CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHODS BEFORE INVENTED BY ME OF PREPARING HEMP AND FLAX FOR THEIR VARIOUS USES, AND BY WHICH ALSO OTHER VEGITABLE SUBSTANCES MAY BE RENDERED APPLICABLE TO MANY OF THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH HEMP AND FLAX ARE USED
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
LEE, late of Old Ford, in the County of Middlesex, but now of Merton, in
the County of Surrey, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters
Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifth day of December, in the fifty-
sixth year of His reign, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, did give and grant unto me, the said James
Lee, my executors, administrators, and assigns, special licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, for the term of years therein expressed, to
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHODS BEFORE INVENTED BY
ME OF PREPARING HEMP AND FLAX FOR THEIR VARIOUS USES, AND BY WHICH ALSO
OTHER VEGITABLE SUBSTANCES MAY BE RENDERED APPLICABLE TO MANY OF THE
PURPOSES FOR WHICH HEMP AND FLAX ARE USED;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said James Lee, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of
the nature of my Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery, in that
part of the said United Kingdom called England, within fifteen calendar
months next ensuing and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had.
may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Lee, in compliance with the
said proviso, do hereby declare, that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner of making and using the same, is particularly described in the
Plans and Drawings hereto annexed, and the following description thereof,
that is to say:-
Fig. 1 represents a view of the swing breaking machine, which differs
from that described in my Specification under my former Patent, granted
in the year One thousand eight hundred and twelve, first, by being formed
into distinct breaking machines, as seen in the Drawing, instead of being
formed by a beam at the top, and a bed or piece of timber to strike upon
at the bottom; one object of this variation is, that by this mode fixed
beams at top and bottom are rendered unnecessary, and the machines more
portable, and they may be sufficiently fixed and made steady by any
means of fastening them to a floor or otherwise at the bottom, and any
mode of fastening them at the top may be adopted according to the kind of
building or place in which they are to be used. Secondly, by having the
addition of a pair of chaps, attached respectively to the swing and the block,
made of cast iron or any other suitable material, represented in section at
Figure 2, between which the flax plant is to be beaten. These chaps I
propose to be about eleven or twelve inches long in the toothed part, and formed
of such indentations as there represented, the size of these indentations being
variable at pleasure, but the form and length herc specified I prefer. Figure
3 exhibits front views of the chaps. (a) is intended to be screwed or bolted to
the block, and (b) to the swing, faling or beating into each other. Another
improvement in this part of the machinery is, that by this mode of fixing
the breaker, it may be changed at pleasure, and the same swing made to
serve for the thresher for threshing out the seed, described in my former
Specification, or for the breaker, as the one may be changed for the other
on the same swing and block. And further, I find that two boards, to strike
evenly, equally, and flat, one upon the other, will do as well as a block for
a beater and the fixed piece of timber to receive the stroke. These boards
and breakers, which may be changed one for the other, may be fastened
with the same screws or bolts, and this change of the one for the other on the
same machine to answer these two purposes I consider may be particularly
convenient to to cottagers and others who may be so situated as to render
it desirable that one machine may answer both the purposes of threshing and
breaking. A further improvement is, that instead of the two swing machines,
the one called in my former Specification the swing breaking machine, and
the other the swing cleaning or refining machine, by the swing breaking

page_text: machine, with the improved breaker above described, the flax will be carried
to a state of preparation to render the swing refining machine unnecessary,
and instead thereof the machine or apparatus represented in the Drawing,
Figure 4, or the machine or apparatus, Figure 5, may be used. A, Figure 4,
is a fixed horizontal frame, Ba jointed or lifting one, both having cast-iron
chaps of three teeth fitting into each other, for the purpose of further
cleansing the flax after it has been subjected to the former operations. In
using this machine, which I call the scraper, raise the frame B, B, and spread
the flax between the chaps, then let down the frame B, B, by one hand to
the stops, and draw the flax through the chaps repeatedly with the other
hand, until the broken wood and refuse matter are sufficiently removed.
One end of the piece of flax or hemp being thus prepared, reverse it and
scrape the other in the same way. Figure 5 is a lever attached to a frame
for the same purpose as Figure 4, with chaps, as before described, and the
operation, intention, and use, in no way differing, but either may be used
according to circumstances of convenience. The chaps of these machines
(each containing three teeth) are to be generally about seven or eight inches
long, and the distance of the edge of each tooth, one from the other, a little
more than half an inch. The use of the breaking machine and the
scraper as both above described, will also render the brushing and brushing
bench described in my former Specification unnecessary. It is to be observed
that both in the iron chaps and teeth of the breaker and the scraper. herein-
before described, the edges are to be a little dulled or rounded just so much
as to prevent the cutting which would take place if left quite sharp.
Figure 6 is a front view of the crimping machine, and Figure 7 is a side
view of the same, the general action of which is described in my former Speci-
fication. In this, instead of the piece of wood and the pegs in front of the
machine, to serve, as described in my former Specification, as a guide for the
skein of flax, I now use one piece of wood in front of or nearly opposite to the
lower of the two rollers, as marked A, to conduct the skein of flax to the rollers,
and another, as marked B, placed below the rollers to distend the skein; and
in the lower place a similar guide may be used also at the back as well as
in the front, as there represented, and be movable a little higher or a little
lower according to the length of the skein. The guide part of these pieces
of wood is formed by an opening in the front and in the middle of these
pieces, as shewn in the Drawing at A, which opening should be a little (say
from half an inch to an inch) narrower than the length of the fluted part
of the rollers. And to this machine I also now use a kind of lever, somewhat
differing from the lever described in my former Specification, for keeping

page_text: the proper degree of weight or pressure upon the flax while passing through
the rollers. The means I now use, instead of that lever and the pin upon which
it was to operate, consists of a forked lever with studs, knobs, or points. This
lever C (further, seen in Figure 8) moving upon the joints or pivots c, c, is
pressed down by a sufficient weight D, and carries arms or a fork with two
studds (E, E,) which bear upon the brass, cups that hold or confine the axis
or pinions of the upper fluted roller, and according to the distance of the
point of suspension at which the weight D. is situated will be the pressure
of the flax between the fluted rollers. The flutes on the rollers described in
my former Specification, I have found should be somewhat smaller or larger
than there described, according as the flax or hemp to be refined them is
more or less refined by the machinery previously used. And the rollers them-
selves may be varied in their length, diameter, and number of flutes or teeth;
as, for instance, I have in my former Specification stated that on a roller of an
inch and an half diameter, the proper sized flute will be about 25, 26, or 27,
but if the roller should be made of a diameter sufficiently large to contain
double the number of flutes of the same size as those of 26, on an inch and an
half diameter, each rotation would have double the effect of the smaller number
on the smaller roller, and I am not aware that this variation in the size of the
roller will be attended with any inconvenience. Having mentioned in my
former Specification the application of a power by steam, water, or other
means for the working of this machinery, I here specify what I have, out
of the several modes of producing a rotary motion, calculated to work a
number of these machines in connection by acting upon a long general
spindle, which may be seen by the two drum wheels and band in the Drawing
marked Figures. 6 and 7 (F, F, and G). But although of the various modes
now in use for such purposes, I have adopted this as producing the motion
desired, others may probably answer as well or better. I propose, for the
purpose of instantaneously stopping the action of any one of the machines
so to be worked in connection by one and the same power, to adopt a
horizontal lever, with a clutch, having a fork to drop into the band wheel of
each machine, by the application of the knee to a latch to move the same in
or out of the gear. This mode I have found to answer the purpose, and
therefore recommend, but as various other modes of stopping machinery
which may have been long known to millwrights, I only mention this as
one which appears to me to answer the purpose. Although the use of this
machinery, with the improvements I have specified, cannot restore to flax that
has been water rotted the natural strength and beauty of the plant after the
injury it receives by that process, yet it may be applied to it with very con

page_text: siderable benefit, as well as to other fibrous substances that can be made
applicable to the same or any of the purposes of hemp or flax.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Lee, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Third day of March, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and seventeen.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Third day of March, in the
year above mentioned, the aforesaid James Lee came before our Lord the
King in His Chancery, and acknowleged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also the
Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.