IMPROVE- MENTS IN MAKING HOP POLES, HURDLES, FENCING ROPES, BASKET OR WICKER- WORK, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, OSBORNE
REYNOLDS, of Dedham, in the County of Essex, Clerk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Nineteenth day of August, in the eleventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Osborne Reynolds, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Osborne Reynolds, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, and such others, as I, the said Osborne Reynolds, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with and no others, from
time to time and at all times 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MAKING HOP POLES, HURDLES, FENCING ROPES, BASKET OR WICKER-
WORK, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso, obliging me, the said Osborne Reynolds, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to
cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in
part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Osborne Reynolds, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say) :-
My improvements in making hop poles, hurdles, fencing ropes, basket or
wickerwork, and other similar articles consists, in the first place, in an improved
mode of constructing and arranging the supports for growing hops and other
similar plants; and, secondly, in employing the bine of the hop (after the
flowers and leaves have been removed) in conjunction with other materials to
manufacture the above and other articles for which it may be applicable; and
by this means I render valuable an article which is generally considered
nearly useless. One of the most important applications of this material is to
form ropes or supporters for supporting the bine of the hop or other creeping
plants while growing, in place of the ordinary.single poles which are stuck in
the ground. The first part of my improvements may be effected in a variety
of ways, and in the accompanying Drawing, I have shewn one plan, with
modifications thereof and some of the details upon an enlarged scale. Strong
posts or props of wood, such as old scaffold poles, short stout hop poles, or any
suitable material, shewn in the elevation Figure 1, and the plan or bird's-eye
view, Fig. 2, at A, A, A, A, are placed in the ground at convenient and regular
distances apart, and are made to support strong horizontal wires, cords, or
lines B, B, B, made of metal, hemp, or any other suitable and strong material,
but I prefer strong iron wire well coated with paint as the most durable
material. These wires B, B, are secured to the upper ends of the posts A, A,
at their side by iron staples (as seen in Fig. 1) which will hold them firmly;
and prevent them from moving across or at right angles to these strong hori-
zontal wires or cords B; other horizontal cords or wires C, C. C, also by
preference made of metal, are placed and secured or attached thereto in any
convenient manner at a distance which will be suitable for the rows of the
hop or other plant, and from these horizontal cords or wires C, C, the vertical
supports a, a, a, a, are suspended in such a manner that their lower ends may
touch or nearly touch the ground, to which, if necessary, they may be secured
by a weight, or by being pegged down with wooden or iron pins, as shewn in the
Drawing. These vertical supports a, a, for the hop bines (and which for the
sake of distinction I shall denominate the "poles.") may be made either of light
wooden rods, or of straw, rushes, osiers, old hop bine, or any other suitable
material twisted, or combined in any convenient manner, so as to form lengths
which will extend from the horizontal cords to the ground below. When the
old hop bine is used for this or any other of the purposes hereafter mentioned,

page_text: and for which it may be applicable, the leaves must be removed, and the stalk
should be steeped in water for some time and then passed between plain or
grooved rollers for the purpose of loosening or detaching the useless woody
parts, leaving the fibres in a proper state to be twisted or formed into rough
rope, which may be easily done by comparatively unskilled labor. If required,
the ropes so made may be rendered weatherproof by coating them with pitch,
tar, paint, or any other waterproof material, and when so prepared will last
many years.
In practice it will be found convenient that the cross lines or wires C, C, C, C,
should be attached to the under side of other horizontal wires B, B, in order
to avoid the necessity of passing the one wire over the other after the latter
has been properly secured at the proper places; and for the purpose of facili-
tating this operation of attaching the horizontal supporting wires together, I
employ an apparatus similar to that shewn in Figure 3, and which consists of
a carriage somewhat like a wheel-barrow. which is made to carry a reel z,
containing the wire to be used for the horizontal supports, and also a light
ladder y to enable a laborer or workman to reach the proper place on the
poles. The two horizontal wires B and C may be secured together, as shewn
in the enlarget Drawing at Figures 4, by means of copper binding wires ; but
I do not confine myself to this mode of attacliment, although it will be found
strong, convenient, simple, durable, and not expensive in practice. The mode
of connecting or attaching the vertical poles or supports a, a, a, a, to their
horizontal wires or supports C, C, is immaterial and may be considerably
varied, but one mode consists in making or attaching a rough metal or other
hook e at the upper end of the vertical poles or supports, as shewn at Fig. 4,
and causing it to take into a loop d attached to the horizontal supports or
wires C, C; as shewn in the enlarged Figure, Figure 4, the hook and loop
being of such strength that when the force of the wind on the plants is suf-
ficiently great to injure them, then the hook at the upper end of the pole shall
give way and allow the supporters a, a and the plants to fall to the ground.
If, however, it should be thought desirable, the attachment may be made
much stronger so as to resist the force of the wind. It will be evident to any
practical hop grower that various other modes of arranging and attaching the
upright supports or poles a, a, a, a, may be devised, such as passing a long
length of rope through a loop attached to the horizontal wires C, C, as shewn
in the enlarged view Fig. 4*, and pegging both ends down to the ground, as
shewn in Fig. 1; or they be arranged as shewn in Figures 1 and 2, in
which the upper ends of four poles or vertical supports are represented as
hooked on to one loop and staple d, and their lower ends as spread out and
-

page_text: secured to four different pegs f, f, f, f, in the ground, each of these pegs or the
immediate vicinity thereof being the spot for securing four poles from four
different hooks above, leaving a passage under the horizontal wires or supports
C, C, and between the poles a, a, a, a, for the attendants to traverse the garden
in all directions when required. The manner of effecting this object will be
so clearly understood by referring to the Figures, that I do not consider it
necessary to enter into a more minute description.
When ordinary hop poles are used, it is generally found necessary to tie up
the growing twigs of the plant to the pole in order to keep them in a vertical
position, and this is generally effected by women or children with rushes or
string, but when my improved vertical supports are employed, it will not be
so necessary to tie up the plant, as the latter will of itself naturally cling to a
support made of twisted fibres similar to those shewn in the Drawing at
Figures 4 and 4*; but as the poles at present in use may perhaps for many
years be employed to some extent I have devised a means of binding or
attaching the plant or the twigs of the plants to the ordinary pole in a more
simple and easy manner than by the ordinary one of tieing with rushes or
string, in place of which I employ slight metallic bands made of thin wire,
which is bent into the required form, and being elastic may be applied to the
poles or removed therefrom with facility, but yet is sufficiently rigid to hold
up the growing hop bine in its desired place, thereby not only superseding the
use of rushes or string, but very much economizing the labor and time that is
required to tie the bine in a large garden.
Various forms for these metallic bands may be devised, but two only are
shewn in the accompanying Drawings at Figures 5 and 6, and one other
applied to an ordinary hop pole in Figures 7 and 8. They are made of very
light wire and, as many hundreds can be carried in a small basket, they can
easily be applied by children, and with much greater facility and considerably
less time than the common tie bands. In order to apply these bands to the
upper or higher parts of the plant which are out of ordinary reach, I employ
holders of peculiar construction, which by being placed at the end of a long
handle enables a labourer to lift up and put on or remove the bands from the
upper parts of the plant without the aid of a ladder, which is at present
required. Figures 9 and 10 represent one of the holders for attaching and
detaching the metallic bands. It consists simply of a pair of straight spring
clips h, of from half an inch to an inch wide, made of țin or thin sheet-iron.
The metallic band being held in the spring clip is slipped on to the hop pole
holding the bine with it, as shewn in Figures 7 and 8, and will retain it in
its proper place until some force superior to the strength of the spring forces

page_text: it away. When, however, it becomes necessary to remove it, this is easily
done by inserting the fork or prong g at the back of the holder between it and
the pole and forcing it back. The second part of my improvements consists
simply in the application of the hop bine, after the leaves and extraneous
matters have been removed, to the construction of the various articles above
enumerated, and any others for which it may be applicable. The modes of
preparing the bine for twisting into ropes, or forming it into lengths, has been
already alluded to, and as it differs in no material degree from the ordinary
mode of roughly preparing hemp, flax, and other textile plants for similar
purposes, I have not thought it necessary to give any more detailed description,
especially as I make no claim for any peculiarity in the mode of preparing the
plant. I would merely therefore observe, in conclusion, that any person who
has been accustomed and is competent to roughly prepare hemp or flax will
be equally competent to and find no difficulty in operating upon the stalks of
the hop bine, which, for the purposes to which I apply them, merely require
such a rough dressing as will detach some of the woody and refractory matters,
so as to render it more suitable for twisting into strands.
Having now described my improvements, and the manner of carrying the
same into effect, I wish it to be distinctly understood, that although in reference
to the first part of my Invention I have shewn the best means. with which I
am at present acquainted of carrying the same into practice, yet I do not by
any means intend to confine myself thereto, as various modifications thereof
may doubtless be devised to produce similar results without departing from the
nature and object of my improvements; but that which I consider to be new
and therefore wish to claim as the Invention secured to me under the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First, making hop poles, or supporters for sustaining the growing hop bine
of ropes, cords, sticks, wires, or chains made of any suitable material, and
suspended from horizontal cords or wires, secured to vertical supporters in any
convenient manner.
And, second, I claim the application of old hop bines to the manufacture of
such ropes, poles, and cords, and of hurdles, fencing ropes, basket or wicker-
work, and other similar articles for which it has not heretofore been employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Osborne Reynolds, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
OSBORNE (L.S.) REYNOLDS.

page_text: Extra. in Chancery.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eighteenth day of February,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Osborne Reynolds came before our
Lady the Queen in Her 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 Nineteenth day of February, in the year above written.