CURIOUS AUTOMATON CLOCK OR TIMEPEICE;
Year: 1782

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, HILLDEBRAND
MORLEY, of Clement's Inn, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, sends
greeting.
WHEREAS the King's most Excellent Majesty, by Letters Patent under
the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Fifteenth day of April last,
gave and granted unto the said Hilldebrand Morley, his executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, His Majesty's special licence, full power, sole priviledge
and authority, for the said Hilldebrand Morley, his executors, admors, and
assigns, and every of them, by himself or themselves, or by his or their
deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as he, the said Hillde-
brand Morley, his executors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, not exceeding the number of five, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter, to make, use, exercise, and vend his new-invented
"CURIOUS AUTOMATON CLOCK OR TIMEPEICE;" to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy
the said licence, power, privilege, and advantages to the said Hilldebrand
Morley, his executors, adñiors, and assigns, for the 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 that case made
and provided; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that if I,
the said Hilldebrand Morley, 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 four calendar

page_text: 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 by the
said Letters Patent may may more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Hilldebrand Morley, in pursuance of
the said proviso in the said Letters Patent contained, do hereby declare that
the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, appears and is described and ascertained in form following (that is
to say):
.
My said Invention, or Automaton Clock or Timepeice, has a back boar, to
which the machinery is fixt and supported; it consists of dial, with the
twelve hours unequally divided on it; between that and the board is a pulley
of any required diameter, over which passes a cord, chain, silken thread, or
catgutt, or any sort of line or twist, at one end of which is a small weight, and
to the other end is fastened a wooden ball, or a hollow ball made of tin, copper,
iron, or other metal; this ball falls into a tube of any required length and
diameter, which is made of glass, tin, copper, wood, or any other metal, which
ball is suspended and supported there either by quicksilver, water, or any
other fluid, or by fine sand. At the bottom of the aforesaid tube is a very
small hole or aperture, whereby the aforesaid quicksilver, water, or other
fluid or sand is permitted to pass through very gradually, unequally, and
slowly, by which means the ball aforesaid sinks in proportion as the contents
are discharging, and as the ball sinks it turns round the aforesaid pulley, on
the axle of which is fixt an hour hand, pointing to every hour on the dial
alternately as it moves round; as the quicksilver, water, or other fluid or
sand is discharged from the aforesaid tube, it is received into a vessell called
a receptacle, placed underneath it for that purpose, which, when full, the
contents is returned again into the tube aforesaid, by which means the
clock or timepeice is kept in motion, telling distinctly the hours, quarters,
and minutes, by the gradual droping or running of the quicksilver, water,
other fluid or sand; and this clock, made on a large scale, is intended to be
placed against the outsides of houses, churches, or other buildings in the open
air, near which is placed a reservoir of water, which comes from the sky and
roofs of houses, for the purpose of supplying the aforesaid clock any length of
time in proportion to the size of reservoir. And this clock or timepiece is also
contrived to tell the hours without the ball pulley, and circular dial, provided
it be made of glass as aforesaid, so as to be seen transparently; for for this
purpose there is contrived a belt of leather, linen, or other substance, markt
with twenty-four hours or more, with the half hours, quarters, and minutes,

page_text: which are turned perpendicularly over two cylinders by a winch, for setting
the timepiece at any hour required; and this belt is stretched out alongside
the glass tube, so that as the quicksilver, water, or other fluid or sand falls, it
shows the hour on the aforesaid belt.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hilldebrand Morley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of July, in the twenty-second
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the
Grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender
of the Faith, and so forth, and in the year of our Lord One thousand
seven hundred and eighty-two.
AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the same Twenty-second day of
July, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Hilldebrand Morley came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of Their late
Majestys King William and Queen Mary of England, and so forth.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of July in the year above mentioned