IMPROVEMENTS IN PENHOLDERS, AND WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF UMBRELLA AND PARASOL STICKY, CORNICE POLES AND OTHER SUCH LIKE ARTICLES."
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Sommerville and Charles Twigg, both
of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PENHOLDERS, AND WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE
APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF UMBRELLA AND PARASOL STICKY,
CORNICE POLES AND OTHER SUCH LIKE ARTICLES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Sommer-
ville and Charles Twigg at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 6th September 1853.
We, ALFRED SOMMERVILLE and CHARLES TWIG. do hereby declare
the nature of our said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PENHOLDERS, ANT
WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF
UMBRELLA AND PARASOL STICKS, CORNICE POLES, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE
ARTICLES," to be as follow:-
For the manufacture of penholders we provide a pair of rollers of
about twelve inches diameter, and five or sixth inches wide, that bee.

page_text: the length of a common penholder. The face of the rolls are
grooved parallel to their axis, such grooves been shaped according to
the form we require the finished penholder. But.in order that we may
be well understood we annex a Drawing showing sufficient of the rolls
(in end views, Figs. 1, and 2,) to be understood. We next require the
material of which we propose making the penholders, which is the
prepared pulp commonly used in the manufacture of paper, which, by
means of suitable feeding aparatus, we pass between the rolls, squeezing
the pulp into the cavities, making as many holders at cach revolution
of the rolls as the number of grooves on their face. And by the same
means as herein described we propose to make sticks for parasol,
umbrellas, and such like articles; the rolls been made long enough
and the grooves large enough for the size sticks that may be required.
For making cornice poles and such like articles we adopt the following
plan:-We take the paper pulp, as in the first case, and by means of
suitable moulds or grooved rolls we form a continueous strip of com-
pressed pulp or paper board, as represented in the Drawing, Fig. 3, and
in section, Fig. 4; this strip of paper board we bind around a suitable
metal tube in the form shown at Fig. 5, untill we have a sufficient
length for the cornice pole required. The next stage is to japan and
stoved in the usual way, when the metal tube may be withdrawn,
leaving the outer one (now a paper tube) to be finished in the usual
way of finishing japaned goods.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Sommerville and Charles Twigg in the
County Great Scal Patent Office on the 6th March 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
ALFRED SOMMERVILLE and CHARLES TWIGG, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by IIer
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the

page_text: seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Ierself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Alfred Sommerville and Charles
Twigg, Her special licence that we, the said Alfred Sommerville and
Charles Twigg, our executors, administrators, or assigns, or such others
as we, the said Alfred Sommerville and Charles Twigg, our 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 PENHOLDERS, & WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO THE
MANUFACTURE OF UMBRELLA AND PARASOL STICKS, CORNICE POLES, AND OTHER
SUCH LIKE ARTICLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
Alfred Sommerville and Charles Twigg, by an instrument in writing
under our 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 we, the said Alfred Sommerville and Charles
Twigg, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say):
Our Invention may be said to consist in the application of an old
and well-known material to new purposes, as also in the appliances
necessary in giving form to the various articles we propose making
with such material. And we may observe that, besides penholders, we
have found it applicable to the manufacture of sticks for umbrellas and
parasols, cornice or curtain poles and rings, whether such be used to
windows or beds, and other such like articles not having heretofore been
made of such material, and which material consists of the pulp from
which paper is or may be made; and as the material is well known, a
description of it is unnecessary. The means we propose using to give
form to the articles before named is by passing the material between
a pair of rollers, on the face of which cavities are sunk the exact

page_text: counterparts of each other, such cavities being the inverted form of the
article we propose making, and in some instances we employ suitable
dies and pressure, such pressure as may be derived from the use of a
common fly press, and when great bulk is required we prefer making
the article hollow, as it gives us the double advantage of adding strength,
if required, as also economizing the material. But in order that we
may be thoroughly understood we have considered it necessary to
exhibit in detail the various ways by which we realize our object, and
for that purpose we will refer to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and
proceed to describe the same.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING.
Figure 1, represents an edge view of a pair of rolls grooved across
their face, suitable for penholders, parallel to their axis; and Figure 2,
represents a section of the same rolls, which rolls will be required to
be properly geared, so that the cavities will always come exactly oppo-
site each other when in motion, forming a perfect circle of the two as
they meet, and as exhibited at A. It is not necessary that the cavities
should be of a circular form, as the result would be the same if they
were angular, taper, or otherwise. B, is the lower part of the feeding
trough, shewn also in section, and according to the height the sides of
the feed trough is carried up and supplied with a column of pulp, so
the pulp will be delivered to the rolls in a less moist and stiffer con-
dition for work, as the moisture will be forced through the wire gauze
a', a', a', shewn by the yellow dotted line, and thence through the holes
in the bottom of the trough, which trough is also provided with a
fender C, C, working up and down in the side grooves, and is secured
to the front board D, by the screw E. The use of this fender is for
regulating the quantity or flow of pulp to the rolls, which by their
revolving slow in the direction of arrows the cavities will fill with
pulp, thus making as many penholders at each revolution of the rolls
as there are cavities on their face. These penholders so made will have
to be divided and finished by japanning and polishing in the ordinary
way of finishing japan or papier machee goods. It may be necessary
in some instances, after they are divided, and before drying, to pass

page_text: them between a pair of dies, taking care that the parts through which
they have been disunited in the first process shall come at the top and
bottom of the dies, which will have the effect of giving them a more
regular form, and greater density, in which process they may be slightly
tapered in the part that enters the pen, and made round and uniform
at the other. In some instances we prefer forming the pulp into thick
sheets of a width, say, the lengthway of a penholder, and of any con-
venient length, such sheets being felted in the usual way; but before
being perfectly dry and hard we pass it through the rolls forming it
into penholders, superseding the necessity of the feeding trough or
apparatus above described. Fig. 3, represents a roll and part of
another, with the grooves running around their periphery at right
angles to the axis, and which form of rolls we prefer, as they are less
difficult to set and to repair after use, which is necessary, as the pulp.
whether in sheets or otherwise, is a material that very soon wears
away the keen edges dividing the grooves from each other. By the
use of such rolls it is obvious, by their being put in motion and regu-
larly supplied with the pulp, in either of the forms described, we should
be turning out continuous sticks of hard compressed pulp, the com-
pactness or density of which may be regulated according to the feed,
or the amount of heat that may be given to the rolls while in work
for evaporating the moisture that may be in the paper or pulp, such
heat being applied by steam through the axis of the rolls, they being
also hollow. Such continuous sticks should be cut off in suitable lengths
as they pass from the rolls on to a table or bed for receiving them,
whether such sticks be for penholders, parasols, umbrellas, or other
purposes. This form of roll does not deprive us of the advantages
presented in Figures 1, and 2, as the grooves in this Figure may also be
diversified and altered to any shape or size required. Fig. 4, represents
a part of a large size curtain pole, sufficient being drawn to enable us
to convey our intentions. We take a mandril, say of the size of F,
and having prepared a continuous strip of pulp by the aid of a pair of
rolls, or otherwise, as described, such strip being exhibited in section at
H, Figure 5, and in the flat at G, in the same Figure, and which strip
we wind around the mandril in the spiral form shewn until we have it

page_text: of the desired length, using glue, paste, or other adhesive material to
unite the edges as we wind it around the mandril, after which it is
allowed to dry, and the mandril withdrawn, when the pole or paper tube
may be japanned, stoved, and finished in the manner in which papier
machee goods are usually finished. Instead of F, being a solid mandril,
it may be a thin iron tube, and be allowed to remain covered by the
pulp in the manner shewn, which would materially add to the strength
of the pole. And we may also observe that this mode may be necessary
in some description of sticks for parasols or umbrellas, nor is it difficult
to prepare the strip G, of a graduated thickness, so that if wound upon
a parallel tube it may present when finished a taper or other form.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner
in which the same may be carried into effect, we wish it understood
that what we claim as our Invention is, the application of paper in a
semi-formed state or paper pulp, to the manufacture of such like
articles as we have enumerated, whether such be made by rolls, as
herein described, or by dies and pressure directly applied.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Sommerville, have hereunto
set my hand. and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
ALFRED SOMMERVILLE. (L.S.)