A MACHINE UPON NEW PRINCIPLES FOR EXERTING THE POWER OF MEN TO THE GREATEST ADVANTAGE, APPLICABLE TO MANY OTHER MACHINES, IN MOST CASES WHERE MOVING FORCES ARE REQUIRED, AND WHEREBY THE NUMBER OF MEN DESIGNED TO ACT MAY BE EITHER INCREASED OR DIMINISHED AT PLEASURE FROM ONE MAN TO TWO HUNDRED AND MORE, WI
Year: 1760

page_text: XAVIER D'ARLES DE LINIERE, late of Suffolk Street, in the Parish of Saint
Martin in the Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, but now resident at
the Hague, in Holland, send greeting.
WHEREAS, by Letters Patent bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-
seventh day of November, in the first year of the reign of His present Majesty
King George the Third, reciting that I, the said Francis Xavier d'Arles de
Liniere, had by my Petition humbly represented unto His said Majesty, that
I had invented "A MACHINE UPON NEW PRINCIPLES FOR EXERTING THE POWER
OF MEN TO THE GREATEST ADVANTAGE, APPLICABLE TO MANY OTHER MACHINES, IN
MOST CASES WHERE MOVING FORCES ARE REQUIRED, AND WHEREBY THE NUMBER
OF MEN DESIGNED TO ACT MAY BE EITHER INCREASED OR DIMINISHED AT PLEASURE
FROM ONE MAN TO TWO HUNDRED AND MORE, WITHOUT LENGTHENING THE LEAVER
ON ACCOUNT OF THE DIFFERENT NUMBER OF MEN EMPLOYED; THAT THESE MEN
WORK ON THE SAME POINT, AND IN THE MOST ADVANTAGEOUS DIRECTION, WITHOUT
INTERRUPTION OF ACTION OR HINDRANCE TO EACH OTHER; THAT
THIS NEW
INVENTION GREATLY EXCEEDS AND DIFFERS FROM ANYTHING HITHERTO DISCOVERED,
IN THAT THE MEN EMPLOYED AS AGENTS FOR THE SAME HAVE NOT ONLY THE
POWER OF WORKING WITH THE STRENGTH OF THEIR HANDS AND ARMS, BUT ALSO
THAT OF ADDING THERETO THE WEIGHT OF THEIR BODIES, A DISCOVERY WHICH THE
ABLEST MECHANICKS HAVE LONG BEEN IN PURSUIT OF WITHOUT SUCCESS, THE
CRANE, BEING ALLOWED TO BE THE BEST MACHINE HITHERTO INVENTED FOR THE
EXERTION OF STRENGTH, BEING STILL ATTENDED WITH MANY IMPERFECTIONS AND
INCONVENIENCIES, ENTIRELY REMOVED BY THIS NEW INVENTION THAT THIS MY NEW-
INVENTED MACHINE IS EXTREMELY USEFULL IN THE FOLLOWING PARTICULARS (TO WIT):
IN DRIVING PILES, WORKS IN CANALS OF COMMUNICATION, STIRRING AND RAISING

page_text: OF EARTH, CLEARING OF RIVERS AND SEA PORTS OF SAND, MUD, AND DIRT, WHICH
OBSTRUCT NAVIGATION, IN LOADING AND UNLOADING OF SHIPS, RAISING WATERS,
AS ALSO ORES AND OTHER MATTERS OUT OF MINES, AND MANY OTHER PARTICULARS;"
that I, the said Francis Xavier d'Arles de Liniere, had spent many years
in the study of this branch of the mechanicks, and had expended large
sums of money in bringing this new principle to this eminent degree of per-
perfection, therefore His said Majesty did give and grant unto me, the said
Francis Xavier d'Arles de Liniere, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said
Francis Xavier d'Arles de Liniere, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
and every of them, by myself and themselves, or by mine and their deputy or
deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Francis Xavier
l'Arles de Liniere, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter, during the term of years therein and herein-after expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, my 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, and also in His
Plantations and Colonies abroad, in such manner as to me, the said Francis
Xavier d'Arles de Liniere, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of
us. should in our discretions seem meet, to have, bold, exercise, and enjoy the
said licence, power, priviledges and advantages therein-before granted or
mentioned to be granted unto me, the said Francis Xavier d'Arles de Liniere,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, for and during and unto the full
end and term of fourteen years from the date thereof, next and immediately
ensuing, and fully to be compleat and ended, according to the Statute in such
case made and provided; in which said Letters Patent (amongst other things)
is a proviso to the effect following (that is to say), that if I, the said Francis
Xavier d'Arles de Liniere, 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 said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
four calendar months next and immediately after the date thereof, that
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 anywise notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of, and in compliance with the
said last recited proviso, I, the said Francis Xavier d'Arles de Liniere, do
hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, and do declare the same to

page_text: be true and genuine, by the verbal description, plan, and explanation thereof'
as follows (that is to say) :-
The machine containing this new principle can be made in various forms.
in order to be applied in almost all cases where moving force in required; but
as it is impossible to give it in all such different shapes, and as it is plain, by
the Petition of the Inventor, that the said Letters Patent have been granted in
favour of the principle itself, and by no means for any one particular form of
the machine containing the same, the said Inventor proposes herewith exactly
to describe the nature of the said principle and the distinctive character of its
action, in such a manner that its use and advantages in application may be
plainly understood and seen in the Figure annexed to this description, and
also signed by the said Inventor:-A and B are two frames made of wood, of
six inches square, six feet and a half in height, and of any given length. These
two frames are suspended in equilibrio, and at half a distance of half an inch
from each other, by means of a rope or chain fastened to the middle of the
upper part of the frames, and running over the pulley D. of which the axis
rests upon two supporters fixed upon the beams of a strongly fixed and
immoveable outer framework E. Between these beams, which are two feet
distant from each other, the frames A and B rise and descend alternately to
the height of six or seven inches, being successively raised the one by
the other by the means of a rope or chain running over the pulley D.
F, are peices of wood mortised into the beams of the outer framework
E. which determine the interval between the beams, and are made with
grooves, in which runs four truckles G, inserted into the sides of the frames
A and B, to regulate their perpendicular motion and play. H are two peices
of wood of three inches thickness. well fastened at each end to the outer frame
E. At the inside of these peices are strong pins placed at equal distances from
each other, and within reach of the hands of the men M, to be by them occa-
sionally used, as shall hereafter be described. P and Q are two levers, having
their fixed point or axis between the upper beams of E. One of the extremities
of these levers is fastened by a moving point p, p, to the middle of the frame A,
whilst the other extremity of the same lever P has a grapling rod R, which,
with its hook S, catches up the teeth or spindles of the wheel or winch T,
fixed upon a cylinder, about which the rope V winds up the weight to be
raised. X is a check, of which one end is fixed upon a moving center, and is
intended to prevent the accidental turning back of the wheel or winch, and the
running down of the weight already raised.
The motion and effect of this machine:-Each of the men M has his right
foot upou the under part of the frame A, and his left upon that of the frame B.
In this position it is evident: 1°, that the five men, bearing with the weight of

page_text: their bodies, supposed to be of one hundred and fifty pounds each, upon the
left foot and upon the frame B, and thus making it and the lever Q to descend
six or seven inches, they will together act with a power equal to seven hundred
and fifty pounds, in raising, proportionably to the height of six or seven inches,
the weight hanging at the rope V. 2º, that these men, successively directing
the weight of their bodies towards the right foot and the under part of the
frame A, that has been raised six or seven inches by the rope over the pulley D,
these men must again act with the same power upon the lever P, and raise
the weight by six or seven inches, and so on. 3º, that to the power with
which these men act, when the sole weight of their bodies is considered, they
may add the whole strength of their hands and arms by means of the pins
fixed in the wood H, which, when laid hold of as fixed points, will enable them
to make considerable efforts, and greatly augment the impression made by their
bodily weight.
It cannot be necessary, and is not possible, to describe the various ways in
which the action of this principle can be exhibited and exerted, no more than
the number of men that may be employed therein, according to the different
lengths given to the frames, the possibility of placing men upon the upper as
well as upon the under parts of the frame, the expediency of multiplying the
double rows of these frames, and consequently the double numbers of men
employed in working them, uniting the action of such double frames the one
to the other on one and the same, or upon double centers, by means of com-
municating chains or ropes running over pulleys, or by levers so disposed as
to answer the same end.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Xavier d'Arles de Liniere, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Third day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand seven hundred and sixty-one.
FRANCOIS XAVIER DARLES DE LINIERE.
Signed and sealed, (being first legally
stampt, in the presence of us,)
PHILIPPE ANTOINE DAUTRIVE,
PIERRE REICHENBACH,
Witness.
(L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that the aforesaid Francis Xavier d'Arles
de Liniere, by his Letter of Attorney, bearing date the Third day of March, in
the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and sixty-one, constituted
and appointed Joseph Hickey, Esquire, his Attorney, giving him full power
and authority in his stead and name to acknowledge, before the said Lord the
King in His Chancery, the Writing aforesaid to be the deed of him, the said

page_text: Francis Xavier d'Arles de Liniere, which said Joseph Hickey, the Eleventh
day of March, in the year aforesaid, came before our said Lord the King in
His Chancery, and acknowledged the Writing aforesaid, and all and singular
the matters and things in the same contained and specified, in form aforesaid,
by virtue and force of the aforesaid Letter of Attorney. And the said Writing
was stampt according to the form of the Statute made in the sixth year of the
reign of the late King William and Queen Mary, and so forth. The tenor of
which aforesaid Letter of Attorney follows in these words :-
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that I, Francis Xavier d'Arles
de Liniere, late of Suffolk Street, in the Parish of Saint Martin in the Fields, in
the County of Middlesex, Esquire, but now resident at the Hague, in Holland,
do ordain, make, constitute, and in my stead put Joseph Hickey, of Saint
Alban's Street, in the Parish of Saint James, within the Liberty of West-
minster, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, my true and lawfull Attorney,
for me, and in my name and stead, to acknowledge, or cause to be acknow-
ledged, before our Sovereign Lord the King that now is, in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery, the Deed Poll or Writing hereunto annexed, by me
made and executed, and bearing even date herewith, purporting to be a de-
scription or Specification of my Invention of a machine upon new principles.
for exerting the power of men to the greatest advantage, in pursuance of a
proviso contained in Letters Patent of His said present most Excellent Majesty,
for the sole use of the same, as my true and indefeazable act, praying that the
same may be enrolled, and to do, acknowledge, and execute for me, and in my
stead and name, all and every matter and thing relating to the same Deed
Poll or Writing, so far as may be necessary to procure and cause the same to
be duly enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery.
In witness whereof, I, the Francis Xavier d'Arles de Liniere, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Third day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and sixty-one.
FRANCOIS XAVIER D'ARLES DE LINIERE. (L.S.)
Sealed and delivered, in the presence of,
PHILIPPE ANTOINE DAUTRIVE,
PIERRE REICHENBACH,
Witness.