IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF HARD INDIA-RUBBER, FOR THE PURPOSE OF RENDERING THE SAME APPLICABLE TO THE MANU- FACTURE OF PENS, TUBES, SPRINGS, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES
Year: 1856

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th February
1856. A communication.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex and of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF HARD
INDIA-RUBBER, FOR THE PURPOSE OF RENDERING THE SAME APPLICABLE TO THE MANU-
FACTURE OF PENS, TUBES, SPRINGS, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES," a communi-
cation from Charles Vincent Steinlen, of Paris, in the Empire of France,
Engineer, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar system or mode of treating hard india-
rubber, whereby a great amount of elasticity is imparted thereto, rendering
such materials particularly applicable to the manufacture of pens, tubes,
springs, and other articles requiring elasticity. The caoutchouc proposed to
be used in the manufacture of pens, springs, or other elastic articles is manu-
factured and hardened, after the manner adopted by the Paris hard india-
rubber Company, being vulcanized in sheets on plates of glass or tinned metal,
the composition consisting of about one hundred parts of gum to from forty
to fifty of sulphur. The vulcanized sheets, when intended for the manufacture
of. pens, are divided into strips of a width corresponding to the length of one

page_text: or more pens. These strips are then passed between a pair of hard polished
cast-iron or steel rollers; heated by steam internally; but before being sub-
mitted to these rollers, the material is softened slightly by exposing it to a
moderate degree of heat, in order to prevent its being broken under the rolling
process; or in place of rolling the strips they may be subjected to a hammer-
ing process, the object of both processes being to extend or draw out the strips
longitudinally, whereby a considerable degree of elasticity is imparted to them.
The strips having: being, thus treated are cut by means of shears, knives, or
other suitable cutting apparatus transversely, or in a direction at right angles
to their length, the width of the pieces cut off being sufficient to form, when
curved up, either a semicircle or an entire tube, according to the style of pen
to be made. These pieces are then nibbed and split by an apparatus similar to
that adopted for cutting quill pens, but modified to suit flat pieces in place of
tubular ones, as in quills. The pieces are then exposed for a short period to a
temperature somewhat higher than that adopted in the previous process, which.
has the effect of causing the material to shrink unequally or curl up length-
wise, the side of the material which was in contact with the. glass or metal
vulcanized plate being much more sensible of the action of heat than the upper
side of the material, so that the material will itself assume the curved or
tubular form requisite for a pen! The nibbing or cutting of the pen may; if
preferred, be effected after it has assumed the curved for tubular form, the
cutter being modified to suit such form.
Although I have described: the application of hard and elastic-india-rubber
more particularly to the manufacture of pens, yet it is obviously applicable to
other purposes where elasticity is required; as, for example, to springs, of all
kinds, whether spiral or blade-shaped..