﻿Manchester Memoirs > Vol. xlix. (1905), No. 15. J 



himself as " gentleman," took out a patent for " A 

 new sort of cast metallick rolls for the crushing, 

 flattening, bruising, or grinding of malt, oats, beans, or 

 any kind of grain, and also for crushing, bruising, or 

 grinding of sugar canes." Like the box-irons the rollers 

 were cast in one piece. This specification was enrolled 

 2nd April, 1753. I n tne same year Isaac Wilkinson first 

 appears in connection with the Bersham Iron Works, near 

 Wrexham, and though he still owned property at Cartmel, 

 his later activities were unconnected with Lancashire. In 

 1757, Dem g then of " Barsham Furnace," he patented a 

 " new machine, or kind of bellows ... for the blowing of 

 furnaces or forges at any distance, to be wrought or put in 

 motion by water or fire engines." In his specification 

 Isaac Wilkinson says that "By means of valves, regulators, 

 cocks, or siphons alternately, the water is let out, and the 

 air is taken in, and forced out by the water through a 

 pipe at any distance required, so that a furnace, forge, or 

 any other works may be blowed from any waterfall or 

 falls, or from a fire engine, or engines, to several miles 

 distance from the machine, by means of a pipe being 

 fixed to the machine, to force or convey the wind through 

 the said work. When the wind is prest out of each vessel 

 by the water, the water is again sent out by the motion 

 of the machine opening the valves, regulators, cocks, or 

 siphons, and filling them again with air to make a second 

 blast." 



In the following year (1758), Isaac Wilkinson took 

 out his fourth and last patent. This was for " a new 

 method or invention for casting of guns or cannon, fire 

 engines, cylinders, pipes, and sugar rolls, and other such 

 like instruments, in dried sand, in iron boxes made for 

 that purpose, whereby the said guns, &c, will be made- 

 and cast in a much more neat, compleat, exact, and 



