IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING AND CONSTRUCTING BARREL COCKS AND WATER COCKS, WHEREBY LEAKAGE AND THE STICKING OR SETTING FAST OF THE KEY OR PLUG ARE PREVENTED, AND THE COCKS ARE RENDERED MORE DURABLE, AND LESS LIABLE TO BE OUT OF ORDER, AND MORE EASY TO BE REPAIRED THAN BY AN OTHER METHOD YET INVENTED
Year: 1809

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WELLS, of Erdington, in the County of Warwick, Cock Founder, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of June, in the forty-ninth
year of His reign, hath given and granted unto me, the said Thomas Wells, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privi-
lege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Wells, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves, or by my and their
deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Wells, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agroo
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, my "IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING AND CONSTRUCTING BARREL COCKS
AND WATER COCKS, WHEREBY LEAKAGE AND THE STICKING OR SETTING FAST OF THE
KEY OR PLUG ARE PREVENTED, AND THE COCKS ARE RENDERED MORE DURABLE, AND
LESS LIABLE TO BE OUT OF ORDER, AND MORE EASY TO BE REPAIRED THAN BY AN
OTHER METHOD YET INVENTED," within that part of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, in such manner as to me, the said Thomas Wells, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them, shall in my or their
discretion seem meet; to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence,
powers, privileges, and advantages unto me, the said Thomas Wells, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of fourteen years

page_text: from the date of the said Letters Patent; in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso, that if I, the said Thomas Wells, should 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 two 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 Letters Patent, relation being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with and agreeable to the true intent
and meaning of the said proviso in the said Letters Patent contained, I, the
said Thomas Wells, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is and are described and
ascertained in manner following, that is to say:-
The merits of my said Invention in no wise depend on any particular metal
of which the cocks may be made, but their essential property and superior
excellence depend on the construction of that part of the cock which contains
the key or plug, and is called the barrel, so that it cannot leak, and that no
liquor can pass through it, except when the key or plug is turned for that
purpose. This is accomplished by making grooves in the inside of the barrel
of about the eighth of an inch in depth, and filling up these grooves with
leather, hat, or anything else of a similar nature, which will absorb the wet.
The number or direction of the grooves is not material.
The Figure, No. 1, drawn in margin of these Presents, represents a section
of the barrel of a cock; and the letters a, a, a, a, represent the grooves
in the inside as filled up.
The Figure, No. 2, represents a birds-eye view of the barrel; where the
letters a, a, a, a, shew the vertical grooves unffilled.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Wells, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and nine.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the within-
named Tho' Wells (being first duly stamped),
in the presence of
JOHN HILL, Pawnbroker, Birmingham.
EDW. CHATER, Attorney, Birmingham,
THOS (L.s.) WELLS.
and a Master Extraordinary in Chancery.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fourth day of
July, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Thomas Wells came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year above written.