IMPROVE- MENTS IN QUARRYING SLATE.
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Fletcher Cottam, of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Machinist, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN QUARRYING SLATE.".
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Fletcher
Cottam at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 18th October 1852.
I, SAMUEL FLETCHER COTTAM, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN QUARRYING SLATE" to be as
follows:-
In quarrying slate it has heretofore been customary to split the rocks
by the explosion of gunpowder. My improvement consists in employing
the power of hydraulic presses for the same purpose. A groove or
recess has to be made under the block of slate to be split, of sufficient,
size to admit a small hydraulic press (or a row of hydraulic presses if
the slabs required are very large); and to the rams of the hydraulic
presses are attached wedges, acting against the under edge of the
block to be split. By this means little waste will be made, and slabs of
any size and thickness can be cut off with facility.."
I

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 18th April 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J.
SAMUEL FLETCHER COTTAM, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS, Ifer most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two. in the sixteenth
year of er reign, did, for Ierself, Iler heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam. Her special licence
that 1, the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam, my
executors, administrators, and 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. 11sc,
excrcise. and vend. within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, an Invention
for IMPROVEMENTS IN QUARRYING SLATE," upon the condition, amongst
otliers, that I, the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say):
My Invention consists in the application of hydraulic power for
quarrying slate. And in order that my Invention may be fully under-
stood and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to explain the
means pursued by me; reference being had to the annexed Drawing
and to the letters and figures marked thereon.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1, represents one mode of applying hydraulic power for
detaching blocks or slabs of slate from the quarry; and Figure 2,
represents another mode of applying hydraulic power for detaching
blocks or slabs of slate from the quarry. When the hydraulic press is
applied in the manner shewn in Figure 1, it is requisite to form a
recess in the quarry, under the block or slab to be detached, large
enough to admit the press A. In this case the ram B, of the press
is furnished with a wedge-shaped instrument, which rises with the
ram B, when the pump C, is worked, and by acting against the under
edge of the block of slate the wedge detaches the portion required.
In Figure 2. the press D, is laid horizontally in a recess made to
receive it on the surface of the quarry. In this case the end of the
rain E, bears against the top of the block or slab to be detached,
and the press cylinder abuts against the end of the recess, and when
the
pump F, is worked the ram is forced partly out of the cylinder,
and detaches the block or slab required. I wish to observe here, that
when very large blocks or slabs are to be detached, two or more
hydraulic presses may be used. Other modifications of the mode of
applying hydraulic power might be shewn, but the foregoing are
sufficient to illustrate the nature of my Invention.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as of
my Invention the application of the power obtained from a hydraulic
press or hydraulic presses for the purpose of quarrying slate.
In witness whereof 1, the said Samuel Fletcher Cottam, have
hereunto set niy hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of April,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.