Author: Mike Beacham
Suggestions appreciated! I have done some research which has pulled up a number of early patents and I wonder if anyone can give me more information.I wonder if anyone on the Mills Archive blog site can help? I was looking through the published state papers for 1623 – it’s the sort of life I lead, I’m afraid – and came across three ‘patents’. One was granted to Lieutenant Lawrence Garlick ‘for his new invention of a mill for draining drowned lands, coal-pits, etc, for milling cloth, grinding corn, and other uses.’ In the same week, Sir Hugh Middleton received a similar ‘patent’ ‘concerning a newly invented waterwork’ (which I am assuming means drainage mill). The third was granted to John Rathborne and John Charsley for ‘two engines by them invented for boulting and dressing meal.’ This included a former patent to Edmund Blunt, of which ‘they have purchased the assignment, he having never brought it into use.’ This patent was granted for 21 years ‘on payment of a rent of five pounds per annum.’
With regard to the two drainage mills, does anyone know what type they were, and whether they actually worked anywhere? And with regard to the meal dresser, does anyone know whether it was intended for use in a mill, or if it was meant for a bakery?
There is also a sole reference to ‘certain newly-invented windmills as requiring very little wind. They would lead to the putting down of many watermills which impede the navigation of small rivers.’ Any suggestions?
Regards, Mike Beacham