IMPROVED MODES OF PREVENTING ACCIDENTS ARISING FROM THE SALE OR USE OF POISONS."
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gilbert Thonger, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MODES OF PREVENTING
ACCIDENTS ARISING FROM THE SALE OR USE OF POISONS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Gilbert Thonger at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th November 1863.
I, GILBERT THONGER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Chemist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MODES
OF PREVENTING ACCIDENTS ARISING FROM THE SALE OR USE OF POISONS," to be
as follows, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in attaching to bottles or other receptacles for
containing poisons labels sanded or roughened in any other suitable manner upon
the surface; this may be done by attaching sand paper or glass paper labels,
or by using embossed or raised labels, or by sanding or otherwise roughening
a portion or the whole of the bottle or jar or other receptacles after having
previously applied an adhesive solution to which the sand or roughening
material will adhere. The advantage of this mode would be, that whether in
daylight or dark no one could handle bottles which had these poison labels

page_text: without being aware of it; and if the bottle be required to contain other
matters not poisonous, the label or roughening material may readily be
removed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Gilbert Thonger in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th May 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GILBERT
THONGER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Chemist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself; Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Gilbert Thonger Her special license that I, the said Gilbert
Thonger, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Gilbert Thonger, 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
"IMPROVED MODES OF PREVENTING ACCIDENTS ARISING FROM THE SALE OR USE OF
POISONS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Gilbert Thonger,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Gilbert Thonger, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say)
My Invention consists in attaching to bottles or other receptacles for con-
taining poisons labels sanded or roughened in any other suitable manner upon
the surface; this may be done by attaching sand paper or glass paper labels,
or by using embossed or raised labels, or by sanding or otherwise roughening

page_text: a portion or the whole of the bottle or jar or other receptacle after having
previously applied an adhesive solution to which the sand or roughening:
material will adhere. The advantage of this mode would be, that whether:
in daylight or dark no one could handle bottles which had these poison labels
without being aware of it, and if the bottle be required to contain other
matters not poisonous, the label or roughening material may readily be
removed.
The object of this Invention has been to provide a means whereby the
sense of touch may be employed in warning dispensers and other persons
using poisons. The danger arising from relying upon sight alone has been
fully exemplified by numerous deplorable accidents, many of which have
occurred to the most experienced operators; and it is therefore only by
appealing to touch that a sufficient caution can be conveyed to the dispenser.
This will be effected by the roughened surface of the label applied to the
vessel, or by the roughening material on the surface of the vessel itself, con-
taining the poison, and whether this be done by a sanded, or roughened, or
embossed label, or as it may also be effected by raised letters stamped or cut
out, and attached to and projecting from the surface of the bottle or vessel, or
by a strip or band of sanded or roughened material applied to any part of the
bottle or vessel, the effect will be, that the dispenser has his attention forcibly
drawn to the fact that he is using ingredients with which caution is requisite.
I would remark that I am well aware that it has long since been attempted
to use embossed labels or letters for this purpose, but these have been of the
ordinary description of embossed paper work, that is to say, they have been
raised on one surface and hollow or sunk on the other, and for this reason
they have failed, inasmuch as the act of wetting the back to make it adhere
to the bottle has drawn down the raised part in drying, and even where this
has not resulted, by the constant use of the bottle the raised or embossed
parts have been worn or sunk to the level of the rest, or at any rate to such
an extent as to become practically useless as a caution label. It must be
observed, then, that if embossed or raised labels or letters be employed, they
must be made perfectly solid, or be filled in at the back with some firm and
unresisting compound that will prevent their contracting or returning to a
level; the use of the ordinary embossed or raised label or letters forms
therefore no part of my improvements.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I claim, without limiting myself to
these exact details, the several improvements applicable to bottles, jars, or

page_text: other receptacles for poisons for the purpose of preventing or reducing.
the liability to accidents, substantially as herein more fully set forth and
specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Gilbert Thonger, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
GILBERT THONGER. (L.S.)