IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURING AND PREPARING ROOFING SLATES, AND IN LAYING THE SAME
Year: 1803

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BARKER
CRIFNEY, of the City of London, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of March,
in the forty-third year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said
Barker Chifney, my executors administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Barker
Chifney, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all His
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURING AND PREPARING ROOFING SLATES, AND IN LAYING THE SAME;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said Barker Chifney, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular de-
scription 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 Chan-
cery within one calendar month next and immediately ensuing the date of
the said in part 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
Barker Chifney, do hereby declare that my said improvements are described
in manner following, that is to say: -

page_text: I take the blocks or slabs of slate intended for diamond slating from the
common wet saws in the mill or elsewhere, after having cut their ends or
sides parallel, and then I split them to such thicknesses as may be conve-
nient or necessary; I then put the said slates so split to convenient or
necessary thicknesses, and intended for diamond slating, on a moving table,
when, by two toothed circular saws on one spindle, I cut the other two sides
or ends at right angles to the ends or sides cut by the common wet saws,
with a motion given by common machinery, or otherwise. I afterwards cut
off two corners opposite to each other, so as to give such lap to the slates as
the situations of buildings or other circumstances may make necessary, and
drill the holes for the screws or nails further or nearer from the upper point
of each slate, according to circumstances. For laying diamond slates when
rimer-headed screws are not used, I bevil. the corners cut off, or else file or
rasp grooves to admit the heads of the nails or screws, which I secure with
putty or whatever may appear most proper. To make what I call imperial
or common slates, I use various operations according to the circumstance of
the quarries, or such other incidental circumstances as may exist or occur;.
for instance, I sometimes cut the blocks or slabs to their proper lengths
by common wet saws with common machinery, or otherwiso split them
afterwards to their necessary thicknesses, and then chop them to such
breadths as may be convenient or necessary. At other times the blocks or
slabs are first split, in the common or any other way, to such thicknesses as
may be thought convenient or necessary; after which, I have the slabs or
slates (so split to thicknesses) chop'd as near paralell as may be, and to such
breadths as may be considered convenient or necessary; when I place cach
slab or slate on a moving table, and, by two toothed circular saws on one
spindle, I cut them to their proper lengths with a motion given by common
machinery, or otherwise. I also prepare slates in the usual way, or take
those prepared by others, and cut them, by common machinery or otherwise,
to convenient or necessary lengths. To compleat the imperial or common
slates made or prepared in any of these ways, and make them ready for
laying, I dril holes in them with common drils, and by common machinery.
or otherwise, further from or nearer to their side edges, and further from or
nearer to their top edges, according as the purposes for which they are
intended, or other circumstances, may suggest. It is not absolutely necessary
that the top or upper ends of imperial or common slates should be square,
round, or of any other determinate shape; but I approve and recommend them
to be square, for the advantage of pointing in the inside. The heads of the
nails with which imperial or common slates are fastened to the boards or

page_text: battin laths aro to bo secured with putty, or otherwise, as may be thought
necessary.
There is also another method in which I prepare what I call imperial or
common slates for laying, whether cut at their ends to proper lengths, split
to their necessary thicknesses, and reduced to their proper breadths, whether
split to their necessary thicknesses, reduced to their proper breadths, and cut
to their proper lengths, or made in the usual way, and cut to their proper
lengths, that is to say, by cutting notches or indents in their sides with
saws, with files, or with rasps, by common machinery or otherwise, so as to
admit sufficient hold to the nails, and to be in lieu of the holes before
mentioned..
In witness whereof, I, the said Barker Chifney, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord
BARKER (Ls.) CHIFNEY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fourth day of April, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Barker Chifney came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, 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 April, in the year above written.