'A' SHAVING Box, UPON AN ENTIRE NEW CONSTRUCTION, THE MANNER OF USING WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE PETITIONER'S SAID INVENTION, WOULD VERY MUCH FACILITATE THE OPERATION OF SHAVING, AND BE OF GREAT PUBLIC UTILITY,
Year: 1782

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, JAMES
PLAYFAIR, of Howland Street, in the Parish of Pancras, in the County of
Middlesex, Surveyor, sends greeting.
WHEREAS the said James Playfair did, by his Petition, humbly represent
unto His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third that he had, by
long study and at great expence, invented ".
'A' SHAVING Box, UPON AN ENTIRE
NEW CONSTRUCTION, THE MANNER OF USING WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE PETITIONER'S
SAID INVENTION, WOULD VERY MUCH FACILITATE THE OPERATION OF SHAVING, AND
BE OF GREAT PUBLIC UTILITY," the said Petitioner therefore prayed His said
Majesty to grant unto him, the said James Playfair, his exors, adññiors, and
assigns, His Majestie's Royal Letters Patent for the sole making and vending
of the said shaving box for the term of fourteen years, according to the form
of the Statute in that case made and provided; and His said Majesty, being
pleased to condescend to his request, did, by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of November, in the twenty-
third year of His reign, give and grant unto the said James Playfair, his
exors, adñiors, and assigns, especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that he, the said James Playfair, his exors, admors, and assigns,
by himself and themselves, or by his or their deputy or deputies, servants or
agents, or such others as he, the said James Playfair, his exors, adñiors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend his said Invention within that
part of His said Majestie's Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His

page_text: Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in His
Colonies and Plantations abroad, in such manner as to him, the said James
Playfair, his exors, admors, and assigns, or any of them, should in his or their
discretion seem meet; and that he, the said James Playfair, his exors, admors,
and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit,
benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing,
accruing, and arising by reason of the said Invention, for and during the term
of years
therein mentioned; to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence,
powers, privileges, and advantages therein-before granted or mentioned to be
granted unto the said James Playfair, his exors, admors, and assigns, for and
during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date of the
said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat
and ended, according to the Statute in that case made and provided; in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if the said James
Playfair should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of his said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instru-
ment in writing under his hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled
in the High Court of Chancery within four calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters
Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should
utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything therein-before contained
to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding, as in and by the said
Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that he, the said James Playfair, in pursuance of the
said recited proviso, doth by this instrument in writing, under his hand and
seal, particularly describe and ascertain the nature of his said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, in manner and form
following; that is to say:-
The method by which the operation of shaving is facilitated and rendered
more comfortable consists in a contrivance for warming and keeping the vessell
or box warm in an effectual manner, in which the lather of soap, oil, shaving
powder, or any other substance used for shaving is made, by immersing the
bottom, or bottom and sides, wholly or in part into hot water, or any other hot
liquid, or by bringing it in contact with any heated piece of metal or other
heated substance, or so nearly in contact with it that the heat may pass
in some degree from the heated body to the box. Another contrivance for
heating it is by means of a lamp, or by any burning substance; methods for
doing all of which ar represented in the attached Drawings, and are explained
and described below.
Figure 1st, plan and section, which may be full size. A, represents a vessell

page_text: of silver, copper, pewter, tin, or any other metal, or any composition of metals,
applicable to the purpose of making a lather of soap in, and made of a con-
venient size, such, or nearly such, as the boxes commonly called shaving boxes
or soap boxes, having projecting edges all round, which are fitted to the mouth
of a larger and deeper vessell B in such a manner that the vessell B be filled
with water nearly to the top (suppose to C). The vessell A shall be in part
immersed in the water, and, if the water is hot, the vessell A, and the lather
contained therein, shall be heated. It is in contrivances for doing this
effectually that the Invention consists; but to render it the more convenient,
there is a hole in one side of the projecting edge for admitting a brush to be
dipt through into the hot water. This hole is marked D in the Drawing.
E is a hole on the other side of the soap box, also in the projecting edge, for
admitting a razor to be dipt through into the hot water. F is a scale of equal
parts, engraved or otherwise made on the inside of the vessell B, serving
to shew the height to which the hot water is filled into it, which scale is
divided into three lines of divisions, all similar to one another, only that one
stands higher than another, so that boiling water, when filled to any number
on the higher scale, will give the same degree of heat in winter to the box in
which the soap is contained that it will give in summer when filled to a
corresponding number on the lowest scale, or in spring or autumn the
corresponding degree on the middle scale at a medium temperature of the
weather. When the lather is to be made of shaving powder or oil, this is the
construction that I think best; but when it is to be made of soap, it is better
to keep the end of the soap box into which the soap is to be put as cool as may
be, that the soap in that end may not be melted, nor too much softened by the
heat. This may be done by covering that part of the box with an outside case
of metal or other substance, so as to keep the hot water from coming into
contact with that part. Another way is by lining the inside of the soap box
where the soap is to be put with ivory, wood, or any other substance that does
not conduct heat soon nor in any great quantity.
.
Figure 2d, plan and section, half the size,. of another construction, but
intirely the same in its principles. A is a wide vessell of silver, tin, or any
other metal or mixture of metals, having another lesser vessell B fixed upon
one side of it in such manner that one part of the vessell B shall be within the
vessell A, and the other part without it, in such manner that when the vessell
A is filled with hot water the part of the vessell B marked C may be heated by
the water, and the part marked D remain cold, or at least not so much heated.
By this means the part marked C will be suited for making the lather, and
the part marked D for containing the soap.

page_text: Figure 3d, plan and section of another method, which is nearly similar to
that last described, except that the lesser vessell B, in which the lather is
to be made, is fixed in the middle, or at least all within the larger vessell A,
having one end covered with a case, in the same manner as that described in
Figure 1st, to prevent that part from being heated.
Figure 4th, section and plan of a shaving or soap box of a size fit for
making a lather, in having a hollow or recess in the bottom of it marked A,
fitted for admitting a hot piece of metal or other substance, in the manner of
the hollow that is commonly in a box iron for smoothing of linen, for receiving
a heater. This hot piece of metal is to give heat to the part of the box that is
meant to be kept warm, and in which the lather is to be made.
Figure 5th, section representing a soap or shaving box of metal or other
substance, having under it a piece of heated iron or other matter supported by
a frame or by any other means, which metal or other substance, when heated,
will communicate heat to the box..
Figure 6th represents a soap or shaving box, having supporters, and a lamp
fixed under it, so ás to make it hot when it is wanted to be so.
These are the methods that I have thought it best to specify, as being those
that I approve. most of; but as it is impossible for me to specify all the
different forms and constructions that may possibly be made, it is to be
considered in general that the Invention consists in a contrivance for warming
and keeping warm in an effectual manner the vessell or box in which the
lather of soap, oil, shaving powder, or any other substance used for shaving is
made by immersing the bottom, or bottom and sides, wholly and in part into
hot water or other hot liquid, or by the application of hot metal, or any other
heated or burning substance whatever, or in whatsoever method it may be
thought best to apply it.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Playfair, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Third day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and eighty-three.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the
presence of
B. KIRKHAM,
JAMES (L.B.). PLAYFAIR.
Symond's Inn.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of January, in the
year of our Lord 1783, the aforesaid James Playfair came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statutes made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King and
Queen W and Mary of England, and so forth; and in the seventeenth
of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third.
year
Inrolled the Fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-three.