A NEW OR IMPROVED COMPOSITION OR NEW OR IMPROVED COMPOSITIONS, AND MACHINERY FOR PRESSING OR MOULDING THE SAME, WHICH MACHINERY IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO MOULDING OR PRESSING OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
HINKS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and
EUGENE NICOLLE, of Birmingham aforesaid, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of
April, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the fifteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
John Hinks and Eugene Nicolle, our exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said John Hinks
and Eugene Nicolle, our exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said John Hinks and Eugene Nicolle, our exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED COMPOSITION OR
NEW OR IMPROVED COMPOSITIONS, AND MACHINERY FOR PRESSING OR MOULDING THE
SAME, WHICH MACHINERY IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO MOULDING OR PRESSING OTHER
SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that we,

page_text: the said John Hinks and Eugene Nicolle, or one of us, should cause a particular
description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals,
or under the hand and seal of one of us, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John Hinks and Eugene Nicolle, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon, that is to say :-
Our new or improved compositions consist of mixtures of gutta percha
with either farinaceous matters or with woody fibre or with both. The
farinaceous matters we prefer to use are wheat and barley flour, or potatoe,
wheat, or other starch. The proportions of one part by weight of gutta percha
to two parts of wheat flour give a composition sufficiently hard to be used for
the manufacture of the small boxes herein-after referred to, but the proportions
may be varied.
We prefer to use woody fibre in the form of hemp or flax
cut short. The addition of woody fibre gives great toughness to gutta percha
or mixtures of gutta percha and flour or starch. The mixture of the gutta
percha with the said farinaceous or fibrous matter is effected by means of
heated rollers; the said rollers are heated by means of steam introduced into
their interior, and are made to revolve with different velocities, so that the
matter rolled between them is not only compressed and extended, but also
kneaded or mixed. After its removal from the rolls the composition while
still hot is made into sheets and cut into pieces of a suitable size for making
the articles into which it is to be manufactured. Before pressing or moulding
our improved compositions in the machinery herein-after described, and repre-
sented in the accompanying Drawing, the pieces into which the said composi-
tion has been cut are warmed by being placed for a time in a hot air chamber
or oven heated by gas, steam, or fire; they are then transferred to the machine
herein next described.
Figure 1 represents in front elevation, Figure 2 in vertical section, and
Figure 3 in plan, our improved machine for pressing and forming boxes, and
the lids of boxes, to be used for packing or containing steel pens and other
small articles Figures 4 and 5 represent the former in plan, the latter in

page_text: b
vertical section, a portion of the said machine. a is the main shaft of the
machine furnished at one end with the loose pulley 6 and fixed pulley c, and
at the other end with the fly wheel d. e is a screw which engages in the
teeth of the worm wheels f and g. The axis f¹ and g' of the said wheels f
and work in bearings in the frame of the machine, as seen in Figure 2.
h, i, are cams on the axis f¹ (the cam i is shewn in dotted lines in Figure 1),
and is a disc on the axis g' furnished with a groove or hollow cain k on its
face of the form shewn in Figure 1. is a slide working in the guides m, n,
furnished with an opening, in which the cam i engages. The cam h acts
against the roller h' on the upper part of the frame 1. The said slide / carries
at its bottom the plunger or dio o. On the rotation of the axis f¹ the slide
rises and falls, the cam h raising and the cam i depressing the said slide.
p is a stage or platform forming part of the framing or base of the machine,
on which are fixed the dies or moulds herein-after particularly described. q.is
a bolt or plunger passing through the stage or platform p and the collar r.
A pins fixed on the lower end of the said bolt or plunger q engages in the
groove or hollow cam k on the face of the plate or disc j. By the rotation of
the axis g' the bolt or plunger q is raised and lowered.
Figure 5 represents in vertical section a series of steel plates t, t¹, t", £;
which constitute a mould suitable for making lids of boxes. The said steel
plates have rectangular openings cut in their middles of the forms and
proportions represented in Figures 4 and 5. When the several parts of the
machine are in the positions represented in the Drawing, a cake or sheet of
the plastic substance to be pressed or moulded is laid in the die t' on the top
of the plunger q. The said cake of plastic substance is indicated in Figure 5
by dotted lines. By the rotation of the axis g' the plunger or die o is made
to descend, and pressing the plastic substance supported on the top of the
bolt or plunger q, forces a portion of the said plastic substance into the space
between the sides of the said bolt or plunger q and the sides of the opening
in the plate or die t, and thus moulds or forms a box lid. The sectional form
of the lid thus produced is indicated by the part coloured blue in Figure 5.
After the lid has thus been pressed or moulded the die o is raised out of the
mould, and the bolt or plunger q is afterwards raised with the lid on its top.
When the said lid is sufficiently raised to be taken hold of it is removed from
the said bolt or plunger q, and the several parts of the machine assuming the
positions represented in the Drawing, a second cake or sheet of plastic
substance is introduced into the mould, and the formation of a second lid
proceeded with, and so forth. The boxes which we form in our machine

page_text: differ from the lids (the formation of which has just been described) only in
the sides of the said boxes having a shoulder on which the said lids drop and
fit. The said shoulder is produced by substituting for the plate or die t
a plate or die having a shoulder of the size and form corresponding to that
to be produced on the sides of the said boxes. The several motions of the
die o and bolt or plunger 9 are effected and made to follow each other in the
succession herein described by the rotation of the shaft a operating upon
the wheels f, g, axis f', g', and cams h, i, k, the said cams having the relative
positions on their respective axes represented in the Drawing. The plates
t, t, t, t, may either be fixed on the platform p by screws, as shewn in
Figure 4, or in any other convenient manner. Instead of the rectangular die,
plunger, and mould represented, dies, plungers, and moulds of a circular,
elliptical, or of a polygonal or other figure may be substituted, and lids and
boxes of a corresponding form produced, or dies, plungers, and moulds may be
used of various ornamental or other forms, so as to produce various articles of
a useful or ornamental character.
Although we believe our machine to be especially suited to the manufacture
of boxes to be used for packing or containing steel pens or other small
articles, yet it may be used for pressing and moulding plastic substances
generally.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that we do
not limit ourselves to the precise methods of carrying our Invention into effect
herein described, and represented in the accompanying Drawing, as the same
may be varied without departing from the nature of our said Invention. But
we claim,―
Firstly, the composition or compositions herein described of gutta percha
and farinaceous matter, and gutta percha and woody fibre, or of gutta percha
with both farinaceous matter and woody fibre.
Secondly, the method herein described, and represented in the accompanying
Drawing, of constructing a machine for pressing or moulding our improved
composition or compositions into boxes for packing or containing steel pins
and other small articles, and the application of the said machine to the
pressing of plastic substances generally.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Hinks, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty 28th day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
JOHN (L.S.) HINKS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of October,
in the year of our, Lord 1852, the aforesaid John Hinks came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
5 above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.