A NEW INVENTED MACHINE FOR DIGGING UP OF GROUND IN A MUCH MORE CHEAP AND EXPEDITIOUS MANNER THAN ANY HITHERTO PRACTISED, AND BY THE HELP OF WHICH UPWARDS OF THIRTY-SIX SQUARE RODS OR POLES OF LAND MAY BE DUG BY ONE MAN IN THE SPACE OF TWELVE HOURS, WHICH MACHINE MAY BE MADE USE OF WITH EQUAL ADVANTAGE IN DIGGING HARD AND STONY GROUND AS OTHER SOILS
Year: 1785

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RAYMOND
VAN THORNHOFF, of the Parish of Saint Martin in the Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Twenty-eighth day of January, in the twenty-fifth year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said Raymond Van Thornhoff, (by the name and description
of Raymond Van Thornhoff, of Great Shire Lane, in the Parish of Saint Clement
Danes, in the County of Middlesex, Merchant,) His especial licence, that I, the
said Raymond Van Thornhoff, during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my discovery of "A NEW INVENTED MACHINE FOR DIGGING UP
OF GROUND IN A MUCH MORE CHEAP AND EXPEDITIOUS MANNER THAN ANY HITHERTO
PRACTISED, AND BY THE HELP OF WHICH UPWARDS OF THIRTY-SIX SQUARE RODS OR
POLES OF LAND MAY BE DUG BY ONE MAN IN THE SPACE OF TWELVE HOURS, WHICH
MACHINE MAY BE MADE USE OF WITH EQUAL ADVANTAGE IN DIGGING HARD AND
STONY GROUND AS OTHER SOILS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso, obliging me, the said Raymond Van Thornhoff, under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said discovery, and
how the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Raymond Van Thornhoff, do hereby declare that my said discovery of a new
invented machine for digging up of ground, is described in the plan thereof
hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Raymond Van Thornhoff, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of May, One thousand
seven hundred and eighty-five.
DISCRIPTION of Raymond Van Thornhoff's New Invented Digging Machine, as
represented by the annexed Figure.
A, B, C, D, E, F, Figure 1, represents the machine in its state ready for
digging.
A, A, A, the frame of the spades, consisting of two wooden helves a, a,
joined together with a wooden piece b screwed to them; B, B, two iron spades;
C, a wooden middle piece, containing an iron axis e, c, where the helves of the
spades turn upon, which may be seen clearer in the same piece represented by
itself, Figure 2.
D, D, D, the cart serving to advance the machine, cosisting of a beam d,
and an axis e, and two wheels f, f.
E, Figure 3, an additional wooden piece, furnished with two screws g, g,
serving to be screwed underneath the middle piece, represented by Figure 2,
when it is wanted to digg only at the depth of six inches, whereas the machine
without this picce digs twelve inches deep.
USE OF THE MACHINE.
The machine being mounted as represented by Figure 1, the digger draws
it near the ground which he intends to digg up, and then, standing with his
back towards the said ground, lifts the machine up, and presents the edges of
the spades within six inches of the ground to its surface as perpendicular as
possible. In this situation. he treads with his right foot upon the middle piece
C, driving the spades into the earth; then he shakes the frame of the helves
with both hands, in order to separate the ground a little from the spades; this
being done, he pulls the said frame with a little more elastic movement towards
himself, which loosens the ground; and, finally, a third still more elastic and
strong shake, given with his body bending forward, will throw the ground over,
smoothen and levell it; after which the digger goes one step backwards, and
advancing the machine ten inches more inside the ground continues his labour,

page_text: Inrolled the Twenty-eighth day of May, in the year above written.