CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HINGES
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
HORNE, of Aston, near Birmingham; in the County of Warwick, Brass.
Founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the sixth year of His.
reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Horne, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Thomas Horne, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said Thomas Horne, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town'
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF HINGES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso, obliging me, the said Thomas Horne, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to
cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Horne, do hereby declaro that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon,
that is to say:-
My improvements in the manufacture of hinges consist in making hinges
from sheet metal so shaped or formed of unequal thickness, either by rolling,
stamping, drawing, or swaging, as to enable me, by applying the thinner
part of the metal to form the joint or knuckle, to produce hinges with a smaller
and neater point than could be obtained if made out of sheet metal of an uni-
form thickness throughout, and thereby economizing labour and material. In
pursuing this improvement in the manufacture of hinges, strips of sheet metal
previously rolled are to be provided of suitable width and thickness, and of any
convenient length, which strips of metal are then to be reduced by passing
them between rollers, or by stamping, pressing, drawing, or swaging, so as to
form the strips of metal thinner in one part than another, as, for instance, in
the manner shewn in section at Figures 1, 2, and 3, in the Drawing accom-
panying this Specification. From these strips the required lengths are to
be cut, each for making one hinge; and as I prefer the shape shown at
Figure 1, from affording the greatest economy of material in cutting up the
strips, I shall proceed to describe the means of carrying my improvements into
effect in reference to the form shewn in that Figure.
Figure 1 is a transverse section of this strip of metal, Figure 4 representing
the face of a portion of the strip broken off, the groove a being formed along
the middle and constituting the thinner part. The necessary piece for making
one hinge is shewn as at Figure 5 (subject, however, to variation for different
sizes), and these pieces are then, by a stamping process, to be cut or separated
into the two portions shewn in face and edge views at Figure 6, the parts
a, a, a, to form the knuckle, the parts b, b, to constitute the wings of the
hinge. If thought requisite, these pieces of metal may now be annealed, in
order that they may be bent in forming the knuckle without the risk of
breaking. The thin parts a, a, a, of the pieces shewn at Figure 6 are now to
be bent round or hooked, as represented at Figure 7 in edge view, and
Figure 8 in front view, in order to prepare them for forming the knuckle; this
may be done by pressure in a swage or tool, or in any convenient manner; and
when the piece has been so bent, a straight and cylindrical wire is to be placed
within the hooks as a mandrel, and these together are to be introduced
between a pair of dies, as Figure 9, for the purpose of forcing the hooked

page_text: parts into a cylindrical form, which form may be perfected and the edges of
the hooks made to fall into the rabbet, or close against the shoulder c, by being
further pressed between other dies, as shewn at Figure 10, which brings them
into true cylindrical steps or knuckle joints. The screw holds are now to be
made and countersunk, or they may be made before the knuckle joints are
formed, if preferred. The mandrel being then drawn out of the cylindrical eyes,
the knuckles of the two corresponding pieces are to be "cut down," that is,
trimmed and squared, so that their edges may fit accurately together, which
may be done by a file or by a revolving cutting tool. The pieces may now be
cleaned, and the pin or straight cylindrical wire or axle inserted into the joint
of the combined pieces, when the hinge should be squared on its outer edges,
and finished as shewn in face and edge views at Figure 11. I may add that
the turned in edges of the hoops may be soldered to the shoulder c, if thought
desirable for the purpose of giving additional strength to the joint, but for
hinges of small dimensions I have never found that necessary. I may also
observe that the eyes or knuckle joints may be formed by a drawing process,
the thin parts a of the strips being closed upon a mandrel by drawing them
through dies; but the subject of my Invention being that of producing hinges
from metal of unequal thicknesses, in order that the joints may be formed
from the thinner parts of the metal, I do not consider it necessary to describe
every possible mode of effecting the same, and particularly as that drawing
process is not attended with the same economy as the mode described. And
I would further remark that in manufacturing hinges of iron, that the iron may
be heated for the purpose of facilitating the bending of the hooked parts,
which may be desirable when making large or heavy hinges; and that in
adapting these improvements to making iron hinges with long straps or arms
projecting from one or both of the flaps or wings, as shewn in Figures 12 and
13, I should proceed in the manner above described in manufacturing the
hinge parts e, e, and after they are so far completed as to be put together, the
tail pieces or straps f, f, should be welded thereto.
In conclusion, I desire it to be understood that I am aware brass hinges have
been made from pieces of sheet metal of parallel or uniform thicknesses
throughout, the two parts of the hinge having been stamped out of metal, and
the eyes or knuckle joints formed by bending the metal round a mandrel, but
the hinge so produced differs essentially from my improved hinge. I do,
therefore, claim as my Invention of improvements in manufacturing hinges
the exclusive privilege of making hinges out of sheet metal peculiarly prepared
of unequal thicknesses by means of rolling, drawing, stamping, or swaging,
so that the parts which are used to form the knuckles or joints shall be thinner

page_text: than the parts used to form the flaps or wings of the hinges, and of turning
over the said thinner parts of the metal into a rabbet or against a shoulder in
the manner I have before described.
In witness whereof I, the said Thomas Horne, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.