A NEW METHOD OF MANUFACTURING PINS WITH IRON AND OTHER MATERIALS," AND MAKING THE SAME WHITE
Year: 1797

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, TIMOTHY
HARRIS, of Waltham Abbey, in the County of Essex, Pin Maker, send
greeting..
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Fourth day of. July, in the thirty-seventh year of His
reign, give and grant unto me, my exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial
licence to make, use, exercise, and vend, during the term of fourteen years
therein mentioned, within that part of Great Britain called England, the
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"A NEW METHOD OF MANUFACTURING PINS WITH IRON AND OTHER MATERIALS,"
AND MAKING THE SAME WHITE;" in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a proviso obliging me, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, to particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and 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, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the'
said Timothy Harris, do hereby declare that my said Invention, and the means*

page_text: of performing and putting the same in use, is described in manner following,
that is to say:-
After I have drawn my wire, which I do sometimes from iron and at other
times from brass, I cut it off to the lengths wanted; I then point the lengths
upon a steel mill, in the like manner as the old article of brass pins are
pointed, only with this difference, that the face of my mill must be made for
iron wire much harder, and have a sharper cut, or it will not stand the grind-
ing, iron being much harder to point than brass. I make some pins with iron
shafts, and put on them spun iron wire heads, in the same manner as brass
pins are usually headed, and make the same white in the manner herein-
after described. make some pins with brass wire shafts, and cast upon
them metal heads, in the manner herein-after described, and others with iron
shafts made white as herein-after described, and cast upon them metal heads
in the manner herein-after mentioned. I cast metal heads upon pins, whether
the pins are made of brass wire shafts or of iron wire shafts, from a variety
of different metals, either mixed or of one sort of metal, just as my fancy
may direct, such as lead, pewter, tin, each of those articles used by itself or
mixed with a small proportion of regulus of antimony about one tenth, type
metal, or other metals that will cast; I generally use lead, with a small pro-
portion of regulus of antimony, about one tenth. The operation of casting
pin heads upon their shafts I perform by a machine which is fully
described by Drawings upon the Papers annexed, marked A, B, and C, the
mould of which machine contains only forty shafts for casting heads upon
at a time, but the size of the mould may be extended so as to cast as many
heads at a time as should be thought most proper. I have made one mould
to cast two hundred and forty at once, but I give the preference to such as
cast only forty or sixty at a time. No. 1 is a cast-iron frame calculated for
fixing in a firm and steady manner the other most material parts of the
mould. No. 2 are two joint screws fixed thereon for the purpose of bringing
the mould together with ease up to the spreading plate. No. 3, to receive the
pin shafts, and to return the mould with the same ease upon its back to receive
the metal that forms the head. Nos. 4 are two screws upon this frame,
intended for the purpose of stops to the brass shoving bar No. 5, which lays
across the spreading plate No. 3, so that the shoving bar should not introduce
the shaft of the pin otherwise than exactly to cast the head properly upon the
shaft. No. 6, is a part of this cast-iron frame, intended to stay the mould
when thrown upon its back in a proper position, and there to rest in that
exact same situation at all times, until the metal for the heads is conveyed
into the mould. There is also upon this cast-iron frame a cross bar No. 7,

page_text: which is only to give strength to the frame No. 1. The next cross bar, No. 8,
is for the convenience of supporting and keeping steady the spreading plate
which is screwed to it and to the front end of the frame, No. 1, by four screws.
There is also fixed to the cross bar No. 8, in the middle of it, a square pro-
jecting piece of iron, No. 9, the use of which is to stop and to support the
mould in its proper situation when thrown up to the spreading plate.. The
projecting part, No. 10,. between the cross bar No. 7, and the back end of the
frame No. 1, is for a screw, to confine the whole of the frame and mould
to a bench of any kind when in action. No. 3, called a spreading plate,
is screwed to the cross bar No. 8, and the cast-iron frame No. 1; with
four screws; the left side of this plate is considerably lower than the right
side of it. It is exactly the same with the cast-iron frame No. 1, and it
was so done to enable me to conduct the pin shafts into the casting mould
No. 11, as the mould itself was obliged to be so much upon the decline
to accommodate in the casting, for if the metal was to be run over the face of
the mould without being upon the decline, as before mentioned, the metal
would not run into the mould so as to cast the heads compleatly. This
plate, No. 3, has forty grooves in it, all at equal distances, and when I am
going to work I first open the mould, then, by means of a wooden spoon, I
take e up a quantity of pin shafts from the pin, shaft block, No. 24, which is
placed in front of the frame No. 1, full of shafts (for the purpose of having heads
cast upon them) with all their points directed towards the mould No. 11. I lay
them down upon the right side of the spreading plate No. 3, and press them
forward, with my finger to the lower side of the plate, and each pin shaft will
run into and lay in the groove of this plate. The bar, No. 5, which lays
across this plate, I press gently forward to the mould until it is stopped by
the screws, No. 4, in the cast-iron frame; I then return the bar No. 5 back
from whence it came, that is, to the front edge of the spreading plate No. 3,
where there are two screws, No. 12, right and left, under the plate, for a stop
to prevent the cross bar, No. 5, from slipping off the plate No. 3 when thrown
back to the edge of the spreading plate, and then all the shafts are conveyed
properly into the mould No. 11. The cross bar upon the plate No. 5 has
forty teeth corresponding with and exactly fitting the grooves of the spreading
plate No. 3, so that by pressing it forwards gently to the mould the pin shafts
are shoved along the plate into the mould, No. 11, extremely true and easy.
This mould is of brass and in two halves which are confined in a square cast-
iron frame No. 13, which frame rides upon the two joint screws Nos. 2.
The bottom half brass mould is screwed fast down to the cast-iron frame No. 13,
and the upper one rides up and down by the help of a screw, No. 14, which

page_text: connects itself to the middle of the top part of the upper brass mould by means
of a groove at the end of the screw No. 14, and two pins Nos. 15 & 16 run on cach
side of the lower end of the screw, and through the mould, which makes it draw
up and down the upper face, so that it shuts and opens the mould at pleasure.
Nos. 17 & 18, on the right and left of the mould, are two metal cylinders for the
purpose of keeping the faces of the mould always paralel. There are also four
short steady pins in the face of the bottom half of the mould No. 11; for the
purpose of bringing the two faces together always in the same place; and on
the face of each of the two halves of this mould are forty groves at equal
distances, and at the front edge of both there are half round holes, so that when
the two faces of the mould No. 11 meet, the two halves form round holes the
size of the head intended to be cast, and long round holes through the mould
nearly the size of the shaft of the pin intended to be cast upon, and upon
the face of the top and bottom mould there are two grooves close under the
half rounds, intended for the heads, filled with cork, which closes itself round
the shafts of the pins to prevent the metal from passing beyond the heads of
the pins when casting; and a little further upon the face of the bottom mould
there is a comb, No. 21, which rises above the plate about one eighth of an inch,
and serves as a guide to prevent the shafts of the pins from getting out of
the grooves while the shoving bar No. 5 is conducting them into the mould.
There is an opening in the upper face to receive this projecting comb No. 21,
when the mould is screwed close together. No. 27 is a perspective view of
the mould. To make a complete casting, the workman by the help of a
wooden spoon, No. 26, is to lay upon the right side of the spreading plate,
No. 3, a sufficient number of shafts with their points towards the mould
No. 11, and by pressing them down the plate towards the left hand, they will
all regularly run into the grooved spreading plate No. 3, and by pressing
forward the shoving bar No. 5 until it is stopped by the screws in the cast-
iron frame No. 4, he will find all the shafts in a perfect situation to screw
down the mould No. 11, and by throwing the mould down upon its back,
it is ready to receive the metal. Upon the face of the mould are two
grooves, Nos. 22, intended to receive the bottom part of the hopper or metal
pan No. 28, in order to keep the metal that runs therefrom in a perpen-
dicular current over the pin shafts that are confined in the mould No. 11, and
they are kept in a firm and steady situation by means of the corked grooves.
When the metal is so run into the mould, the pin heads are compleatly cast
upon the shafts into the form or shape of No. 25, then nothing more remains
to be done but breaking the pins from the metal formed at the top of the
whole forty pins, by means of tlie casting, as p. No. 25; all of them are

page_text: easily broken off, but the ease of breaking them off depends much upon the
sort of metal you use for making the heads. I mostly use lead with a
small proportion of regulus of antimony, generally about one tenth, as before
mentioned.
In respect to the operation of whitening, it may be performed by several
different acids; but the acids which I prefer are white and red argol, or cream
of tartar, as hereafter mentioned. First, after the heads are cast upon the
shafts, I lay the quantity of pins intended to be whitened into a vessel with
holes at the bottom like a cullender, and then introduce this vessel which
contains the pins into another vessel that is nearly filled with a mixture of oil
of vitriol and water, of any strength I most fancy; but I generally use about.
one gallon of vitriol to six gallons of water, and let the quantity of pins I
intend to whiten, say fifty pounds weight, lay in the same mixture about half
an hour, and by drawing out the inner vessell which contains the pins from
the other, it will leave the vitriol and water by itself and bring out the pins
free from any of the mixture, except a little that will hang about them, which
I wash off by dipping the same vessel into clean water two or three times.
This operation takes off almost all the rust from the pins. After this I put
about twenty-five pounds weight of pius into a common scouring barrel, and
along with them about fifty pounds weight of small grain tin, six ounces of
red argol, and three gallons of warm water, and turn them for one hour or
more until they are perfectly clean. After this I dip them by the help of a
cullender into a mixture of blue vitriol and water. I mostly put about one
pound weight of blue vitriol pounded into two gallons of cold water, this
gives the pins a compleat coat of copper, and after this operation I whiten
them in manner following (that is to say): -I generally whiten about fifty
pounds weight at a time in a copper vessel, at the bottom of which I deposit
a layer of about six pounds weight of pins dipped as above; and at the top of
them a layer of about seven or eight pounds weight of fine grain tin broken
small, and then another layer of about six pounds weight of pins as before; and
after this another layer of seven or eight pounds weight of tin, and so con-
tinue laying first the one and then the other, until I have layed the quantity
intended to be whitened in the copper vessel. At the top I lay a considerable
covering, perhaps half an inch thick, of the small grain tin, except upon one
side of the copper vessel, I leave a small opening to enable me to introduce
water to the bottom of the vessell without disturbing the tin at the top; I then
pour a sufficient quantity of cold water into the copper vessell to fill it or
nearly; then I take a quantity of small grain tin and therewith fill up the
small opening left in the vessel, as above mentioned; then I put the copper

page_text: vessell thus filled over a common coal fire, and when the water becomes a little
warm I convey into it, through a dredging box, four ounces of red or white
argol, or four ounces of cream of tartar pounded fine, and let it boil onc
hour, then I take it off the fire and throw the tin and pins altogether into
cold water; after this I separate the pins from the tin by a. cullender, and
relay them in layers of tin in the copper vessel, in the same manner as was
done at first, and boil them again for half an hour with four ounces of argol
or cream of tartar, thrown in through a dredging box at the time it begins
to be a little warm, as before, and so continue to repeat these operations until
I am satisfied with the colour of the pins; when I have so done I dry them off
by hand in well-dried bran.
In witness whereof, I, have hereunto put my hand and seal, this
Fourth day of January, in the thirty-eighth year of the reign of our
Sovereign Lord George the Third, King of Great Britain and so
forth, and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and
ninety-eight.