AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE GENERAL CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN MACHINES FOR THE PURPOSE OF WEIGHING ANY KIND OF GOODS, MERCHANDIZES, CARRIAGES, WAGGONS, &C., WHICH ENGINES SO IMPROVED I CALL POIDOMETERS, FROM THEIR ASCERTAINING WEIGHT BY MEASURE
Year: 1796

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
SALMON, of Woburn, in the County of Bedford, Surveyor, 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 at West-
minster, the Eighth day of March, in the thirty-sixth year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said Robert Salmon, His especial licence that I,
the said Robert Salmon, during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE
GENERAL CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN MACHINES FOR THE PURPOSE OF WEIGHING ANY
KIND OF GOODS, MERCHANDIZES, CARRIAGES, WAGGONS, &C., WHICH ENGINES SO
IMPROVED I CALL POIDOMETERS, FROM THEIR ASCERTAINING WEIGHT BY MEASURE;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said Robert Salmon, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the said

page_text: recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had)
may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Salmon, do hereby declare that my said Invention, and the means of
putting the same in use, is described in manner following (that is to say):-
The same is performed by means of a self-adjusting ballance, by the action
of which the ponderosity or weight of any body or load applied thereto is accu-
rately ascertained and described at inspection; and, further, my Invention or
improvements in the construction of other parts of weigh bridges or engines,
with their apparatus, for the purpose of weighing carriages, and to which said
engines the aforesaid acting ballance is particularly adapted and applicable. In
pursuance of the said Letters Patent to me granted, I do hereby ascertain and
describe my said Invention, for which such Letters Patent were granted to
me as aforesaid, promising and particularly incaning that the size, dimensions,
and powers of my said engines may be so varied, and applied to the various
places and purposes to which they aro applicable, as to prevent the specifying
any particular sort or size. Their component parts may be made of wood,
iron, or any other substance, capable of being brought to the shape and uses
hereafter described. The advantage and effect meant to be produced by the
aforesaid engines, and from which theso Letters Patent are taken out, is to
render useless the application of more than one scale, and totally to exclude
the use of weights, instead of which, by means of a circular dial or upright
index, as may best suit the place where fixed, to point out the weight of any
burden put on a scale or suspended by ropes or slings, which operation is per-
formed as follows:--I procure of any of the aforesaid materials, seperate or
compound, a roller of certain diameter and length, according as the case may
require. At each end of the said roller is fixed a gudgeon or center, truly
turned and wrought. On one end of this roller I strongly fix a wheel of dia-
moter as may be required. On the face of this wheel is a projecting part or
grooved ledge sticking out therefrom, as much as the case may require. Onc
enil of this said ledge commences at the roller, 'and continues from thence in a
spiral manner round on the face of the wheel in one or more revolutions, till
it comes to the extremity of the said wheel. The other part of the roller on
which the wheel does not go is from the aforesaid gudgeons or centers truly
wrought and turned circular. This done, the operation and effect is thus per-
formed: The said roller, together with the wheel and spiral ledge affixed
theroon, is laid level, with its gudgeon or centers resting on friction wheels, &c.,
so as to make them turn as easy as possible. This done, a chain, webbing,
strap, or line, is applied on the ledge on the face of the wheel; one end of

page_text: which chain, webbing, strap, or line, is fastened at the end next the roller.
From thence it continues on the aforesaid ledge, round the spiral line to the
extremity thereof, near which it terminates; and to it is hung a certain pur-
chase or counter weight, of size as tho case may require. This done, near the
other end of the roller on the round part is fixed another chain, webbing, strap,
or line, running the reverse way to the one on the ledge, and hanging perpen-
dicularly from the side of the roller towards the ground, to the lower end whereof
is suspended the weight required to be known, which said weight is determined
and ascertained by means of the weight on the spiral ledge, which ascends or
descends, and turns so far and to such distance, and until the suspended
burthen and the purchase weight hangs in equilibrium with each other; and
as by the burthens turning the roller, the purchase weight will be raised or
lowered, and go from or approach near to the center of the roller, so conse-
quently the said roller will always be turned more or less in proportion to the
burden applied, the weight whereof is then pointed out on a graduated circular
dial or other index by a hand affixed to the end of one of the gudgeons, or by
wheels, lines, or rods, which may be applied and connected with the aforesaid
apparatus in various other ways, taking their motion and effect from the spiral
line aforesaid. When this engine is to be applied to describing the weight of
waggons, carriages, &c., the before-described parts to be placed the roller
directly perpendicularly over the extreme end of the main or long lever of the
weighing engine, and the end of the said long lever is then suspended by the
chain, webbing, strap, or line, hanging down from the roller, and the weight is
thereby ascertained and described as before. If immense weights are required
to be took in warehouses, &c., then a large lever or steelyard may be fixed
over my improved machine; the fulcrum of this lever is to be placed as much
nearer one end than the other as the case may require; to the shortest end, by
means of a chain or rope, is suspended the burden required to be weighed, and
the other or long end is, by means of a chain, webbing, strap, or line, con-
ducted to and connected with the aforesaid roller, by means whereof the power
on the roller is lessened, but the effect nevertheless produced, and the weights
pointed out.
Further my Invention is by applying the before-described parts of my
engine at the top of storehouses, &c. where there are several floors, which
may be so placed as to weigh and ascertain the weight of goods on each
floor, as well as if there were an engine on every one, and the weight of
anything suspended, on any particular floor, will be pointed out in every one
at the same time, whereby persons on the bottom floor may checque and see
the weight of goods suspended and weighed on the top floor; besides the

page_text: above-described requisite parts and modes of using of my said engine,
various other modes and changes may be made, according to the purposes for
which it may be wanted; and therefore, for the well understanding of the
intent of my said Patent, and to prevent encroachments thereon, I do par-
ticularly specify, that my Invention particularly goes to the ascertaining and
describing the weight of any matter or body by means of a self-adjusting
machine, demonstrating the weight applied, and taking its effect by means of
a spiral line as aforesaid; and, as the same may be shaped and applied in
various and innumerable ways, I conceive it unnecessary to make any
Drawings of the same.
Further, also; my improvements in the construction of the bridges or
platforms with their apparatus, on which carriages are placed to be weighed,
consists in fixing all the centers or points of bearing on the diagonal levers
in a direction at right angles from the said levers, whereby the distances of
the points of bearing thereon are more accurately determined, and the opera-
tion thereby rendered more exact than on the levers now mostly in use. I
do also fix an open under frame beneath the bridge or large scale, to
which said under frame are fixed the iron standards that rests on the
diagonal levers of the apparatus, by which improvements the whole can
be more readily fitted and fixed, and the mechanic part put to work and
examined before the cumbersome scale or bridge comes on, which bridge may
also by this means easily be taken off, repaired, or renewed by any country
carpenters or others, without the removing or endangering the mechanic parts;
and, from the frequent wear and decay of the bridges more than any other part,
this improvement will be found necessary and useful. And further, in order for
the more ready and easy application of these my aforesaid machines when
used for heavy burdens, without the application of the bridge or platforms, as in
the use of weighing carriages, &c., I have found it requisite to have some
means of weighing up or raising immense weights to any heighth sufficicut
to enable the application of the slings or scale of my said inachine, which
operation I perform by means of a lever, so constructed that a single man may
raise immense burdens to the heighth required, when the burden is then slung
and suspended to the chain, webbing, strap, or line, as before described; which
said lever, being a requisite instrument in the application of the before-described
apparatus, I consider as a part thereof; the construction of it is according to
the Drawing and references hereunder described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Salmon, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-six.
ROBERT SALMON. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1796, the aforesaid Robert Salmon 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
5 above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-fourth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and ninety-six.

page_text: Reference to the Drawings of the Lever for Waghing
up and raising Weights in order to apply them
to the waighing Engines
A. The Lever resting on the Fulcrums B which are
connected together by the Bearer Cand hung up to
Lever by two pins as shewn in the Section D are strong
iron Racks into which the lower part of the Fulcrums
Bare forced by the spring F theselron racks are
strongly fired to the upright posts E which may be
of any highth and must stand on proper Sills
and Bearers. The Burden to be raised is to be
hung by a strong chain to the hook Grand in order
to raise it the end of the Lover is to be worked up and
down in the manner that a Pump is worked.
By this operation the Fulcrums. Bare alternately
raised and by the Spring forcing the lieth of the
same into the Racks the said Lever together with
the Fulcrums are raised as high as may berequired
and by making the Lever sufficiently long and ad-
-ding weight thereto any power may be required,
with the strength of one man only