IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FISHING RODS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Bashley Britten, of Red Hill, in the County of
Surrey, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF FISHING RODS."
Sealed the 26th February 1869, and dated the 20th November 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Bashley Britten at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 20th November 1868.
I, BASHLEY BRITTEN, of Red Hill, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF FISHING RODS," to be as follows:-
Instead of employing wood as the pliable material to be used in the
construction of rods required for the various methods of angling or
fishing I make use of steel, iron, German silver, or other suitable metal.
I construct the rods either in one length or in several pieces, connecting
them together by joints in the usual way, or by other means.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Bashley Britten in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th May 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BASHLEY
BRITTEN, of Red Hill, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of November, 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 Bashley Britten, Her special licence that
I, the said Bashley Britten, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Bashley Britten, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 THE CON-
STRUCTION OF FISHING RODS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Bashley Britten, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 Bashley Britten, 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:-
My improvements apply to the construction of rods required for
different methods of angling of a more durable and otherwise suitable

page_text: material than is now usually employed. Instead of wood for those parts
which are required to be pliant and elastic I make use of steel, iron, or
other suitable metal of such form in transverse section as will secure the
requisite longitudinal strength combined with lightness and elasticity. I
make the rods of different lengths, sizes, and proportions, and with such
fittings of the ordinary kind as are required. I construct them generally
of steel or iron in the form of tubes of very thin substance, the thickness
of metal varying from about number twenty-five to about number
thirty-three of the wire guage. The tubes are either welded or soldered,
and drawn into shape in the ordinary way, and they may be either taper
in length or parralel. They are hardened and tempered in the usual
way, or a sufficient degree of elasticity may be obtained by slightly case-
hardening them by the common process, or by coating their surfaces
with tallow or other fatty matter, and heating them to a sufficient tem-
perature to burn or carbonize the tallow, and then cooling them in the
air. The rods are made up of tubes joined together of various sizes,
becoming gradually smaller in diameter as they approach the end or
top. They may be jointed in several places, and each length between
the joints may be so arranged as to slide one within another like the
tubes of a telescope. I do not always adopt this arrangement, but when
so made I construct the ring fittings for guiding the line on little bands
of spring metal or other substance which go round the rod and clip it,
and are moveable along the rod and readily adjusted where required,
or moved up out of the way when the rod is shortened. By this means
the whole rod complete with the moveable rings can be enclosed in
the lower joint or butt by a cap and ferrule made to screw on, and it
thus becomes of easily portable dimensions like a walking stick. The
several lengths or pieces of the rod are connected by short pieces of very
thin tubular metal soldered to the ends inside the larger and outside the
smaller following length, and they are made slightly conical in opposite
directions, so that when the rod is drawn out the connecting pieces fit
into each other and tighten when pulled. The butt or largest joint of
the rod I generally make of a taper tube, and with some rods I arrange
this part that it may contain the stem or handle of a gaff or landing net
as well as the extending ring. This stem I make of one or more steel
or iron tubes like the rod. The extending ring for the net I make of
straight flat steel tempered to bend, and tinned or painted so as not to
rust.
When required it is bent into a circle with the net upon it and
attached to the stem or handle by means of a binding screw at the end,

page_text: securing the two ends of the ring piece. In order to prevent the steel or
iron rod from rusting I varnish, paint, or japan both the outer and inner
surfaces, or I give them a coating of other metal by the electro or other
process. The requisite fittings besides those mentioned may be of the
ordinary kind. I do not confine myself to the details of construction
which I have described as they may be somewhat varied. What I claim
as my improvements are,―
(1.) The construction of fishing rods of a very portable nature and of a
more durable and suitable material than wood, by employing steel, iron,
or other metal in the form of thin tubes, as described for such part or
parts of the same as may be required to bend.
(2.) I also claim for the same purpose the use of lengths or pieces of
steel or other metal made of other shape in the transverse section, such
as in the form of grooves or either solid or hollow angles, so constructed
to obtain the required combination of greater longitudinal strength and
elasticity with less proportionate weight than that of solid round wire or
bars of similar metal.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bashley Britten, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witness,
Jos". JAMES FORRESTER,
66, Mark Lane,
London.
BASHLEY BRITTEN. (L.S.)