CERTAIN NEW MECHANICAL METHODS OF CUTTING OR DIVIDING PIECES OF METAL, AND OF GIVING TO PIECES OF METAL A CYLINDRICAL OR OTHER DETER- MINATE OR UNIFORM SHAPE, CONTINUED THROUGH THE WHOLE LENGTH OF THE SAID PIECES, AND ALSO OF GIVING TO PIECES OF METAL SHAPES REGULARLY TAPERING, BY WHICH BARS, BOLTS, RODS, WIER, SPADE BITS, AND SHOVEL BITS MIGHT BE. MADE BETTER AND MORE EXPEDITIOUSLY THAN BY THE METHODS HITHERTO PRACTICED; AND ALSO OF GIVING TO PIECES OF METAL FIGURED OR ORNAMENTED SURFACES, BY WHICH METAL ORNAMENTS, BEADINGS, AND MOULDINGS MIGHT BE MADE FOR DOORS; ROOMS, CABINETS,PICTURE FRAMES, LOOKING GLASS FRAMES, SHUTTERS, BACKS AND ELBOWS TOWINDOWS, ARCHITRAVES, BASES, SURFACES, CHIMNEY PIECES, PANELS, CORNICES, DOOR CAPS, DOOR FRIEZES, CORNICES TO WINDOW CURTAINS AND BEDS, AND AND OF BANISTERS OR BALLUSTRADES AND RAILING FOR STAIRS, GALLERIES, OR WHATEVER PURPOSES SUCH RAILS, BALLUSTRADES, BANISTERS, OR PARTS OF BANISTERS
Year: 1783

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, WILLIAM
PLAYFAIR, of Howland Street, in the Parish of Saint Pancras, and County of
Middlesex, Engineer, sendeth greeting.
WHEREAS the said William Playfair did, by his Petition, humbly repre-
sent unto His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, that he had
invented "CERTAIN NEW MECHANICAL METHODS OF CUTTING OR DIVIDING PIECES
OF METAL, AND OF GIVING TO PIECES OF METAL A CYLINDRICAL OR OTHER DETER-
MINATE OR UNIFORM SHAPE, CONTINUED THROUGH THE WHOLE LENGTH OF THE SAID
PIECES, AND ALSO OF GIVING TO PIECES OF METAL SHAPES REGULARLY TAPERING,
BY WHICH BARS, BOLTS, RODS, WIER, SPADE BITS, AND SHOVEL BITS MIGHT BE.
MADE BETTER AND MORE EXPEDITIOUSLY THAN BY THE METHODS HITHERTO PRACTICED;
AND ALSO OF GIVING TO PIECES OF METAL FIGURED OR ORNAMENTED SURFACES, BY
WHICH METAL ORNAMENTS, BEADINGS, AND MOULDINGS MIGHT BE MADE FOR DOORS;
ROOMS, CABINETS, PICTURE FRAMES, LOOKING GLASS FRAMES, SHUTTERS, BACKS AND
ELBOWS TO WINDOWS, ARCHITRAVES, BASES, SURFACES, CHIMNEY PIECES, PANELS,
CORNICES, DOOR CAPS, DOOR FRIEZES, CORNICES TO WINDOW CURTAINS AND BEDS,
AND BY WHICH MIGHT BE MADE BORDERING FOR PAPER, AND BORDERING TO GO
ROUND ROOMS IN THE MANNER OF PAPER BORDERS NOW IN USE, AND BANISTERS,
AND PARTS OF BANISTERS OR BALLUSTRADES AND RAILING FOR STAIRS, GALLERIES,
OR WHATEVER PURPOSES SUCH RAILS, BALLUSTRADES, BANISTERS, OR PARTS OF
BANISTERS, MAY BE USED IN HOUSES OR ELSEWHERE, AND ORNAMENTS FOR SUCH
BANISTERS AND PARTS OF BANISTERS, OR BALUSTRADES AND RAILING FOR STAIRS

page_text: OR GALLERIES, AND ORNAMENTS FOR COLUMNS, PILASTERS, AND PIERS, AND FOR PARTS
OF COLUMNS, PILASTERS, AND PIERS, AND ALSO ORNAMENTS FOR BOOK CASES, WINDOW
BEADS, AND SASH STILES, AND ORNAMENTS FOR COACHES, CHARIOTS, CHAISES, PHAE-
TONS, WHISKIES, AND OTHER WHEELED CARRIAGES, AND FOR CHAIRS AND OTHER
HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE, AND FOR ALL OTHER PURPOSES WHERE BRASS NAILS, CARVED
WORK, AND STUCCO WORK HAVE BEEN HERETOFORE COMMONLY USED; AND, LASTLY,
OF JOINING METAL BEADS, HUSKS, LEAVES, OR OTHER ORNAMENTS CONSISTING OF
SINGLE DETACHED PIECES JOINED OR CONNECTED TOGETHER," which the Petitioner
conceived would be of great public utility; the said Petitioner, therefore,
thereby prayed His said Majesty to grant unto him, the said William Playfair,
his executors, administrators, and assigns, His said Majesty's Royal Letters
Patent for sole making and vending of the said several articles and things
for the term of fourteen years, according to the form of the Statute in that
case made and provided; and His said Majesty, being pleased to condescend to
the said Petitioner's request, did, by His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent,
bearing date at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of December, in the
twenty-fourth year of His reign, give and grant unto the said William
Playfair, his executors, administrators, and assigns, especial licence, full power,
sole priviledge and authority, that he, the said William Playfair, his executors,
administrators, and assigns, by himself and themselves, or by his and their
deputy or deputys, servants or agents, or such others as he, the said William
Playfair, his executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
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 his said Invention within that part of His Majesty's
Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to him, the said William Playfair,
his executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should in his or
their discretions seem meet, and that he, the said William Playfair, his
executors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and
enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time
coming, growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the said Invention, for
and during the term of years therein mentioned, to have, hold, exercise, and
enjoy the said licence, powers, priviledges, and advantages therein-before
granted or mentioned to be granted unto the said William Playfair, his
executors, administrators, and assigns, for and during and unto the full end
and term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent next and
immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat and ended, according to the
Statute in such case made and provided; in which said Letters Patent is

page_text: contained a proviso that if the said William Playfair should not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of his said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under his hand and
scal, and cause the same to be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery
within four 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, anything therein-before contained to the contrary thereof in
anywise notwithstanding, as in and by the said Letters Patent, referrence
being thereunto had, may more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that he, the said William Playfair, in pursuanco of the
said recited proviso, doth, by this Instrument in writing under his hand and
seal, particularly describe and ascertain the nature of his said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, in 'manner and form
following (that is to say) :-
Cause the piece of metal to pass between two cylinders or rollers, which
move round by the power of men, horses, water, or any other power, in the
manner of rollers commonly used for flattening of silver or copper, which
rollers or cylinders have sunk in them indentations or hollows, the reverse
of the shape of the thing to be made or having in one of the rollers
or cylinders an impression sunk the reverse of one side of the piece of
work to be made, the other roller remaining plain. When the thing to
be made is not required to be figured on both sides, and admits of its
being so, these rollers are fixt in a frame and held together by screws,
wedges, or other convenient means, and when they turn round on their
axes, the piece of metal, in passing through between them, either in a hot
or cold state, as the nature of the metal requires it to be, receives a figure
from these indentations. When I make beads or husks in this manner of
metal in detached pieces, I join them by means of hollows made in the
flat side of the husks or beads by means of a fine saw or other tool, through
which wire or string is made to pass, and either fixt in by rivetting or
by soldering, which method I also use for connecting metal husks, beads, or
leaves that have been cast or made by other means with one another, so as
to make festoons or other ornaments of metal which have heretofore been
made in one piece by casting or otherwise.
The Drawing attached represents the machine, consisting of the rollers or
cylinders used for giving the forms to the pieces of metal before mentioned,
in which Figure 1st is the end view, and Figure 2d the side view.
wood plank, on which the frames of iron or other metal B are fixt.
A is a
In the

page_text: frames B are pieces of metal, commonly known by the name of brasses, in
which there are hollows of a circular form, as represented for the ends of the
cylinders or rollers C, C, to work in, which cylinders or rollers have in them
groves or hollows, as before described, and are turned round by being
connected to a mill axel, or some other power, by means of the ends D, D.
E, E, are screws passing through the frame, and serving to keep the rollers
pressed together. As I am incapable to represent or describe all possible
machines for effecting the desired purpose, I have only described and repre-
sented the one that I think to be the best for the purpose, though in general
the principal consists in causing the metal to pass between curved surfaces,
though they may not be compleat cylinders, in such manner as to press
partially on the metal, and to give each part its form as they pass in
succession between the surfaces.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Playfair, bave hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and eighty-four.
Sealed and delivered in the presence of
WILLIAM (L.s.) PLAYFAIR.
ROB BOLGER,
Bernard's Inn.
JAMES GODDARD,
Serv to Mr. Bolger.
AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the Seventeenth day of April, in
the twenty-fourth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third,
the said William Playfair came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the several Statutes made in
the sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary of
England, and in the seventeenth and twenty-third years of the reign of His
said Majesty King George the Third, &c.