iTWOROWED ADDA PATHS FOR DIPPING LUCIFER MATCHER
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Alexander Bell, of Epping Villas, Stratford,
Lucifer Match Manufacturer,and Thomas Higgins, of Carriaco Terrace,
Bow, in the County of Middlesex, Tornographer, for the Invention of
iTWOROWED ADDA PATHS FOR DIPPING LUCIFER MATCHER"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Alexander Bell
and Thomas Higgins at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 16th August 1862.
We,SAMUEL ALEXANDER BELL, of Epping Villas, Stratford, Lucifer Match
Manufacturer, and THOMAS HIGGINS, of Carriaco Terrace, Bow, in the County
of Middlesex, Tornographer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DIPPING LUCIFER MATCHES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improved means for effecting the dipping of lucifer
matches, the object being to facilitate the operation and at the same time to
relieve the workman from the disease to which he is now subject in conse-
quence of manipulating the phosphorous compounds. The sides of the clamps
or metal frames, in which are placed the grooved clamping boards containing
between them the splints or matches to be dipped, are formed of bar iron
of V-shaped section. These bars form guides for receiving and retaining the
clamping boards, and when these boards, filled with the splints or matches,are
inserted, a pressing bar is brought down upon them by means of clamping
CD 823

page_text: screws, which serve to secure them firmly in the clamp. An advantage con-
sequent on this sectional form for the bars in that there will be little tendency
for the phosphorous composition to accumulate in the clamp frame. In order
to dip the matches the filled clamps are taken to a dipping machine, which is
provided with a series of rollers or equivalent supports for receiving the
clamps. When thus placed, a progressive motion is given to them by means
of an endless band or chain, provided with fingers or bars, which, bearing
against the rear end of the clamps, will force them forward until they arrive
over a slowly rotating slab or table, on which the composition is evenly spread.
The clamps, as they successively arrive over this table, drop a sufficient dis-
tance to bring the ends of the matches in contact therewith. This may be
effected by the rollers having a portion of their periphery cut away and
presenting that portion to the suspended clamps at the time they arrive at the
proper position fordipping,or the supports may be depressed with the clamps
by suitable mechanism. The rotating slab or table is mounted on a vertical
spindle and is set in a water bath. At its edge it is provided with a ledge
formed of porous material, which is supplied with water from the bath, the
porous material being enclosed by or forming an annular filling between the
metal flanges. The plastic composition is supplied to the slab or table from a
fixed hopper, and as it is supplied the material is forced against a stationary
knife or scraper, which arrests its further progress and causes it to rise and
turn over the knife. Above the knife is set an adjustable gauge,under which
the composition passes as it turns over the knife to fall on the other side
thereof on to the table. The composition is thus distributed over the table, its
thickness being determined by the adjustment of the gauge. The dipping of
the clamps, it will now be understood, is a continuous operation, one clamp
succeeding the other as quickly as they are brought up to the table. As soon
as the dipping is effected the clamps are lifted up and passed forward, and
they are then carried from the machine by an attendant.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Alexander Bell and Thomas Higgins in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 16th February 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, SAMUEL
ALEXANDER BELL, of Epping Villas, Stratford, Lucifer Match Manufacturer,
and THOMAS HIGGINS, of Carriaco Terrace, Bow, in the County of Middlesex,
Tornographer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Samuel Alexander Bell and Thomas Higgins, Her special license
that we, the said Samuel Alexander Bell and Thomas Higgins, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Samuel Alexander
Bell and Thomas Higgins, our 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 " IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR DIPPING LUCIFER MATCHES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Samuel Alexander Bell and Thomas Higgins, by an instru-
ment in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of
one of us, 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 we, the said Samuel Alexander Bell and Thomas
Higgins, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained inand by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say) :-
€
This Invention relates to improved means for effecting what is known as the
dipping" of lucifer matches, that is, the coating of the ends of splints or
matches with the compound that ignites by applying friction thereto, the chief
object being to present the matches or splints (while contained in a traversing
clamporframe)toa continuous supply of phosphorus or other like iguitable
compound evenly laid upon a containing surface, and thereby to enable the
matches, as they are passed through the machine, to take up upon their ends
a suitable supply of the compound. By this arrangement we not only facilitate
the "dipping" operation, butalso remove the liability which at present exists
of the workman contracting the disease which is now common among lucifer
match makers in consequence of manipulating the phosphorus compounds.
In Sheet I. of the accompanying Drawings, Fig.1 represents in longitudinal
section our improved apparatus for coating the ends of matches with the
igniting compound; Fig. 2 is a partial plan view of the same, shewing the

page_text: dipping table and the means for spreading the composition thereon; and
Fig. 3, Sheet II., is a transverse section of the apparatus taken in the line 1, 2,
of Fig.1; Figures 4, Sheet I.,shew,in plan and edge view,a novel construction
of frame for holding the clamping boards, between which the splints or matches
to be dipped are suitably arranged. These frames we construct of metal,
and in the following manner:-The sides a, a, are made of rolled iron, of
V-shaped section, and they are connected together at their opposite ends
by cross bars b, c. The cross bar b is tapped to receive clamping screws,
which are intended to act upon a follower d and hold the clamps firmly in
position in the frame. The sides of the frame form guides for receiving and
retaining the clamping boards e, the ends of which are shaped to correspond
with the V-shaped guides. When a suitable number of these boards, filled
with the splints or matches, is inserted in the frame, the follower or pressing
bar d is brought down upon them by means of the clamping screws, and they
are then firmly secured in the frame. An advantage consequent on this
sectional form for the sides of the frame is, that there will be little tendency
for the phosphorus or other ignitable composition to accumulate in the clamp
frame.
We will now proceed to describe the construction of the apparatus whereby
the splints or matches thus arranged and secured in clamping frames are
coated at their ends with the ignitable composition. A, A, Fig. 1, is a table,
carried by suitable supports rising from the bed plate A¹. At about the
middle of this table is fixed a shallow circular bath or vessel B, through the
centre of which stands up a vertical spindle C, supported on a footstep on
the bed plate A¹. This spindle is also supported in a suitable bearing,and it
passes through a stuffing box in the centre of the bath. At its upper end the
spindle carries a circular table D, for receiving the ignitable compound and
presenting it to the matches in the form of an even layer or coating. A spur
wheel 1 on the spindle serves to communicate rotary motion to the table.
For the purpose of guiding the clamping frames E to and from the table the
machine is provided with a series of conical rollers E', and where these are
inapplicable, by equivalent supports in the form of fixed guides E2, which
latter overlie the table. The clamping frames being placed on this guideway,
a progressive motion is given to them by means of a pair of endless bands or
chains F, F, provided with fingers set equidistant from each other, as shewn
at Fig. 1, and bearing against the rear ends of the clamping frames. These
bands are passed over pairs of pulleys G, G, mounted near the ends of the
machine, and they are lapped around smaller pullies H, H, keyed to the main
driving shaft I at the middle of the machine. This shaft I also carries a pair

page_text: of cams K, K, which support a frame L, that carries at its lower end guides
for receiving in succession each of the clamping frames as they are propelled
forward by the endless bands. This frame is situate immediately above the
slowly rotating table D on which the composition is evenly spread, and it is
formed with vertical guides into which pins project from the fixed side frames
of the machine for the purpose of guiding it in its vertical movements. The
drop or depression of the frame L is just sufficient to bring the ends of the
matches contained in the clamps in contact with the composition on the table
and ensure the matches taking up the desired coating on their ends. A bevil
wheel 2 'on the driving shaft I gears into a bevil wheel 3 on a vertical shaft 4,
and a spur pinion 5 on the lower end of this vertical shaft gears into and
drives the spur wheel 1 on the spindle C. Thus, while a continuous traverse
motion is given to the endless bands, whereby the clamping frames E, as fed
regularly into the machine, are moved in succession into the dipping frame,
and then (the matches having been dipped) passed forward out of the machine;
a slow rotary motion will also be given to the table D, which moves in water
in the bath B for the purpose to be presently explained. At its edge this
table is provided with an annular groove to receive a filling of anya suitable
porous material, such as plaster of Paris, forming a raised ledge around the
edge of the table. Water is supplied to this porous material from the bath
by means of small lateral holes made in the metal flanges of the annular
groove. The plastic composition is supplied to the table by hand at the part
marked (Fig. 2), and as it is supplied the material is forced, by the rotation
of the table, against a stationary radial knife or scraper M, which. arrests
its progress and causes it to rise and turn over that knife. In advance of this
knife M is set an adjustable gauge N, under which the composition passes as
it turns over the knife, to fall on the other side thereof on to the table. The
composition is thus distributed over the table, its thickness being determined
by the adjustment of the gauge N. A scraper or blade O, lying nearly at.
right angles to the knife M and gauge N, and by which these are held in
position (it being itself bolted to one of the fixed guides E²), is used for pre-
venting the composition from working towards and accumulating at the edge
of the table. In case, however, of any composition escaping, the scraper and
drying moisture is applied to the edge of the table as above explained.
An obvious modification of our Invention is shewn in Sheet II., where
Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section, and Fig. 6 a plan view, of a more simple
arrangement of mechanism than that above described for presenting the com-
position continuously to the matches or splints as they are passed through the
machine. As the principle of application is the same in both arrangements,

page_text: the construction and operation of the parts will be readily understood. Instead
of the rotating table mounted in the water bath, we use a roller D, formed
with annular grooves of a suitable width to receive the ends of the splints or
matches to be "dipped" or coated at theirends with the ignitable composition,
and of such distance apart as to suit the arrangement of the splints or matches
in the clamps. This roller is mounted in the segmental hollow of a water
case B. The lips of this segmental hollow are provided with ledges of porous
material kept moist by water, which finds its way thereto through fine holes
made in the water case. The composition is placed in the segmental hollow,
and fitted to the case is a gauge N, which, as the grooved roller is rotated in
the direction of the arrow, equalizes the thickness of the layer or coating of
the composition taken up by the roller and lying within its grooves. In this
way a continuous supply of composition is presented to the matches, which, as
they are passed through the machine upon fixed guides adjusted to a suitable
level, will enter the grooves and take up the composition from the most
elevated portion of the rotating roller. It will now be understood that by
either of the described arrangements the dipping or coating of the ends of
splints or matches will be a continuous and expeditious operation, one clamping
frame succeeding the other as quickly as it is thought desirable to advance
them to the ignitable compound coating surface.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "Improved Apparatus
for Dipping Lucifer Matches," and explained the manner of carrying the same
into effect, we wish it to be understood, that under the above in part recited
Letters Patent we claim submitting splints or matches to the "dipping"
operation by the means above described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Samuel Alexander Bell and Thomas
Higgins, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Sixteenth day of
February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three.
SAM. A. BELL.
(L.S.)
THOMAS HIGGINS. (L.s.)