IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Fielding Empson, of Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE."
Scaled the 12th January 1854, and dated the 23rd November 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Fielding
Empson at the Office of the Commissioners of. Patents, with his
Petition, on the 23rd November 1853.
I, JOHN FIELDING EMPSON, of Birmingham, in the County of War-
wick, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE" to be as follows:-
My said Invention consists, firstly, in making wire by drawing melted.
metal from a fine hole made at the bottom of the crucible containing.
the same, or from à pipe or jet at the bottom of the said crucible,
the said hole, pipe, or jet being cooled so as to solidify the metal in
passing through the same. I can in this way make wire sufficiently
thin for most of the purposes to which wire is applied, and at less cost
than by the ordinary method.

page_text: My said Invention consists, secondly, in cutting (with rolls or other
tools). sheets of metal into strips or threads, so as to form wire of any
required size. In order to make such strips into round, half round, or
any other shape, I draw the same through plates, or roll them between
rolls, of forms suitable for communicating the desired figure.
SPECIFICATION. in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Fielding Empson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 22nd May 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN FIELDING EMPSON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in
the seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Fielding Empson,
Her special licence that I, the said John Fielding Empson, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Fielding Empson, 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Fielding Empson, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 John Fielding Empson, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained:
in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):-
My said Invention consists in making wire by drawing melted metal
from a hole made at or near the bottom of the crucible containing the
same, or from a pipe or jet fixed in or near the bottom of the said
crucible, the said hole, pipe, or jet being cooled by water or otherwise,
so as to solidify the metal as it passes through the same. Figure 1,
represents in vertical section a crucible or casting pot, constructed so
as to carry my Invention into effect. a, is an iron crucible having a
pipe b, at or near the bottom; the said pipe has an internal diameter
equal to the diameter of the wire to be made. That end of the pipe b,
which opens into the crucible is expanded, as represented, in order to
allow the melted metal to flow more freely therein. The end c of the
pipe 6 is provided with a piece of metal tube d, which fits easily
thereon, and a piece of iron or other wire e is fixed across the said
metal tube d, as represented. In using the apparatus Figure 1, I
place the crucible or casting pot a, in a suitable furnace, constructed so
as to permit the pipe b, to project one or two inches outside the said
furnace. When the metal in the crucible a melts, it fills the tube b,
and surrounds the wire e. The end of the tube d may be temporarily
stopped with clay to prevent the metal escaping at the commencement
of the process. When the metal in the crucible a is raised to the
temperature which experience shows to be best suited to carry my
Invention into effect, the metal tube d, and wire e, are connected with
a wire or cord passing over a drum, and a stream of water or current
of cold air is directed on the tube b, so as to cool and solidify the metal
therein. By now making the drum revolve, to which the wire connected
with the metal tube d is attached, the said tube d is drawn off the
pipe b, and pulls after it the solidified stream of metal, the end of which
had attached itself around the short wire e. In this way the hardened
or solidified metal may be drawn out of the spout b, c, in the form of a
continuous wire. I sometimes use a clay crucible in carrying hy
Invention into effect, in which case I introduce a pipe or spout, made
of porcelain or other suitable material, as shewn at f, in Figure 2.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be under-
stood that I do not confine myself to the precise methods of carrying
my said Invention into effect herein described, as the same may be
varied without departing from the nature of my said Invention. But
I claim
Making wire by causing a stream of melted- metal to be cooled and
solidified as it passes or is drawn out of the side or bottom of a crucible
or vessel containing it.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Fielding Empson, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of May,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
four.
Witness,
JOHN FIELDING EMPSON. (L.S.)
ALFRED PETTITT,
Artist,
Grasmere, Westmoreland.