CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS, ON MACHINERY FOR ROLLING IRON.. FOR SHANKS, AND FOR FORMING THE SAME, INTO SHANKS FOR NAILS
Year: 1803

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BOOTH
HODGETTS, of Dudley, in the County of Worcester, Nail Ironmonger, send
greeting:
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of
November, in the forty-fourth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Booth Hodgetts, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence, that I, the said Booth Hodgetts, my exccutors, administrators, and
assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS, ON MACHINERY
FOR ROLLING IRON.. FOR SHANKS, AND FOR FORMING THE SAME, INTO SHANKS FOR
NAILS;" in. which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Booth Hodgetts, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular description of; the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date
of the said recited. Letters Patent, as in, and by, the same (relation being
thereunto had) may more, fully and, at, large appear.
NOW.KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the, said
Booth Hodgetts, do hereby declare that my said Invention of Certain Improve-

page_text: ments on Machinery from Rolling Iron for Shanks, and for Formning the
same into Shanks for Nails, is particularly described and ascertained in the
Drawings and description thereof hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof L the said Booth Hodiretts. have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Nineteenth day of November, in the year of our
Load One thansand night hundred and thron
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and three
.
BOOTH HODGETTS. (L.S.)
A, the inside of a mill commonly used for rolling bars, and slitting or
cutting them into rod iron. B, the shaft which connects the machinery with
a wheel, to be worked either by steam or water. C, the spur wheel. D, D,
the wheel and shaft which work the rollers. E, E, the bed which the
standards are fixed upon. F, the rollers to roll blooms or slabs of iron into
bars. G, the rollers to roll bars or pieces of iron to a proper thickness before
they are cut or slit into rods. K, K, K, K, the iron standards in which the
rollers work, with screws to keep them at a proper distance from each other;
there are four standards to each pair of rollers, though the front view can
shew only two. L, L, L, the pinions and connections. M, M, the wheel and
shaft that work the cutters or slitters. N, N, the pinions and connections.
O, O, the slitters or cutters, and the iron pillars with screws in which they
work; there are four pillars, though the front view shews only two. P, P,
the edge of a bar of iron after it has been rolled with common rollers before it
is slit into rods. My improved way of rolling and cutting iron, so as to form
those parts of nails called the shanks, is as follows:-A pair of rollers (which
I put in motion by the machinery above described, or any other mechanical
power) are thus prepared:-One of them in the usual way round, see letter
R, the other roller (letter S) is cut, indented, or grooved, so as to roll a bar
or piece of iron, thick and thin (see T, T,) in proper lengths, according to the
nails wanted, that is, one end of each length must be left thick enough to
make the head, and then gradually tapered to the other end till thin enough
to form the point. The red ink circular line shews the end view of the roller
in the form it was before cut or indented; and the black lines shew the form
and manner that the grooves are cut or indented on the roller, and represent it
in its improved state. The grooves may be either cut quite across the roller S
from one end to the other, to make all the shanks of one length or sort, or may
be cut in divisions, so as to make different sorts or lengths. T, T, shew the
edge of a bar of iron after it has been rolled in or between the rollers R and S,
in which state it is then to be cut or slit into proper breadths in such slitters
or cutters as are generally used in an iron slitting mill. The nail shanks are

page_text: afterwards seperated from each other and smoothed, and then headed in the
usual manner. Brads do not require to be headed.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Nineteenth day of
November, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Booth Hodgetts 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 Fifth day of December, in the year above written.