IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COMPOSITIONS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR THE PURPOSES OF CUTTING, GRINDING, AND POLISHING
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Franklin Stevens, of Trafalgar Square,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF COMPOSITIONS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR THE PURPOSES OF
CUTTING, GRINDING, AND POLISHING."-A communication from abroad
by F. Atwater, of Norwood, New Jersey, United States of America.
Sealed the 6th August 1875, and dated the 7th June 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Franklin
Stevens at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 7th June 1875.
I, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN STEVENS, of Trafalgar Square, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE Manufacture of CoMPOSITIONS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR THE
PURPOSES OF CUTTING, GRINDING, AND POLISHING," a communication to me.
from abroad by F. Atwater, of Norwood, New Jersey, United States of
America, to be as follows:-

page_text: consists in combining glass, emery, silica, or other hard mineral sub-
stances or mixtures of the same when in a fine state of division with
what is known as pyroxiline, celluloid, xyloidine, parkesine, or com-
pounds similar thereto, containing soluble gun cotton as their base, such
compounds being employed in a plastic condition, and after thorough
incorporation reducing the same to the desired form or forms by heat
and pressure, in order that the solid material or compound resulting may
be obtained in such a condition as to render them suitable for the pur-
poses herein-before mentioned.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Benjamin Franklin Stevens in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 3rd December 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN STEVENS, of Trafalgar Square, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Benjamin Franklin Stevens, Her special license that I,
the said Benjamin Franklin Stevens, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others, as I, the said Benjamin Franklin Stevens, 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 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 COMPOSITIONS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR THE PURPOSES OF
CUTTING, GRINDING, AND POLISHING," a communication to me from abroad by
F. Atwater, of Norwood, New Jersey, United States of America, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Benjamin Franklin
Stevens, my executors or administrators, 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

page_text: 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 I, the said Benjamin Franklin Stevens, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
F
This Invention relates to the manufacture of compositions to be
employed for the purposes of cutting, grinding, and polishing, and
consists in combining glass, emery, silica, or other hard mineral sub-
stances or mixtures of the same when in a fine state of division, with
what is known as pyroxeline, celluloid, xyloidine, parksein, or com-
pounds similar. thereto, containing soluble gun cotton as their base, such
compounds being employed in a plastic condition, and after thorough
incorporation reducing the same to the desired form or forms by heat
and pressure, or by pressure alone, in order that the solid material or
compounds resulting may be obtained in such a condition as to render
them suitable for the purposes herein-before mentioned.
In carrying out my Invention I firstly convert the soluble gun cotton
into a pasty condition by the addition of one or more solvents, such for
example, as ether, or mixtures of ether and alcohol in conjunction with
camphor or with other well known solvents, and I then add either
powdered or disintegrated emery, glass, silica, or other hard mineral
substance in a fine state of division or mixtures of the same in such
quantity as that the mass when dried shall not be too brittle for the
purposes for which the compound is intended. This can easily be
ascertained by taking a sample from time to time and ascertaining its
character when dried.
In carrying out my Invention I have found that for general purposes,
that is to say, for polishing, grinding, and for cutting, a mixture con-
taining from about 75 to 90 per cent. of emery or of the hard mineral
substances, or mixtures of the same will give good results.
The mixture or incorporation may be effected by preference in a closed
vessel furnished with an agitator, or in a mixing machine to which
vessel if necessary heat may be applied. The mass of the incorporated
materials thus obtained is then removed from the incorporating vessel or

page_text: apparatus, and may be moulded into any desired form by pressure either
with the application of heat or by pressure alone.
The proportions of the several ingredients to be employed for the
purpose of forming a material suitable for cutting, grinding, and
polishing, will vary according to the hardness, of the materials to be
operated upon; thus for example, for the cutting, grinding, and polishing
of hard metals or alloys, emery alone or combined with other hard
mineral substances may be employed, but when softer metals, alloys, or
other more easily abraded substances are operated upon the proportion
of emery or of other hard mineral and other substances may be
modified.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider
to be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the manu-
facture or production of compositions to be employed for the purposes of
cutting, grinding, and polishing, by the employment and use of soluble
gun cotton, when reduced to a plastic condition by the employment of
solvents in conjunction with emery and other substances as herein- 2
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Franklin Stevens, have
to this my Specification set my hand and seal, this Third day of