CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAKING OR FABRICATION OF SUNDRY TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, OR ARTICLES, TO BE USED IN VARIOUS ARTS OR MANIPULATIONS, OR THE ORDINARY OCCASIONS OF LIFE
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
DICKINSON, of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Esquire, 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 Fourteenth day of
March, in the fifty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert Dickinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege, and authority, that me, the said Robert
Dickinson; my executors, administrators, 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 of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAKING OR FABRICATION
OF SUNDRY TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, OR ARTICLES, TO BE USED IN VARIOUS ARTS OR
MANIPULATIONS, OR THE ORDINARY OCCASIONS OF LIFE;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said Robert Dickinson,
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 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 Letters Patent,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Dickinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained as follows, that is to say: -
That these improvements relate in the first place to smoothing irons used by
laundresses. As these are usually made at present with the handle joined to
the smoother, making together one piece, it is necessary to employ several folds
of cloth to prevent the hand from being burnt. I obviate the necessity of using
such cloth or holder by altering the form of the present handle in such a
manner that it is joined to the smoother only at one end (like the smoother
known by the name of the taylor's goose), the handle itself being made some-
what taper to receive a perforated wooden handle or case slipt on when the
smoothing iron is to be used, and kept in its place by a spring and stud, or any
of the common mechanical contrivances employed for temporary fixtures; or,
I make the smoothing part with two projections on the upper side, &c., formed
that a moveable handle may be attached by means of studs, bolts, or springs,
or both combined, or any of the common mechanical contrivances for tempo-
rary fixtures; and to obviate the necessity of cleaning the fronts of the
smoothers, I employ a plate of iron, properly adapted over the fire on which I
place the smoothing irons.
Secondly, having witnessed accidents from hammers flying off from their
handles, which are made of wood, I have contrived another kind of handles,
namely, hollow tubular handles, made of iron, put through the hammer, and
then spread outward over the edge of the orifice, and for greater security I
drive into that part of the tube which comes through the hammer a wedge of
wood or of iron.
Thirdly, in the method commonly employed for applying human power to
turn fly-wheels or work machinery, there is a great waste of animal power.
To render the labor of a man more productive I adopt the following contri-
vance I make the labourer set when at work; to an axle crossing his front,
nearly opposite his navle, I attach a ratchet wheel; the axle passes easy
through two cross bars or arms kept in the same plane, but at right angles to
tne axle. These cross bars are connected at top by a bar, (which also serves
as a handle,) passing from the one to the other, and in like manner they are
connected with each other at bottom by a bar passing from the one to the
other, and which also answers the purpose of a foot board. At a distance from
the axle, suited to the diameter of the ratchet wheel, a click or catch is
connected with the two cross bars above described, (and which cross bars,
with the handle bars and foot-board bar, form an oblong framing,) in such a

page_text: manner as to fall into the teeth of the ratchet wheel at whatever part may
be presented to the said catch. Things being thus arranged, the labourer
works both with his hands and his feet at the same time; when with his
hands, he draws towards him the handle bar; he, at the same time, pushes
from him with his feet the foot bar, and the ratchet wheel being thus put in
motion by the catch attached to the said oblong framing, gives motion to
the axle, causing the ratchet wheel to perform a part of a revolution propor-
tioned to its diameter, and the length of the labourer's pull with his hands.
When he has thus given one pull or impulse, he throws forward the upper
part of his body, his feet drawing in towards his seat in the same ratio, and
then repeats the impulse. This first or moving power may be applied directly
to perform its work by attaching the machinery that is to be moved to the
said axle, but generally it will be found more convenient to attach the
machinery by what mechanics call a secondry motion, and in almost every
case it is advisable that a fly-wheel of a suitable weight and diameter should
be attached to some convenient part of the machinery to equalize the motion.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Dickinson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of September, One thousand
eight hundred and fiftoon.