AN IMPROVEMENT ON THE FRAMES OF EYE GLASSES
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
BRETELL BATE, of the Poultry, in the City of London, Optician. send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of March now last
past, did give and grant unto me, the said Robert Bretell Bate, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I. the said Robert
Bretell Bate, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I,
the said Robert Bretell Bate, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT ON THE FRAMES
OF EYE GLASSES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Robert Bretell Bate, 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 recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, teicience heing thereunto had, will
more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Bretell Bate, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and
ascertained by the Plan or Drawing hereunto annexed, and as follows, that is
to say:-
Before I enter into a particular description of my Invention, I shall observe,
that the great convenience which is found in the portability of single eye
glasses, and the ease and expedition with which they may be applied, has
caused many persons to make use of them, although it is well known that
much injury is occasioned by the use of one eye only, and that a difference in
the sight of the two eyes is uniformly the result of this habit. Double eye
glasses have therefore been introduced, the objection to which is their want
of portability; or, if folded into a portable form, the time consumed in un-
folding and preparing them for use exposes near-sighted persons to the loss
of passing objects which excite their attention whilst so preparing them.
Now, to obviate these objections, I have invented such an improvement in the
construction of spectacles or double eye glasses that, whilst folded up so as to
assume a portability similar to that of the common single eye glass, they may
in an instant (with a touch whilst lifting them to the eyes) be so changed as to
assume the advantageous form of a pair of spectacles, by the use of which
both eyes may be assisted with the greatest facility.
Fig. 1 represents a pair of my improved spectacles, folded up so as to assume
the same form as a common single eye glass.
Fig. 2 represents a side view of the same.
Fig. 3 represents the same when opened out and ready for use. The change
of form is produced instantaneously by the following simple means:-a, a, repre-
sent the two glasses fixed in their frames b, b. which are connected by joints
to the nose piece c. d, d, are two curved levers acted upon by a spring which
lies in a recess formed in the under side of the nose piece c. The ends of this
spring are shewn in contact with the curved levers near e, e. The remainder
of it is represented by a dotted line as lying in the recess. One of these levers
is shewn upon a magnified scale at Fig. 7, in order that the recess or cavity-
formed on its extreme end may be more plainly seen.
Fig. 1 is a side view of the spring detached, showing two small rivets near
the centre, which fix it to the nose piece.
Fig. 5 is a plan of this spring. 1 and 2 are two apertures, which permit
the levers seen at d. d. in Fig. 3. to pass quite through the spring when the
glasses are closed; but when they are open, each opposite end of the spring
falls into a small square cavity formed on the point of each lever d, d, by which
means the glasses are locked or retained in the position seen in Fig. 3.

page_text: Fig. 6 represents a section of the stem or handle, with fragments of the two
glass frames b, b, in the folded position and double the real size. is a small
pin or bolt, which is driven forward by the spiral spring g; and when the
glasses are closed the end of the bolt or pin ƒ enters a small hole formed to
receive it in the frame b, which may be seen in dotted lines at h, h, in
Figures 3 and 8. i, Fig. 6, is a slide connected to the bolt or pin f by a
small pin k, which passes through the slide and bolt also, and is there made
fast by rivetting.
Having enumerated the various parts, and shewn how they are constructed
and combined, I shall now describe their mode of acting when united.
Fig. 1 represents a pair of my improved spectacles folded up in the con-
venient and portable form of a single eye glass. When they are required
to be open, the slide is to be drawn down by the fore finger and
thumb towards the ring 1; and by this means the bolt f, seen in dotted lines,
will be released or unlocked, when the spring e, e, acting on the levers d, d,
will throw the nose piece and outer glass instantaneously into the position
shewn in Fig. 3, in which state they will be retained by each end of the
spring e, e, falling into its respective cavity at the extreme end of each curved
lever d, d. When it is required to fold the glasses up again, the edge of the
left-hand glass opposite the joint must be pressed against the hand or some
other part of the body, and returned into its place in the nose piece c, as seen
in Fig. 8; then continuing the pressure so as to allow this glass to roll onwards
in the same direction, it will regain the position seen in Fig. 1, where it will
be held fast by the locking bolt entering the small hole h. Fig. 9 shews a
plan of the nose piece detached; the place of the spring is shewn in dotted
lines. Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9, are drawn of the real size; the other
two Figures, namely, 6 and 7, are drawn to a larger scale, in order to shew
their minute parts better.
And in order to identify and distinguish my Invention the more clearly, I
hereby declare, that it consists in the application of a spring to the nose piece
of the double eye glass or spectacles, by the action of which the two glasses
may be in an instant separated or thrown open, and retained in that position,
and may be also retained in the closed position when folded up in the way I
have described.
In witness whereof, 1, the said Robert Bretell Bate, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.
R. B. BATE. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fifteenth day of September,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Robert Bretell Bate came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Fifteenth day of September, in the year above written.