CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF A MACHINE FOR THRESHING OF CORN AND ALL KINDS OF SEEDS
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PHINEAS
ANDREWS, of Haverstock Hill, in the Parish of Hampstead, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of
October, in the forty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Phineas Andrews, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said Phineas Andrews, my
exors, adñors, 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 "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF A MACHINE FOR THRESHING OF CORN AND
ALL KINDS OF SEEDS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Phineas Andrews, 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 six 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Phineas Andrews, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in and

page_text: by the Drawings merc
is to say:
On an axis four feet long, or of any other convenient length, and of a
proper thickness, about six inches more or less from each end, I firmly fix and
screw a cast-iron cylindrical wheel (or such wheels may be made of any other
proper material) with twelve holes, or more or less in number, and drilled or
bored in each wheel, so that when the said wheels are so fixed as aforesaid the
said holes in each wheel may be and remain directly opposite to the holes in
the opposite wheel; a certain space or distance being thus left between the
said cylindrical wheels; I take as many pieces of wood, or of iron, or of any
other proper material, of a length nearly equal to that space, and at each end of
each of said pieces I either forge or make and affix certain other short pieces for
cranks, one of said short pieces at each end of each of the said long pieces, so
that each of said short pieces stand and remain projecting the same way or in
the same direction from the said long pieces, forming a right angle or nearly
so at each end of the said long pieces; those short pieces, so placed and
affixed as aforesaid, I call cranks, in each of which cranks a hole must be
made, so that each hole in each and every such crank in any one machine
should be equally distant from the center of the diameter of said long picces,
and also directly opposite to each other, and all of them of the same size with
the said holes in said cylindrical wheels, so that such long pieces, which I call
flails, may hang, when suspended by a bolt, screw, or otherwise, put through
the holes in the said wheels, and also through the holes in the said cranks, in a
line parallel with the horizon, with each other, and also with the axis of said
wheels. Each flail should hang so free on the said bolts or screws that the
said flails may casily revolve on the same, and each hole of each and every of
said cranks should be guarded or lined with, brass, or some other proper
material, to case the friction which will take place when at work, by such flails
revolving on said screws or bolts, as aforesaid. The said axis, with the said
cylindrical wheels fixed on the same, and the flails suspended on the said
wheels as aforesaid, must be supported properly on any frame that shall or
may be adapted to the power that is intended to work the same in combination
with other requisite parts. A common wynch may be applied directly to said
axis of said wheels, to work the same; or a pinion wheel with cogs, and a
larger wheel with cogs, also to work in and drive the said pinion, and thereby
increase the velocity, may be applied to or fixed on the said axis, which last-
mentioned cog'd wheels may be worked with other proper geer by hand, cattle,
wind, water, or steam. As all possible fri tion is avoided by this improvement,
it is conceived that a machine on a small scale may be easily worked by hand,

page_text: which is my intention; at any rate it is presumed that a one-horse power will
be fully adequate to work the largest machino that may be required with this
improvement. The said flails may be suspended on arms of wood, &c., which
may cross each other at the center, and are of equal length, with holes in each
end similar to the said cylindrical wheels, and said flails may in either case be
stopped so as to only to swing or describe the half or more or less of a circle.
But I prefer the whole revolution from the peculiar good properties of the
The said flails may be made round or of any other form, so that no
edges project to cut the corn, straw, &c.
In witness whereof, I, the said Phineas Andrews, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and nine.