IMPROVEMENTS IN HEATING FILES AND FILE BLANKS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Brooks, of Philadelphia Street, Bristol, in
the County of Somerset, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN HEATING
FILES AND FILE BLANKS."
Sealed the 6th October 1865, and dated the 10th April 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Brooks at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th
April 1865.
I, WILLIAM BROOKS, of Philadelphia Street, Bristol, in the County of
Somerset, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN HEATING FILES AND FILE BLANKS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in heating files and file
blanks. For these purposes in place of heating files and file blanks by direct
contact with a fire, as is usually the practice, each file or blank is placed in a
highly heated tubular or hollow chamber heated externally, and it is desirable
that the hollow tubular chamber should not greatly exceed the dimensions of
the files or blanks which are to be heated therein. Although it is not essential,
it is preferred that there should be several tubular chambers, each suitable for

page_text: receiving a file formed in the same block or mass, which it is preferred should
be of cast iron coated externally with fire-clay. These tubular chambers are
set over a fire or furnace, and are heated thereby as evenly from end to end
as may be, so that the files introduced therein may be uniformly heated from
end to end. These tubular or hollow chambers are usually closed at their
back ends and open in front.
In manufacturing files the heating by the means above described is
peculiarly applicable when heating files preparatory to quenching or hardening
them, but the process of heating above described may be also resorted to
when shaping or forging files.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Brooks in the Great Scal Patent Office on the
9th October 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BROOKS, of Philadelphia Street, Bristol, in the County of Somerset, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-cighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Brooks, Her special licence that I, the said William
Brooks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Brooks, my executors, administrators, 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, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN HEATING FILES AND FILE BLANKS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Brooks, 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 William Brooks, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say-
This Invention has for its object improvements in heating files and file
blanks. For these purposes in place of heating files and file blanks by direct
contact with a fire, as is usually the practice, each file or blank is placed in a
highly heated tubular or hollow chamber heated externally, and it is desirable
that the hollow tubular chamber should not greatly exceed the dimensions of
the files or blanks which are to be heated therein. Although it is not essential,
it is preferred that there should be several tubular chambers, each suitable for
receiving a file formed in the same block or mass, which it is preferred should
be of cast iron coated externally with fire-clay. These tubular chambers are
set over a fire or furnace, and are heated thereby as evenly from end to end
as may be, so that the files introduced therein may be uniformly heated from
end to end. These tubular or hollow chambers are usually closed at their
back ends and open in front.
In manufacturing files the heating by the means above described is
peculiarly applicable when heating files preparatory to quenching or hardening
them, but the process of heating above described may be also resorted to
when shaping or forging files.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a front view, Figure 2 a back view, and Figure 3 a
transverse section of a furnace having a cast-iron heating trunk set therein,
and constructed suitable for carrying out this Invention.
A is the fire-place of the furnace; B is the cast-iron frame connected
together by bolts; C is the cast-iron heating trunk in the hollow chambers,
of which the file blanks are to be introduced and heated, by which means
each file will be heated more uniformly than when, as heretofore, subjected to
the direct action of a naked fire, and at the same time the steel of which the
files are made will not be injured by the gases evolved from the fire, and
there is also a great saving in fuel and labour; D shows the closed end of the
cast-iron heating trunk; E is the front or open end; G is the feeding hole,
by which fuel is supplied to the fire-place in the cast-iron plate F; and G¹ is
a fire-grating with an opening in front, so that the fuel may be fed in at top
or bottom, or both.
It should be stated that the sizes and arrangement, as well as the number
of the several hollow heating chambers shown in the heating trunk, may be

page_text: varied without departing from my Invention. The exterior of the heating
trunk is coated with fire-clay, or such coating may be omitted.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Brooks, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.