AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF COCKS USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF DRAWING OF ALE, PORTER, BEER; CYDER, WINE, WATER, AND OTHER LIQUIDS AND FLUIDS
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
RUDDER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Cock Founder and
Warming Pan 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 Thirtieth day of October,
in the fifty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto me; the said.
William Rudder, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority that I, the said William Rudder, my exors,"
adiñiors, and assigus, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF COCKS USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF DRAWING OF ALE,
PORTER, BEER; CYDER, WINE, WATER, AND OTHER LIQUIDS AND FLUIDS;" in which said.
5 Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said William Rudder,
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 two calendar months next and immediately-
after the date of these Our Letters, Patent, that then these Our Letters Patent,

page_text: and all liberties and advantages whatsover thereby granted, shall utterly cease,
determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto
had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Rudder, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained by the above Drawings and references thereto, and
the following description, that is to say :-
It consists,
First, in the peculiar structure of the part called the plug, and in applying,
by the help of a screw, a certain piece of metal, which I call a slide, to the
plug and barrel of the cock; and secondly, in forming on the lock cock a
certain projection or knob on the under side thereof, and passing a male screw
through the same, by which means a piece of metal, which I call a guard, is
made fast upon the bottom of the said cock, the end and design of which is to
prevent the cock when in use from being turned at the bottom without a key,
and yet to afford, when not in use, a facility of oiling or adjusting the said
cock at pleasure, the whole of which is more particularly and fully described
as follows:--
Near the lower extremity of the plug I make a hole in a transverse or
horizontal direction, either of a round, half round, square, or oblong shape, and
through this hole I pass a small bar or pin, which I call a slide, either of a
round, half round, square, flat, triangular, or other convenient figure, capable
of being moved freely upwards or downwards, with its extremities projecting a
little way without or beyond the outside of the plug, and having a small hole,
indentation, notch, or furrow made on the under side thereof. In the end of
the plug is cut or made a female screw, entering so far as to intersect the
before-mentioned hole, and to this is fitted a corresponding male screw, the
plug being placed in the barrel of the cock, the slide in the before-mentioned
hole, and the screw in its place. I gradually turn the said screw, the point of
which will then enter the notch in the slide and press it upwards against the
bottom of the barrel, and the slide there meeting with resistance from the
said barrel, the power of the screw will be reacted upon the plug, and the
plug will be forced downwards in the barrel till it comes to a bearing therein,
the proper degree of which is to be regulated by the screw; and whether the
said bar or pin enters the plug through a hole, as before described, or be
introduced by means of a slit sawed or cut across the end of the plug,-whether
it acts upon the said barrel with both or only one of its extremities,-whether
of the same breadth and thickness throughout, or of a different breadth

page_text: and thickness in different parts of it, so long as it derives or receives its
action from the end or point of the before-mentioned screw, I call it a slide.
Thus far relates or belongs both to the night cock and lock cock equally;
but in addition thereto the lock cock is provided with the before-mentioned
guard, having its inside hollow to receive the end of the plug. The said
guard may be round, oval, or octagon, or of any indefinite number of sides
and angles, or with a projection or knob on the side thereof, and either plain
or fluted, being screwed, turned, bored, or tighted to fit the bottom of the
said cock, the inside of the one corresponding with the outside of the other.
And in order to provide sufficient security against the guard being taken off
when the cock shall be in use, and yet, as was before observed, to afford a
facility of oiling or adjusting the plug at other times, by removing the said
guard, a projection or knob is made on the under side of the cock, either by
casting it in a body with the cock, or by screwing, soldering, riveting, or
otherwise fastening it thereto. Through this projection passes a male screw,
having one end formed for being turned by a turnscrew or other fit instrument,
and the other prepared to fit a hole, indentation, or notch in the guard.
Upon turning the screw the end or point of it will enter the before-mentioned
hole or notch, and the body of it will remain fast in the said projection or
knob, by which means the security requisite on the one hand, and convenience
on the other, are both obtained. The slide and guard may be made of the
same kind of metal, or of a different kind of metal, with or from the body of
the cock or from each other. The head of the cock may be of a greater or
less length or depth from top to bottom,. may be of an equal thickness
throughout, or strengthened by a kind of rib, hoop, band, or fillet, either one
or more, in any part thereof; it may also be joined to the barrel of the
cock either by being screwed or soldered to the same; or the barrel itself,
being cast of a greater length for the purpose, may form a part of the
said head.
Lastly, the plug may be either with or without a ring or collar of cork
encompassing the same, and the size and shape of the cocks themselves, as
well as the metal of which they are composed, may be varied without
departing from the principle upon which the said cocks are constructed.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Rudder, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eleven.
WILLIAM RUDDER (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighteenth day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1811, the aforesaid William Rudder 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.