IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMP POSTS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Sharrock, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMP
POSTS."
Scaled the 1st April 1869, and dated the 30th October 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Sharrock
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 30th October 1868.
I, SAMUEL SHARROCK, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMP POSTS," to be as follows :—
This Invention has for its object improvements. in lamp posts. For
this purpose I employ a taper tube formed of a sheet or sheets of
wrought iron, bent round and with the edges rivetted together along the
side of the tube; I also place and fix stays or hoops in these posts to
strengthen them at points where they would be liable to collapse.
The post at its lower end may be inserted directly into the ground or
into a socket of cast iron; or an ornamental base for the post may be

page_text: formed of cast iron; this base rests on the surface of the ground, and the
post passes through it. The base serves to steady the post as well as
to give it a more ornamental appearance. The top of the post receives a
socket, which carries the lanthorn; or the lanthorn may be attached in
any other way. Usually I make the post in two lengths, which are
connected by inserting one into the other, and so fixing the ends in a
socket joint, which is strengthened by a wrought-iron plate bent and
rivetted to a tubular form.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Sharrock in the Great Scal Patent Office
on the 26th April 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
SHARROCK, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Samuel Sharrock, Her special licence that
I, the said Samuel Sharrock, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Samuel Sharrock, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAMP POSTS,'
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Samuel Sharrock,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands, 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 Scal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Sharrock, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be performed, 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 lamp posts. For
this purpose I employ a taper tube formed of a sheet or sheets of
wrought iron, bent round and with the edges rivetted together along the
side of the tube; I also place and fix stays or hoops in these posts to
strengthen them at points where they would be liable to collapse.
The post at its lower end may be inserted directly into the ground or
into a socket of cast iron; or an ornamental base for the post may be
formed of cast iron; this base rests on the surface of the ground, and
the post passes through it. The base serves to steady the post as well as
to give it a more ornamental appearance. The top of the post receives a
socket which carries the lanthorn, or the lanthorn may be attached in
any other way. In some cases I make the posts in two lengths, which
are connected by inserting one into the other, and so fixing the ends in
a socket joint, which is strengthened by a wrought-iron plate bent and
rivetted in a tubular form.
The Drawing hereunto annexed shows a lamp post constructed as
above described. The post shown is made of one taper tube a made
from one strip of iron bent round into a tube, and with the edges
rivetted together. The lower end of the post is dropped on to a stem b¹
standing up from an ornamental block of cast iron, from the bottom of
which descends a stem c, which is embedded in the ground and has
cross bars d, d, passed through its lower end. If in place of employing
a socket 6 the lower end of the tubular post is inserted directly into the
ground the lower end of the post is similarly formed to receive cross
bars d, and an ornamental base to rest on the surface of the ground is in
this case, as before stated, by preference fixed around the post. Over
the top of the tube a is placed a socket e formed of a tube made from
sheet metal, bent into form and rivetted up, or a strap made of bars of
metal; this socket or strap carries the lamp, as shewn. To form the
taper tube a I prefer first to cut a strip of sheet iron to the required
form and to punch out the rivet holes, and afterwards bend the strip into
a taper tube by passing it between three taper rollers of sufficient length
to receive the strips of metal lengthwise between them, as is well under-
stood; as the strip is bent into a tube the edges are caused to overlap,
and when the tube has been removed from the rollers it is rivetted up,
and may afterwards, if desired, be strengthened at any desired part of its

page_text: Iength by forcing up into the tube short tubes or rings of metal, as
indicated by the dotted lines in the Drawing, which rings are made taper
to correspond with the taper of the tube.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Sharrock, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of April, in the 5
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
SAMUEL SHARROCK. (L.S.)