A MACHINE OR IMPLEMENT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PREPARING HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SALISBURY, of Brompton, in the County of Middlesex, Botanist, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
did, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Thirty-first day of August, in the fifty-eighth year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said William Salisbury, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said William Salisbury, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, "A MACHINE OR IMPLEMENT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PREPARING
HEMP, FLAX, AND OTHER VEGETABLE FIBROUS SUBSTANCES," within England,
Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said William
Salisbury, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should in our discretion
seem meet; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I,
the said William Salisbury, should not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the 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 Letters Patent, that
then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and
by the said recited 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
William Salisbury, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner is to be performed, are particularly described and

page_text: ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the ronowing
description thereof (that is to say) :-
These springs have eyes
No. 1 is the stock of the instrument for breaking flax, hemp, or other
vegetable fibres, which may be made of hard wood, or of any other fit or
proper material. To this stock two pairs of clastic springs, No. 2, made of
sheet iron, wood, or any other fit substance; are firmly secured by means of
screws, or in any other proper manner, each pair of springs having a screw,
No. 3, passing through holes made in them, with screwed finger nuts to each
screw, by means of which they may be opened or closed more or less, and
retained at any required distance from each other.
or loops at their upper ends, made either square, round, or of any other proper
form, into which two checks, one of which is shewn at No. 4, and which may
be made of hard wood, metal, or any other proper material, and having. square
tenons on their ends, are fitted securely. These cheeks are made a little
curved or hollowed on their upper edges, and are rounded on their outsides.
An iron standard, No. 5, is securely fitted into the stock at one end of it,
having a gap or cleft at the top of it, the sides of which have holes in them,
through which a screwed bolt passes, having also a screwed nut upon it. The
lever, No. 6, moves on this bolt as a fulcrum or axis: This lever is about six
inches wide in its broadest part, and four feet long, more or less, with a handle at
its other end, and is made curved or hollowed at its lower edge to correspond with
the hollows in the tops of the checks. This lever may be made of wood, metal,
or any other fit material, and it may also have an oval opening made through it,
as shewn in the Drawing. The instrument is firmly fixed by means of an iron
standard, No. 7, at one end of it; being screwed or otherwise fastened to the
floor, and by a square iron plate; No. 8; affixed to the other end, which is to be
screwed or otherwise fastened against a post, wall, partition, or other proper
support, and at a proper height for a person to work the lever; about two
feet six inches, for instance, may be a fit height. The flat sides of the lever
and of the two cheeks may be either made smooth or they may be grooved,
furrowed, or otherwise roughened, or they may be covered with leather or any
other proper substance which will assist in. producing the necessary friction;
and the flax or hemp being held in one hand of the operator, is to be laid upon
the upper edges of the checks, and the lever is be worked up and down by
means of its handle with the other hand, and thus be made to press and rul
the flax or hemp between the surfaces of the lever and cheeks, until their
'stems and fibres are a little broken and loosened, after which they may be put
.through the aperture in the lever, which will cause it to work them up and
down between the cheeks with greater velocity. Apertures may also be made

page_text: through the checks themselves, which will still farther promote that effect, or
the cheeks may be made double, one above the other, the upper one being
made to lift up, and when the flax or hemp is put between them it may be let
down so as to hold them fast on either or both sides of the lever, which will
much assist the friction. Instead of cheeks I can also use moveable rollers
with pivots, to be fixed into the round eyes of the springs in place of the cheeks,
and which rollers may be made of wood, metal, or any other fit material, and
may either be fluted or plain, or be covered with leather. When necessary, I
can also use both cheeks and rollers, the one being applied above the other,
so that the lever may press on both as it is worked up and down between
them. I can also produce the necessary effect by nailing or otherwise fixing
two boards on the stock, with a bolt put through holes at one end for the
lever to work on, and with screws to regulate the boards or sides, so as
to place them at proper distances for the lever to work between them, as
above described. The same effect is also produced by a lever fixed at the end
of a single cheek, either with or without the aperture. I, however, generally
prefer to have the lever and checks made with longitudinal furrows, grooves,
or ridges along them, as is shown upon one side of the lever in the Drawing
annexed. The effect of this process is to break the stems of the flax or hemp,
and to loosen their fibres, so that after the operation they may be dressed or
hackled in the usual manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Salisbury, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of February, in the year of our
Land One thousand eight hundred and ninetoon