A NEW METHOD OR PRINCIPLE OP PRODUCING FILES, PLANE IRONS, FIRE IRONS, AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1812

page_text: TO ALL
WHOM THESE PRESEN S SHALL
IE, I, GEORGE
BABB, of Bordsley, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of
January, in the fifty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
George Babb, my exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said George Babb, my exors, adñiors,
and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein
mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention for "A NEW METHOD OR PRINCIPLE
OP PRODUCING FILES, PLANE IRONS, FIRE IRONS, AND OTHER ARTICLES," in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if 1, the said George
Babb, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my 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
Γ.

page_text: 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, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by
the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Babb, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following, that is to say :-
The principle of my Invention consists in the making of every sort of edge
tools, and all sorts of articles where steel is necessary. I take British or
other iron in bar, rod, sheet, or other convenient form, according to the size
and form wanted. I make it into such articles as suit my purpose, whether
chissels, plane irons, axes, spades, or any other tools I desire. When ready, I
place them in a furnace constructed according to the Plan hereunto annexed,
and which may be of any dimensions, according to the work it is wanted for.
Such parts as are wanted to be steel must be bedded in charcoal dust; the
other parts are to be bedded in a composition of clay and road earth; and
when all is placed in I cover it up close with the same composition; after
which I make up the ends of the furnace which before were open (and which
must be closed temporary each time the furnace is used) with road earth and
bricks, leaving a small hole at one end for the purpose of seeing the degree
of heat in the furnace. I have also at one end near the bottom of the large
copper (see Drawings) a hole capable of taking a rod or bar of iron of the
same thickness as the articles I intend to convert. I place a bar in this hole,
one end of which should reach the centre of the furnace; the other end
should come out about an inch or two. The use of this bar is to be able to
judge when I have converted the tools, &c. sufficiently. By drawing it out
and quenching it in water, it will shew how much longer there will be
occasion to keep up the fire. The peculiar excellence of this furnace con-
sists in its not blistering the articles converted in it, producing steel of a
uniform close texture, and is capable of making bar steel in less time than
furnaces of the common construction.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Babb, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twelve.
GEORGE BABB. (L.s.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of July, in
the year of our Lord 1812, the aforesaid George Babb 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
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twelve.