Rufus Maxwell to the Commissioner of Patents concerning improvement in churns,
December 31, 1851
Maxwell-Bonnifield Collection, Ms79-11
Weston Lewis Co. Virginia
Dec 31st 1851
Sir:
I enclose the specification &c of an application for a patent for improvements in churns - I enclose ten dollars in gold. I also enclose a withdrawal of my application for a patent for improvements in cider mills now in your office and a receipt for the twenty dollars due me on making such withdrawal and desire that said twenty dollars be applied in connexion with the ten dollars enclosed to complete the payment of the fee for the patent for which I am now about applying, for improvements in churns -
I will forward the model by the earliest opportunity
Respectfully
Rufus Maxwell
To Commissioner of Patents
Washington D.C.
A Copy
To the Commissioner of Patents
The petition of Rufus Maxwell of the county of Lewis and State of Virginia
Respectfully represents That your petitioner has invented a new and useful improvement in churns which he verily believes has not been known or used prior to the invention thereof by your petitioner. He therefore prays that letters patent may be granted to him therefor resting in him and his legal representatives the exclusive right to the same upon the terms and conditions expressed in the act of Congress in that case made and provided he having paid thirty dollars into the treasury and complied with the other provisions of said act.
Rufus Maxwell
To all whom it may concern
Be it known that I Rufus Maxwell of the county of Lewis and State of Virginia have invented a new and useful improvement in churns and I do hereby declare the following is a full clear and exact description of the construction and operation of the same reference being had to the annexed drawings making a part of this specification in which fig. 1 is a side elevation and fig. 2. is a side elevation of the rack
AAAA is a supporting frame inside of which the frame ccc is suspended by a hook and staple e. B is a churn fastened in the frame ccc at pleasure.
f is the handle being an extension of the top piece of the frame ccc and works vertically through a post of the supporting frame[.] d is a crank connecting the frame ccc with the supporting frame so that the centre of the bottom of the churn may revolve about a circle (five or six inches in diameter)
And this motion causes the milk to flow rapidly around the churn[.] Then I provide a rack for the purpose of breaking this current thus causing commotion and friction.
This rack consists of a piece of tough elastic wood bent as represented at fig 2 so that it will press against the sides of the churn thus holding the rack in a stationary position (with respect to the churn) There four pins are incerted in this bow at nnnn Parallel rods ii &c about one half an inch apart are fastened to these pins by boring holes through them and incerting the rods therein
I claim 1st The forcing of the milk through a rack by revolving the churn in an orbit without turning it on axis
2ly. The bow and rods connected togather as above described.
Rufus Maxwell
Witnesses
Joseph Darlinton
T S. Wood
County of Lewis, State of Virginia, SS
On this the 30th day of Dec. 1851 before me the subscriber a justice of the Peace personally appeared the within named Rufus Maxwell and made solemn oath that he verily believes himself to be the original and first inventor of the mode herein described for constructing churns and that he does not know or believe that the same was ever before known or used and that he is a citizen of the United States
Joseph Darlinton J. P.