CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN A PLOUGH THE CULTIVATION OF LAND
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANN
HAZLEDINE, of Bridgnorth, in the County of Salop, Widow of John Hazledine,
of Bridgnorth aforesaid, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty George the Third, by
the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King,..
Defender of the Faith, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal.
of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of March,
in the fifty-first year of His reign, after reciting or mentioning amongst other
things, that by my Petition humbly represented to his said Majesty, that I
was become possessed of an Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN A PLOUGH
THE CULTIVATION OF LAND," did give and grant unto me, the said.
Ann Hazledine, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His Majesty's
special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Ann
Hazledine, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them during
the term of years therein expressed, should. and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend my said Invention, within that part of the United Kingdom
called England, His Majesty's Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if
I, the said Ann Hazledine, should not particularly describe and ascertain the.
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, 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 two calen-

page_text: dar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent,
that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, should cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the
said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Ann Hazledine, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, and the improvement
for which I have obtained my Patent, is particularly described and ascertained
in the plan drawn in the margin of these presents, and in the following
explanation thereof, that is to say :-
Whereas the customary manner in which land has been ploughed has been
to turn up a certain portion of the surface by means of the coulter sock and
shelboard or share; this shelboard or share (being of a smooth surface and
proper degree of curvature) turns over the portion of the surface of the land
which has been separated by means of the coulter and sock, and leaves it in
long pieces about nine or ten inches wide. This part so turned up is then
known by the name of the sward, and the part from which it has been
separated the furrow. My improvement. is effected by affixing one or more
knives, cutters, or dividers, in such a manner to the shelboard or share of the
plough, that as the shelboard or share turns over the sward, the knives,
cutters, or dividers, shall cut, separate, or divide the sward into as many parts
as the nature of the soil or the desire of the operator may require. The
knives, cutters, or dividers, may be made of iron, steel, or any other metal fit
for the purpose, and may be fixed to the shelboard by screwing, wedging,
coltering, or by any other method that may be more convenient, according to
local circumstances, or may be cast in a piece with the shelboard or share,
and may cut the sward either at right angles to the surface, or at any
other angle or inclination that may be more desirable. These knives. may, be
made of a variety of shapes, but the most convenient forms are observed by
the following references to the Drawing in the margin of these presents.
Fig. 1 represents the shelboard with five perforations for fixing the knives,or
cutters. Fig. 2, a shelboard with four perforations for four knives or cutters.
In the above Fig. 1 and 2, a and b are the surfaces of the shelboard; c, c, c, &ca,,
the perforations for the knives or cutters; and d, d, the part on which the
sock is fixed. Fig 3 is the stops which close the apertures when the knives
or cutters are not used in all the perforations. Fig. 4, 5, 6, knives or cutters.
of the most convenient form. Fig. 7, edge view of the knives or cutters.
Fig. 8, section of the shelboard, shewing the manner in which the knives or