AN INSTRUMENT OR MACHINE WHICH WOULD IN A GREAT MEASURE PREVENT BURGLARIES AND ALSO PREVENT FIRES FROM SPREADING, BY GIVING IMMEDIATE NOTICE TO THE INHABITANTS OF ANY DWELLING-HOUSE THAT MIGHT BE ATTACKED, OR.IN WHICH ANY FIRE MIGHT BREAK OUT, WHEREBY THE LIVES AND PROPERTIES OF HIS MAJESTY'S SUBJECTS MIGHT BE PRESERVED, AND IN CASE HOUSEBREAKERS SHOULD PERSIST, WOULD ALSO DETECT SUCH HOUSE- BREAKERS
Year: 1772

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, SOLOMON
HENRY, of Swithin's Lane, London, Merchant, sends greeting..
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of. Great Britain, bearing date
the Sixth day of February, in the twelfth year of His said Majesty's reign, did
give and grant unto the said Solomon Henry, his executors, administrators,
and assigns, his or their deputy or deputies, servant. and servants, and such
others as the said Solomon Henry, his executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, full power, sole priviledge and
authority, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, to use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Great Britain
called England, and Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
his Invention of "AN INSTRUMENT OR MACHINE WHICH WOULD IN A GREAT
MEASURE PREVENT BURGLARIES AND ALSO PREVENT FIRES FROM SPREADING, BY
GIVING IMMEDIATE NOTICE TO THE INHABITANTS OF ANY DWELLING-HOUSE THAT
MIGHT BE ATTACKED, OR.IN WHICH ANY FIRE MIGHT BREAK OUT, WHEREBY THE
LIVES AND PROPERTIES OF HIS MAJESTY'S SUBJECTS MIGHT BE PRESERVED, AND
IN CASE HOUSEBREAKERS SHOULD PERSIST, WOULD ALSO DETECT SUCH HOUSE-
BREAKERS," in such manner as to him, the said Solomon Henry, his executors,
administrators, and assigns, should seem meet, and that the said Solomon.

page_text: Henry, his executors, administrators, and assigns, should and might have and
enjoy the whole benefit, profit, commodity, and advantage accruing by the
said Invention during the time aforesaid:" And whereas there is a proviso in
the said Letters Patent contained, that in case the said Solomon Henry
should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of his said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under his hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar months next
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent
should be void.
NOW KNOW YE, that the said instrument or machine is proposed to be
made of wood, brass, steel, or any other metal with wheels, hammers, springs,
and a bell or bells, and to be fixed on a staircase or some other convenient
part either of the inside or outside of a dwelling-house, with wires, catgut, silk,
or hemp strings to communicate with the doors and windows of the house by
cranks and new-invented springs, in such manner that on the doors or
windows being forced open, the alarm will be instantly set in motion, and
continue so loud and for such a length of time as must give notice to the
inhabitants of such house; and, in case such inhabitants shall not chuse to
venture out of their chambers, by ringing of a bell proposed to be erected on
the outside of the house, to be taken off and on occasionally, the watch and
neighbours may be alarmed and assembled; and in case housebreakers shall
persist, notwithstanding the family being so alarmed, and attempt to force
into such house, a spring made of iron or steel fixed behind the doors or
windows will instantly fly out and secure the person who shall first attempt to
enter, in such manner that he can neither retreat or proceed; and it is further
proposed and so contrived that by means of strings made of silk, hemp, or
catgut running across any of the rooms and communicating with the said
-first-mentioned instrument or machine, in case a fire should break out in any
such room and burn any of the strings, that the said alarm will immediately go
off, which may be so contrived that by different bells and sound the family may
ascertain whether the house is attacked by robbers or on fire: which machine
or instrument may also be erected in warehouses, storehouses, timber yards,
and other repositories for goods. And for the preservation of the lives of such
persons as shall happen to be in the upper part of a house on fire, who cannot
come down the staircase, it is further invented and contrived that by means
of an iron fixed to and projecting from the said house, and an iron frame hook
on to the said fixed iron about two feet in length, with four, five, or more, iron
or brass rollers, through which it is proposed to pass a strong leather of

page_text: considerable length, to be joined at each end with holes at about one or two
feet distance from each other, and a large iron ring at the bottom to keep the
leather steady, whereby any person or persons, by putting a strong leather belt
round their bodies, with an iron fitted and fastned into such holes, may descend
with ease and safety without the least hazard, either together or separately,
the long leather rising on one side as it descends on the other, the number of
rollers through which the leather passes preventing their descending too
precipitately; but if the weight should be very great, by a number of persons
coming down at the same time, they may at any time stop themselves, or
decrease the motion by taking hold of the other side of the leather: which
said several machines or instruments are particularly delineated and described
in the margin hereof.
In witness whereof, the said Solomon Henry hath hereunto set his
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and seventy-two.
NATH. 11IGHMORE.
EDWP MARA.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of May,
in the year of our Lord 1772, the aforesaid Solomon Henry 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 in the sixth year of the reign of the late
King and Queen William and Mary of England, and so forth.
T
11 1
T
Imrolled the Twenty-seventh day of May in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and seventy-two.