CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON THE ACTION AND OTHER PARTS OF SEA AND LAND COMPASSES
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
STEBBING, of Portsmouth, in the County of Hants, Optical and Mathematical
Instrument Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of July,
in the fiftieth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said George
Stebbing, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said George Stebbing, my
exors, adfuors, 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 THE ACTION AND OTHER PARTS OF SEA AND LAND COMPASSES;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said George
Stebbing, 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 two calendar months 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Stebbing, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained as follows, that is to say:-
First, in the different compasses, as commonly made, with all their parts,
according to different purposes for which they are intended to be used, except
the center cap and needle, and I do substitute, instead of metal or steel, for
center or point that supports or carries the card or needle, a ruby, jewell, pre-
cious or any other hard stone or composition, made into a circular or conical
form, but not brought to so sharp a point as the common center or point; the
ruby stone, or composition, to be set in metal, or any materials fit for the
purpose, long enough to bring the card or needle as near the center of gravity
as possible.
Second, I do substitute, instead of agate, for the tap, or by some called the
bottom of the cap, hard steel or hard metal, either simple or alloyed, or hard
stone, and in the center thereof is sunk the section of a small circle or sphere,
well polished, to receive the head of the ruby, stone, or composition of the
center that supports or carries the card or needle, instead of the socket in
the agate, as before used.
Thirdly, I make the magnet or needle of the compass in the usual way,
except the ends, and them I form into a square by reducing the width of the
needle to its thickness, by which the angles is equal, and the magnetic fluid
cannot draw the magnet or needle from its poles so much as at present in the
compasses now in use.
Fourthly, I do also in addition use for a compass in time of action or very
bad weather silk thread, or any proper material fit for the purpose, to suspend
the card and needle about one quarter of an inch off the center, hung from the
glass by means of a swivel or hook, or any other fit means, to the top of the
cap or from a piece of metal put across the kettle or bowl instead of through the
glass; and at the bottom of the cap, under the card, put a piece of tube about
an inch long, in a conical shape, to prevent the card when suspended touching
the side of the kettle or bowl, or the card being thrown off the center when
the guns are firing, or ship rolling, or, as occasion may require, suspend the
compass with elastic springs.
In witness whercof, I, tho said George Stebbing, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Seventeenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and ten.
GEORGE STEBBING. (L.s.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of September
in the year of our Lord 1810, the aforesaid George Stebbing came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
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 for that purpose.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and ten: