IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GRINDING AND SMOOTHING PLATE GLASS, CROWN GLASS, AND SHEET GLASS
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
DEACON, of Eccleston, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, under the Great
Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-second day of May, in the eighth year of Her reign, and
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry
Deacon, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Deacon, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, should agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
GRINDING AND SMOOTHING PLATE GLASS, CROWN GLASS, AND SHEET GLASS;" in
which Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Henry
Deacon, by an instrument in writing, under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Iler
Majesty's High Court of Chancery, within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said provisó, I, the said
Henry Deacon, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and.
ascertained in the following statement thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: My Invention has reference to, first, the application of such combinations of
levers, wheels, and other known elements of machinery in or to the process of
grinding plate glass, crown glass, and sheet glass, as shall cause the paths of
motion of the runners or upper grinding tables or surfaces to very nearly
coincide with, or be similar to the shape of the glass to be ground.
Secondly, the use, when a perfectly flat or even surface of glass is not
required, of small rubbing or grinding surfaces, capable of rising and falling
according to undulations of surface whilst moving to-and-fro over the glass
under operation, the speed of such runners or grinding surfaces being regulated
according to the fineness or roughness of the sand, emery, or other abrading
material employed.
And, thirdly, the use of runners or grinding surfaces grooved on the face in
contact with the glass under operation, so as to allow of an equal and regular
distribution of the sand, emery, or other abrading material during the operation
of grinding and smoothing.
And in order that my improvements may be more perfectly understood, and
more readily applied, I now procced to describe the same more fully:-
And, first, the machines or combinations of levers, wheels, and other known
elements of machinery which I employ in producing the necessary motions of
the runner and table or grinding surfaces, are those machines employed at
present in the polishing of sheet and plate glass, and which are known by the
name of polishing benches, such machines being used by me without alteration.
except in particulars hereafter fully set forth; and such machines being fully
understood and well known to every one connecting with the grinding and
polishing of sheet glass and plate glass, I need not more fully describe them;
but I do not confine myself to the use of the said machines or apparatus, so
long as the peculiar features of my improvements are retained, but I prefer
using such machines for the sake of their general utility in either grinding or
polishing glass. When proceeding to grind or smooth glass to a true surface
with such machines or polishing benches, I remove all the polishing blocks
used in polishing; and if the distance between the under side of the bars and the
top of the table or bed is not sufficient to admit of the insertion of the glass to
be ground, and the necessary runners or grinding surfaces, I raise the bars or
lower the table or bed by means of the apparatus or expedients usually applied"
to such benches for that purpose; I then lay the glass I desire to grind on the
table or bed, either in the usual mode with plaster of Paris, or gypsum, or
when sufficiently true, in the mode hereafter described for nearly flat glass. I
prefer making the runners or upper grinding surfaces of cast iron, but do not
confine myself thereto, and I make either the runner or the bed of glass

page_text: operated on of such a size, that as the runner makes a stroke of about sixteen
inches it may overlap the glass about four or five inches, and so adjust the
table by means of the usual adjusting apparatus, that its traverse may cause
the runner to overlap about the same distance on each side, and I prefer
grooving the runner in the mode hereafter described, and making the sides of
the runner in the proportion of two to three, moving it in the direction of its
length; on the back of the runner are two or more suitable recesses for the
insertion of two or more of the block shafts, the recesses being so placed, that
the distance between any two contiguous ones may be double the distance of
the outermost from the edge, the distances being taken in the line of position
of the recesses, the line of position being as nearly as may to the centre of
the runner; the sand, emery, or other abrading substance is then inserted in
the usual manner as practised in grinding and smoothing plate glass; I also
adjust the weight by means of the weights on the block shafts in the usual
well known manner, so adjusting it that there may be about one pound avoir-
dupois on every square inch of surface for all the operations of grinding and
smoothing crown glass, sheet glass, and plate glass.
And, secondly, in grinding and smoothing glass to which a perfectly flat or
even surface is not required, I replace the polishing blocks used in machines
for polishing glass, with cast-iron blocks of about an equal area, which I find
most convenient when containing about twenty-eight superficial square inches;
and though I prefer cast iron, I do not confine myself thereto, as tin, copper,
brass, malleable iron or glass, or other suitable material may be used in lieu
thereof, with almost equal advantage, nor do I confine myself to any particular
shape of block, but I prefer round ones, each block having a circular recess in
the back, into which the foot of the block shaft, properly turned for the
purpose is. inserted; a freedom of motion round the shaft as a centre is thus
permitted to the block; but when using square, oblong, or such like shaped
blocks, I prefer them so fixed as in the manner of the ordinary polishing block,
that they cannot rotate, and I find the most convenient diameter of the round
block-to be about six inches, but do not confine myself thereto, as when
desirous of producing a truer surface, I use blocks of about twelve inches
diameter; and when desirous of grinding or smoothing the bottoms of small
hollows. or blotches, I use blocks of about three inches diameter, which size I
find small enough for all ordinary purposes. The edges of the blocks and
runners or grinding surfaces which I employ in grinding and smoothing crown
glass, sheet glass, and plate glass, I round or chamfer off for about one-eighth
of an inch, at an angle of about thirty degrees. When the glasses to be
ground or smoothed are very uneven, I bed them in plaster of Paris, as

page_text: practised in polishing sheet and plate glass; but when flat, or nearly so, I lay
them on a wet cloth supported on a piece of felt, of about half an inch thick,
resting on a table of stone planed true and flat; the sand, emery, or other
abrading material is then applied in the usual manner.
The speed at which I prefer driving the runners or other grinding surfaces
is about one hundred and thirty-eight feet in a minute, or such speed as is pro-
duced by fifty-two revolutions of a crank, eight inches from centre to centre, the
motion so produced being converted into retilinear by means of a connecting
rod in the usual manner; with this motion I grind and smooth the glass with
sand, and the emeries known to plate glass manufacturers as No. 1, No. 2, and
No. 3. For the three next succeeding numbers of emery, known aз No. 4,
No. 5, and No. 6, I prefer a motion of one hundred and seventeen feet per
minute, derived in like manner from a crank of the same length, making forty-
four revolutions per minute; and for No. 7 and No. 8 emeries, I prefer a speed
of ninety-eight feet per minute, the crank, as aforesaid, making thirty-seven
revolutions per minute. I do not confine myself to these speeds, but believe they
are the best adapted for the purpose with which I am acquainted. The means
I employ to obtain command over the speed are belts passing over suitable
speed pullies, cones, drums, or conical drums, as used or employed in driving
turning lathes; and though preferring such means, I do not confine myself
thereto, as many other well-known expedients may be used in place thereof, as
arrangements of cog wheels and other apparatus employed in turning lathes,
spinning and weaving machinery, planing machines, and other machines where
a variable speed is required; and I grind and smooth the glass with sand, and
No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 emeries, as aforesaid, if required, on one bench, and
then proceed with the succeeding numbers No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6, as afore-
said, on another bench driven at the suitable speed, in preference to proceeding
with the finer emeries on the same bench, and altering the speed to suit them.
And, lastly, the blocks and runners, which I prefer for forming grooves
therein, are such round ones as are above six inches or thereabouts in diameter,
and such square, oblong, or such-liked shaped ones as are above five inches or
thereabouts on the edge or side; and in making the blocks or runners of cast
metal cast the blocks or runners with the grooves in, the grooves being about
one half-inch bread, and as deep as is consistent with the due rigidity of the
whole block. The most convenient thickness for the round blocks I find to be
about one inch for the different sizes described herein; whilst for larger blocks
or runners I proportion the thickness to the means employed in lifting o
removing them, for which purpose I find one inch and one half or one inch and
three-quarters or thereabouts to be a convenient substance; the surface of the

page_text: blocks and runners and the grooves therein I clean from the sand used in
casting, before employing them in grinding and smoothing by any of the well-
known means employed in procuring a bright or clean surface to cast metal,
and I prefer making the grooves in the blocks and runners in such. manner as
to leave the surface in the form of lozenges, squares, or chequers, having acute
angles, containing about eighty degrees, the sides of such lozenges, squares,
or chequers being five inches or thereabouts. The grooves in the square,
oblong, or such liked shaped blocks I make as nearly as may be in the diagonal
lines of such figures and parallel thereto, and in grooving round blocks I make
the grooves so that the centre of any one square, lozenge, or chequer shall not
coincide with the centre of rotation of the round block, nor have a groove along
its diameter, but I prefer a groove being made about an inch and one half from
the centre of the rotation of such block crossing the groove by other grooves at
the requisite distances and angles, as the distance of the two nearest to the
centre of the groves so crossing may be about two and a half inches from the
centre of rotation; and though I prefer this mode of grooving as most conve-
nient, I do not confine myself thereto, there being many other modes by which
the surface of the blocks or runners may be cut or pierced to allow of the more
perfect spreading of the sand, emery, or other abrading material than when the
surface of the blocks or runners is whole, as may be accomplished by concentric
or eccentric curved or circular groves independent of each other, or com-
municating by straight or curved grooves; or some of the grooves may be cast
through the body of the block or runner, thus allowing sand, emery, or other
substance to be added from the back, or the angles or distances of the grooves
may be varied from the angles and distance herein described; but the directions
here given are to the best of my knowledge and belief the most convenient,
and the best adapted for obtaining the desired end at the least trouble and
expence.
Having thus described the nature of my improvements, and the manner in
which they are to be performed, I would wish it to be understood that I do
not claim any of the machinery or combinations of machinery herein mentioned,
which have been before used, either for grinding, or smoothing, or polishing
glass, or any other purpose; and that I claim the various apparatus as herein
described when applied to the grinding and smoothing of crown glass, sheet
glass, and plate glass only, such glass being for the purposes for which crown
glass, sheet glass, and plate glass are respectively usually applied; therefore,
what I claim is,-
First, the application of the apparatus or machines as herein described,
causing the paths of motion of the runners or grinding tables or surfaces in or

page_text: during the process of grinding plate glass, crown glass, and sheet glass to very
nearly coincide with or be similar to the shape of the glass to be ground.
Secondly, the apparatus as herein described for grinding and smoothing
glass, to which a perfectly flat or even surface is not required.'
And, lastly, I claim blocks, runners, or grinding surfaces grooved, in the
manner herein-before described, and employed in grinding and smoothing crown
glass, sheet glass, and plate glass.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Deacon, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Tenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
HENRY (L.S.) DEACON.
Signed, sealed, and delivered (being first duly
.stamped) by the within-named Henry Deacon,
in the presence of
EDW JOHNSON, Sol', St. Helens.
Jos. JOHNSON, his Clerk.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of November, in
the year of.our. Lord 1845, the aforesaid Henry Deacon came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Eleventh day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-five.