METALLIC INSTRUMENTS TO BE USED AS SUBSTITUTES FOR BRISTLES IN SEWING, STITCHING, CLOSING, AND OTHERWISE JOINING BOOTS AND SHOES AND OTHER LEATHER WORK
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Marshall, of 12, Gate Street, Lincoln's
Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Commercial Clerk, and
William Marshall, of No. 200, Regent Street, in the same County,
Gentleman, for the Invention of "METALLIC INSTRUMENTS TO BE USED
AS SUBSTITUTES FOR BRISTLES IN SEWING, STITCHING, CLOSING, AND OTHERWISE
JOINING BOOTS AND SHOES AND OTHER LEATHER WORK."
Sealed the 17th December 1863, and dated the 24th September 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Marshall and
William Marshall at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 24th September 1863.
We, THOMAS MARSHALL, of No. 12, Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
in the County of Middlesex, Commercial Clerk, and WILLIAM MARSHALL,
of No. 200, Regent Street, in the same County, Gentleman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "METALLIC INSTRUMENTS TO
BE USED AS SUBSTITUTES FOR BRISTLES IN SEWING, STITCHING, CLOSING, AND
OTHERWISE JOINING BOOTS AND SHOES AND OTHER LEATHER WORK," to be as
follows:-
The instruments which we propose as such substitutes for bristles may be
used in sewing, stitching, closing, or otherwise joining all kinds of leather
work; they are made of any metallic wire of suitable thickness, either
doubled or single. When used doubled the wire is cut into suitable lengths,
and bent in the middle and twisted together from that point up to a proper

page_text: distance from the ends, which are left untwisted for the purpose of attaching
the instrument to the wax-end in the manner in which bristles are usually
attached, the point at which the wire is bent is compressed so as to make it of
uniform thickness with the twisted part. When used single the wire is cut
into the required lengths; one extreme end is rounded and made smooth, and
from that point downwards the wire is roughened for a short distance, and the
other end is split to a suitable distance for the purpose of attaching it to
the wax-end as aforesaid; or one end is roughened, and made smooth and
round at the extremity as aforesaid, and the other end is slightly curled or
twisted or otherwise roughened, and a hole is made at or near the middle
through which the point of the wax-end is to be passed in attaching it to the
instrument. After the instruments are manufactured in either of the above
forms they may be enamelled, painted, whitened, or electro-plated, either
wholly or in part, by any of the known processes, or the wire may be so
treated in the first instance. The object of this treatment is to give the
instruments a white or other light color in order that they may be easily
discernible by the workman when using them.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Marshall and William Marshall in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 18th March 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
MARSHALL, of 12, Gate Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Commercial Clerk, and WILLIAM MARSHALL, of No. 200, Regent
Street, in the same County, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Thomas Marshall and William Marshall, Her special licence that
we, the said Thomas Marshall and William Marshall, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Marshall and
William Marshall, 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, exer-
cise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man an Invention for "METALLIC INSTRUMENTS

page_text: TO BE USED AS SUBSTITUTES FOR BRISTLES IN SEWING, STITCHING, CLOSING, AND
OTHERWISE JOINING BOOTS AND SHOES AND OTHER LEATHER WORK," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas Marshall and William:
Marshall, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
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 Thomas Marshall, on behalf of myself and
the said William Marshall, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
In the manufacture of wax-ends used for sewing, stitching, and closing boots,
shoes, and other articles made of leather it is usual to employ bristles at the
ends; these bristles at one of their ends are solid or unsplit, whilst the ends of
the bristles which are directly attached to the wax-ends are split in order that
the separate or split parts may be twisted with and amongst the fibres of which
the wax-ends are composed.
Now our Invention consists in manufacturing metallic instruments each
consisting of an unsplit end, and a split or separated end forming tails of a
character suited to be twisted with and amongst the fibres of which wax-ends
are composed.
The manner in which these metallic instruments are formed may be varied,
and such is the case in respect of the metal used; we however prefer in most
cases to use steel; and we find that it is desirable that the solid part of each
instrument which represents the solid or unsplit part of a bristle should be
comparatively hard and tempered to a spring of moderate temper, whilst the
tails or separate ends which in use represent the split or separated ends of a
bristle should be comparatively soft so as to admit of such tails or separate ends
being twisted with and amongst the fibres of which a wax-end is composed,.
such tails or separate ends not having such a degree of hardness or spring as
to separate from the fibres of which the wax-end is composed when once
twisted with and amongst such fibres.
One form of metallic instrument made according to our Invention consists
in bending a piece of wire at the middle of its length when the wire, is in a
soft state, and then twisting the wire for such a length as to be suitable to act
in like manner to that in which the solid or unsplit part of a bristle has
heretofore acted; this twisted part of the wire, if of steel, may then be tempered

page_text: so as to give it an extra degree of hardness and elasticity as compared with
the tails. In applying such a metallic instrument to a wax-end, the tails or
separate ends of the wire are twisted with and amongst the fibres of which
the wax-end is composed in the same manner as the split or separated ends
of a bristle are attached to a wax-end and such metallic ends or separate tails
being soft will not spring back when they have been once twisted with the
fibres of the wax-end. When the class of work to be done will allow of a
thickness of wire being used which will admit of being split, then metallic"
instruments may be made according to our Invention by splitting one end of
each piece of wire, the split or separate parts of which are to be retained in a
soft state, whilst, if of steel, the solid or unsplit parts may be tempered. When
making this form of instrument the, points or ends of the solid parts may be
ground somewhat pointed.
Another form in which a metallic instrument may be made according to
our Invention is by having the solid part or body and the separate ends or
tails composed of two separate pieces of wire, and these two pieces are to be
combined together by the aid of an eye or eyes in the solid part or body.
When making this form of metallic instrument it is desirable that the two
sides of the solid part or body should be grooved above the eye or eyes, as in
an ordinary sewing needle, in order that the wire tails used to twist in with
the fibres of the wax-end (which in this construction may be said to form that
end of the wax-end which is attached to the body of the instrument) may lie
within the grooves on either side of the body or solid part of the instrument,
and it is preferred in this, as in the previous construction, that the end of the
body or solid part of the instrument should be somewhat pointed. When
making the body of such an instrument with only one eye, such eye should be
made at a somewhat greater distance than that at which the one eye of an
ordinary sewing needle is made, and above the eye the upper end is to be
made slightly curled or twisted into a spiral form, so to speak, a second or
open eye; and in order that such spiral or twisted form may not greatly
increase the diameter, it is preferred that the diameter of the metal above the
eye should be reduced, and that the spiral twisting above the eye should be
brought as nearly as may be to the diameter of the instrument below the eye.
A piece of finer and soft wire is to be passed through the eye and bent at
the middle of its length upwards so as to produce two tails or separate ends,
which are conducted up through and lie within the spiral. The ends of the
fibres of which the wax-end is composed are brought to the spiral, and the
separate ends or tails of soft wire are carried up amongst the fibres, and the
whole are twisted together, by which the body of the instrument will be fixed

page_text: securely to the end of the wax-end. It is preferred that the body or solid
part of the instrument should be somewhat pointed, and, if of steel, tempered to
the degree of elasticity desired. In place of making the body or solid part of
the instrument with one eye through the stem, and a spiral passage or eye at
the upper end to receive the tails, as above explained, such body may be made
with two eyes through its stem, in which case the length of soft wire to form
the tails or separate ends (which are to be twisted in with the fibres) is passed
through the lower eye, then one tail of the soft wire is to be passed through the
upper eye from one side, and then the other tail or separate end of the soft
wire is to be passed through the upper eye from the other side, or there may
be two upper eyes, one for each tail or separate end of the soft wire. The
instrument is preferred when of steel to be uncoated, but when of brass
it may be coated in like manner to pins, or it may be painted or covered by
electro-plating.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Marshall, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of March, in the year of our Lord,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
THOMAS MARSHALL. (L.S.)