NEW-INVENTED APPARATUS OR SET OF MACHINERY, &C., FOR A TANNERY OR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1800

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
WEEKES, of Plympton Saint Maurice, in the County of Devon; Tanner, do
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Tenth day of June, One thousand eight hundred, in the
fortieth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me; the said Joseph
Weekes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special licence that I,
the said Joseph Weekes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
"NEW-INVENTED APPARATUS OR SET OF MACHINERY, &C., FOR A TANNERY OR OTHER
PURPOSES;" in which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me,'
the said Joseph Weekes, 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 enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within one calendar month next and immediately after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had)
may more fully at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Weekes, do hereby declare that my said Invention is founded on the

page_text: as follows, that is to say:-
The apparatus is to consist of machinery,―
First, for working, scraping, and cleaning all sorts of hides and skins, and
preparing them for the woose or other materials (as has hitherto been done by
manual labor).
Secondly, for grinding, cutting, and effectually preparing bark for the
tanner's use..
Thirdly, for raising the woose or any other liquor, and conveying it from
one part or place to any other.
Fourthly, the machine is calculated so as not to be fastened or fixed to any
building or freehold, but so as to be portable; and the horse or power that
works it may be at any distance from the working parts of the machinery.
I do declare that the four above-mentioned principles comprehend the real
object of my Invention, tho' they may be applied to other useful purposes,
viz: The part for working skins, &c. may be useful, not only to tanners, but
to people out of the leather manufactory, as well as tawers, parchment makers,
and leather dressers, of all descriptions. The part for cutting or grinding the
bark may be applied to and rendered useful for many other purposes, or for
breaking or cutting many other substances. The part for raising and con-
veying the woose may be applied to breweries, distilleries, &c. for raising and
conveying liquors of any kind and in any place whatever. The principle of
applying the horse, horses or other power, and fitting it up so as to be portable,
and not fastened to the building or freehold, may be applied to threshing,
carding, or spinning machines, apple engines, corn or malt mills, and in short
to machinery of every kind whatever; and altho' the mode of construction
may vary as a difference in circumstances may require, I claim a full and
exclusivo right to all the principles of the Inventions, and to all profits, advan-
tages, and uses, which may arise from them, or to which they may be applied,
in any way or to what purpose soever. The part for cutting or grinding the
bark may be made of any size or strength, according to the power to be
applied, and constructed so as to produce one hundred weight an hour by
manual labor, three hundred by one horse, five by two, and almost any
quantity from five hundred to one ton per hour, by water, steam, or any power
adequate to the work. The bark is produced in the best possible state for
tanning, free from dust, and uninjured by fire, as 'tis unnecessary to dry it. It
may be used for all the above purposes at one time, or for either of them
separate. The Drawing, referrences, &c., hereunto annexed, will fully exhibit
the nature of the apparatus.. A is a leaver the horse or horses draw by, and

page_text: screwed to a cast-iron shaft B, on which is fixed the wheel C (made either of
iron or wood), and turns the nutts or wheels D, D, fixed on the shaft E, E,
(made of iron or wood also), and on which are also fixed the wheels G, G, and
turns the wheels or nutts H, H, of Figure first and second.
Figure the first is a machine for working the hides or skins. The nutt H
is fixed on and turns the cylinder I. K is a small nutt, fixed on the other end of
the cylinder, and turns the wheel L, which is fixed on the spindle O, as is the
pully M, which works a belt which turns the pully N, (N.B.-This part of
the apparatus may be worked with wheels instead of the pullies and belt, if
thought more convenient), which is fixed on the gudgeon of the drum marked P,
which may be made of wood of any kind, and to which the hide or skins to be
worked must be fixed, which, turning gently round, draws the skin over the
board Q, which is designed to keep it smooth. Between the cylinder I, and
drum P is a piece of wood, (marked K in Figure third, which is the end
Drawing of Figure 1st, with the side next the cylinder I covered with soft
leather. The wood so covered is pressed by two springs, one of which
appears in Figure the 3d, and marked h, against the cylinder I, which is com-
posed of wood, on which are fixed knives or workers, as represented by. the
letters a, a, a, a, in both Figures 1st and 3d. L, in Figure 3d, represents a
post, fixed to the beam or pieces of wood K, which moves on the pin or
pivot k, and operated by the spring h, throughout which goes the bolt i, which
is to regulate it. 6 exhibits a small leaver, designed to force back K, L, from
the knives or workers a, a, a, a, when it is necessary to take off one hide or
skin and fix on another.
Figure 2d is an improved mill or machine for cutting or grinding the bark.
The nutt H is fixed on and turns the cylinder I, which is composed of cast-
iron plates, screwed together, so as easily to be taken abroad should any part
want repair, in which are placed iron or steel teeth, which, passing near an
iron bar, effectually divides or breakes the bark sufficiently small to pass
through the riddle K, which encircles the cutting teeth so nicely as to bring
round any piece or pieces of bark that may have escaped too large to pass
through the riddle a second or third time to the iron bar, untill it is sufficiently
small, so that no piece of bark can go to the tannery larger than the tanner
may choose, as the mashes of the riddle may be made any size he may wish.
The cylinder may be made of saws, or metal of any kind or in any shape, as
experience may prove to be best. On the other end of the cylinder I is fixed
a small nutt at L, which turns the wheel M, which is fixed on a fluted rooler,
marked a.
b is another fluted rooler, on the ends of which are fixed weights
to keep it down on the rooler a, so as it may be allowed to rise and fall to

page_text: admit the bark between the two which conveys it to the iron bar, and presents
it to the teeth. M is a fly wheel, fixed on the gudgeon of the cylinder I; to
regulate its motion.
Figure 4th represents machinery for raising and conveying woose or any
other liquor. N is a crank which gives motion to the rod O, which works the
wheel P, fixed on the arbor Q, on which is placed the wheel R, which moves
the chains S, S, which works the pestons in the tubes or pumps T, T, which
are joined to the tube U, to which the tubes V, V, V, V, have a communi-
cation also, and are stopped at X, X, X, X, by the stopers W, W, W, W.
Instead of the stoppers W, W, W, W, the tubes may be stopped and opened
by cocks, to be fixed at Z, Z, Z, Z. One or more of those cocks or stoppers
may be opened at a time, as may be needful, and the liquor conveyed from the
pump to any distance by common shutes, canvass pipes, or any other means.
It may be necessary to say the tubes may be extended to any number or
distance, and are designed to go to the bottom of pits, wells, casks, of any
size or situation. Y, Y, represents the chains that works the wheel P. One
side of the framework in Figures 1st and 2d are pointed out by the small
letters d, e, f, &c. &c.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Weekes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred.
JOSEPH WEEKES. (L.s.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-eighth day of June,
in' the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Joseph Weekes came before our
Inrolled, the Third day of July, in the year above written.