CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN A MACHINE CALLED THE CALEDONIAN BALANCE
Year: 1807

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, JOHN
ROEBUCK, of Warren Street, in the Parish of Saint Pancras, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, 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 Fourteenth day of
May, in the forty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
John Roebuck, my exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Roebuck, my exors, admors,
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 IN A MACHINE
CALLED THE CALEDONIAN BALANCE;" in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a proviso obliging me, the said John Roebuck, 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,

page_text: to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by tho
saine, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE," that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Roebuck, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be carried into effect and practice, arc
described in manner following, that is to say:-
The Caledonian Balance or instrument itself, upon and wherein my said
Improvements are made, doth consist of the following parts, which are repre-
sented and connected in the annexed Drawing or Section, namely; (1st) a
base or platform M, N, upon which a column or piller C doth stand, and is
fixed for the purpose of supporting-the-fulcrum of an equibrachial beam or
bulance A, B, and upon which said base or platform two other columns or
pillars D do stand, and are fixed for the purpose of supporting an horizontal
cross axis, having at each of its extremities an arm D, E, of the same length
as another arm D, F, procceding from the middle of the said cross axis, and
connected with A by a wire or rod, which leaves full liberty of action or play
in the said axis at D and fulcrum at C. And (2d), a triangular piece or move-
able platform O, P, suspended or supported by three wires which are hooked
into loops or eyes in O, P, and do hang freely from the extremity B of the
lever. or balance A, B, and from the two extremitics E of the arms which
proceed from the ends of the cross axis supported by the columns D. And
(3d), a table, or upper platform I, K; secured, framed, fixed, and supported
upon, with, unto, and by the triangular platform O,, P, by means of columns Q
and R.or otherwise. And (4th), an arm D, S, proceeding from the middle of
the cross axis supported at. D, which said arm being divided may be depressed
or acted upon by a weight G in the same manner as the arm of the common
steelyard. And the manner in which the said Caledonian Balance doth produce
its effects, is as follows:-When any weight. L is laid upon the table the pres-
sure thereof is communicated to the platform O, P, which acting on the points
Band E, E, tends to depress B, and to suffer A to riso in such a manner that
the table will (if it be moved at all), rise without any tilt or totter or side
motion, and will constantly remain parallel to its first situation, and at the
same time the extremity S of the steelyard lever will tend to rise, and the
motions here mentioned will actually take place unless a reaction, such as that
of the weight G be applied to prevent it; but the weights G and L will be
in equilibrio if their quantities be respectively as the lengths E, D, and D, G,
and hence it follows that a small weight may in this instrument be made to

page_text: indicate the quantity of a larger, and conversely a large weight will indicate
the quantity of a smaller, if the same be placed or applied upon or unto the
said table I, K, and lever D, S, the reasons of which are too familiar to
mechanical men to be requisite to be here given.
And I do further declare that I have herein-before described the said instru-
ment or Caledonian Balance in order that my said improvements may be more
clearly understood, and also that my said improvements are as follows:-
First, I do place and fix a weight or load II beneath the cross axis near the
middle thereof, by means of which I render the tendency to equilibrium in the
horizontal position more smart, speedy, and effectual, and I obtain an indication
of the precise result more conveniently, readily, and accurately than could
otherwise have been had. Secondly, I do in some constructions, and for
purposes in which the same may be preferred, reject the arm D, S, and apply
a spring beneath F, which, by acting downwards doth, by means of a gradua-
tion, afford an indication of the load upon I, K, without requiring any weight
such as G at all. Or, thirdly, instead of D, S, and the weight G, I do place
my weight II by an arm forming a greater angle with D, E, than a right
angle or ninety degrees, by means of which, upon the principle of the bended
lever, the reaction will be greater the lower the table descends, and there will
be positions of equilibrium for different weights afforded by the descent of the
said table and the rise of II, which I do severally indicate by graduations
on a circular are formed by experiment, or by any other well-known and fit
method. Or, fourthly, instead of D, S, and the weight G, I do hang a scale
at F or G, or elsewhere, and weigh by a set of weights as usual. Or, fifthly,
I do reverse the position of the cross axis and arms supported by D, so that
D and E shall be farther out towards the letter S than the letter F is, and I
do enlarge or continue the moveable platform P, O, so as to reach the sup-
porting wires from E, and I do carry the arm D, S, in the direction beneath
the table, contrary to that represented in the Drawing, by which means the
apparatus becomes more compact, and the weighing may be performed by any
of the methods herein-before specified and described as being applicable to
the apparatus as its first mentioned positions or constructions of the parts
thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Roebuck, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seven.
JOHN ROEBUCK. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of June, in
the year of our Lord 1807, the aforesaid John Roebuck came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowleged 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 Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand