IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL AND OTHER LIKE FORKS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Palmer, of Sutton Coldfield, in the County
of Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL AND OTHER
LIKE FORKS."
Sealed the 18th June 1869, and dated the 22nd December 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Palmer at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd December 1868.
I, JAMES PALMER, of Sutton Coldfield, in the County of Warwick,
3 Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL AGRICULTURAL AND HORTI
CULTURAL AND OTHER LIKE FORKS," to be as follows:-
In the ordinary method of manufacturing the said forks a bar of steel
is flattened out by forging and partially divided by a series of slits in

page_text: branches to be afterwards made into the tines of the fork. The said
branches are made into tines by hammering or drawing out. The
partially formed fork after the slitting described and before the drawing
out commences is called a mould, and I will herein-after call the fork
in this stage of its manufacture a fork mould. By this method of
manufacture a large amount of skilled labour is required and the steel is
much injured in quality in consequence of the repeated heatings and
hammerings to which it is subjected.
My Invention consists in the manufacturing the said forks by making
the fork moulds from which the said forks are made by the process of
casting. I make patterns of the shape of the required fork moulds, and I
either make the casting moulds from the said patterns in sand, or I make
metal or chill casting moulds therefrom in the ordinary manner, and I
cast melted steel in the said casting moulds so as to produce the said
fork moulds. I finish the forks from the said fork moulds made of cast
steel by forging and drawing out the same and attaching the langet
thereto in the ordinary manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Palmer in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th June 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
PALMER, of Sutton Coldfield, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in
the thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said James Palmer, Her special
licence that I, the said James Palmer, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said James Palmer, 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

page_text: vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL AND OTHER LIKE
FORKS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James
Palmer, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Palmer, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
In the ordinary method of manufacturing the said forks a bar of steel
is flattened out by forging, and partially divided by a series of slits into
branches, to be afterwards made into the tines of the fork. The said
branches are made into tines of hammering or drawing out. The
partially formed fork after the slitting described and before the drawing
out commences is called a "mould," and I will herein-after call the fork in
this stage of its manufacture a fork mould. By this method of mauu-
facture a large amount of skilled labor is required and the steel is much
injured in quality in consequence of the repeated heatings and hammer-
ings to which it is subjected.
My Invention consists in manufacturing the said forks by making
the fork moulds from which the said forks are made by the process of
casting. I make patterns of the shape of the required fork moulds, and
I either make the casting moulds from the said patterns in sand, or I
make metal or chill casting moulds therefrom in the ordinary manner,
and I cast melted steel in the said casting moulds so as to produce the
said fork moulds. I finish the forks from the said fork moulds made of
cast steel by forging and drawing out the same and attaching the langet
thereto in the ordinary manner; or the part to form the langet may be
cast in one piece with the fork mould.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents a cast steel mould
from which a three-tinc fork is to be made; Figure 2 represents a cast-

page_text: steel mould from which a four-tine fork is to be made; and Figure 3
represents a cast-steel mould from which a five-tine fork is to be made.
The said cast-steel moulds, Figures 1, 2, and 3, are cast in sand casting
moulds or metal or chill casting moulds as herein-before explained.
The cast steel mould Figure 1 consists of three branches, marked
respectively a, b, c, the branches b, c, being situated nearly at right
angles to the branch a. Between the branches b, c, is a lump d from
which the langet is, to be formed. The mould, Figure 1, is converted
into a fork by bending the branches. b, c, parallel to the branch a, as
indicated in dotted lines, by hammering or forging and afterwards
drawing out the said parallel branches a, b, c, the branches b, c, forming
the outer times of the fork and the branch a the middle tine of the fork.
The processes of forging or hammering and drawing out the branches
a, b, c, to farm the tines, and the formation of the langet from the
lump d, are of the kind ordinarily practised in the manufacture of forks
from fork moulds made in the ordinary way, I therefore do not think a
detailed description of the said processes necessary.
In making a fork from the cast fork mould, Figure 2, the branches e, f,
are bent by hammering or forging parallel to the branches g, h, as
indicated in dotted lines, and the tines are made therefrom as herein-
before explained. is the lump from which the langet is formed.
In making a fork from the cast fork mould, Figure 3, the branches
k, l, m, n, on either side the langet lump p are bent by hammering or
forging parallelt to the branch, q, as indicated in dotted lines, and the
tines are made therefrom as herein-before explained.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I
do not limit myself to the precise. details. herein described and illustrated
as the same may be varied without departing from the nature of my
Invention; but I claim as my Invention the improvements in the
manufacture of steel agricultural and horticultural and other like forks
herein before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing,
that is to say, making the said forks from fork moulds made by the
process of casting and subsequently forging and drawing out the same
and making the langet substantially as described and illustrated,
whereby fewer heatings and hammerings are required than in the

page_text: ordinary manufacture and the quality of the steel is in consequence less
injured than in the ordinary manufacture.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Palmer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw,
Birmingham.
JAMES PALMER. (L.s.)