AN ENGINE OR MACHINE, ON AN IMPROVED CON- STRUCTION, FOR SEPARATING CORN AND SEEDS FROM THE STRAW, PART OF WHICH MACHINERY MAY NOT ONLY BE APPLIED TO ENGINES OR MACHINES NOW IN USE FOR THAT PURPOSE, BUT ALSO TO ANOTHER USEFUL PURPOSE
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
LESTER, of Cotton End, in the Parish of Hardingstone, in the County
of Northampton, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Nineteenth day of June,
in the forty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
William Lester, His especial licence that I, the said William Lester, 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 ENGINE OR MACHINE, ON AN IMPROVED CON-
STRUCTION, FOR SEPARATING CORN AND SEEDS FROM THE STRAW, PART OF WHICH
MACHINERY MAY NOT ONLY BE APPLIED TO ENGINES OR MACHINES NOW IN USE
FOR THAT PURPOSE, BUT ALSO TO ANOTHER USEFUL PURPOSE;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William
Lester, by an instrument in writing under my hand and scal, to 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

page_text: Chancery within four calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, 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 Lester, do hereby declare, that my said Invention is described and
ascertained by the annexed Drawings, and the following description; that is
to say:-
Figure the 1st is a view of the machine as seen at work. A, A, the wood
frame; B, the feeding board on which the corn is laid; C, the board over
which the straw is discharged; D, the fly wheel; E, the handle by which the
machine is worked.
Fig. 2d, a perspective view of the front side of the machine. A, the large
iron frictor, lined with wood, cut concave to fit the convexity of the perforated
cylinder, and resting by its own gravity upon the iron chairs h, h.
Fig. 3d. A cylinder of network, of cast iron, over which the corn is passed
by its rotary motion from the two fluted rollers m, m, under the wood
frictor n, n, n, as seen in Fig. 1st. O, the end of the axis on which the
handle E is put, and on which a round block of wood or wheel must be put
when it is worked by horse or any other mechanical power. p, p, the axis of
the feeding rollers.
Fig. 4th, the small wood. frictors, q, q, qq, connected together by two iron
chains, and hung upon the teats on the large frictor 7, r, their ends resting
upon the iron chairs, as seen in Fig. 1st, with their under sides cut concave
so as to admit the perforated cylinder to turn free without touching them.
These frictors may be multiplied in number according to the diameter of the
cylinder and the power applied to the machine. s, s, a weight to keep the
frictors to their work, pressing the corn to the rough surface of the cylinder,
by which means it is separated from the straw.
Fig. 5th, a front view of one of the chairs.
Fig. 6th, a perspective view of the same.
Fig. 7, the fluted rollers with their wheels, which work in and out of each
other half an inch, according as the machine is fed."
Another useful purpose a part of this machine. may be applied to, that is,
the perferated cylinder may be took out, and two pieces of wood fixed to the
axis by way of handles, and drawn to and fro upon. barley, when thrashed, .3
spread 6 or 8 inches thick on the floor, by which means it will break off all
the horn or beard without injuring the corn. A part of this machine
may be.
applied to thrashing machines now in use, that is, the perforated cylinder,