AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE HOOPS OR HOOPING OF BARRELS
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
DICKINSON, of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 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 Nineteenth day of
December, in the fifty-sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Dickinson, my exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert Dickinson, my
exors, adñors, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT OR
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE HOOPS OR HOOPING OF BARRELS;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said Robert Dickinson, 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 inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease,
determine, and become void, 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 declare that my said Improvement or Improvements in

page_text: the Hoops or Hooping of Barrels, is described and specified in inanner
following (that is to say) :-
My Invention consists in giving the edgewise bend or curve to conical
hoops for barrels, &c. either in the manufacturing them or by a subsequent
operation intended to obviate the labour of hammering, and the great injury
the hoops sustain in point of strength by the usual method of partially
hammering one edge. To point out every method by which this may be done
would be unnecessary, as my claim is for the effect when produced rather
than the mode of producing it; I shall, however, point out several methods by
which I have done it :-
In manufacturing I set the rollers out of parallel in a slight degree, or
I use conical roller; either of these will give a curve to the hoop, which may be
regulated and adjusted by the screws. Or I place a block of iron immediately
behind the common rollers, having a hole curved into which the hoop enters
as it leaves the rolls, and being still hot it easily bends to the required curve.
When done, subsequently to its being manufactured, I use a small pair of
rollers set out of parallel or made conical, as before described, and pass the
hoops through cold, which produces the effect; or I take the hoop and put one
end into a notch, and pull the other end over a curved block (with a groove
in it) of the intended curve. These, with many other methods, will produce
the effect, but when done at the mill in the first instance it will be most
advantageous.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto, set my hand and seal,. this
Eighteenth day of June. in the year of our Lord One thousand