IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAKING OF FISHING RODS, AND IN TOOLS FOR OR CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Jack at the Office.
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th
May 1874.
I, ALEXANDER JACK, of the City of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Fishing Rod Maker, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAKING OF FISHING
RODS, AND IN TOOLS FOR OR CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
This said Invention has reference to new or improved modes and
means of making the "slip joints" for securing or coupling the adjacent
ends of the respective conical or tapered lengths or pieces of fishing
rods, and which enable these joints to be made much faster, besides
being straighter, stronger, more secure, and easily put together for
use and taken to pieces for packing than these have been as heretofore
constructed. And the nature and novelty of this said Invention con-
sists, first, in the construction and use of a hollow spindle and a new
or improved expanding and contracting hollow chuck or boss combined,
the latter being screwed or otherwise fixed on the one end of the
spindle so as to revolve with it in a bush journal bearing frame driven

page_text: by a pulley and belt, or other equivalent means, as the driving spindle
and headstocks of turning lathes are driven and arranged, having
the hole through the spindle of such a diameter as to allow the largest
or butt length of a fishing rod to pass freely through it, and having
the small end of the conical eye of the chuck or boss so much larger
than this as to receive the various sized annular portable gripers
formed or cut into two or more sections, preferably three, to gripo
the ends of the different sized lengths of a fishing rod from the butt
to the smallest outer length to turn and fit its external and internal
socket and stem, or spigot, ferrules, or joints.
According to one construction of the new or improved griping chuck
it is made in the form of a large bollow boss with the inner part of
the eye screwed to fit tightly on a corresponding screw on the outside
of the overhanging end, of the driving spindle, and having the large
end of the internal conical part springing and extending from the
inner end of the screw to the front end and small part of the conc,
so that when whichever set of sectional gripers were inserted in this
conical eye, and the boss screwed on to the spindle in the opposite
direction to which it is turned, its inner end would force the sections
on end in the conical recess, and press them towards the centre
and each other, and cause them to gripe cach length of the rod
inserted through the internal hole in the gripers and the hollow
spindle previous to finally screwing up the boss or chuck tightly by
a screw, key, or other equivalent acting on the polygonal faces on
its outside. The several wood lengths of the fishing rods are first
turned or otherwise prepared in the ordinary manner to their respective
sizes and tapered forms before being so inserted into the turning
spindle and chuck, each with the end projecting sufficiently beyond
the latter to be turned and fitted with either its external or internal
coupling ferrule or piece of brass or other metal tubing respectively,
as desired, both of the improved construction to be herein-after described
and forming the second part or improvement of this Invention.
•
The external conical surface of the various sets of sectional ring
gripers are all turned to the same shape and size to suit their position
in the smallest end of the boss; but their internal holes are all made
of different sizes to gripe the ends of the various lengths of the rod,
requiring 8 or 9, from the size of the butt downwards, varying or
diminishing by one-eighth of an inch or so, and a portable stay or

page_text: stays with various sized holes are set or fixed beyond the hollow
spindle to bear up or steady the fore ends of the lengths or pieces
of the rods, especially of the smaller ones, while their joint ends are
being turned and fitted with their tube sockets and stem slip joints,
while by the second part or improvement of this said Invention these
sockets and stems are (by means of the herein-before described improved
tool or hollow spindle, chuck, and headstock) made with a considerable
taper by ordinary turning or boring tools both to fit the wood and
each other, much more than was done by the modes and means
heretofore employed, or without bestowing an amount of labour on
cach joint that made it practically impossible, and which makes these
improved tapered joint, socket, and stem ferrule pieces much firmer
on the wood and on each other when coupled, and more durable than
was the case with the parallel or nearly parallel slip joints heretofore.
made.
Another improvement consists in a new mode of fixing the stem
part of cach joint to its corresponding socket piece, when the several
lengths of the rod are put together for use, by forming a very small
short projection or pin on the large part of the stem piece, which,
when inserted into its socket piece, would enter a small recess cut
in from its outer end, and then be turned round into a groove cut or
embossed into the inner circumference of the socket, preferably, a little
way in from its outer end so as to hold both parts firm, and impossible
of removal except by turning round the pin again to the notch, which
is done for taking them apart and packing again without the labour
of binding and unbinding each joint by a cord, as heretofore.
The holding groove could be made annularly or spirally in the inner
surface of the socket pieces, as preferred, and either formed in them
before or after being fixed on the ends of the lengths of the rod, and
in the latter case cut while revolving in the new or improved gripers
and hollow turning spindle, and by ordinary or special tools for the
purpose.