AN IMPROVED SUPPORTING BLOCK TO BE USED IN GRAVING DOCKS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
CLOUGH, of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster, Ship Broker,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Fifth day of August, in the first year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Robert
Clough, His especial licence that I, the said Robert Clough, my exors, adiñors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Clough, my exors, adñiors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED SUPPORTING BLOCK TO BE
USED IN GRAVING DOCKS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Robert Clough, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the

page_text: had to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures marked thereon, that is
to say:
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is an elevation of a supporting block, as the parts appear when
put together for the purpose of forming one block. It will be seen that
they are kept in their places by means of clamps or iron clasps at each end,
furnished with staples and pins; and when it is required to remove the block
from under any weight which it is supporting, the pins are withdrawn from the
staples and a blow given sideways to either of the middle pieces, which, if not
at first, will if a few times repeated soon disengage the various parts of which
the block is composed, and thus enable the operator to withdraw it from under
the superincumbent weight.
Figure 2 represents the various parts of which the block is composed,
separated from each other, the clasps being unfastened by the renoval of
the pins.
Now whereas it is evident that this block is applicable to various purposes,
such as graving blocks for supporting ships while under repair, fids for sup-
porting ships upper masts, building blocks for a temporary support to any
part of a building while under repairs, and various others which it is not
necessary to mention, as I claim as my Invention a supporting block formed
of the particular shaped parts herein-before described, and held together in
manner aforesaid, for all purposes of temporary support to which it may be
applicable, and such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and
belief, entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare
this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my
Specification doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise,

page_text: Inrolled the Sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.