Scope and Contents Patent for Evan Leigh of Aston-under-Lyne, Lancashire County, England for the invention of "certain improvements in steam engines" and others for "serving machinery." Large, intricately detailed wax Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Queen Victoria attached to document by yellow and green rope. Dates to the reign of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (r.1837-1901). Patent was contained in a blue wooden stationary box with latch. On the top of the lid of the box in gold was a seal of the United Kingdom with lion and unicorn below which the engraving "John Davies, C.E. Office for Patents Manchester" appeared. The box was removed from the collection upon processing. John Lacey Davies was a civil engineer who worked for the Manchester Office of Patents between at least 1840-1866, possibly longer. An October 7, 1840 correspondence between Davies and a patent client appears on page 182 of the London journal of arts and sciences, and repertory of patent inventions, Vol. 17, 1841. Davies' office is listed as Office for Patents 66 Chancery Lane, Manchester. An August 10, 1850 letter from Davies to the Office for Patents in Manchester is held by the British National Archives in the Manchester Archives under correspondence, M6/3/8/108. Another reference to Davies from April 7, 1866 appears in Bennet Woodcroft's Chronological Index of Patents Applied for and Patents Granted for the year 1866, (London: George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoodie, 1867).