IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN PARTS OF UMBRELLA AND PARASOL FURNITURE
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Rubery, Umbrella and Parasol Furniture
Manufacturer, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN PARTS OF
UMBRELLA AND PARASOL FURNITURE."
Scaled the 1st April 1858, and dated the 5th October 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Rubery at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th
October 1857.
J, JOHN RUBERY, Umbrella and Parasol Furniture Manufacturer, of
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, do hereby declare the nature of
my said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN PARTS
OF UMBRELLA AND PARASOL FURNITURE," to be as follows (that is to say):-
My improvements relate to the manufacture of all the parts of umbrella
furniture that is or may be raised, or formed from sheet iron or metal,
such as ferrule caps, top tips, globe tips, ferrule knobs or tips, tube plugs,
open caps, joints for ribs, and such like articles, the manufacture of which has
heretofore been made or formed by means of suitable tools applied to a
common fly-press worked by hand; and my improvements upon such mode
consist in mounting or fitting the several tools on to a fixed bed and top bolt,
working through guide rods supported in a suitable frame; the centre bolt or
bar, to which the top tool or tools are fixed, to be connected at the top to a
crank or an excentric, on the axis of which are fixed a fast and loose pulley,

page_text: and in some instances a fly wheel, so that by such means I am enabled to
apply to the manufacture of the above-named parts of umbrella and parasol
furniture, steam, water, or other convenient power in counterdistinction to
hand labor, which make the production of such parts tedious and expensive.
And in connexion with the axis or shaft, from which the motion is derived, I
sometimes apply another excentric, by means of which I am enabled to feed
and remove the particular articles I may desire to make from the lower or top
tool, and deliver them into a receiver placed by the machine for that purpose.
These feeding and removing apparati are intended to be removed during the
time the machine is being used for cutting out the blanks, from which the
several parts are intended to be formed, as they are only necessary during
the process of raising or giving form to the several articles as before named.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Rubery in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
5th April 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
RUBERY, Umbrella and Parasol Manufacturer, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Rubery, Her special license that I, the said John Rubery, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Rubery, my
executors, administrators, or 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 THE MANU-
FACTURE OF CERTAIN PARTS OF UMBRELLA AND PARASOL FURNITURE," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Rubery, by an instrument
in writing under 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Rubery, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:-
My improvements in the manufacture of the several parts of umbrellas and
parasols, named in my Provisional Specification, consist in the cutting out and
forming them with suitable punches and tools applied or fitted to the parts by
which they are held in such a way that the up and down motion, necessary
for them to receive during the processes or operations of cutting out, forming,
&c., shall be imparted to them by steam, water, or other power in contra-
distinction to that of hand labour on which their production has heretofore
entirely depended, by which means I am enabled, not only to produce them
more rapid, but also to make them more uniform and regular in their general
character. In carrying out my Invention, I employ a mechanical arrange-
ment somewhat similar or analagous to the mechanism described and exhibited
in the Specification of a Patent granted to David Pratt, for "Certain
Mechanical Arrangements for Raising Thimbles, the same to be Worked by
Steam, Water, or other Power, thereby Superseding Hand Labour;" and
which Patent bears date the Sixteenth day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-three; and which apparatus may be said to consist of two
standards in connection with the bed or bottom piece, somewhat in the form
of a fly press, and which standards and bed may be formed of cast iron or
otherwise, as desired; and in suitable bearings formed on the top of the
standards, I apply a shaft fitted with suitable glands and screws for holding it
down. At either end of this shaft I apply a fast and loose pulley for receiving
a band from the steam engine, water wheel, or other agent used for working
the same; and I also prefer using a fly wheel, which, by preference, I apply
to the other end of the shaft, so that it may balance with the pulleys before
referred to. On this shaft, midway between the two standards, I form a crank
or an excentric, as much out of the centre as one-half of the up and down
range required for the cutting out and forming tools, by which means I obtain
an equivalent action to the one produced by the fly screw of a common press.
A vertical bolt, to which the cutting out and forming tools are applied, may be
so constructed as to carry one, two, or more tools at a time, the bolster used
being also so arranged, that as many bed tools may be applied as there are top
tools to work into them. With this arrangement I am not only able to cut out
the several blanks required for the parts I purpose making as appertaining to-
umbrella and parasol furniture, but also to partially form them at the same
operation; and in connection with this arrangement, by means of another

page_text: end of which may be supposed to be the counterpart of the cavity sunk in the
bed here represented, marked K; and I may here observe, that to form the
various articles, herein-before named, different top and bed tools must be
employed for this purpose, and, inasmuch as several of the articles named are
made or formed by progressive operations, it is evidence that the production
of each article from the flat to their greatest depth will require different tools
for each operation, which will vary, say, from two to four processes in the
forming of ferrule and open caps to globe tips, &c. The bed tool K is set
on the bolster L with set screws, in the usual way; the arm M is secured to
the upright on the left-hand side by a set screw working in a slot, so that the
arm M may be raised or lowered, as required; on the end of this arm, at p',
a self-acting pall is placed, which will be hereafter referred to; N is a cross-
headed bolt working through the horizontal guide piece C, the use of, which
will be hereafter described; O, O, is a vertical lever forked at the top for
clipping an excentric, also formed on or attached to the crank G. This lever
works on a fulcrum at Q, which fulcrum is capable of being raised or lowered
by the set screw Q', in order to regulate or adjust the throw of the lever,
which lever is forked at the bottom in a contrary direction to the top, for the
purpose of clipping a bar to which it gives motion, the front end of which is
only seen in this view, marked R, working in its support S. Before leaving
the description of this Figure, I may observe that T and T' are fast and loose
pulleys, and U a fly wheel partly broken off for the convenience of space.
Figure 2 is a top view of the bed and parts partly shewn in Figure 1, with
the standards in section, as take through V, V; of that Figure; W is a
bracket or support attached to the bolster by a screw shewn in dotted lines in
Figure 1, marked X; Y is a screw for the double purpose, first, for holding
down the feeder, not shewn in this Figure, and by passing down through the
slot Z, takes into a socket or eye formed in the arm A'; the part B repre-
sented detached at Figure 4, is a table secured on the top of U, in the last
Figure, by the screws c, c, c, c, taking into the corresponding holes marked
d, d, d, d, in Figure 2; C is the feeder held, as before stated, by the screw Y,
and which feeder rests on and works along the sunken groove marked e, e;
D' is a balance lever, partly shewn in dotted lines; this lever is secured
between ears held by a set screw at the back of the bolster. On one side of
the front end of this lever the metal is allowed to extend, in order that it may
be struck and held down by the lower end of the bolt marked N, shewn in
Figure 1. E is a delivery pan attached to an arm working on a centre at f,
having a projecting piece marked g, which stops against the back side of the
upright, as here shown; h, h, is an helical spring, the front end of which is

page_text: attached to a standard, marked 9, but which standard and spring is entirely
omitted in Figure 1; the purpose of this spring is for holding the part marked
9 in the position shewn, and that being its simple purpose, it is evident that
the same effect may be produced by an elastic cord, ring, or band otherwise
fastened. In this Figure the sliding bar R is best seen working through the
guides S, S; the projecting pins, marked n, n, n, n, are for holding the lower
or forked end of the vertical lever O, that as the lever works by means of the
excentric (before described), so the bar R is pushed forward and backward,
and as the arm A¹ which carries the carrier C¹ is attached to the front end of
it, it is evident that it must take the same motion.
Figure 3 is a vertical section with all the parts removed above the cross-
piece C, shewing a section of the shaft resting in the glands, in which it
works with the excentrics H and P, shewn in dotted lines in their respective
positions; and Figure 5 is a back view of Figure 1 (with its shaft and driving
parts removed), drawn for the purpose of exhibiting the part marked E',
attached to the horizontal guide piece by the screw m, working through the
slot p, p, by which means it may be set or regulated to its exact position. This
part is also fitted or attached to the hanging strap marked F³, by means of
the hinge joint marked 2, 1; the end of this piece is so formed that when
the cross piece C drops by the action of the crank to which it is connected,
the part of F¹ marked o will ride out over the stop marked g, shewn in a top
view at Figure 2, and in rising it will pass inside the part g, thereby bringing
the pan E' underneath the tool which at this time has just risen from the bed,
bringing up its work with it to be struck off by the pall placed on the end of
the arm M, at the part marked p, and which pall is exhibited in this Figure,
marked H', and as the cross piece C finishes its upward course the end of the
strap suddenly escaping from the stop g, allows the pan to return to the
position shewn in Figure 2, by the contracting tendency of the spring, with a
sudden jerking motion, thereby throwing out the article which has just dropped
into it from the tool into a receiver placed for that purpose; the pan and arm
to which the pan is attached is removed in Figure 3, the part of separation
being shewn by sectional lines. Figure 6 is a detached flat view of the vertical
lever O, shewing its angular form, in order to escape the cross or guide
piece C.
Having thus gone through the general description, and shewn the uses of
the several parts, I will now further describe their action by supposing the
band to be placed upon the fast pulleys and the machine put in motion; the
tool J, with the several parts connected with it, will rise and fall exact the
amount of excentricity given to the crank II, aud the vertical lever O fixed

page_text: on its fulcrum Q, will also have motion, causing its lower end to oscilate back-
ward and forward. This will give motion (as before observed) to the bar R, to
which the feeder C¹ is attached by the arm A¹, thus causing the feeder to
advance and retire at each revolution of the shaft, and the disc or partially
formed part being placed on the top in front of the feeder, it will be carried
forward and left in its required position on the bed tool underneath the front
part of the balance lever marked D, best shewn in Figure 3, ready for the top
tool to descend; but before the top tool comes in contact with the disc to be
operated on, the bolt N will have descended on the balance lever, thereby
holding down or levelling the blank which steadies it for receiving the intended
form from the tool, but during the descent of the tool the carrier has been
withdrawn ready to have another placed in front of it. The blank or disc of
metal having now received the form intended (by the descent of the top tool),
is brought out of the cavity in which it has been struck or forced by its
adhesion to the tool, which in rising causes the delivery pan to be brought
under it, and which, as it continues to rise will be stopped by its contact with
the pall H', which will strike it off from the end of the tool as it passes up,
and by this time the strap F¹ will have passed free of the part 9, when the
delivery pan will return with a jerk to its position, throwing the work into a
receiver, and so on will these operations be performed by every succeeding
revolution of the shaft.
Some of the articles I purpose thus to form by the arrangement herein-
described, are exhibited, first, at Figure 7, which is a flat and sectional view
of a ferrule cap. Figure 8 is a side and edge view of a top tip. Figure 9, a
globe tip, the neck round the lower part being formed at a subsequent opera-
tion not necessarily performed by this machine. Figure 10 is a side, top,
and sectional view of a ferrule tip, the making of which, as also ferules, is
particularly applicable to this arrangement. Figure 11 also represents a side,
top, and sectional view of a tube plug, used as the tip, exhibited in the last
Figure, for stopping up the ends of the tubular sticks, which are now greatly
used for the centre support of umbrellas and parasols. Figure 12 is a flat and
sectional view of what is called an open cap. And, lastly, I have exhibited in
a side and edge view a ribbed joint which may be cut out, pierced, and formed
with great facility by the operations of this machine; but, in conclusion, it
may be necessary to state, that I do not purpose at all times using the several
actions and motions at one time, as in the forming of some of the parts herein
exhibited, it may be found more convenient to place the work underneath
the top or forming tool by hand, as also the removing of them from the tool
or bed after their being formed. Nor do I purpose confining myself to the

page_text: exact details or mechanical motion exhibited, as their equivalent or equiva-
lents may be obtained in any other ways; nor have I thought it necessary to
exhibit in my Drawings the arrangements of the tools, whereby the blanks may
be cut out (for the several articles named), and formed at the same operation,
as the arrangement of such tools are well understood by skilful tool makers,
and may be readily applied to the working parts, as herein-before shewn,
thereby gaining the advantage in that case also of the power of steam or other
agency for giving the primary motion, the application of which to the pro-
duction of the articles herein-before named and exhibited, in contradistinction
to the making them wholly by hand labour (as heretofore, forms the claim of
these my in part recited Letters Patent.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Rubery, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the First day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
JAMES S. COCKINGS,
Patent Agent,
26, Ann Street, Birmingham.
JOHN KUBERY.
(L.S.)