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This page is part of a website based
on the life and achievements of eighteenth-century inventor Henry Cort. Please email site controller Eric
Alexander with any comments or queries. |
CORT’S PATENTS
The processs of application and grant for patents
in the eighteenth century is well covered by Neil Davenport in The United
Kingdom Patent Sytem: A Brief History.
From the initial petition to the sealing of the
King's "letters patent" there were nine stages, taking on average 6-8
weeks.
The dates of sealing of Cort's three patents are:
1st
English patent 7 Jan 1783
Scottish
patent 6 Feb 1784
2nd
English patent 13 Feb 1784
A further stage, enrolment, followed sealing. The dates for Cort's enrolment are:
1st
English patent 16 May 1783
Scottish patent 5 May 1784
2nd
English patent 12 Jun 1784
The applicant needed to ensure he was represented
at each stage. Hence the need for an
agent.
No record has been found of Cort's agent in
London, but it was probably James Watson, who was
married to a cousin of his wife.
Cort's agent in Edinburgh is identified in Weale
(one of the main sources) as John Wauchope, Writer
to the Signet. It is likely that
Wauchope's services were procured by Watson, who had graduated Doctor of Laws
at Edinburgh University in 1778.
To get his patent enrolled, the applicant needed
to provide a written specification of his process, starting with the standard
wording...
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To all people to whom these presents
shall come I Henry Cort the Grantee in the letters patent herein after in
part recited.… How patent specification begins. |
This shows that the applicant was expected to
attend in person. He might be asked
questions about his process by the enrolling panel. There is further evidence that Cort was
in Edinburgh in May 1784.
So what did these patents cover?
This excerpt from the specification in Cort's
first English patent describes the essence of the
"rolling" process.
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In case thick bars, or squares, or round bolts are intended to
be welded through the rollers, grooves of the shape and dimensions required
for any of these uses are made in the under roller and collars in the upper roller
to work exactly within such grooves, the surface of such collars being either
plane for squares and flats, or concave for bolts and the like, as the case
may require. From specification for rolling process. |
But the specification also covers a host of
processes for conversion of old forged artefacts into other items.
No hint of puddling,
however. This is covered by the second
English patent.
The full text of both English patents is given in Mott/Singer, Henry Cort: The Great Finer. The book, however, ignores the Scottish
patent, which covers the full puddling process, rolling included, but omits
other techniques described in the first English patent.
It looks as though Cort, having encountered the
hassle and expense of applying for two separate patents in England, wanted to
avoid repeating the experience in Scotland.
What was the patents' fate?
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Related pages |
henrycort.net
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