A NEW FLOATING MILL OR ENGINE TO BE WORKED BY TIDES OR CURRENTS OF WATER FOR GRINDING ALL SORTS OF GRAIN AND VARIOUS OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1801

page_text: TO ALL
WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, 1SENJAMIN
HAWKINS, late of Saratoga, in the State of New York, in the United States of
America, but now of Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, in the County of Middlesex,
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of
August, in the forty-first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Benjamin Hawkins, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence that I, the said Benjamin Hawkins, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of His Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW FLOATING
MILL OR ENGINE TO BE WORKED BY TIDES OR CURRENTS OF WATER FOR GRINDING
ALL SORTS OF GRAIN AND VARIOUS OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Benjamin Hawkins, to par-
ticularly 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

page_text: band and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within one calendar month next after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Benjamin Hawkins, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, are as follows (that is
to say):
My said Invention consists in converting a ship, brig, sloop, or other vessel
proper for the purpose, into a floating water mill, and of obtaining sufficient
power to work the mill for grinding all sorts of grain and other purposes for
which the same may be used, by the application of a sufficient number of water
wheels to the hull of the ship or vessel in a proper manner to be acted on by
the tide or current, so as to give the wheels a rotary motion, and by connecting
them with proper machinery to answer the purposes above mentioned or
referred to, notwithstanding any ship, brig, sloop, or other proper vessel may
be used for this purpose, provided-it is-of-sufficient size to accommodate the
works to be crected, yet in point of expence it will be better to employ such as
are rendered unfit for sea service. When it is intended that the ship or mill
should be stationary, it must be anchored, moored, or otherwise made fast, so
as to swing, with the. tide, when necessary, but the mill may be worked while
the vessel.in.which it is prected is sailing, wind, and other circumstances, per-
mitting. The number, and isize of the water wheels to be used may 'he varied
and encreased or diminished according to the size of the ship or vessel, the
strength of the tide or current, and power required, and the wheels may be
constructed as in common or with folding floats for the more readily freeing.
them from the water; their situation also admits of being varied as circum-
stances. may require; they may be placed in a vertical; horizontal; or obliqué.
direction; the method I prefer is to constructi two. wheels to be placed vertically
on an horizontal axis of such length that the axis: being placed across the ship
or vessel, one wheel may run on each side. of it on the same axis: A mill,.con
structed in the manner above:described, may be moved by the strength of from
two. to ten large water wheels; or such other number as the ship or vessel will
accommodate. These water wheels, may extend-into the water-from-three-to
eight or more feet; they should be so. connected together as to be easily.engaged
with and disengaged from each other, so that during the weak part of the.
tide they may all be made to act on one pair of mill.stones if necessary,,and
as the strength of the tide increases, more stones. or other machinery may be
put in motion, so as at all.times to do business in proportion thereto. The

page_text: floats may be made of any convenient length, according to circumstances, and
the power required.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Hawkins, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and one
BENJ. HAWKINS. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Nineteenth day of
September, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Benjamin Hawkins
came before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.