at K. The said
scrapers are severally fixed at any required obliquity to an arm which is
moveable on one of the pins or rivets or bolts of the chain, through a certain
space, limited by an arc or circular piece, as represented in Fig. 1, by which
provision they alapt themselves to the irregular surface of the road, and
produce the intended effect in all circumstances. H, H, represents a bar or
lever for throwing the wheel D out of or into gear with regard to the wheel C,
for which purpose the pivots of the axis I & I are made longer than would
be needful for the ordinary course of work, and the said machinery being
drawn along the road, the effects thereof are that the rotation of the rollers
or wheels, and of the axis thereof, gives motion to D and E and the
chain F, by which means the scrapers G, G, &c. respectively and in their
turns become applied to the surface of the road, and do carry the mud and
useless or redundant soil to one side in a line or heap, from whence it may
be removed by the usual or ordinary means, or by a successive application of
the said machinery herein described.
And my second method of applying and working scrapers upon the
surface of roads is set forth in the Drawings hereunto annexed, and
numbered No. 3 and No. 4, of which Drawings No. 3 represents the
machinery, viewed in a direction perpendicularly downwards, in the manner
of a ground or horizontal section thereof, and No. 4 represents the same

page_text: machinery viewed on one side, in a direction at right angles to the intended
motion thereof; and in both designs the same letters of the alphabet
denote the same things. A represents the shafts for drawing the machinery
along. B, B, a pair of wheels connected with the frame C. K, a wheel to
support the machinery behind, and by that means to prevent the shafts from
incommoiling the horse by acting upwards. It is fixed to the frame F, F,
by such arms or parts as allow it to traverse in the manner of a castor.
D, D, are pieces of the framework, which afford a center at E, upon which
the scraping frame F, F, is moveable by means of a bolt or pin. G, G, are
the adjusting arcs, upon which the scraping frame F, F, is secured, in any
required position of obliquity as to the line of traction, by means of a bolt
passed through either of the holes II at the extremities of the said frame.
And it may be seen in Figure 4 that the parts G, G, (and so likewise on
D, D,) are twofold, for the sake of firmness and secure framing together,
which could not be shewn in No. 3. 1, I, represents the scraping boards,
which are considerable in number, and are slipped or placed upright alongside
of, but not in connection with, each other in the middle opening or slit,
represented (Fig. 3) in the scraping frame F, F. The said scraping boards
may be shod with iron or made of iron altogether, and they are or may be
loaded with more or less weight, either at top or by hanging the said weight
upon a pin or hook or projection issuing from the back or front of each;
or otherwise I apply my weights upon the principle of steel yard. And
farther, whereas in the construction here represented the scraping frame
cannot be made of a greater length than can be admitted between the
wheels when an oblique position is required, it is proper to observe that
the said frame may be made much longer by extending the framework
of D, D, and G, G, or any other fit and suitable framework, farther backwards,
so as to admit of any intended obliquity without impediment from the wheels.
And in order to extend the said scraping frame still farther, I do, in such cases
ns may require the same, add certain other parts called wings to one or both the
extremities of the said scraping frame, and do connect the said wing or wings
therewith by a joint of the nature of an hinge, and do provide such braces or
stays as may be needful for regulating and fixing the positions of the said wings
respectively, as may be desired; and I do make the said wings either of one
board or piece, or otherwise I do construct the same with scraping boards
in the manner of the scraping frame F, F; and the effects of the said last-
described machinery when drawn along the road are that the scraping boards
are applied to and do act upon the surface thereof, and do carry the mud
and useless or redundant soil before them, and throw or press the same to one

page_text: side, in consequence or by virtue of the oblique position of the frame; and each
of the scraping boards being at liberty to rise and fall independantly of all the
others, the said scraping boards do adapt themselves severally to the irregula-
rities of the road, and do more compleatly produce the intended effect than
would otherwise be done; and the said purposes are more extensively accom-
plished by the use of one or both of the wings.
Fig. 5 represents another construction of the last-described machine, in which
a, a, represent the parts of the framing supporting the center. b, b, the
scraping frame, made in two distinct parts, adjustable by a joint at the center,
and c, c, is an arc for setting the two parts or arms of the scraping frame in
any position which may be convenient or desirable, or instead of the are the
scraping boards may be set and adjusted by two bars or rods attached to the
axletree as d, d, d.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Dickinson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the First day of February. in the year of our Lord
Inrolled the First day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eight.