A MACHINE FOR THE CUTTING, SPLITTING, AND DIVIDING HIDES AND SKINS, AS WELL IN THE PELT BEFORE DRESSED AS WHEN DRESSED INTO LEATHER, SEVERING THE GRAIN SIDE FROM THE FLESH SIDE
Year: 1783

page_text: ALL
WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GEORGE
CHOUMERT, of Five Foot Lane, Bermondsey Street, in the Parish of Saint
Mary Magdalen, in the County of Surry, Tanner, sends greeting.
WHEREAS the said George Choumert did by his Petition humbly represent
unto His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, that he
had, after much labour, trouble, and expence, found out and invented "A
MACHINE FOR THE CUTTING, SPLITTING, AND DIVIDING HIDES AND SKINS, AS WELL
IN THE PELT BEFORE DRESSED AS WHEN DRESSED INTO LEATHER, SEVERING THE
GRAIN SIDE FROM THE FLESH SIDE;" he therefore most humbly prayed His
said Majesty that He would be graciously pleased to grant unto him, his
executors, administrators, and assigns, His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent
under His Great Seal of Great Britain for the sole use, benefit, and advan-
tage of his said Invention, within that part of His Kingdom of Great Britain
called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
for the term of fourteen years; and His said Majesty, being willing to give
encouragement to all arts and inventions which might be for the public good,
was graciously pleased to condescend to his request, and therefore, by His
Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of
August, in the twenty-third year of His reign, of His especial grace, know-
ledge, and meer motion, for Himself, His heirs and successors, did give and
grant unto the said George Choumert, his executors, administrators, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that he,
the said George Choumert, his executors, administrators, and assigns, and
every of them, by himself and themselves, or by his and their deputy or

page_text: deputies, servants or agents, or such others as he, the said George Choumert,
his executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times hereafter during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might use; exercise, and vend his
said Invention within that part of His said Majesty's Kingdom of Great
Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, in such manner as to him, the said George Choumert, his executors,
administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should in his or their discretions
seem meet, and that he, the said George Choumert, his executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole
profit, benefit,, commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing,
accruing, and arising by reason of the said Invention, for and during the term
of years therein mentioned; to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence,
powers, privileges, and advantages therein-before granted or mentioned to be
granted unto him, the said George Choumert, his executors, administrators,
and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years
from the date of the said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and
fully to be compleat and ended, according the form of the Statute in such case
made and provided; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
that if the said George Choumert should. not particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of his said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under his hand and seal, and cause the
same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
four calendar months next after the date of the said Letters Patent, then the
said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby
granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything therein-
before contained to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding, as in and
by the said Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, he, the said
George Choumert, doth hereby describe and ascertain the nature of his said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by a Plan or
Drawing hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
A, B, C, D, the frame; E, the tongues or pincers which hold the substance
to be divided; F, the roller which regulates the substance to be divided, to
which are fixed tranverse chains; G, H, the rollers, between which the
substance to be bisected passes; I, the knife, adjusted by wheels and screws;
K, K, K, the regulators of the knife, which are paralel plates and adjusting
screws; L, the frame, which is drawn by the working the machine to and fro,.

page_text: and works the knife; M, the index, which regulates the substance to be cut;
N, a barrel or roller which takes up the chain. At the opposite side of the
machine at O is a wynch on the axis P, which has a spiral worm that turns
the cogg
wheel Q, which regulates the roller that draws the chain, to which
is fixed the pincers, which chain passing under the large roller N secures and
regulates the substance to be divided. The axis of the winch has also a cog
wheel fixed to it, R, which moves a multiplying wheel, in which is fixed a
stud that gives motion to the ballance beam that regulates and gives motion to
the knife; on the axis of the eccentric wheel is fixed the ballance. The
regulartor K is a plate wheel, on which is fixed the moveable limb, and a grove
in which the knife is fixed; under the rollers are at each end screws, by which
the substance to be cut may be regulated. There are adjusting screws for the
rollers between which the skin passes, and other screws which keep the rollers
steady in their places. Motion may be effected with any other power.
In witness whereof, the said George Choumert hath hereunto set his
hand and seal, this Third day of December, One thousand seven
hundred and eighty-three.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of December, in the
0 year above written, the aforesaid George Choumert 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 the form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
5
Inrolled the Sixth day of December, in the year above written.