THE APPLICATION OF A NEW OR IMPROVED MATERIAL OR SUBSTANCE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN PARTS OF MACHINERY
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "THE APPLICATION OF A NEW OR IMPROVED MATERIAL OR
SUBSTANCE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN PARTS OF MACHINERY."--A
communication.
Sealed the 4th July 1854, and dated the 24th April 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th April 1854.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "THE APPLICATION OF A NEW OR IMPROVED MATERIAL
OR SUBSTANCE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN PARTS OF MACHINERY," to be as
follows:
The improved material or substance which it is intended to apply to the
construction of various parts of machinery is a preparation or combination of
caoutchouc,gutta percha, sulphur, and earthy or other suitable matters, which,
when combined and submitted to a high degree of heat, will form a very hard
material or substance, of great strength, and capable of resisting a heavy blow
or strain

page_text: This improved material already forms the subject of a previous Patent, and
the Inventor has recently discovered that this material may be most advan-
tageously applied to various useful purposes, among others, to the construction
of certain parts of machinery, more particularly of spinning and weaving
machinery, and parts of other machines where lightness combined with great
strength is required.
The principal parts for which the Inventor proposes to employ this material
are such as the shuttles and picks of looms, the spindles, pullies, rollers, and
wharves of spinning, roving, and preparing machinery, and also the bearings of
the lighter kind of machinery in general. I would remark, that by varying
the combination or proportion of the ingredients, the material or substance
may be varied in hardness, according to the particular purpose for which it is
to be employed; and, as when heated it is capable of being moulded to any
required shape, it is evident that a great amount of labour in the manufacture
of the above named or other parts of machinery for which it may be used may
be effected.
Various ingredients may also be employed for mixing with the caoutchone,
gutta percha, and other matters, in order to impart certain qualities to the
material; for instance, plumbago or black lead may be combined with the
other ingredients in the manufacture of bearings for machinery, in order to
destroy or prevent attrition or friction.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed by
the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
24th October 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year.
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said William Edward Newton, Her special license that I,
the said William Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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,

page_text: 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 "THE APPLICATION OF A NEW OR IMPROVED MATERIAL OR SUB-
STANCE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN PARTS OF MACHINERY," being a communi-
cation from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Edward Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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 William Edward Newton, 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 (that is to say) :-
This Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
relates, firstly, to the employment of an efficient substitute for the wood and
metal ordinarily used in certain moving parts of machinery; which substitute,
besides possessing persistent qualities equal to those substances when similarly
applied, will from its lightness and strength (without being subject to crack
like wood), and capability of being moulded into any required shape, offer to
the mechanical engineer advantages superior to metal or wood.
It is well known that in constructing the spindles of roving and spinning
machinery, and other parts connected therewith, it is desirable to make them
as light as is consistent with strength and durability, in order to obtain great
speed with the least possible wear and tear and expenditure of motive power.
For this purpose, the Inventor proposes to apply to such use a composition of
recent introduction into the arts, and consisting of a preparation of india-
rubber and sulphur, with or without shellac, or of gutta percha and sulphur,
subjected to a high degree of heat, and thereby converted into a hard and
persistent substance.
In constructing spindles according to this Invention, it may be found
desirable to cast or mould the warve or pulley with the spindle; and to reduce
the elasticity or rather to give any required amount of rigidity to the spindle,
a core of iron or steel wire may be introduced into the mould, aud caused to
unite with the plastic material. In manufacturing the feeding, drawing, and
other rollers of preparing and spinning machinery, the rollers are cast in suit-
able moulds (with fluted or plain peripheries), a metal rod which is to form
the axle of the roller being introduced as a core into the mould.

page_text: The employment of this hard compound in the manufacture of shuttles (for
looms) will be found to offer many advantages, from the facility with which the
ends may be tipped with metal, and the copor bobbin holder may be attached.
These pieces are to be introduced with the compound in a plastic state into
the shuttle mould, and a union of the compound with the metal will be readily
effected by pressure.
Where great lightness with durability, without the liability of cracking, is
desirable, as in the manufacture of bobbins or other such articles, this may be
obtained, by introducing into the above-mentioned ingredients of the com-
pound, while yet in course of manufacture, cork dust or chips, sawdust,
cotton waste, or other vegetable fibre, in the proportion, say, of about one part
by weight, more or less, to two parts by weight of the. other combined
ingredients.
The articles, when moulded to the required shape, are submitted to about
three hundred degrees of Fahrenheit for about six hours, after having been,
packed under pressure in moulds or iron boxes, in.a bed of fine plaster or
soapstone, ground to an impalpable powder. In making the plastic material
for the aforesaid purposes, the following ingredients in the proportions specified
may be employed indifferently to produce the like result, viz:-One part by
weight of sulphur to two parts by weight of india-rubber or gutta percha, or
one part by weight of india-rubber and of gum shellac to one part by weight
of sulphur.
Secondly, this Invention relates to the employment of the hard persistent
material produced, as above mentioned, as a substitute for the brasses or metal
filling of bearings of machinery; and in order to adapt it the better to this
purpose, from I seventy-five to one hundred per cent., more or less (by weight),
of plumbago or black lead is added during the manufacture to the component
parts of the material, and thus a substance incapable of abrasion by friction,
but susceptible by that means of a higher polish, is obtained. The bearings
are moulded in the manner above described, and when moulded are in like
manner subjected to heat, under pressure, for the purpose of effecting the con-
version of the plastic compound-into-a-hard-substance, and that without injury
to the form of the moulded article.
Having now described the nature of the Invention, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I wish it to be understood that under the above
in part recited Letters Patent I claim,―
First, the employment in the manufacture of spindles, wharves, rollers,
shuttles, and other "live" or running parts of machinery, where strength

page_text: combined with lightness is required, of either of the plastic compounds above
referred to, which are indifferently capable of being converted by heat into a
hard persistent substance and of combining with metal, as above described
Secondly, I claim the employment of compounds above mentioned (either
with or without the introduction of the vegetable matters above referred
to for decreasing the specific gravity of the compound), in the manufacture
of bobbins and such like articles.
Thirdly, I claim the employment of the compound above mentioned, either
with or without the use of plumbago, in the manufacture of bearings for
machinery.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)