AN IMPROVEMENT IN APPARATUS FOR PREPARING THE EDGES OF DISCS OF METAL FOR COIN
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Meredith Jones, of the Royal Mint, Engineer, for
the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN APPARATUS FOR PREPARING THE
EDGES OF DISCS OF METAL FOR COIN."
Sealed the 4th June 1861, and dated the 8th December 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Meredith Jones, at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th December 1860.
I, MEREDITH JONES, of the Royal Mint, Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN APPARATUSES FOR
PREPARING THE EDGES OF DISCS OF METAL POR COIN," to be as follows:-
At the bottom of a shoot or incline I fix an upright cheek or plate of steel,
with a groove formed in the face thereof, and at a distance from this cheek,
determined by the diameter of the coin to be produced, I set up a wheel or
disc, with a groove formed in the side and near the edge thereof, which groove
comes in a line with that in the cheek; this wheel is made to revolve. As
the blanks fall, each in succession enters the grooves, and its edges become
rolled and prepared between the wheel and the steel cheek. As soon as the
disc reaches the end of the cheek it falls into a receiver placed for its
reception.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Meredith Jones in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
8th June 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MEREDITH
JONES, of the Royal Mint, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Meredith Jones, Her special licence that I, the said Meredith Jones,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Meredith Jones, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, 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 "AN IM-
PROVEMENT IN APPARATUSES FOR PREPARING THE EDGES OF DISCS OF METAL FOR
COIN," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Meredith Jones,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Meredith Jones, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say :-
At the bottom of a shoot or incline I fix a cheek or plate of steel, with a
curved groove formed in the face thereof, and at a distance from this cheek,
determined by the diameter of the coin to be produced, I set up a wheel or
disc, with a groove formed in the side and near the edge thereof, which groove
comes in a line with that in the cheek; this wheel is made to revolve. As
the blanks fall, each in succession enters the grooves, and its edges become
rolled and prepared between the wheel and the steel cheek. I prefer feeding
the apparatus in the following manner :-I place a flat hopper-shaped copper
pan at such an incline that the blank pieces when placed therein shall slide

page_text: toward a tube at its base. Immediately below this tube, a vertical ratchet or
notched wheel rotates, taking the lowest blank piece forward with each
succeeding notch, and delivering the blanks into a shoot or slide which con-
ducts them between the adjustable grooved steel cheek and the revolving
wheel, where they are compressed on their edges to a given diameter or size,
from whence they pass into a basket placed to receive them.
Figure 1 is a side elevation; Figure 2 a back end view; and Figure 3 a
plan of one of my apparatuses, with the feed hopper and wheel attached;
Figure 4 is a section of the apparatus without the feed hopper. Similar letters
refer to similar parts in all the Figures. A is the pillar or stand supporting
the apparatus; B is the grooved steel plate, held down on its bed by bolts and
nuts a, a, and capable of being adjusted by means of the screw bolts b, b; C
is the wheel, which I prefer to construct, as shewn in Figure 4, with a steel
ring let into it, and in which the groove corresponding with that in' the steel
check is formed; D is the shaft to which the wheel C is secured free to
revolve in the bearing E; F, F, are fast and loose pulleys on the shaft for
driving the wheel C; G is a bracket fixed to the pillar supporting two
uprights H, H, to which the feed hopper I is fixed; K is the ratchet or
notched wheel, and L pulleys driven by a band M, for driving the wheel K.
The wheel and pulleys are fast on a shaft N, supported by and revolving on
points in which bolts c, c, passing through the uprights H, H, terminate. O is
a spout, into which the ratchet wheel delivers one blank piece for every
ratchet or tooth as they present themselves at the bottom of the tube d, fixed
to the lowest part of the feed hopper I. From the spout O, the blanks enter
the grooves in the steel plate B and in the wheel C, the rotation of which
carries them forward, prepares the edges, and delivers them into the shoot P,
from whence they fall into a basket or other receiver.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim preparing the
edges of discs of metal for coin by causing them to rotate between a groove in
a cheek or plate of steel, and a groove in the side of a vertical wheel sub-
stantially in manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Meredith Jones, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of June, One thousand eight hundred
MEREDITH JONES. (L.S.)