A MACHINE OR APPARATUS ROR CLEANING AND POLISHING FORKS, SPOONS AND OTHER LIKE CURVED ARTICLES.
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Stewart, of Baker Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "A MACHINE OR APPARATUS ROR
CLEANING AND POLISHING FORKS, SPOONS AND OTHER LIKE CURVED ARTICLES.."
Sealed the 10th June 1856, and dated the 17th December 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Stewart at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th December 1855.
I, HENRY STEWART, of Baker Street, in the County of Middlesex, Gentle-
man, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A MACHINE OR
APPARATUS FOR CLEANING AND POLISHING FORKS, SPOONS, AND OTHER LIKE CURVED
ARTICLES," to be as follows:-
My machine consists of convex and concave brushes or discs, or of brushes
or discs so mounted as to be capable of being pressed by suitable springs into
and upon convex and concave surfaces, and to which motion is communicated
through a crank handle and toothed wheels. The brushes are filled with bristles,
and the discs are covered with buff leather or other suitable polishing surface,
and both brushes and discs are used, or I use either separately, as required.
5:
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Stewart in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
STEWART, of Baker Street, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send
greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Henry Stewart, Her special licence, that I, the said
Henry Stewart, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Henry Stewart, my 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
"A MACHINE OR APPARATUS FOR CLEANING AND POLISHING FORKS, SPOONS, AND
OTHER LIKE CURVED ARTICLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Henry Stewart, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 I, the said Henry Stewart, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say-
My machine consists of convex and concave brushes or discs, or of brushes
or discs so mounted as to be capable of being pressed by suitable springs into
and upon convex and concave surfaces, and to which motion is communicated
through a crank handle and toothed wheels, or otherwise. The brushes are
filled with bristles, and the discs are covered with buff leather or other suitable
polishing surface, and both brushes and discs areused, or I use either
separately, as required.
Figure 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed is a side elevation, and Figure 2
a vertical section, of one of my machines, in which three brushes or sets of
brushes are used one above the other.
A, A, is a square vertical shaft carrying a bevil toothed pinion B
upon its
upper end, and a fly wheel C at its lower end. Its lower extremity is made
round, and works in a suitable step formed upon the bottom of the case of the
machine, and its upper end is also rounded where it passes through the case.
Upon the shaft A are strung the wooden frames of the brushes; the square

page_text: holes formed in the middle of them being severally lined with a short piece of
metal a, driven tightly therein to prevent the holes wearing too rapidly. Each
set of brushes is composed of two portions, one convex, and the other concave.
The bristles forming the concave brush or brushes are fixed in the wooden
discs D, D, of which there is one below and one above each of the convex
brushes or sets of brushes. These bristles of course point inwards towards the
centre of the machine, or nearly so, and the bristles of the convex brushes work
against them. The bristles of the two lower brushes are set entirely round
the circumference of the discs E, E.
The construction of the upper set of convex brushes will be better under-
stood by a reference to Figure 3, which represents a plan of them detached
from the machine. This set is composed of a number of separate brushes b, b;
mounted upon springs c, c, which springs are attached to the central disc E,
as shewu. Another method in which the springs may be applied is shewn in
Figure 4. This method consists in the use of spiral springs d, d, arranged as
shewn in the Drawing. I do not, however, confine myself to either of the
foregoing arrangements of springs, but propose to use any that I may deem
suitable. The whole of the discs of the brushes are kept side by side by means
of two sets of springs f, f, shewn in Figure 2; each set being composed of two
steel springs placed one above the other; and at right angles to each other, the
shaft A passing through suitable holes formed in them. The case F, F, of the
machine is supported by the bent stays G, G, on the ends of which the nuts
9, 9, are screwed. The lower part of the case G, G, is fitted within a flange
formed on a base plate H, H, in which it may be turned round if necessary;
and in order to fix the machine and prevent it from rising, the catch I is pro-
vided, the point of which passes through holes in the flange, and the lower part
of the case. The base plate H may be screwed down to a table or bench, or.
wherever it may be desired to fix it. The brushes are driven by a handle K
on the shaft L, on which shaft is mounted the bevil wheel M, which gears into
the horizontal bevil pinion B. The shaft L is supported in bearings in the
brackets N, N, which are screwed to the case, as shewn. Around the middle
portion of the case F, F, is placed an outer ring or case O, O, which is capable
of being turned partly round the case F, F, by means of the handle P. The
object of this outer case is to fix the spoons, &c. in position after they are
placed in the machine, and while the cleaning and polishing are effected. For
this purpose holes Q, Q, of the shape shewn, are formed in both the outer and
inner case. When the spoons are to be introduced, the outer case is placed as
shewn in the Figures, that is, so that the large part of the spoon, the bowl, or
the broad end of the handle, as the case may be, will pass freely through the

page_text: holes in both cases, and when it is in, the outer case is slided back, so that the
narrow portion of the handle is clasped by the two cases, and held firmly while
the brushes are made to operate. The outer case is locked in the last-men-
tioned position by means of a bolt R, which slides in the slots S, S. There is'
no sliding case round the lower set of brushes, but small pieces of india-rubber
or gutta percha T, T, are placed round the slots, through which the spoons, &c.
are introduced to keep the articles operated upon from being defaced. The
spaces h, h, between the discs of the concave brushes are broad enough to allow
the discs to work clear of the narrow portions of the handles of the spoons, &c.
which lie between them as the brushes rotate; and there are vertical slots i, i,
shewn in the right and left hand sides of the section of the brushes in Figure 2,
cut through the hems or edges of these discs, through which slots the bowls or
broad portions of the handles of the spoons, &c. pass as they are put into the
machine. The number of teeth on the bevil wheel M is a multiple of the
number in the pinion B, in order that when the handle K is brought into one
fixed position the slots i, i, may always present themselves opposite the holes
Q, Q, in the case F, F. Instead of arranging the brushes of my machine
horizontally, as shewn in the Drawings, I sometimes place them vertically, and
thus dispense with the toothed wheel and pinion; &c.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
First, the construction of a machine, consisting of convex and concave
brushes or discs, or of brushes or discs so mounted as to be capable of being
pressed by suitable springs into and upon convex and concave surfaces, and to
which motion is communicated through a crank handle and toothed wheels, or
otherwise, the discs and surfaces being covered with buff leather or other
suitable polishing material.
Second, the construction of the machine described, and represented in the
Drawings hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Stewart, have hereunto, set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of June, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-six.
HENRY STEWART. (L.S.).