IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE LIGHTERS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN MANU- FACTURING THE SAME."
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Hextall at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd August 1877.
$6
JOSEPH HEXTALL, of Balsall Heath, in the County of Worcester, Gentleman.
IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE LIGHTERS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN MANU-
FACTURING THE SAME."
My Invention consists in combining and securing together, in the manner herein-
after described, the bars or pieces of wood of which the fire lighter is composed,
whereby the fire lighters are very compact, and are manufactured inexpensively..
My Invention consists further of the apparatus herein-after.described to be used
in manufacturing the said fire lighters.
I make the fire lighters of a series of parallel bars or pieces of wood strung and
supported at short distances apart upon a middle piece or rod of wood passing
through the whole of the bars or pieces.
I make in the middle of each bar or piece a circular or nearly circular hole,
through which the middle piece or supporting rod is passed. After the middle piece
or supporting rod has been passed through the middle hole in each of the equi-
distant parallel bars of which the fire lighter is composed the fire lighter is dipped
to about two-thirds of the depth of the bars into a mixture of melted rosin and
paraffin, the said mixture covering the middle piece or supporting rod upon which
the bars are strung and supported. By means of the mixture of rosin and paraffin
the bars are securely fixed upon the middle supporting rod, and the said mixture,
by its ready inflammability, promotes the combustion of the fire lighter when the
latter is ignited.
I do not limit myself to the mixture described for securing the bars upon the
central supporting rod, as other adhesive and inflammable mixtures or materials may
be used.
For the purpose of readily placing or arranging the bars of the fire lighter equi-
distantly upon the central rod, I prefer to use a gauge and support constructed as
follows:-The said gauge and support consists of a block having in it a series of
cross slots or openings arranged at the same distances apart as the parallel bars of
[Paving 271

page_text: the fire lighter to be made; these slots are about half the depth of the said bars,
and are open at one end and closed at the other end, the closed ends forming stops
or gauges for the bars. Along the middle of the block and on its upper side a
trough or depression is made of a size and shape proper to receive the supporting
middle piece or rod of the fire lighter. After the bars or pieces of wood have been
placed in the slots of the block, the several holes in them coincide and also coincide
with the middle 'groove or depression in the block; and the middle supporting rod
or piece can now be readily passed through the holes in the several bars. The bars
thus strung and supporced upon the middle rod may now be lifted from the block
by the said middle rod, and dipped into the mixture of rosin and paraffin, as before
described, for fixing the bars upon the said rod.
When the mixture has cooled and solidified the manufacture of the fire lighter is
complete.