AN IMPROVEMENT IN DREDGING AND SPICE BOXES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents, 66,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN DREDGING AND SPICE BOXES."-
A communication from abroad by George Washington Putnam, of
Peterborough, in the State of New York, United States of America..
-
Sealed the 17th March 1868, and dated the 22nd October 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd October 1867.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,.
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN DREDGING AND SPICE
Boxes," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the discharge or sprinkling of
crushed spice, salt, pepper; or any condiments, flour, or any powdered articles
of whatsoever nature. It consists simply in forming a group of lateral per-
forations in one side only of the cap or covering of the vessel containing the
powdered materials to be sprinkled, whereby the act of sprinkling or discharging

page_text: the materials is easily and conveniently performed by holding the vessel in a
horizontal position. The act of proximate or complete inversion of the vessel
which the common arrangement of the perforations necessitates is attended
with more or less choking or clogging of the material to be sprinkled in and
above the holes or perforations intended for its discharge. This choking up
of the said holes is mainly if not wholly due to the packing of the powdered
materials lying immediately at or above the perforations, which packing is
caused by the weight of the superincumbent material within the vessel being
thrown more or less vertically upon the perforations when located as beretofore
in the end of the cap. By the improvement this disadvantage is however
obviated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 22nd April 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Alfred
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of October, in 'the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Iler
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special licence that I, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN DREDGING AND SPICE BOXES," being a
communication to me from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the discharge or sprinkling of
crushed or grated spice, pepper, salt, or any condiments, flour, or any powdered
articles of whatsoever nature.
The Invention consists simply in forming a group of lateral perforations in
one side only of the cap or covering of the vessel containing the powdered
materials to be sprinkled, whereby the act of sprinkling or discharging the
materials is easily and conveniently performed by holding the vessel in a
horizontal position.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents an ordinary pepper box
with the holes grouped together on one side of the cap in the improved
manner above referred to; Fig. 2 represents a salt box with the improvement
applied; and Fig. 3 represents a dredging box made according to the
Invention.
In these Figures the holes for sprinkling the materials contained in the
vessel are shewn grouped together laterally at or near one end of the vessel,
and when so located the contents of the said vessels can be discharged or
sprinkled without completely or nearly inverting the same, as is necessary with
the perforations as usually placed. The act of proximate or complete inversion
of the vessel which the common arrangement of the perforations necessitates
is attended with more or less choking or clogging of the material to be
sprinkled in and above the holes or perforations intended for its discharge.
This choking up of the holes is mainly if not wholly due to the packing
of the powdered materials lying immediately at or above the perforations,
which packing is caused by the weight of the superincumbent material within
the vessel being thrown more or less vertically upon the perforations when
located as heretofore in the end of the cap. By the improvement this dis-
advantage is however obviated, as the vessel does not require to be held
vertically or nearly so to sprinkle its contents, but only to be turned down
horizontally, or with its perforated end slightly depressed. In this position
the contents, exclusive of that portion issuing from the perforations, rest upon
the side of the vessel, and its weight therefore does not come upon the per-
forations, whereby that portion lying at or near the perforations passes
through them freely and without choking. The unperforated sides of the cap
serve as walls to guide the powdered contents of the vessel to the perforations.

page_text: thus facilitating and controlling the discharge. It is not requisite that the
sides or surfaces containing the perforations be strictly cylindrica', for the
perforations may be grouped on one side of the cap or covering of any shaped
vessel, or in the body of the vessel itself near one end, as the improvement
claimed covers the grouping of perforations for sprinkling condiments or other
powdered articles on one side of the vessel containing the said articles.
From the tendency of salt to pack in the manner above described it has
been heretofore found impracticable to sprinkle it from perforations; with the
improvement, however, this condiment can be sprinkled with facility and
without the aforesaid inconvenience of choking.
In the Figures, A is the body of the vessel; B, the holes or perforations
described. Fig. 1 exhibits the discharge of the contents through the cap. in
the manner described.
The general advantages of this improvement have been stated, and it has
an additional desirable feature in the fact that the material to be sprinkled
can be controlled and deposited at the particular place desired, instead of
being scattered about as with the sprinkling vessels heretofore known and
used.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "An Improvement in
Dredging and Spice Boxes," and explained the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited
Letters Patent I claim, the grouping of the perforations of a sprinkling box
or vessel on one side of said vessel, substantially as and for the purposes shown
and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-first day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)