IMPROVEMENTS ON HORIZONTAL ROASTING JACKS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
LANE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Jack Maker, send'
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster
the Twenty-third day of August, in the second year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said William Lane, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
William Lane, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS ON HORIZONTAL ROASTING JACKS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE
APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso, that if I, the said William Lane, 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 the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties
and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and
become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Lane, 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 in the following description thereof (that is to say):-

page_text: My improvements on horizontal roasting jacks consist in uniting the action
of several spring barrels together, by means of which connection the power of
the springs are collectively applied to produce the movement. On the
external part of each barrel (or cylinder containing a spring) a rim of teeth
or cogs is fixed, or a toothed wheel is attached to each barrel. These cogs
or toothed wheels taking into each other, form a connection or train by which
the power of the respective springs are combined, and then united force
applied to produce the revolving movement.
The Drawing hereto annexed represents a jack having two spring barrels,
but I wish it to be understood that three, four, six, or any number of spring
barrels may be united upon my plan, as described, either one above the other
or in any manner of disposition, provided that the teeth of one wheel take into
the teeth of tho next. The object that I propose by uniting the spring barrels
is to gain an accumulated power.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 represent the said improved jack in different views
upon a scale of half the size of an ordinary jack, from which this Drawing was
taken, the respective letters referring to the same parts in each Figure. But
it must be understood, that I do not mean to confine myself to any particular
scale, as that must depend upon the power which such a piece of mechanism
is required to communicate.
Figure 1 is a view of the internal construction of an improved jack, the
back plate being removed; Fig. 2 is a view of that side of the jack on which
the spring barrels are situate; Fig. 3 is a view of the reverse side, in which
the fusee and the various toothed wheels are seen. a, a, are cylinders or
barrels, each containing a steel spring, which is attached at one end to the
axle (having a ratchet to confine it) and at the other end to the barrel. By
the force of this spring, when coiled up round the axle, the barrel is impelled
so as to draw the chain off the fusee. Round the periphery of each barrel
I attach a rim of teeth, or affix a cogged wheel b, b, to the cylinder; these
wheels, as above said, take into each other, and hence combine the power of
the respective springs. C is the fusee upon which the chain dis wound.
This chain is gradually drawn off the fusee, and coiled round the lower barrel
by the power of the springs within each barrel; e is a toothed wheel attached
to the fusee, which takes into a pinion f upon the main shaft g. At the end
of this shaft, on the outside of the works, is a notched wheel h, for the purpose
of receiving the forked end of a spit, and thus the revolving motion which the
main shaft g has acquired is communicated to the spit. The fly wheel i, with
its worm k, and the toothed wheel 7, pinion m, toothed wheel n, pinion o, and
toothed wheel p (the last of which is attached to the main axle 9), are for the

page_text: purpose of regulating the action of the springs and the motion of the main
shaft, and are all well understood by mechanics. This jack is intended to be
inclosed within a box, and mounted upon a stand to be placed on the side of
the kitchen fire, or upon a shelf or elsewhere, and removed when out of use.
The stand may consist of two upright rods rising from its base, upon these
rods the jack box is intended to slide for the purpose of being raised or
depressed to regulate the height at which the spit is to be placed before the
fire. The mode of connecting the spit with the main axle, as described above,
will be seen in Fig. 2. q is the rest or support for the spit to turn in; ris
the spit, with its forked end fitting into the notches of the wheel h upon the
main shaft, by means of which the spit is made to revolve.
Though I have in the above.explanation of my Drawing described all the
parts of which my improved jack consists, yet I wish it to be understood that
I do not claim any of the parts in themselves as new, but rest my Invention
merely in the combining of several spring barrels together by means of geer,
so as to employ the united power or effect of several springs to produce a
rotatory motion. I likewise wish it to be understood that though I have
above described my Invention as applicable to the construction of horizontal
jack, yet I do also hereby mean to claim the adaptation of the same Invention,
(viz), the combination of several spring barrels to the purpose of producing
a rotatory motion in various other machines or pieces of mechanism to which
such Invention is applicable.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Lane, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-one.