IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SINKERS FOR HOSIERY AND OTHER MACHINES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Tatham and Amos Tatham, both of the
Town and County of the Town of Nottingham, Manufacturers, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SINKERS FOR HOSIERY
AND OTHER MACHINES."
Sealed the 12th June 1868, and dated the 14th December 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Tatham and
Amos Tatham at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 14th December 1867.
We, EDMUND TATHAM and AMOS TATHAM, both of the Town and County of
the Town of Nottingham, Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SINKERS FOR HOSIERY
AND OTHER MACHINES," to be as follows:-
The object of our Invention is to increase the elasticity and durability of the
sinkers employed in hosiery and other machines, and our Invention consists in
submitting them to a hardening and tempering process.
In carrying out our Invention we harden the sinkers by any ordinary
process; we then place a number of them in cramps or other tightening
apparatus, and when they are held in this apparatus we temper or "let them
down," whereby any irregularity produced in the hardening process is removed..
and sinkers having a perfectly true shape and possessing great elasticity and

page_text: durability are obtained. Sometimes we place the sinkers in the tightening
apparatus before the hardening process. A convenient tightening apparatus
for the purpose of our Invention consists of two plates, one of them carries
pins or projections to hold the sinkers which are placed upon it, the other
plate is then placed upon the sinkers, and the two plates are forced towards
each other by screws.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edmund Tatham and Amos Tatham in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 18th June 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDMUND
TATHAM and AMOS TATHAM, both of the Town and County of the Town of
Nottingham, Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by IIer Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto us, the said Edmund Tatham and Amos Tatham, Her special licence that
we, the said Edmund Tatham and Amos Tatham, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Edmund Tatham and
Amos Tatham, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF SINKERS FOR HOSIERY AND OTHER MACHINES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Edmund Tatham and Amos Tatham, or
one of us, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our, or one of our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Edmund Tatham and Amos Tatham,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in

page_text: and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
•
The object of our Invention is to increase the elasticity and durability of the
sinkers employed in hosiery and other machines, and our Invention consists in
submitting them to a hardening and tempering process.
In carrying out our Invention we harden the sinkers by any ordinary
process; we then place a number of them in cramps or other tightening
apparatus, and when they are held in this apparatus we temper or "let them
down," whereby any irregularity produced in the hardening process is removed,
and sinkers having a perfectly true shape and possessing great. elasticity and
durability are obtained. Sometimes we place the sinkers in the tightening
apparatus before the bardening process. A convenient tightening apparatus
for the purpose of our Invention consists of two plates, one of them carries
pins or projections to hold the sinkers which are placed upon it, the other
plate is placed upon the sinkers, and the two plates are forced towards
cach other by screws. This apparatus is represented in the accompanying
Drawing.
Figure 1 is a top view of the lower plate with two sinkers placed thereon
to show the position the sinkers occupy during the tempering; Fig. 2 is a
side elevation of the two plates put together; and Fig. 3 is a similar view,
but with a pile of sinkers held between the plates; Fig. 4 is a view of one
of the sinkers.
A is the lower plate, and B the upper plate. The lower plate A is provided
with pins C to hold the sinkers; the rivet hole of each sinker passes over one
of these pins, while the other pins serve to hold the sinkers at the sides; the
upper plate B is formed with holes corresponding with the pins C; E, E, are
handles by which to lift the plates. When a pile or other desired number of
sinkers has been placed on the lower plate A the plate B is placed upon the
sinkers and the two plates are screwed towards each other by the screws D.
The apparatus is then put into a furnace to temper the sinkers, and in some
cases after the sinkers have been heated I remove the apparatus, screw up the
plates A, B, more tightly, and then return the apparatus to the furnace. We
may remark that hardened and tempered sinkers may be made from a sheet
of hardened and tempered steel stamped or fo:med by suitable tools into
the form of sinkers, but this mode is much inferior to that herein-before
described.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim the manufacture

page_text: .of sinkers for hosiery and other machines by submitting them to a hardening
and tempering process, substantially in the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Tatham, for myself and on behalf
of the said Amos Tatham, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Eleventh day of June, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
EDMUND TATHAM. (L.S.)