IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS, APPARATUS, AND MACHINERY FOR EXHIBITING SCENERY, PAINTINGS, OR CERTAIN DESCRIPTION OF PICTURES
Year: 1833

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE. PRESENTS SHALL COME, I; JOSEPH
GIBBS, of the Kent Road, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, 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 Fourth day of April, in the third year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give. and grant unto me, the
said Joseph Gibbs, His especial licence, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Joseph Gibbs, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Joseph Gibbs, my exors, admors, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS, APPARATUS, AND
MACHINERY FOR EXHIBITING SCENERY, PAINTINGS, OR CERTAIN DESCRIPTION
OF PICTURES;" in. which. said. Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I,
the said Joseph Gibbs,. shall cause à particular description of the nature of
my said Invention; and in. what manner the same is to be performed, and
cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery.

page_text: within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Gibbs, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):―
Fig. 1 is a plan of my method of fitting up an exhibition room, in which A
is the part where the spectators are to be accommodated with seats in the
usual manner. B, B, B, back and side screens. C, the entrance door.
D, D, D, the part of the moving scenery, painting, or picture which is suc-
cessively presented to the view of the spectators, it being painted upon an
endless sheet of canvas or cloth, which is hung, suspended, or attached to
a cable E, E, &c., and the ends of which cable are spliced together. This
cable, in order that the endless sheet of cloth or painted canvas suspended
from it may hang freely, requires to be carried or supported upon cleft cast-iron
sheaves in the following manner :-In Fig. 2, which is drawn on an enlarged
scale, F, F, F, are three cast-iron pieces which are made solid with the cross
iron cross piece G, and through each of the pieces F, F, F, a cylindrical hole
is bored, as shewn by the dotted lines at I, I, I; into those holes cylindrical
rods or pivots of wrought iron or steel are fitted and secured in their places by
the binding screws J, J, J. Upon these cylindrical rods the halves or
separate cheeks K, K, K, K, of the cleft sheaves are accurately fitted, and
turn the two exterior ones, having each a separate rod or pivot, whilst the two
interior ones have only one rod, the ends of which form pivots to both of them.
These cast-iron frames F, G, and the cleft sheaves K, K, &c., are each
mounted underneath a horizontal cross piece of timber L, which is framed to
the upper ends of two upright timbers M, M, which are united to other
cross pieces resting upon the floor of the exhibition room, the cast-iron frame
F, G, being secured underneath the upper cross piece L by the screwed bolts
and nuts N, N.
Fig. 3 represents this combination upon a reduced scale; it is, however,
only applicable where the inner upright timbers are concealed from the
eyes of the spectators by the back and side screens B, B, B, as at 0, 0, 0, 0,
in the plan, Fig. 1; but in front at D, D, D, they are inadmissible, as they
would obstruct the view, and therefore the cast-iron frames and cleft sheaves
are mounted to cross pieces of timber L, L, &c., extending inwardly beyond
the uprights, as is shewn in Fig. 4; and in this case the timber frame is

page_text: strengthened by two additional cross pieces secured by screwed bolts and nuts
and a diagonal stay. The endless sheet of painted cloth or canvas may be
suspended from the cable by means of hooks passed vertically through it, and
having nuts screwed upon their heads, which rest upon bent iron plates with
holes in them for the hooks to pass through, the plates being bent to fit the
cable. The cable and endless sheet of scenery, paintings, or pictures will thus
chiefly be supported and moved upon the cleft sheaves K, K, &c., in the
above-mentioned manner; but at the parts P, P, Fig. 1, they will be carried
around the grooved horizontal wheels Q, Q, which must be several feet in
diameter, and the cable being prevented from falling out of the grooves by
means of the horizontal sheaves R, R, &c., which are mounted in proper cast-
iron frames around them. The cable may also be guided by the additional
horizontal sheaves S, S, S, S. T is the endless sheet of picture.
Fig. 5 is a side elevation of one of the horizontal wheels Q, which is mounted
upon the upper end of a vertical cylinder, and two of the horizontal sheaves
R, R, with the cable E in their grooves. These wheels Q, Q, may have a
slow revolving movement communicated to them by two endless screw wheels
affixed to them, into which the endless screws mounted upon one shaft or axis
may be caused to act, or by any other of the well-known means by which motion
may be communicated thereto from any first moving power; and thus the
entire scenery, paintings, or pictures contained upon the surface of the endless
sheet of cloth or canvas will be brought successively into view. It will also
be necessary to introduce additional horizontal guiding sheaves U, U, &c.,
mounted in cast-iron frames, between the vertical cleft ones already described
in the circular part indicated by the letters D, D, D, in the plan, Fig. 1, in
order to assist the bending or curving of the cable in that part.
The manner
of mounting the additional horizontal guiding sheaves U, U, &c., is shewn
in Fig. 6, which is an upright elevation, and in Figure 7, a plan thereof.
V, V, &c., being the cast-iron frames secured to the timber frame L, M, &c.
Additional horizontal pieces of timber W may also be secured between
the outer and inner ends of the horizontal pieces of timber L, L, &c., as
well also between the upright timbers M, M, &c., with a view to give them
additional stability, and which may be also further encreased by means of
timber stays proceeding from the walls or ceiling of the exhibition room
to those parts, but which being merely ordinary carpentry need not be more
particularly described here. I can likewise employ an endless sheet of painted
cloth or canvas in one continued single line instead of two, as herein shewn
and described, and use only one set of cleft sheaves, and one large horizontal
wheel Q. Additional scenery and other decorations may likewise be provided, but

page_text: the modes of fitting them up do not form any part of my said improvements in
the means, apparatus, and machinery for exhibiting scenery, paintings, or certain
descriptions of pictures.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Gibbs, have hereunto set my.
hand and seal, this First day of October, in the year of our Lord 5
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
within-named Joseph Gibbs, upon
parchment, duly stampt, in the
presence of
W* ASHTON,
JOSEPH (L.S.) GIBBS.
Inrolled the Fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-three.