CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING AND TRANSPORTING GOODS
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Sir
CHARLES WEBB DANCE, of Hertsbourne Manor Place, in the Parish of
Bushey, in the County of Hertford, 'Knight, Lieutenant Colonel, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the
Fourth did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Fifth day of August, in the first year of
His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Webb Dance, His
especial licence that I, the said Charles Webb Dance, my exors, admiors,
and assigns, and such others as I, the said Charles Webb Dance, my
exors, admors, 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 " CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING AND TRANSPORTING GOODS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Charles Webb Dance, shall
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 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
Charles Webb Dance, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that
is to say) :-
The object of my said Invention is to supersede the inconvenience of having
to pack and unpack goods when transported from boats, barges, or other vessels,
upon a canal to a railway, or upon common roads, and to be reshipped either
on board of barges or of other vessels, and I propose to accomplish this
desirable object in either of the following methods:-Instead of putting the
goods or packages loosely or individually into barges or other vessels as usual,
I employ one, two, three, or more strong platforms upon which the goods may
be closely placed or piled, and be farther secured by binding ropes or other
fastenings over and around them. The platform so loaded may be hoisted
by means of four or more chains or ropes attached to the sides of the platform
by means of hooks or loops, and united together above to each end of a stout
iron bar, so as to keep the said chains or ropes at a due distance from the
goods or packages, in order not to injure them. The centre of the said iron
bar may have a swivel hook or ring affixed to it, whereby it may be hung or
suspended to the chain or rope of a swinging crane, and thereby be lifted or
raised out of the barge or other vessel either upon the wharf, railway, or
common road, or into or upon a waggon or other wheeled carriage prepared
to receive it, as well also as other similar platforms so loaded with goods; or,
instead of an iron bar, I can use an iron frame, with chains or ropes affixed to
its corners, from which the platform may be suspended, and likewise other
chains or ropes proceeding from the sides or ends of the said frame above,
which may be affixed to one or more swivel hooks, and thus be hung or
Either of theso
suspended to the chain or rope of the said swinging crane.
platforms so loaded with goods may be secured upon the bottom of the said
waggon or other wheeled carriage by means of screws or steady pins provided
for that purpose whilst being transported overland, and may again be loosened
when required to be removed from the said waggon or other carriage in order
to be again shipped on board of barges or other vessels, other swinging
cranes being also provided for that purpose; or, instead of a platform or
platforms, I can employ stout chests or cases, with doors or lids fitted to them,
to hold or contain the said goods or packages, and also provided with stout
chains or ropes, or only loops to which chains or ropes may be affixed, and
whereby the said chests or cases may be hoisted and again lowered by means
of the said swinging cranes; or, instead of chests or cases, I can firmly affix
stout reticulated frames or cages upon the platforms, furnished with lids or
doors, within which frames or cages the goods or packages may be placed, and

page_text: they may either be affixed on wheel carriages, or, axletrees being fixed to them,
with wheels fitted to them, I can convert them into wheeled carriages, of which
the said chests or cages will form the bodies, in order to convey the goods or
packages by land. But as it is occasionally desirable in loading them on
board of barges or other vessels to give them a broader bearing upon the
decks or bottoms of the said barges or other vessels than the wheels could
afford, and also to bring their weight lower down in the barges, so I can make
them capable of being placed bottom upwards on board of such barges or
other vessels, by affixing projecting studs or pivots as near as may be in tho
centres of gravity of the said wheeled carriages, chests, or cases, which shall
extend on each side without or beyond the wheels, and thus allow the said car-
riages, chests, or cases to be suspended upon hooks or loops, with chains or ropes
attached to them, from the chains or ropes of the said swinging cranes, and
when thus suspended they may be placed bottom upwards, and lowered with
their tops downwards on board of the barges or other vessels. Or, otherwise, I
can occasionally take off or remove the wheels from the axletrees of the said
carriages, chests, or cases, and thus obtain the same result of procuring a
broader bearing for the said carriages, chests, or cases, upon the decks or
bottoms of the barges or other vessels without the necessity of placing them
bottom upwards, the axletrees being so cranked or bent upwards, and also let
into the bottoms, as to allow of the bottoms of the said carriages, chests, or
cases to come into contact with the decks or bottoms of the barges or other
vessels; or I can so mount the axletrees upon central studs or pivots, affixed
to the bottoms of the carriages, chests, or cases, that they may be swung or
turned thereon sufficiently to lie within the width of the said carriages, chests,
or cases, and thus be removed out of the way when they are placed on board
the boats or other vessels; but when they are to be used as carriages they
may be again brought into their usual position, and be retained therein by
means of spring catches, straps, or other fastenings. In such cases, where
steam carriages are used on railways or common roads I can employ their
steam power, when not moving upon the railways or roads, to work the
swinging cranes, in order to hoist and lower the goods contained in the said
carriages, chests, or cases, by connecting the rotatory movements of the said
steam carriages with the wheelwork of the cranes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Webb Dance, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.
C. W. (L.S.) DANCE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of January,
in the year of our Lord 1831, the aforesaid Sir Charles Webb Dance 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 stamped 5
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.