Novel or Improved Construction of Screwdriver.
Year: 1896

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Novel or Improved Construction of Screwdriver.
We, HENRY JOHN LAW, and GEORGE CHARLES LAW, trading together in
co-partnership as H. J. Law and Son, of Victoria File Works, Merridale Street,
Wolverhampton in the County of Stafford, File Manufacturers and General
Hardware Merchants, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:-
This invention has for its object the construction of a screwdriver, more especially
of the smaller kind such as is used by cyclists, which shall be extremely strong
and portable, and not liable to be injured by rough usage.
The above object is effected, according to this invention, by forming the blade
and handle of the screwdriver entirely in one piece of metal, and preferably out
of a single piece of sheet or thin plate metal, the handle forming a T-head to the
blade. The blank for each article may be cut out from a metal sheet or thin plate
by means of press tools, and be afterwards ground, bobbed and polished, to bring
it to the finished shape and appearance desired.
A screwdriver constructed according to this invention is illustrated, in front
elevation, by Figure 1 of the drawings herewith, in side elevation by Figure 2,
and in top edge view by Figure 3. The handle A forms, as shewn, a T-head to
the blade B. The design of both the handle and blade may, of course, be varied
as desired, but it is preferred to form the handle with hollows c c in the underside,
adjacent to the blade, for convenience in gripping. The operative end a of the
screwdriver is, of course, sharpened to the degree required to adapt it for insertion
within the grooves of the screw-heads; and, in the particular screwdriver illustrated,.
shoulders 66 are formed some little distance back from the sharpened end a, for
use in screwing up within the cranks and unscrewing therefrom, pedal pins which
are formed, as is frequently the case, hollow at their inner ends, the inner ends of
the pins having, as usual in such cases, notches formed in their edges into which
the shoulders b are entered when the pins are to be screwed up or unscrewed.
The lower end of the blade B may be gradually thinned down towards the
sharpened end a, as is usual.
A screwdriver made with the handle and blade in one piece of sheet or thin
plate inetal, as described and shewn, is extremely strong and portable, and, having
no wooden handle, is not liable to be injured by rough treatment such as might
tend to split the wood or detach the handle from the blade.
While it is much preferred to make the combined blade and handle in one piece
of sheet or thin plate metal, they may be otherwise made in one picce of metal if
desired, such as by welding a round bar handle across the end of a flat blade.
Having now particularly describe and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is:
1. A screwdriver, having a blade and T-head which forms the handle formed
together in one piece of metal, substantially as described.
2. A screwdriver, having a blade and T-head which forms the handle formed
together from a single piece of sheet or thin plate metal, substantially as
described.

page_text: 3. A screwdriver, having a blade and T-head which forms the handle formed
together in one piece of metal, and with hollows (such as c c) in the underside of
the handle, adjacent to the blade, substantially as described.
Dated this 24th day of November 1896
STEPHEN WATKINS,
Wolverhampton, Agent for the Applicants.