AN IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR CUTTING GLASS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Whipp, of 86, Yorkshire Street, Rochdale,
-
and William Wood Mellor, of Ash House, Bluepits, near Rochdale,
both in the County of Lancaster, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
INSTRUMENT FOR CUTTING GLASS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Whipp and
William Wood Mellor at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 13th January 1873.
We, JOHN WHIPP, of 86, Yorkshire Street, Rochdale, and WILLIAM
WOOD MELLOR, of Ash House, Bluepits, near Rochdale, both in the
County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR CUTTING GLASS," to be as follows:-
In a stem or handle we propose to mount a revolving steel wheel or
cutter. This wheel or cutter is hardened, and has a sharp cutting edge,
which on being impressed upon the surface of the glass and moved
across revolves and cuts the glass similar to an ordinary glazier's
diamond.

page_text: SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and in pursuance of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by
the said John Whipp and William Wood Mellor in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 19th July 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
WHIPP, of 86, Yorkshire Street, Rochdale, and WILLIAM WOOD MELLOR,
of Ash House, Bluepits, near Rochdale, both in the County of Lancaster,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-sixth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said John Whipp and William Wood Mellor, Her
special license that we, the said John Whipp and William Wood Mellor,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
John Whipp and William Wood Mellor, 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 "AN IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR CUTTING
GLASS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John
Whipp and William Wood Mellor, our executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under our, or one of our, 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 we, the said John Whipp and William Wood
Mellor, 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 and accompanying

page_text: The nature of our Invention for an improved instrument for cutting
glass consists of a steel wheel mounted in a stem or handle for cutting
or fracturing glass, which is prepared, hardened, and finished as
follows:
In order that the Invention may be better understood and explained
in detail we have hereunto attached a Sheet of Drawings, having similar
letters of reference marked upon corresponding parts. Figures 1, 2, and 3,
show the full size of the instrument as we usually make it, and Figures 4
and 5 show parts of the instrument enlarged to four times the usual size,
so as to be more easily explained.
a is the stem or handle; b, the steel wheel, which is mounted or
revolves freely on a pin c, see (Figures 4 and 5); this pin is fastened in
the lower end of the stem or handle a. The steel wheel is formed so that
the two sides of the circumference or outer edge where they meet form a
right angle, as shown in Figure 4, which we find to do well, though we
do not confine ourselves to this particular angle. After the wheel has
been made as above described it is now hardened by being heated to a
bright red, and plunged into a mercury bath, when it is ready to receive
the cutting edge, which is obtained in the following manner:-On the
end of a spindle we form a pivot, on which the wheel is free to revolve.
The spindle and wheel are then held in such a position as to allow one
angle of the wheel to lie flat on the hone. A backward and forward
motion of the spindle, and a slight pressure of the wheel against the
hone, will cause the wheel to revolve, and at the same time grind up the
edge. The wheel is now reversed, and the operation repeated on the
other angle. The effect of this grinding motion is to produce a sharp
cutting edge on the wheel, admirably adapted for producing a continuous
cut or fracture on the surface of glass.
The way in which the instrument is used is as follows:-The edge of
the wheel is pressed against the glass, and moved across, when it revolves
and cuts or fractures the glass, thus accomplishing the purpose for which
an ordinary glazier's diamond is used.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, together with
the method of carrying the same into practical effect, we claim as our
Invention a revolving steel wheel mounted in a stem or handle, hardened