HOLDING A BOOK IN SUCH A POSITION THAT IT MAY BE READ WITH EASE AND COMFORT IN AN ERECT, RECLINING, OR COMPLETELY RECUMBENT POSITION, TO BE CALLED 'HAMMOND'S SUSPENSION READING DESK.
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Hammond, of Number 9, Brunswick Street,
Stamford Street, Blackfriars Road, in the County of Surrey, Chemist, for
an Invention for "HOLDING A BOOK IN SUCH A POSITION THAT IT MAY BE
READ WITH EASE AND COMFORT IN AN ERECT, RECLINING, OR COMPLETELY
RECUMBENT POSITION, TO BE CALLED 'HAMMOND'S SUSPENSION READING
DESK.
"
Sealed the 2nd February 1855, and dated the 3rd October 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Hammond at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd October 1854.
1, JAMES HAMMOND, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "HOLDING A BOOK IN SUCH A POSITION THAT IT MAY BE READ WITH EASE AND
COMFORT IN AN ERECT, RECLINING, OR COMPLETELY RECUMBENT POSITION, TO BE
CALL'D 'HAMMOND'S SUSPENSION READING DESK,'" to be as follows:-
This Invention commences with a cord or other suspending material, one
end of which will be attach'd to a hook from the ceiling, a bracket fix'd to the
wall, or a stand made for the purpose. At the other end of the cord is sus-
pended what I shall call a desk, but differing in shape to those in general use
for the same purpose, it being angular in shape, and its position upright; the
angle will be between eighty and one hundred degrees. The book placed in

page_text: this desk will then be opened only to the same angle or somewhat in the same
position as when held by the hand, and retained open by the thumb; its being
suspended gives a greater control over the position in which you wish to place
it than any method at present in use. The arrangement for exercising that
control will be explained in the Complete Specification.
I claim as now
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Hammond in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd April 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
HAMMOND, of Number 9, Brunswick Street, Stamford Street, Blackfriars
Road, in the County of Surrey, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Hammond, Her special licence that I, the said James Hammond,
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
James Hammond, executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "HOLDING A
BOOK IN SUCH A POSITION THAT IT MAY BE READ WITH EASE AND COMFORT IN AN
ERECT, RECLINING, OR COMPLETELY RECUMBENT POSITION, TO BE CALLED HAMMOND'S
SUSPENSION READING DESK," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said James Hammond, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Hammond, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to bo
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
Claim 1st. The shape or form of the desk, which, if made of wood, I thus
form-I take two peices of wood, ten inches long, nine inches wide, and a
quarter of an inch thick, join them lengthways at a right angle, then fit a
peice to form the bottom, and give strength to the form; two edges of this
peice will fit the angle formed by the other peices, the other edge or front part
semi-elliptical, [see Drawing, Fig. 4]. This will give the form of the desk
at an angle of ninety degrees, [see Fig. 3]. The material, dimensions, and
angle I have given for the purpose of explanation; but I claim to vary the
size to form any angle between eighty and one hundred degrees, and to make
them of various materials, as wood, paper machee, cardboard, millboard;
malleable metals, as iron japaned, and other materials capable of receiving
the form or shape, that may be covered with leather or other ornamental
material.
Claim 2nd. The principle of suspension applied to this purpose.-I suspend
this desk by means of a peice of wire bent into a semicircle or semi-ellipsis,
[see Fig. 1, A], and I make a small hole near each end of the wire, which I
secure by means of a cord or metal hook to the top corners of each side of the
desk, as near the edge as the strength of the material used will allow without
breaking [see B, B]. This joint must allow the desk free motion, that it may
be placed quite perpendicular, or incline a few degrees backwards or forwards,
[see Fig. 1, 2]. To the center of this wire is fastened a cord, strap, band, or
any material suitable for suspension, and this carried upwards for the purpose
of fixing to any means of support, [see Fig. 1, C]. To the centre of the
suspending wire or the strap is fixed a cord [D, D], which proceeds from this
place to a hole at or near the top of the desk, at the angle, passing down a
small tube placed in the angle of the desk, and passing through an eyelet hole
at the bottom corner [see Fig. 4, E], and is there provided with loops, for the
purpose of altering and adjusting the position you wish the book to present, by
looping it on to a small knob or button [see F, F]; by this arrangement the
book may be so placed that it can be read in an erect position, see Fig. 2, or
in a recumbent position, see Fig. 1.
Claim 3rd. For the purpose of retaining the book in any position, and
holding down the leaves in the various thickness of the book that occurs in the
process of reading, I construct an entire new arrangement as a leaf-holder,
[see G, G]. They move parallel with the plane of the sides of the desk, and are

page_text: constructed to hold the book by the margin at the sides of the page instead of
the bottom, the position of the leaf-holder in general use; to be made of steel,
bone, ivory, or some elastic material that by its spring will retain the book in
its place. I fasten them to the sides of the desk by a screw [Fig. 6], through
a hole made near the bottom [see Fig. 3, H, H]. Between the desk and
leaf-holder I place a vulcanized indian-rubber washer [Fig. 5], which when
screwed tight causes sufficient friction to retain the leafholder in the situation
The handles [see K, K,] I consider as new only in their appli-
cation to this Invention.
you require.
Claim 4th. The combination of all these new arrangements to the purpose
of holding a book in such a position that it 'may be read with ease and comfort
in an erect, reclining, or completely recumbent position.
In witness whereof, I have set my hand and seal, this 30th day of March,
1855
JAMES HAMMOND. (L.S.)