IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANICAL KNIFE CLEANERS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Oliver Long, of Cornhill, in the City of London,
Commission Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANICAL
KNIFE CLEANERS."
Sealed the 80th January 1857, and dated the 2nd August 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Oliver Long at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd August.
1856.
I, OLIVER LONG, of Cornhill, in the City of Loudon, Commission Agent, do.
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN.
MECHANICAL KNIFE CLEANERS," to be as follows:-
My said Invention consists in a peculiar arrangement of a board or boards
on which the blades of the knives are laid flat, side by side, and their handles.
pressed or clipped by narrow boards, and screwed down, each handle being
kept apart by suitable moveable stops tightened by thumb screws. The blades
are cleaned on one side by rubbing them over with a brush dipped in emery
or other cleaning and polishing material; and they can be reversed by one
movement after unscrewing the narrow boards which clip the handles, and the
reverse side of their blades cleaned by brushing as before. I do not restrict
myself to any precise form or number of boards, or materials for covering the
same.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Oliver Long in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd February 1857..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, OLIVER
LONG, of Cornhill, in the City of London, Commission Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of August, in the year of our Lord, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Oliver
Long, Her special licence that I, the said Oliver Long, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Oliver Long, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANICAL KNIFE CLEANERS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Oliver Long, 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 per-
formed, 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 Oliver Long, 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:-
My Invention consists, first, in a peculiar combination of apparatus for
holding the handles of several knives securely between narrow boards by
means of moveable stops and thumb screws; and, secondly, my Invention
consists in combining a suitable holder for knives with a knife-board or boards,
on which the knife blades are to be cleaned, in such manner that the blades of
the knives may be laid flat, side by side, and be securely pressed down by
mechanical means on the surface of the knife-board whilst one side of the
blades is being cleaned, and then without taking the knife. handles from
between the narrow boards or holders, the whole of the. knives may be
reversed on the surface of the knife-board by one movement (after the holder

page_text: has been unfastened from the knife-board on which the blades are cleaned),
and the reverse sides of their blades cleaned as 'before. I would here state
that I am aware that it has been before proposed to place the handles of
several knives in a holder consisting of two narrow boards (with recesses to
receive the handles of knives), and to press such two narrow boards together
by thumb screws; I do not therefore claim the construction or use of holders
which hold knife handles simply by the pressure of two surfaces screwed
together. And I am also aware that it has been proposed in the Specification
of a previous Patent, to clean the blades of several knives at one time on a
board by the aid of a holder, with a handle to be held in one hand whilst the
other hand is employed in cleaning the several blades of the knives so held on
the surface of a knife-board; I do not therefore claim the same when the
holder and the knife-board used are not suitably arranged to admit of the
holder being mechanically combined with and fixed to the knife-board, and the
blades pressed on to the surface of the knife-board.
.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shows a plan of a knife-board and apparatus combined according
to my Invention; Figure 2 shows an end view; Figure 3 shows a side view of
the two narrow boards between which the handles of several knives may be
placed, and by moveable stops between such boards may be tightened or held
by thumb screws; and Figure 4 shows a transverse section of the two narrow
boards between which the knife handles are to be held. a, a, is the knife-
board on which the blades of the knives are placed, and retained securely
down thereon when being cleaned by a brush and emery, or other cleaning or
polishing material. It is preferred that the surface of the knife board a; a,
on which the blades of the' knives are held should be covered with leather.
The knife board a, a, is fixed on a board b, as shown; c is a ridge or raised
projection' on the board 6, the upper surface of which is covered with leather.
The object of this ridge is, that the outer ends of the handles of the knives
should rest on the ridge or projection, whilst the blades of the knives rest and
are pressed down on the board a, a. The knife handles are held securely by
moveable stops d, d, between the two narrow boards e, e; the two narrow
boards'e, e, aire'secured together, and they are kept parallel by the pieces f,f. The
several knife handles introduced between the narrow boards may be securely
held by means of the sliding stops d, d, and the thumb screws g, g. The

page_text: slidings stops d, d, are retained in position and guided by means of a groove in
the inner surface of one or both of the narrow boards. In order to move the
sliding pieces or stops d, d, so as to fix the handles of the knives placed
between them, screws 9, 9, are used, which pass through female screws in
the end pieces f,f; and each of the thumb screws g, g, is attached to one
of the moveable stops d, d, so as to move it to and fro. The apparatus
shown is arranged for receiving the handles of eight knives at the same time,
though a less number may be introduced, and securely held by the moveable
stops, and the handles, so introduced and held, may be of the same or of
different sizes.
It will be evident that apparatus may be made according to my Invention
to hold a greater or less number of knives than what are capable of being held
by the apparatus shown by the Drawing.
A holder capable of holding the handles of several knives may, according to
my Invention, be securely fixed to a knife-board in various ways, in order that
the several blades of the knives in the holder may be pressed down with con-
siderable mechanical force on the surface of the knife-board when one side of
the several blades are being simultaneously cleaned by a brush or rubber.
h, h', is a clamping screw and apparatus for clamping the holder e, e, on to the
knife-board. The stem h' of the clamping screw h is fixed to the board b,
as shown.
By means of this clamping apparatus the holder e will not only be securely
fixed to the knife board, but the blades will be mechanically pressed and held
down on the surface of the knife board whilst the upper surfaces of the blades
are being cleaned by brushing or by rubbing with a suitable rubber, aided by
emery or other polishing materials; and when one side of each of the blades
has been cleaned, then by one movement of the holder e (after it has been
unfastened from the board a), the whole of the knives may be reversed, and
the holder again held by the screw h; or it may be by a suitable mechanical
equivalent used therefore, and a convenient mechanical equivalent for such
purpose is an excentric or an inclined plane forced under the back edge of the
holder e, and between it and the board 6, whilst the front edge of the holder e,
or that next the knife-board a, is prevented rising by projections on the edge
of the knife-board. I, however, make no claim to the clamping apparatus h, h',
mechanical equivalents used therefor, when separately considered, nor do
I claim any of the parts separately; but what I claim is, the combination of
the parts constituting the holder with moveable stops herein described; and I
also claim the combining a knife holder with a knife-board, in such manner
or any

page_text: that the blades of the knives in the holder may be mechanically pressed on to
the knife-board.
In witness whereof, I, the said Oliver Long, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
OLIVER LONG. (L.B.)
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.