A COMBINATION OF MACHINERY FOR WORKING AND ORNAMENTING MARBLE AND OTHER STONE FOR JAMS, MANTLES, CHIMNEY PIECES, AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1822

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SIR JAMES
JELF, of Oaklands, near Newnham, in the County of Gloucester, Knight, send.
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of December 1822, in the third year
of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Sir James Jelf, my exors,
admiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Sir James Jelf, my exors, adñiors, 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, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
my Invention of "A COMBINATION OF MACHINERY FOR WORKING AND ORNAMENTING
MARBLE AND OTHER STONE FOR JAMS, MANTLES, CHIMNEY PIECES, AND OTHER
PURPOSES;" in which said Lotters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I,
the said Sir James Jelf, shall 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 six 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,

page_text: granted shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the
same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Sir James Jelf, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention by the
following declaration thereof, and a manner in which the same may be per-
formed by the herein-after written description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing and Figures annexed. And, first, I do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention to consist in an arrangement or combination of
machinery new as applied to the working and ornamenting marble for jams,.
mantles, chimney pieces, and other the like works, and whereby many jams,
mantles, chimney pieces, and other the like works may be moulded or formed
of the same or various patterns at one and the same time, thus saving much
time and labour; and, secondly, I do hereby describe a manner in which my
said Invention may be performed, as follows, that is to say:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Fig. 1 and 2, A represents the vertical limb of a quadrant lever, which
derives its motion from a steam engine or other power; B, a horizontal hollow
bar of cast iron, turned perfectly true, and connected to the quadrant lever by
means of the parrellel motion P. This bar works through bearings fixed in the
standards I, J; these standards are attached by screws and wedges to the
foundation plates M & N, on which also rests the main bed plate H. C and
Dare two several arms bored to fit in the bar B, each of which, embracing the
ribs in the centre of the back of the horizontal sliding plates E and F, give
to them the motion required; E and F, the sliding plates, with their brass
steadying bosses a, a, and b, b, work horizontally between guide plates v, w, x,
and y, fixed at perfectly equal distances from each other and parellel to the
horizontal bar B, the surface p being true and perpendicular to the face of the
bed plate H. The sliding plates descend into the marble or stone as it is
rubbed away by the attrition of the grooving plates G, which is shewn in
Fig. 4. The grooving plates being thus compelled to work in true horizontal
and vertical directions, there is no danger of splitting the marble slabs by the
vibration of the machinery. These grooving plates are plates of metal, cast
with mouldings or other patterns on them the exact reverse of what is wanted
on the marble, and thus, these plates being moved backwards and forwards
over the surface of the marble by means of the machinery, and with the in-
tervention of sand and water, as is now sometimes done in single slabs by
hand, the required mouldings or other ornaments or work is effected. I make
each grooving plate to contain a series of mouldings, so that several slabs are

page_text: worked upon at the same time, the slabs being laid side by side on the bed
plate, and cut into slips or partly so by means of saws cast with the grooving
plates c between each set of mouldings. The small holes in E and F are for
the water and sand to pass through to act on the surface of the marble H.
The main bed plato is faced perfectly true, and is supported on the rollers K
and L when the grooving process is going on; it is also fastened by screws at
each end to the horizontal flanges in m and n of the standards I and J. On
this bed plate the slabs of marble or other stone intended to be grooved are
secured by small brackets, which fit into the grooves of the bed plate t, t, &c.,
like the common brackets in the clinch of a lathe; these grooves are made
long to accomodate the machine to slabs of different widths. This machine,
it is evident, is calculated to groove or form mouldings on, two slabs at the
same time, which will be sufficient for twenty-four lengths of three feet each
by six inches wide; and by means of the levers 0, 0, the swivel arms C and D
may be either of them easily disengaged from the sliding plates and thrown
over the bar on the back of the opposite arm, thus giving the opportunity of
changing a slab on one side the machine without stopping the process on the
otlier. It is also intended that this machine shall be occasionally used for
rubbing down to a perfectly true and plane surface any slabs which may not
be so from the saws, and this is effected by taking out the screws from the
flanges m and n, which will permit the bed plate H (with the slabs attached to
it) to take a lateral motion on the rollers Ķ and L, whilst the sliding plates E
and F, with a plane flat rubber plate (instead of a grooved or moulding plate
as before) continues moving backward and forward between the guide plates.
The lateral motion is given to the bed plate by means of a small excentric
motion from the engine, and thus the rubber plate does not pass twice over the
same points of the slab, which prevents its being scratched by the sand. Now,
the exact proportions of my said Invention are not material, and it may be
made of such metals, or other substances or combinations of the same, as may
be thought most expedient by the manufacturer. But a combination of
machinery whereby many slabs of marble or other stone for jams, mantles,
chimney pieces, and other the like works, may be formed, moulded, or other-
wise ornamented with similar or various patterns at one and the same time,
and whereby also any one slab may be disengaged from the said machinery
without interrupting the working of the remainder of the slabs, and which
said machinery is adapted to a steam engine or other first power by means of
a horizontal movement, being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely
new, and never before used in these kingdoms, I do hereby declare this to be
my Specification of the same, and I do verily believe this said Specification

page_text: does in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise comply with the
proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained, and
I do hereby claim to maintain an exclusive right and privilege to my said.
Invention.
In witness whereof I, the said Sir James Jelf, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord'
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-three.