A NEW AND IMPROVED LEVEL, FOR ASCERTAINING THE HORIZON, AND THE SEVERAL DEGREES OF INCLINATION
Year: 1840

page_text: DOLS
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANDREW
PRUSS D'OLSZOWSKI, of No. 2, Ashley Crescent, in the County of Middlesex,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and forty, did give and grant unto me, the said Andrew Pruss
D'Olszowski, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Andrew Pruss D'Olszowski,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Andrew Pruss
D'Olszowski, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, a certain Invention communicated to me by a Foreigner residing
abroad, of "A NEW AND IMPROVED LEVEL, FOR ASCERTAINING THE HORIZON, AND
THE SEVERAL DEGREES OF INCLINATION;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that I, the said Andrew Pruss D'Olszowski, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Andrew Pruss D'Olszowski, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention to consist in a certain application of the pendulum or loaded bob
for the construction of a level, whereby the horizon, or the inclination of any
plane or surface with reference to the horizon, may be ascertained and
determined. And in further compliance with the said proviso, I do hereby
further declare the manner in which the said Invention is to be performed,
and the said level constructed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following description, reference being had to the Drawings
thereunto annexed:-
Figure 1 represents the side view and section of one construction of my
improved level. The pendulum which may be made in any of the usual ways,
and of any of the usual materials, is suspended from the upper side of the
rectangular frame in such a manner that the point at its lower extremity, or
indicator point, may traverse freely in front of the graduated limb of the
semicircle. The pendulum must be accurately and carefully suspended by
cylindrical pivots inserted in cylindrical holes, or in some similar well-known
manner, whereby the pendulum may be firmly secured, and steadiness and
freedom of motion attained with as little friction as possible. The rectangular
framework must be strongly and firmly united, or fitted together at the angles,
so that the top and bottom, and two ends, may preserve their parallelism; and
this may be farther insured by filling in the back, against which the graduated
limb is to be fixed, or by casting the whole in a piece or (as is shewn in some of
the Figures), by having the plate on which the graduations are to be marked
cast into the bottom and two ends. The pendulum being suspended, the semi-
circular limb graduated as two quadrants, or in any other more convenient
manner, must be fixed in its proper position, and fastened to the back or
framework of the level; or if the framework and plate upon which the
graduation is to be made be cast in one piece, the semicircular edge of that
plate must be graduated. For this purpose the level must be set on some
known horizontal surface, and the position of the indicator point of the
pendulum, when the pendulum is at rest, ascertained. That point being
ascertained and made the zero of the scale, the semicircular limb may be fixed,
or the edge of the plate graduated in any of the various ways well known to all
makers of astronomical and surveying instruments. A moveable front, as a
drawlid, or a fixed front, with a semicircular aperture filled in with glass or
other transparent substance, so that the position of the indicator point of the
pendulum may be seen, being fitted to the frame, the level may be conveyed
about at pleasure.

page_text: Figure 2 shews the level placed on any inclined plane, and the deviation of
the pendulum from the vertical will measure the inclination of the plane to
the horizon.
Figure 3 shews a level constructed on the same principle as the preceding,
but in a somewhat different form or shape.
Figure 4 shews the bottom of the level applied to the upper surface of a
body, and the top of the level to the under surface.
Figure 5 shews a level of light construction, and its case; a very convenient
pocket instrument.
Figure 7 shews the level applied to ascertain the verticality of a surface,
which operation has hitherto been generally effected by the plumb line.
Figure 8 shews the application of the loaded bob, instead of the ordinary
pendulum. The level, constructed as represented in this Figure, may be used
to ascertain the inclination of any surface to the horizon by placing the
bottom of the level in contact with that surface, as herein-before described.
The level herein-before described may be made of wood as well as of metal,
and of any convenient size and shape. I do not claim any particular material
or peculiar form of construction; but what I claim as the Invention commu-
nicated to me from abroad is, the application of a pendulum or loaded bob to
the construction of a level, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Pruss D'Olszowski, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
ANDRE PRUSS (L.B.) D'OLSZOWSKI.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1841, the aforesaid Andrew Pruss D'Olszowski came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her 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 stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-one.